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1876
Evidence from indigenous Australians accepted in the court for the first time. -
1884
The Victorian womens suffrage society forms. The first womens suffrage society in Australia. -
1891
Dedicated women went out on the street on foot to collect signatures for a petition to present to the Parliament of Victoria seeking the right to vote. They got a collection close to 30,000 signatures. -
1893
Around 300 female Indigenous children are removed from their families and placed in a girls dormitory for "re-socialisation". -
1894
The Elementary Education Amendment Act made the education of blind and deaf children compulsory and enables there to be special schools for blind and deaf children. -
1901
The new Constitution gives the Commonwealth government the power to make laws for all Australians except Indigenous people. -
1902
All non-indigenous women over the age of 21 are now able to vote in federal elections and stand for the Australian parliament. -
1903
Vida Goldstien was one of the first women to stand for elections. She was a suffragette, social reformist and a campaigner for equal property rights for spouses, the abolition of child labour and equal pay for equal work. -
1938
Australian Aborigines Conference was held marking a Day of Mourning the 150th anniversary of the NSW colony to protest the treatment of the aboriginal people. -
1943
The first women was elected to the house of representatives and senate. -
1949
Australian Citizenship Act gives Indigenous Australians the right to vote in Commonwealth elections but only if they are enrolled for State elections or have served in the Armed Forces. -
1962
Indigenous women win the right to vote in the federal elections.
The Commonwealth Electoral Act provided all Indigenous Australians with the right to enrol and vote in Federal elections. -
1967
More than 90 per cent of Australian voters choose yes to count Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the census and for Indigenous people to be subject to Commonwealth laws, instead of just state laws. -
1967
The 1967 Constitutional Referendum recognised Indigenous Australians as citizens, and they were included in the census. -
1983
Australia ratifies the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, which is described as an ‘International Bill of Rights for Women‘, the Convention was adopted by the United Nations. It defines what constitutes discrimination against women. -
1990
Lowitja O’Donoghue was the first women who was elected to the Chair of the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Commission. -
1992
The disability discrimination act comes into force. -
1992
Mabo decision by the high court overturns terra nullius (empty land) and rules that native title exists over certain kinds of land like national parks and reserves. -
1997
The report of the inquiry of the stolen generations is released and a national sorry day is recommended to commemorate the history and effects of removing aboriginal children from their families. -
2000
Womens history month lunched.
Peoples walk for aboriginal reconciliation, more than 250,000 people walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of Indigenous Australians. -
2004
The age discrimination act comes in force. -
2006 - 2007
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is adopted in 2006 and opened for signature in 2007. -
2007
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations. -
2008
Prime minister Kevin Rudd delivers an apology in Federal parliament on the mistreatment of Indigenous Australians.
Dame Quentin Bryce became the first and only women to become a governor general. -
2010
Julia Gillard becomes the first female Prime Minister. -
2013
The first National Children's Commissioner is appointed in Australia -
2016
Linda Burney was the first Indigenous woman to be elected into the House of Representatives. -
2019
Abortion was removed from NSW’s 119-year-old Crimes Act.
