Prehistory :

60,000 – 40,000 BC The Aborigines

17th Century:

1606 Luis Vaz de Torres (Portuguese) sails through the Torres Strait
1606 A Dutch party in the boat Duyfken (Little Dove) led by William Jansz sights Cape York Peninsula
1607 Europeans land in Australia.
1616 Captain Dirk Hartog in a Dutch trading ship, the Eendracht, on its way to the Indies (now called Indonesia) bumps into west coast of Australia, on an island now known as Dick Hartog Island near Shark Bay in Western Australia
1642 Dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovers Tasmania
1644 Tasman charts the northern Australian coastline from Cape York Peninsula in Queensland to North West Cape on the coast of Western Australia
1688 William Dampier in the pirate ship Cygnet landed at the Shark Bay
1696 Willem de Vlamingh, another Dutch sailor, charted the western Australian coastline. He saw the pewter plate left by Dick Hartog and named the river that flows through the present-day city of Perth the Swan River
1699 Dampier's return to England aboard the Roebuck

18th Century:

1770 Captain James Cook lands in Botany Bay on the Eastern side of Australia and claims New South Wales for Britain.
1788 The First Fleet arrives at Sydney Cove under Captain Arthur Phillip to establish the first settlement in Australia. This was to be a penal colony of New South Wales - convicts were transported to this location. Sydney was founded.
1788 The British settle in Australia.

19th Century:

The great age of exploration: coastal surveys (Bass, Flinders), interior (Sturt, Eyre, Leichhardt, Burke and Willis, McDouall Stuart, Forrest). Also the era of the bushrangers, overlanders, and squatters, and individuals such as William Buckley and Ned Kelly.

1802 Tasmania claimed by Britain.
1803 Matthew Flinders sails completely around Australia in the 'Investigator'.
1804 Castle Hill Rising by Irish convicts in New South Wales
1804 Hobart
1813 G.W Evans crosses Barrier of the Blue Mountains.
1824 Moreton Bay
1825 Tasmania seceded from New South Wales.
1829 Perth (Western Australia) formed. Captain Charles Fremantle claims Western Australia for Britain
1835 Melbourne
1836 Adelaide (South Australia) formed.
1839 Paul Strezeleck discovers gold in New South Wales.
1840-68 Convict transportation ended.
1851-61 Gold rushes (Ballarat, Bendigo).
1851 Victoria seceded from New South Wales.
1855 Victoria achieved government.
1855 Van Dieman's land renamed Tasmania in honor of Abel Tasman.
1856 New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania achieved government.
1859 Queensland formed from New South Wales and achieved government.
1860 (National) Country Party founded.
1884 Britain annexes Papua
1890 Western Australia achieved government.
1891 Depression gave rise to the Australian Labor Party.
1891 Australia's constitution is drafted.
1893 Collapse of land boom
1894 Women get the right to vote.
1899-1900 South African War - forces offered by the individual colonies.

20th Century:

1901 Creation of the Commonwealth of Australia. This was a federation of the States of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.
1911 Site for capital at Canberra acquired.
1914 to 1918 World War I. Anzac troops in Europe including Gallipoli. Australia experiences her first major losses in a war during in 1915 on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.
1915 Australia and New Zealand Army corporations (ANZAC) Formed on April 25 (Anzac Day).
1925 Compulsory voting begins.
1927 Canberra becomes the Capital of Australia.
1929 Flying Doctors Service was formed.
1930 to 1935 Great Depression in Australia.
1939-45 World War II - Anzac troops in Greece, Crete, and N Africa (El Alamein) and the Pacific. The Japanese bomb Darwin in 1942. 1963 Aboriginals given full rights as citizens. 1941 Curtin's appeal to USA for help in the World War marked the end of the special relationship with Britain.
1944 Liberal party founded by Menzies.
1948-75 Two million new immigrants, the majority from continental Europe.
1950-53 Korean War - Australian troops part of the United Nations forces.
1964-72 Vietnam War - Commonwealth troops in alliance with US forces.
1966-74 Mineral boom typified by the Poseidon nickel mine.
1967 Australia became a member of ASEAN.
1967 Federal aid programs started for Aboriginals.
1973 Britain entered the Common Market, and in the 1970's Japan became Australia's chief trading partner.
1974 Whitlam abolishes 'white Australia' policy.
1975 Constitutional crisis; Prime Minister Whitlam dismissed by the governor general.
1975 United Nations trust territory of Papua New Guinea became independent.
1975 The Liberal Party under Malcolm Fraser comes to power.
1976 Aboriginals Land Rights Act passed.
1978 Northern Territory achieved self-government.
1979 Opening of uranium mines in Northern Territory.
1983 Hawke convened first national economic summit - The Fraser Government is defeated in the election and the Australian Labour Party under Bob Hawke forms a government.
1988 Australia celebrates its Bicentennial - 200 years since the first European settlement.
1991 Paul Keating replaced Hawke as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister.
1996 Labour Party ousted in general election by Liberal-National coalition.

21st Century:

2000 Australia hosts the 2000 Olympic Games.
2001 Australia celebrates its Centenary Federation.

http://sweetpeaisme.homestead.com/timeline.html