Australia in the 20th Century

1901 Commonwealth proclaimed at Sydney. First Commonwealth Parliament opened at Melbourne. Interstate free-trade established.
1903 The Federal High Court inaugurated.
1904 Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act passed.
1905 Census and Statistics Act.
Assisted immigration to New South Wales re-introduced.
Population of Australia reached 4 million.
Read Banjo Paterson's poem The Incantation for a colourful view of political life in 1905.
1906 Papua taken over by the Commonwealth of Australia
1907 First telephone trunk line service between the capital cities. Read about Technology in Australia during this period.
Imperial Conference in London.
1908 Canberra chosen as the site of the Australian capital.
1909 Imperial Defence Conference in London.
Queensland University founded.
The Commonwealth Age Pension Scheme introduced.
1910 Penny postage.
Australian Notes Act passed and the first Commonwealth notes issued.
Arrival of the first vessels built for the Royal Australia Navy, the 'Yara' and the 'Parramatta'.
1911 First Commonwealth Census taken.
The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory transferred to the Commonwealth.
Compulsory military training introduced.
1912 Commonwealth Bank opened.
First payments of Maternity Bonus.
University of Western Australia founded.
1913 Canberra officially named as the Australian Capital and the foundation stone laid.
1914 Norfolk Island transferred to the Commonwealth.
War declared in Europe on 4 August.
Australian and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) formed.
Australia's first aerial mail, flown from Melbourne to Sydney.
1915 ANZAC troops landed at Gallipoli, 25 April. Evacuated 18-20 December.
Commonwealth Census planned but shelved.
Broken Hill Proprietary's ironworks at Newcastle, New South Wales, opened.
1916 Australian and New Zealand mounted troops in Egypt, Palestine and Syria.
First proposal for compulsory military service overseas defeated by referendum.
1917 Second referendum on conscription for overseas service defeated.
Transcontinental railway completed.
1918  Australian divisions in France blunt the German offensive.
Australia House opened in London.
Armistice with Germany, 11 November.
Australia's population reached 5 million.
1919 Peace Conference
Peace Treaty signed in Versailles, 28 June.
Flight from England to Australia by Captain Ross Smith and Lieutenant Keith Smith.
1920 Imperial Statistical Conference in London.
Qantas began operations in Longreach, Queensland.
1921 Mandate given to Australia over the Territory of New Guinea.
Second Commonwealth Census.
1922 Queensland Legislative Council abolished.
1923 First Australian radio broadcast.
1925 Australian population reached 6 million.
1926 Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) established.
1927 Seat of Commonwealth Government transferred from Melbourne to Canberra.
1929 Peace-time compulsory military training abolished in favour of a voluntary system.
1930 World-wide economic depression reached Australia.
First Australian appointed Governor-General of Australia (Rt. Hon. Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs, GCMG, Chief Justice of the High Court).
1932 Sydney Harbour Bridge opened.
The Australian Broadcasting Commission established.
Imperial Conference held in Ottawa.
1933 World Economic conference held in London.
Antarctica and Ashmore and Cartier Islands taken over by the Commonwealth.
Third Commonwealth Census.
1934 England - Australia Air Mail Service inaugurated.
1936 Tasmania linked with the mainland by submarine telephone cable.
1938 New trade treaty with Japan
1939 War declared on Germany, 3 September.
Australian troops embark for the Middle East, 15 December.
Australia's population reached 7 million.
1940 Exchange of Ministers between Australia and the United States marked Australia's entry into the field of direct diplomatic representation with countries other than the United Kingdom.
First Australian convoy sailed for the Middle East.
1941 Australian Eighth Division arrived in Malaya.
Japan attacked pearl Harbour, Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Australia declared war on Japan, 9 December.
Establishment of Child Endowment scheme.
1942 General Douglas Macarthur set up headquarters of South West Pacific Command in Melbourne.
Battle of the Coral Sea.
32nd Squadron formed.
Federal uniform taxation adopted.
Commonwealth widow's pension introduced.
1944 Referendum refused Commonwealth Government increased power in the post-war period.
1945 Australia ratified the United Nations Charter.
War in Europe ceased, 8 May. War in the Pacific ceased, 15 August.
Banking Act introduced to regulate banking and to protect the currency and public credit.
1946 The Commonwealth Employment Service inaugurated.
Trans Australian Airlines began operations.
Constitution Alteration Referendum granted powers with regard to social services to the Commonwealth Government.
1947 End of demobilisation.
Census of Australia held.
1948 Forty-hour week effective throughout Australia.
First Holden motor car produced.
1949 National and citizenship Act operative.
Certain Aboriginals granted franchise at Federal elections for the first time.
Coal miners strike over hours, wages and leave claims.
Australian Whaling Commission established.
The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Power Scheme commenced.
1950 Severe floods in New South Wales
Australian forces joined the British Commonwealth Brigade in the Korean War.
Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers in London.
1951 Jubilee celebrations marked the 50th year of Australian Federation.
Heard Island and the McDonald Islands transferred to the Commonwealth.
Hostilities with Germany officially ceased.
Japanese Peace Treaty signed.
1952 Widespread bushfires in Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
Third British Commonwealth Scientific Official Conference held in Canberra and Melbourne.
Uranium deposits discovered at Rum Jungle, Northern Territory.
British detonate atomic weapon on Monte Bello Islands off the north-west coast.
British Commonwealth Economic Conference in London.
1953 Television Act authorised the establishment of both Government and Commercial television stations.
Northern Territory Aborigines given citizenship rights.
Atomic Energy Commission established.
Korean armistice signed.
1954 Australian Census taken.
Transfer of Cocos Islands to the Commonwealth proposed.
Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia.
1955 Food and agriculture Organisation Conference held in Brisbane.
Cocos (Keeling) Islands became a Commonwealth Territory.
First power generated by the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority.
Australia's population reached 9 million.
1956 Olympic Games held in Melbourne.
Bilateral agreement signed between Australia and the United States for peaceful uses of atomic energy.
Regular television transmission commenced.
1958 Lucas Heights nuclear reactor opened near Sydney.
Christmas Island transferred to Commonwealth administration.
1959 Population of Australia reached 10 million.
1960 Provision made for Social service benefits to be paid to Australian Aborigines.
1961 Oil is discovered in south-west Queensland.
Iron-ore deposits estimated at 1,800 million tons discovered at Pilbara, Western Australia.
Population Census taken.
1962 Commonwealth and Western Australia Electoral Acts amended to provide for votes for Aborigines.
Aborigines exercising voting rights in the Northern Territory for the first time.
1963 Australia signed Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Australia's population reached 11 million.
1964 Royal Australian Navy's Destroyer 'Voyager' sunk in collision.
Army send advisers to Vietnam.
1965 Royal Australian Mint opened.
Australian troops go to war in Vietnam.
First trade agreement between Australia and USSR.
Economic sanctions imposed on Rhodesia.
1966 Australia adopted decimal currency.
Census of population held.
Permanent employment of married women by Australian Government proclaimed.
1967 Worst bushfires in the history of Tasmania damaged Hobart and southern Tasmania.
New white ensign adopted by the Royal Australian Navy.
Australia launched its first satellite at Woomera.
1968 Australia's population reached 12 million.
1969 The Arbitration Commission handed down its decision on equal pay for women.
Bass Strait under-sea oil piped to shore for the first time.
1970 Australia signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Coal miners in three States are awarded a 35 hour working week.
Voting age reduced to 18 in Western Australia.
1971 Australia joined the OECD.
Population Census held.
Australian troops withdrew from Vietnam.
Daylight saving adopted in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australia Capital Territory.
Australia's population reached 13 million.
1972 Female employees received full entitlement to equal pay.
Celsius adopted in lieu of the Fahrenheit thermal measure.
Australian Labor Party won Federal election for the first time in 23 years.
Australia established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and the German Democratic Republic.
1973 Papua new Guinea attained self-government.
All tariffs cut by 25 per cent.
First meeting of the Aboriginal Consultative Committee.
1974 Major floods and storms caused damage to the eastern States.
Cyclone Tracey hits Darwin.
Plans announced for maximum security laboratory to protect livestock against exotic diseases.
Colour television introduced.
1975 Medibank introduced.
Commonwealth Parliament dissolved and the Australian Labor Party defeated at a general elect on 13 December.
Papua New Guinea ceased to be an Australian territory and became an independent nation.
Australia Council created.
1976 Census of Australia held.
Australian Savings Bond introduced.
Australia's population reached 14 million.
1977 Aboriginal Land Rights Act passed.
Granville rail disaster claimed 80 lives.
1978 Northern Territory gained self-government.
Commonwealth Government recognised the absorption of Timor into Indonesia.
'Boat People' - refugees from Indo-China - arrived in large numbers.
1979 A series of serious strikes in opposition to the Fraser Government's economic policies.
Severe bushfires threatened Sydney.
Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission released a report recommending a massive power development scheme in south-west Tasmania, sparking the commencement of the controversial "Save the Franklin" campaign.
198 Whale Protection Act passed.
Multicultural television broadcasting commenced.
Drought takes hold across Australia.
The Liberal Fraser Government returned to office.
1981 Census of Australia held.
(Campbell) Committee of Inquiry into the Australian Financial System recommended deregulation.
Australia's population reached 15 million.
1982 Australian economy depressed.
Severe drought in the eastern States.
Australian National Gallery opened in Canberra.
Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane.
Freedom of Information Act became operative.
1983 General election held, resulting in an Australian Labor Party victory.
Australia won the Americas Cup.
Severe bushfires in Victoria and South Australia.
Medicare introduced.
Prices Surveillance Authority created.
Cocos (Keeling) Islanders voted to integrate with Australia.
Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia established.
1984 Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) formed.
Hawke Labor Government returned to office.
Referenda on State-Commonwealth transfer of powers and the simultaneous election of the House of Representatives and the Senate rejected.
Parliament increased in size: House of Representatives from 125 to 148 seats and the Senate from 64 to 76.
World's first frozen embryo baby born in Melbourne.
1985 Ban placed on uranium exports to France.
Substantial deregulation of the banking system.
Economic summit on tax reform.
Split in the Nuclear Disarmament Party.
Report of the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia tabled in Parliament.
1986 Constitutional severance from the United Kingdom.
Car bomb exploded at Turkish Consulate in Melbourne.
Census held.
Sighting of Halley's Comet.
Twelve miners died in a mine cave-in at Moura, Queensland.
Bomb exploded at Melbourne Police Headquarters.
Pope visited Australia.
Aussat launched.
1987 Hawke Government returned to power in July in general election.
Australia lost Americas Cup.
Prime Minister Hawke announced plans to streamline government administration.
1988 Bicentennial Year. Celebrations included the re-enactment of the First Fleet's voyage and the staging of Expo 88 in Brisbane.
Referendum held on four Constitutional amendments soundly defeated.
1989 Thirteen people died in Australia's first ballooning accident.
Two major bus accidents on the Pacific Highway claimed the lives of 55 people.
Thirteen people died and over 130 injured in Newcastle earthquake.
Pilots dispute disrupted air travel for three months.
1990 Australia's first female premiers were elected in Western Australia and Victoria.
Several major national corporation and financial institutions collapsed.
Australia's population reached 17 million.
1999 Saturday 6 November 1999, Referendum Day, was the day Australian voters were required to vote in a constitutional Referendum on whether Australia should become a Republic and whether to insert a preamble to the Constitution.
 
In short they were asked to vote "yes" or "no" to each of the two proposed laws to change the Constitution.
 
The two proposed laws were as follows
    1) Constitution Alteration (Establishing a Republic) 1999
    To alter the Constitution to establish the Commonwealth of Australia as a Republic with the Queen and Governor General being replaced by President appointed by a two thirds majority of the Commonwealth Parliament.
     
    2) Constitution Alteration (Preamble 1999)
    To alter the Constitution to insert a preamble