50 Fun Facts About Australian History

Which Dutch ship made the first documented European landing in Australia in 1606?

Duyfken: her captain Willem Janszoon took the coast he charted for part of New Guinea, and Dutch maps repeated the error for years.

Which Dutch navigator's 1642 voyage first reached Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand?

Abel Tasman: Van Diemen's Land was later renamed Tasmania in his honour, partly to shed the island's convict associations.

Which English buccaneer landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688 and again in 1699?

William Dampier: on a later voyage he helped rescue castaway Alexander Selkirk, who may have inspired Robinson Crusoe.

Which natural wonder nearly sank James Cook's Endeavour when the ship struck it in 1770?

Great Barrier Reef: the crew threw guns and ballast overboard to refloat her, then spent seven weeks repairing the ship at the Endeavour River.

Where did James Cook's Endeavour make its first landing on Australia's east coast, in April 1770?

Botany Bay: Cook first called it Stingrays Harbour, then renamed it for the many new plants Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected there.

On which date in 1788 was the settlement at Sydney Cove established?

26 January is now Australia Day, and in 1938 Aboriginal activists marked it in Sydney as a Day of Mourning.

Who was the first Governor of New South Wales, arriving with the First Fleet?

Arthur Phillip: within weeks he sent a party to settle Norfolk Island, hoping its native flax and timber would supply the navy.

What killed an estimated half of the Aboriginal people around Sydney in April 1789?

Smallpox, as most historians identify it: Arabanoo, an Aboriginal man held at the settlement, caught it nursing sick children and died.

Which governor was deposed in the 1808 Rum Rebellion?

William Bligh: 19 years earlier, the Bounty's crew had cast him adrift in an open boat.

Which wool pioneer was a key organiser of the 1808 Rum Rebellion?

John Macarthur: he escaped prosecution in England, but was barred from returning to the colony until 1817.

Who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821?

Lachlan Macquarie: he gave former convicts posts such as magistrate and colonial architect, and some free settlers refused to work alongside them.

Which mountain range did Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth cross in 1813, opening inland New South Wales to settlers?

Blue Mountains: a road across them was finished by 1815, when the site of the inland town of Bathurst was chosen.

Who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, in HMS Investigator from 1802 to 1803?

Matthew Flinders: sailing home in 1803, he put in at French-held Mauritius for repairs and was detained there until 1810.

Which explorer reached the Darling River on his first expedition, then followed the Murrumbidgee into the Murray?

Charles Sturt: his party nearly starved on the journey back, and his failing eyesight soon left him blind for months.

Which 1860 expedition set out to cross Australia from south to north, to the Gulf of Carpentaria?

Burke and Wills: returning from the Gulf, they reached their Cooper Creek depot hours after its party had left, and both died weeks later.

Which modern city grew from the Moreton Bay penal settlement, founded in 1824?

Brisbane: the first convict camp, at Redcliffe, was moved south within a year to the banks of the Brisbane River.

Which modern Australian state began in 1829 as the Swan River Colony?

Western Australia: founded for free settlers, it later began taking convicts to ease a labour shortage and received Australia's last convict ship in 1868.

Which city did Colonel William Light design as the capital of a British colony planned for free settlers?

Adelaide: under Edward Gibbon Wakefield's scheme, the colony sold land instead of granting it and used the money to bring out free workers.

What did John Batman give Kulin elders in 1835 in exchange for about 600,000 acres along the Yarra River?

Blankets, knives and flour: Governor Richard Bourke soon declared the treaty void, since the Crown claimed ownership of all the land.

About how many convicts did Britain transport to the Australian colonies between 1788 and 1868?

160,000: Britain turned to Australia after the American Revolution ended transportation to America and its prisons and hulks overflowed.

Which architect won the 1957 design contest for the Sydney Opera House, then left the project in 1966?

Jørn Utzon: Australian architects finished the building, and he never returned to Australia to see it completed.

Who publicised gold finds near Bathurst in 1851, starting Australia's first gold rush?

Edward Hargraves: he collected a government reward, though the rich finds that followed came from his partners John Lister and the Tom brothers.

At which goldfield town did miners build the Eureka Stockade in 1854?

Ballarat: the 13 rebels tried for high treason were all acquitted, and rebel leader Peter Lalor later won a seat in parliament.

Which colony separated from New South Wales in 1859 and was immediately self-governing?

Queensland: in 1922 it abolished its upper house, the Legislative Council, becoming the only state with a single-chamber parliament.

Which bushranger wore homemade armour in his final shootout with police at Glenrowan in 1880?

Ned Kelly: he was captured, tried for murder and hanged, and his disputed last words were reported as 'Such is life'.

Which NSW premier's 1889 Tenterfield Oration was pivotal to the federation cause?

Henry Parkes: often called the Father of Federation, he died in 1896, five years before the colonies federated.

Who was sworn in as Australia's first prime minister when the Commonwealth was proclaimed in 1901?

Edmund Barton: Governor-General Lord Hopetoun first asked NSW premier William Lyne to form the government, but Lyne could not find ministers.

Which city was the seat of federal government from 1901 to 1927?

Melbourne: federal MPs took over Victoria's Parliament House, so the state parliament met in the Royal Exhibition Building for 26 years.

Besides the vote, what did Australia's 1902 federal franchise law give women?

The right to stand for parliament: yet the same act barred most Aboriginal people from voting in federal elections.

Which 1901 act created the dictation test used to keep non-white migrants out of Australia?

Immigration Restriction Act: officials once failed the Czech journalist Egon Kisch in Scottish Gaelic, and the High Court overturned his conviction.

On what date in 1915 did the Anzacs land on the Gallipoli peninsula?

25 April: Anzac Day services begin at dawn, the hour when the first troops came ashore at Gallipoli.

Which Australian general took command of the Australian Corps in May 1918?

John Monash: his attack at Hamel on 4 July 1918 was all over in 93 minutes, which he put down to 'the perfection of teamwork'.

Which prime minister split Labor after losing the October 1916 conscription referendum?

Billy Hughes: when an egg hit him at Warwick in 1917 and local police refused to act, he set up a Commonwealth police force.

Which racehorse dominated Australian racing from 1929 to 1931, winning fourteen races in a row?

Phar Lap: soon after winning North America's richest race, in Mexico, he fell ill and died in California, and many believed he had been poisoned.

Which Australian batsman retired from Test cricket in 1948 with a batting average of 99.94?

Don Bradman: he was bowled for a duck in his final Test innings, when just four runs would have lifted his average to 100.

What nickname did Sydney Harbour Bridge, opened in 1932, earn for the shape of its arch?

The Coathanger: at its opening, New Guard member Francis de Groot rode up and slashed the ribbon with his sword before Premier Jack Lang could cut it.

Which city suffered the first enemy attack on the Australian mainland, in February 1942?

Darwin: the Japanese dropped more bombs there than on Pearl Harbor, though far fewer people were killed.

Along which track in New Guinea did Australians repulse Japanese advances in 1942?

Kokoda: Papuan carriers who bore wounded Australians back along the track were nicknamed the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels.

Which wartime prime minister of Australia died in office in July 1945?

John Curtin: he turned to the United States for protection against Japan and placed Australian forces under American command.

Who founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which first flew from Cloncurry in 1928?

John Flynn: engineer Alfred Traeger built him a pedal-powered radio so isolated homesteads could call for a doctor.

Which prime minister became Australia's longest-serving, dominating politics from 1949?

Robert Menzies: he resigned in 1941 after losing his party's support, then returned and won seven elections in a row.

Which prime minister disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach in December 1967?

Harold Holt: he insisted on swimming in rough surf at a beach he said he knew well, and his body was never found.

What did Australia's 1967 referendum change in the Constitution for Aboriginal Australians?

Included in population counts: the same vote let federal parliament make special laws for Aboriginal people, a power left to the states before.

Which Governor-General dismissed the Whitlam government on 11 November 1975?

John Kerr: Gough Whitlam had nominated him for the post, and Kerr made opposition leader Malcolm Fraser caretaker prime minister.

Which Labor leader beat the coalition in March 1983 and won again in 1984, 1987 and 1990?

Bob Hawke: he replaced Bill Hayden as leader just weeks before the 1983 election, and Hayden quipped that a drover's dog could lead Labor to victory.

Which 1992 High Court decision held that Indigenous native title survived the arrival of English law?

Mabo: Eddie Mabo, who brought the case over land on Mer in the Torres Strait, died months before the court ruled in his favour.

A 1996 mass shooting at which site led to Australia's National Firearms Agreement?

Port Arthur: within two weeks the states and Commonwealth agreed on the new gun laws, including a buyback of banned firearms.

Which prime minister held the 1999 referendum in which Australians voted against becoming a republic?

John Howard: the proposal had parliament, not voters, choose the president, so many direct-election republicans joined monarchists in voting No.

Which prime minister delivered the 2008 National Apology to the Stolen Generations?

Kevin Rudd: his predecessor had refused to say sorry, so the apology came only after Labor won the 2007 election.

Who became Australia's first female prime minister in June 2010?

Julia Gillard: her 2012 speech on sexism and misogyny, a reply to opposition leader Tony Abbott, was reported around the world.