1855 The transportation of convicts to Norfolk Island ceases.
1855 All men over 21 years of age obtain the right to vote in South Australia.
1856 Van Diemen's Land name changed to Tasmania.
1857 Victorian Committee reported that a 'federal union' would be in the interests of all the growing colonies. However, there was not enough interest in or enthusiasm for taking positive steps towards bringing the colonies together.
1857 Victorian men achieve the right to vote.
1858 Sydney and Melbourne linked by electric telegraph.
1858 New South Wales men achieve the right to vote.
1859 SS Admella wrecked off south-east coast of South Australia with the loss of 89 lives.
1859 Australian rules football codified, Melbourne Football Club founded
1859 Queensland separates from New South Wales with its western border at 141° E.

1860 John McDouall Stuart reaches the centre of the continent. South Australian border changed from 132° E to 129° E.
1860 R O Burke and W J Wills cross Australia from south to north
1860 (till 1870) Second Maori War in New Zealand
1861 skiing in Australia introduced by Norwegians in the Snowy Mountains goldrush town of Kiandra
1861 Gold discovered in Otago, New Zealand
1862 Stuart reaches Port Darwin, founding a settlement there. Queensland's western border is moved to 139° E.
1863 South Australia takes control of the Northern Territory which was part of the colony of New South Wales.
1864 First French convicts sent to New Caledonia

1865 First Chinese labourers arrive in Hawaii
1865 New Zealand seat of government transferred from Auckland to Wellington
1867 Gold is discovered at Gympie, Queensland.
1867 Saint Mary MacKillop founds Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
1868 The transportation of convicts to Western Australia ceases.
1869 Children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent are removed from their families by Australian and State government agencies. This lasts 100 years. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_generation
1869 Germany acquires land in Caroline Islands

1870 Gold Rush in New Caledonia
1871 Cakobau, most important leader of Bau, one of Fiji Islands, establishes a national monarchy in Fiji
1872 Overland Telegraph Line linking Darwin and Adelaide opens.
1873 Uluru is first sighted by Europeans, and named Ayers Rock.
1874 Prince David Kalakaua becomes ruler of Hawaii (to 1891)

1875 SS Gothenburg strikes Old Reef off North Queensland and sinks with the loss of approximately 102 lives.
1875 Adelaide Steamship Company is formed.
1878 New Caledonian peoples rebel against French
1878 First horse-drawn trams in Australia commenced operations in Adelaide.
1879 The first congress of trade unions is held.
1879 Britain establishes a naval station in Samoa

1880 Australia's most famous bushranger, Ned Kelly, is hanged; becomes a folk hero
1880 Parliamentarians in Victoria become the first in Australia to be paid for their work.
1880 France annexes Tahiti as a colony
1882 First water-borne sewerage service in Australia commenced operations in Adelaide.
1883 The opening of the Sydney–Melbourne railway
1883 Silver is discovered at Broken Hill

1885 (till 1886) Goldfields opened up in Papua New Guinea
1887 An Australian cricket team is established, defeating England in the first Ashes series. First direct Inter-colonial passenger trains begin running between Adelaide and Melbourne.
1888 Louisa Lawson founds The Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women.
1889 The completion of the railway network between Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
1889 Sir Henry Parkes delivers the Tenterfield Oration.
1889 Malietoa Laupepa king of Samoa; is recognized by Britain, United States, and Germany, ÒjointsupervisorsÓ of Samoa

1890 The Australian Federation Conference calls a constitutional convention.
1891 A National Australasian Convention meets, agrees on adopting the name "the Commonwealth of Australia" and drafting a constitution. The first attempt at a federal constitution is drafted. The Convention adopts the constitution, although it has no legal status
1891 A severe depression hits Australia
1892 Gold is discovered at Coolgardie, Western Australia.
1893 The Corowa Conference (the "people's convention") calls on the colonial parliaments to pass enabling acts, allowing the election of delegates to a new constitutional convention aimed at drafting a proposal and putting it to a referendum in each colony.
1893 Votes for women introduced in New Zealand
1894 South Australia becomes the first Australian colony, and the second place in the world, to grant women the right to vote, as well the first Parliament in the world to allow women to stand for office.

1895 The premiers, except for those of Queensland and Western Australia, agree to implement the Corowa proposals.
1895 Waltzing Matilda is first sung in public, in Winton, Queensland
1895 Banjo Paterson publishes The Man from Snowy River
1896 The Bathurst Conference (the second "people's convention") meets to discuss the 1891 draft constitution
1897 In two sessions, the Second National Australasian Convention meets (with representatives from all colonies except Queensland present). They agree to adopt a constitution based on 1891 draft, and then revise and amend it later that year. Catherine Helen Spence became the first female political candidate for political office, standing for election as a representative for South Australia.
1897 New Zealand introduces eight-hour working day; old age pensions, 1898
1898 The Convention agrees on a final draft to be put to the people. After much public debate, the Victorian, South Australian and Tasmanian referendums are successful; the New South Wales referendum narrowly fails. Later New South Wales votes "yes" in a second referendum, and Queensland and Western Australia also vote to join.
1898 United States annexes Hawaii
1899 Australia and New Zealand troops sent to Boer War
1899 The decision is made to site the national capital in New South Wales, but not within 100 miles of Sydney.
1899 The Australian Labor Party holds office for a few days in Queensland, becoming the first trade union party to do so anywhere in the world.

1900 Several delegates visit London to resist proposed changes to the agreed-upon constitution. The constitution is passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom as a schedule to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, and is given royal assent
1900 Phosphate-rich Ocean Island annexed by British
1900 New Zealand annexes the Cook Islands
1901 Britain gets control over Tonga's external relations
1901 Australia becomes a federation on 1 January. Edmund Barton becomes Prime Minister; the 7th Earl of Hopetoun becomes Governor-General. The first parliament met in Parliament House, Melbourne. Immigration Restriction act was introduced- The White Australian Policy. The Australian National Flag was flown for the first time
1902 The Franchise Act guarantees women the right to vote in federal elections (by this stage, most states had already done this). However, it excludes most non-European ethnic groups, including Aboriginal people, unless already registered to vote on State roles.
1902 King Edward VII approved the design of the Australian flag.
1902 Breaker Morant is executed for having shot Boers who had surrendered
1903 The High Court of Australia is established with Samuel Griffith as the first Chief Justice.
1903 The Defence Act gives the federal government full control over the Australian Army
1903 Alfred Deakin elected Prime Minister
1904 A site at Dalgety, New South Wales chosen for the new national capital
1904 Chris Watson forms the first federal Labor (minority) government
1904 Fijian delegates sit in legislative council for Fiji

1905 British New Guinea becomes the possession of Australia, and is named Papua
1906 Britain and France rule over New Hebrides
1907 New Zealand becomes a dominion
1907 First elections for national assembly in Philippines
1908 Dorothea Mackellar publishes My Country
1908 The Dalgety proposal for the national capital is revoked, and Canberra is chosen instead
1909 The first powered aeroplane flight in Australia is made.
1909 Creation of separate Labour party in New Zealand

1910 First victory for Labor party under Andrew Fisher in Australian general election
1911 Universal military training established in New Zealand
1911 The Royal Australian Navy is founded
1911 The Northern Territory comes under Commonwealth control, being split off from South Australia
1911 The first national census is conducted.
1911 Australian Capital Territory proclaimed.
1912 Australia sends women to the Olympic Games for the first time
1912 Walter Burley Griffin wins a design competition for the new city of Canberra
1913 Wallis Islands become a French protectorate
1913 Foundation of United Federation of Labour and Social Democratic party in New Zealand
1913 The foundation stone for the city of Canberra is put in place
1914 Australian soldiers are sent to the First World War. This was first time Australians had fought under the Australian flag, as opposed to that of Britain's

1915 Britain annexes Gilbert and Ellice islands
1915 Australian soldiers land at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey on 25 April.
1915 Jervis Bay Territory comprising 6,677 hectares surrendered and becomes part of the Australia Capital Territory.
1915 Surfing is first introduced to Australia
1915 Billy Hughes became Prime Minister
1916 (till 1918) Efforts to introduce national army conscription in Australia defeated in referenda
1916 Hotels are forced to close at 6 p.m., leading to the beginning of the "six o'clock swill"
1916 Australia suffers heavy casualties in the Western Front Battle of the Somme..
1916 The Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia, the forerunner to the Returned and Services League of Australia is founded
1916 The Labor government under Billy Hughes splits over conscription. First referendum on conscription is rejected
1917 Filipino National Guard organized in Philippine Islands
1917 Second referendum on conscription is rejected. Transcontinental railway linking Adelaide to Perth is completed.
1917 Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade launches last cavalry charge in modern warfare to capture Beersheba from the Ottoman Turks.
1918 Battle of Amiens: Australian troops spearhead 8 August offensive against Hindenberg Line: the "black day of the German Army". On 12 August, Australian commander General Sir John Monash is knighted in the field of battle by King George V
1918 First World War ends – 60,000 Australians dead.
1918 The Darwin Rebellion takes place, with 1,000 demonstrators demanding the resignation of the Administrator of the Northern Territory, John A. Gilruth.
1918 Queen Salote becomes queen of Tonga
1918 Influenza epidemic kills one fifth of population of Western Samoa
1919 Dry dock completed at Pearl Harbor in US territory of Hawaii
1919 Prime Minister Billy Hughes signs Treaty of Versailles: the first signing of an international treaty by Australia. Australia obtains League of Nations mandate over German New Guinea.

1920 New Zealand given mandate over Samoa
1920 Formation of a federal Country Party in Australia
1920 New Zealand becomes member of League of Nations
1920 The airline Qantas is founded
1921 Australia given mandate over German New Guinea
1921 Edith Cowan becomes the first woman elected to an Australian parliament
1922 The Smith Family charity is founded in Sydney
1923 Vegemite is first produced

1926 The first Miss Australia contest is held
1927 The tenth parliament is formally opened in Canberra, finalising the move to the new capital
1928 Bert Hinkler makes the first successful flight from Britain to Australia, and Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first flight from the United States to Australia. The Shrine of Remembrance is built.
1929 Uprising of Mau people of Samoa against New Zealand government
1929 Western Australia celebrates its centenary
1929 Labor returns to office under James Scullin. The Great Depression hits Australia.

1930 Batsman Don Bradman scores a record 452 not out in one cricket innings
1930 Phar Lap wins his first Melbourne Cup
1931 Foundation of United Australia Party (UAP)
1931 Sir Douglas Mawson charts 4,000 miles of Antarctic coastline and claims 42% of the icy mass for Australia
1932 The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens
1932 The Labor government falls and Joseph Lyons becomes Prime Minister
1933 Australia takes control of large sector of Antarctica
1933 Western Australia votes at a rerefendum to secede from the Commonwealth, but the vote is ignored by both the Commonwealth and British governments

1935 First Labour government elected in New Zealand; many reforms follow
1936 Arbitration court of New Zealand fixes basic wage for man and wife and three children
1936 The last Thylacine dies
1937 Formation of New Zealand National Party, in opposition to Labour Party
1937 The radio series Dad and Dave begins
1938 Sydney hosts the Empire Games, the forerunner to the Commonwealth Games
1939 April, Prime Minister Lyons dies in office and is replaced by Robert Menzies and the first Menzies Government
1939 September, Australia enters the Second World War following the German Invasion of Poland. The 2nd Australian Imperial Force is raised.
1939 The first flight is made by an Australian-made warplane, the Wirraway
1939 Victoria is devastated by the Black Friday bushfires