Australian history — well, that kind that’s been written down — begins some 400 years ago when European traders and explorers first started coming up against the coast of a continent they hadn’t found before. From 1788, following British settlement of New South Wales, the dates start coming thick and fast.
The following timeline of significant events begins with that initial cross-cultural encounter and goes right up to the election of Australia’s first woman Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, in 2010.
