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2001 |
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 Australia celebrates the centenary of the Federation of states. |
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2000 |
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 Olympic Games held in Sydney. |
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1999 |
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 Under Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating, Australians narrowly vote to reject a proposal to replace the Queen with an Australian president.
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1988 |
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 Australia celebrates its Bicentennial, and the Queen opens the new Parliament House. |
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1973 |
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 Sydney Opera House is finally completed. Designed by Jorn Utzon, construction work had started in 1959. |
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1956 |
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 Olympic Games held in Melbourne: the most successful ever as far as medals won for Australia. |
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1942 |
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 US forces arrive to help Australia defeat the Japanese, who had repeatedly bombed Darwin, in the Battle of the Coral Sea. |
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1927 |
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| The first Federal Parliament is held in Canberra. |
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1915 |
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 ANZACs land at Galliopli in Turkey. Many Australians regard this traumatic battle as the birth of the nation. |
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1901 |
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| On 1 January 1901, after much planning, the six colonies become a federation and form the Commonwealth of Australia. |
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1877 |
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 Australia and England play their first cricket Test match in Melbourne (Australia win by 45 runs). |
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1868 |
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 The transportation of convicts to Australia ends when London had to admit that the threat of exile to Australia was no longer a deterrent: people increasingly came of their own free will. |
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1851 |
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 Gold is discovered in New South Wales. The subsequent gold rush trebles the population in 10 years. |
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1803 |
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 Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) was settled: it became a separate colony in 1825. |
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1788 |
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 The first European settlement (and penal colony) was established at Port Jackson in New South Wales on 26 January: this date is now Australia's national holiday, Australia Day. |
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1770 |
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 Captain James Cook charted the east coast of Australia, and claimed it for the Crown. He named their landing place Botany Bay (due to the many plant species) and the region New South Wales. |
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1606 |
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 The first undisputed sighting of Australia by a European was in 1606 by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, who landed on Queensland's northern coast. |
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1300 |
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 In Venice Marco Polo discusses reports of a great undiscovered land mass to the south of Asia. |
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2000
BC
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 The dingo is the first domesticated animal to reach Australia (probably brought by seafaring traders). |
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13,000
BC
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 Rising sea levels cut mainland Australia off from Tasmania and the Torres Strait Islands. |
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35,000
BC
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| Aborigines reach Tasmania. Also Melanesian people arrive to inhabit parts of far-north Queensland and the Torres Strait land bridge. |
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42,000
BC
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 Aboriginal rock engravings found in South Australia have been dated back to this period. |
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45,000
BC
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 Australia first inhabited by people. Experts are divided about the exact date: estimates range from 40,000 to 60,000 years ago or earlier. |
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