Date and Name of Event 40,000 B.C.

First Aborigines arrive

Justification of Significance

Image or link to a Scholarly Site

This event is highly significant because this is the first sign of recorded human life on the continent of Australia. This is the furthest back that we can go when taking about human life in Australia.
(http://lrrpublic.cli.det.nsw.ed u.au/lrrSecure/Sites/Web/ma cquarie2010/macquarie2010/l o/aboriginal_people/graphics/ aboriginal.jpg)

1770, British Here Captain James Cook of Britain lands in Australia first land in forever changing it. He claims Australia as a British Australia colony and names it New South Wales. This event put Aboriginal people in a similar place as the Native Americans in the United States. They were treated horribly, killing thousands of them and pushing them out of their land that they had for over 41,000 years.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/ wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Indi g2.jpg)

1850 Gold Rush

This gold rush, much like the one in California, caused wide spread excitement. In this short time, the population of Australia increased 3 fold to push the population to over a million.
(http://www.kidcyber.com.au /IMAGES/goldrushcalif_jupiter .jpg)

Jan 1, 1901 Australian Independen ce

This event makes for little explanation of the significance. Australia endured 131 years under British rule and they officially cut the cord and became their own country on January 1st.
(http://www.wanowandthen. com/History/000984d.jpg)

1914 World War 1

World War I hit the whole world hard including Australia. Australia left over 60,000 casualties and 156,000 wounded. This changed Australias outlook on the world tremendously causing them to stay much more neutral in the wars following and only giving the minimum to the other war efforts.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/ wikipedia/commons/1/1e/W

1929 The Great Depression

What few people understand with the Great Depression is that the stock market crash didnt just affect the Americas, but the world. It stopped trade and created a huge hole in the world economy. Unemployment reached an all-time low of 30% and the GDP declined by 10%. This forced Australia to not be so dependent on any one country and be a little more independent. 1930s I realize that Donald Bradman is not in exact Donald definition an event, but I believe that his career Bradman deserves to be in the top 10 historical highlights of Career Australia. Donald Bradman came at a time in Australia where the country was at its lowest. He brought hope to a country that was on the verge of giving up and much like the Cinderella Man, James Braddock, in the United States, Bradman was an escape from the real world for the Australians. The world loves competition and when someone rises from the ashes to the top and proves that there is some fight left in humanity. Bradman was representing every single person every time he stepping on the cricket field. He came at the perfect time and deserves to be mentioned as a hero who single handedly gave the people of Australia the drive to get back on their feet and get through the depression. 1956 The Melbourne Olympics will forever go down in Olympic history for its firsts. It was the first Olympics to be Games held held outside of Europe and the United States and in in return truly made the Olympics a worldwide Melbourne competition. It was also the first Olympics to have live television broadcasts. This opened up the games to almost every individual person on the globe. Lastly, it was also the first to have a closing ceremony where all the athletes walked out together as one. These Olympics changed the games forever and Australia is world-wide known for it. February This significant event was long overdue. Australia 2008 had over 100 years of cruelty towards the Government indigenous people and not one word of apology was apologizes given for the wrongs they had committed. The whole to the situation was swept under the rug until Prime

WI_Enlistment_Poster,_Austr alia.jpg) (http://australia.gov.au/about -australia/australianstory/great-depression)

(http://static.guim.co.uk/sysimages/Sport/Pix/pictures/20 13/6/18/1371595832918/Don -Bradman-008.jpg)

(http://corporate.olympics.co m.au/images/aocGame/imgIc onGames/olympic_flame_clar ke_1956_L.jpg)

(http://www.survivalinternati onal.org/news/3069)

indigenous population

December 2013 Gay Marriage Law overturned

Minister Kevin Rudd gave a formal apology in 2008. This event should have been done many years before but it was still important to mention that Australia is starting to recognize its wrongs and try to change for the better. In the modern world this event is HUGE! Gay marriage is one of the most talked about topics today and just the fact that it made the national ballot is news, but the then to add on that it was pasted in an Australian territory and then overturned makes this a very significant event. This means that even though it is not legal right now, they still have the support. I believe that 50 years from now Australia will look back at this and wonder how they ever could have overturned this law in the first place. Gay marriage is inevitably going to become legal and I have a feeling that this will be looked upon as the modern civil rights movement, except it isnt for the equality of race, but rather the equality of mankind.

(http://www.bbc.com/news/ world-asia-25344219)