1815 Russia tries to make landings in Hawaiian Islands
1817 John Oxley charts the Lachlan River
1817 Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales, opens in Macquarie Place, Sydney (it became Westpac in 1982).
1817 Governor Lachlan Macquarie petitioned the British Admiralty to use the name "Australia" instead of "New Holland"
1818 Oxley charts the Macquarie River.
1819 Pomare II establishes Society Islands' first legal code
1819 Death of Kamehameha I of Hawaii; his heir, Kamehameha II, abolishes system which restricted contact between men and women

1821 Protestant missionaries arrive in Cook Islands
1824 Kamehameha II of Hawaii visits England and dies there
1824 A penal colony is founded at Moreton Bay, now the city of Brisbane.
1824 Bathurst and Melville Islands are annexed.
1824 Permission granted to change the name of the continent from "New Holland" to "Australia"
1824 Hume and Hovell expedition travels overland to Port Phillip Bay, discovers Murray River (to 1825)

1825 Dutch annexe Irian Jaya, western part of New Guinea
1825 New South Wales western border is extended to 129° E. Van Diemen's Land is proclaimed.
1828 Charles Sturt charts the Darling River.
1829 The whole of Australia is claimed as British territory. The settlement of Perth is founded. Swan River Colony is declared by Charles Fremantle for Britain.

1830 Tahitian Protestant missionaries arrive in Fiji
1830 Malietoa Vaiinupo of Savai'i becomes king of Samoa
1830 Sturt arrives at Goolwa, having charted the Murray River.
1831 Charles Darwin sets out on five-year voyage to Pacific for scientific research
1831 Sydney Herald (later to become The Sydney Morning Herald) first published.
1832 Swan River Colony has its name changed to Western Australia.
1833 The penal settlement of Port Arthur is founded in Van Diemen's Land.
1834 French Catholic missionaries arrive in Mangareva in Tuamotu Islands in South Pacific

1835 John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner establish a settlement at Port Phillip, now the city of Melbourne.
1835 William Wentworth establishes Australian Patriotic Association (Australia's first political party) to demand democracy for New South Wales.
1836 Province of South Australia proclaimed with its western border at 132° E.
1837 (till 1840) Frenchman Jules Dumont d'Urville attempts to chart coast of Antarctica; from 1838-42, Lt Charles Wilkes leads US exploring expedition to Antarctica
1838 First Prussian settlers arrive in South Australia; the largest group on non-British migrants in Australia at the time.
1839 Paul Edmund Strzelecki becomes first European to ascend and name Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko.

1840 Australia's first municipal authority, the City of Adelaide, is established, followed by Sydney City Council.
1840 British and Maoris in New Zealand sign Treaty of Waitangi
1840 Kamehameha III begins constitutional monarchy in Hawaii; first written Hawaiian constitution
1841 New Zealand is proclaimed as a separate colony, no longer part of New South Wales.
1842 Copper is discovered at Kapunda in South Australia.
1842 France annexes the Marquesas Islands and makes Tahiti protectorate
1843 Australia's first parliamentary elections held for the New South Wales Legislative Council (though voting rights are restricted to males of certain wealth or property).

1845 The ship Cataraqui is wrecked off King Island in Bass Strait. It is Australia's worst civil maritime disaster, with 406 lives lost.
1845 Copper is discovered at Burra in South Australia.
1848 Hawaiian King Kamehameha III gives his people shares in the islands

1850 Western Australia becomes a penal colony.
1850 Australian Colonies Government Act [1850] grants representative constitutions to New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, colonies set about writing constitutions which produced democratically progressive parliaments
1850 Australia's first university, the University of Sydney, is founded.
1851 Victoria separates from New South Wales.
1851 The Victorian gold rush starts when gold is found at Summerhill Creek and Ballarat.
1851 Forest Creek Monster Meeting of miners at Chewton near Castlemaine
1852 Francis Cadell, in preparation for the launch of his steamer service, explored the Murray River in a canvas boat, travelling 1,300 miles (2,100 km) downstream from Swan Hill.
1853 France annexes New Caledonia
1853 First paddle steamers on Murray River on the spring flood. From South Australia, the Lady Augusta captained by Francis Cadell, reached Swan Hill while Mary Ann captained by William Randell, made it as far as Moama (near Echuca).
1854 Eureka stockade; brief miners' revolt at Ballarat

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