pressing wool

16,000 years ago Australia’s enormous inland lakes dry up and eventually become deserts

8,000 years ago The land bridge between Australia and Tasmania floods, leaving Tasmania an island

4,900 years ago Mount Gambier in South Australia erupts; This is the last volcano to erupt on the Australian mainland

1606 Dutch explorer Willem Jansz is the first recorded European to land on Australian soil

1797 The merino sheep is introduced to Australia

1829 The whole of Australia is claimed as British territory

1859 A farmer releases rabbits into the wild near Geelong; these 24 rabbits become the fastest multiplying mammals in world history

1886 The lamington is created in honour of Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland

1895 Time zones are introduced across Australia

1902 It is now legal to swim at public beaches during the day

1906 The first full-length Australian feature film is produced—The Story of the Kelly Gang

1912 The Australian crawl swimming style is first used at an Olympic Games

1923 Vegemite is first produced

1930 Australia and Britain are  connected by telephone

1931 Sir Douglas Mawson claims almost half of Antarctica

1931 Arnhem Land is declared an Aboriginal reserve

1945 The Hills Hoist

1945 The Hills Hoist clothes line is invented

1958 Qantas offers the first round-the-world air service

1962 Indigenous Australians are given the right to vote

1966 Decimal currency is introduced in Australia -dollars and cents!

1966 In the Gurindji Walk Off around 200 Indigenous people protest against poor working conditions and wages; this begins a seven-year battle for land title in the Northern Territory

1969 An Australian radio telescope in Parkes, New South Wales, transmits the first pictures of the moon landing to the world

1971 The first McDonald’s opens in Australia

1973 The Sydney Opera House opens

1975 Colour television begins

1976 The Aboriginal Land Rights Act is passed

1984 ‘Advance Australia Fair’ becomes our national anthem

1988 Australia celebrates its Bicentennial; it is 200 years since the arrival of the First Fleet from England

1989 The internet becomes available to Australian universities

1990 Dr Fiona Wood begins developing skin sheets for burns victims

2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologises to Indigenous Australians of the stolen generations

2010 Mary MacKillop becomes Australia’s first saint

2010 Julia Gillard becomes Australia’s first female Prime Minister