history of Australia

By daetin.cassidy
  • 40,000 BCE

    40,000 BC

    The first Aborigines arrive from south-east Asia. By 20,000 BC they are all around mainland and Tasmania.

  • 1770

    Captain Cook charts the east coast in his ship HM Endeavour. claims it as a British possession and names eastern Australia "New South Wales".

  • 1788

    British Navy captain Arthur Phillip founds a penal settlement at Sydney. He had arrived with a fleet of 11 vessels, carrying nearly 800 convicts. The Aboriginal population at the time is thought to number at more than a hundred thousand.

  • 1850

    Gold is found at several locations leading to gold rushes throughout the decade. The population increases threefold in 10 years to pass the million mark. An influx of Chinese leads to restrictions on their entry. Aborigines are treated very badly and their numbers collapse.

  • 1856

    Australia becomes the first country to introduce the secret ballot - or 'Australian ballot' - for elections.

  • 1914

    Outbreak of World War I. Australia hundreds of thousands of troops to the British war.

  • (1942 - 1943)

    Japanese planes bombed nearly 100 sites in Australia