Australia: Historical Dates
| 50,000 BC | The first Aborigines probably began arriving in Australia from Southeast Asia around this time. |
| AD 1606 | Willem Jansz, a Dutch captain, became the first European to explore the Australian coast. |
| 1770 | Captain James Cook, an English explorer, claimed eastern Australia for Great Britain. |
| 1788 | The First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay and established a penal colony near modern-day Sydney. |
| 1829 | The colony of Western Australia was founded at Perth, giving Great Britain control of the entire Australian continent. |
| 1850 | Transportation of British convicts to Sydney was abolished. However, it continued to Hobart, on the island of Tasmania, and to Western Australia for several years, allowing those colonies to grow quickly. |
| 1851 | Gold was discovered in New South Wales and Victoria, and a new wave of immigrants soon moved to Australia. Melbourne and other cities prospered in the following decades. |
| 1901 | The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. The same year, the White Australia Policy was implemented. |
| 1914 | Many Australians enlisted for service in World War I. However, enthusiasm for the war waned as the Australian economy suffered. |
| 1931 | The Great Depression was made worse in much of Australia by deflationary government policies. |
| 1942 | Darwin was bombed repeatedly until Australian forces helped stop the Japanese advance in the Pacific during World War II. |
| 1951 | Australia signed the ANZUS defense treaty with New Zealand and the United States. |
| 1956 | Melbourne hosted the first Olympic Games held in the southern hemisphere. |
| 1964 | The military draft was introduced in Australia for the first time. Australian troops were sent to Vietnam the next year. |
| 1967 | The Australian government granted Aborigines the right to vote. |
| 1972 | The Labor Party took power for the first time since 1949. It soon abolished the draft and withdrew Australian forces from Vietnam. |
| 1993 | Sydney was chosen as the site of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. |
| 1996 | A coalition of Liberal Party and National Party candidates gained a majority in both houses of parliament, ending 13 years of consecutive Labor rule. |