Countries / Oceania
11 notable historical events in Australia, in chronological order.
The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians crossed the sea from Southeast Asia to the Sahul landmass at least 50,000 years ago, founding one of the world's oldest continuous cultures.
Dutch captain Willem Janszoon aboard the Duyfken charted the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, the first recorded European landing in Australia.
The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman became the first known European to reach Tasmania and New Zealand.
On his first voyage, Captain James Cook of HMS Endeavour landed at Botany Bay, then charted Australia's east coast and claimed it for Britain.
Arthur Phillip's eleven-ship convict fleet arrived at Sydney Cove and founded the penal colony of New South Wales, the first permanent European settlement in Australia.
Gold discoveries in the colony of Victoria drew hundreds of thousands of immigrants, transforming Australia's population and economy.
Six British colonies united to form the Commonwealth of Australia, with Edmund Barton as its first prime minister.
The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Allies' unsuccessful campaign against the Ottoman Empire; 25 April is now commemorated as Anzac Day.
Hundreds of thousands of people flee Vietnam by sea after 1975; many die at sea and others are resettled, mostly in Western countries.
Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia, becoming one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world.
The High Court of Australia rejected the doctrine of terra nullius and recognised Indigenous native title to land, in the case brought by Eddie Mabo.