1855: Dja Dja Wurrung material collected by John Kerr at Fernyhurst is displayed at the Exposition Universelle de Paris
1862: Objects collected from the Shoalhaven district, including a hand-stencilled shield, are displayed at the International Exhibition in London
1863: Robert Christison establishes Lammermoor station in Yirandali country
1864: The Aboriginal people of the Rockingham Bay area engage in guerilla warfare with the British, who were assisted by the native police, as they established a colonial settlement
1864: Violent interactions erupt between the Gudang people of Somerset, on the tip of Cape York Peninsula, and the British settlers occupying their country
1867: The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts establish a mission at Somerset, in Gudang country, which closes the following year
1867: A spear-thrower made by the Gulidjan or Wadawurrung people is collected by settler Eliza Bromfield at Birregurra
1867: The Lutheran Church establishes a mission at Lake Killalpaninna on Dieri country
1870s: Dulloom (dillybags) made by Bundjalung women are collected in the Richmond River region by Mary Bundock
1874: Oyster Cove Aboriginal reserve is closed
1876: Pastoralists occupy Wangkangurru and Yarluyandi country around the Birdsville region
1879: Naturalist Carl Alfred Bock visits Makassar, acquiring artefacts, including three Yolngu-made spears from north-east Arnhem Land
1879: The Torres Strait Islands are annexed by the colony of Queensland
1883: Aboriginal mission established at La Perouse on the shores of Botany Bay
1884: British occupation in Kimberley Aboriginal country is marked by the visit of Governor Sir Frederick Napier Broome
1888: Influential Tudu leader Maino meets anthropologist Alfred Haddon, who also visits the island of Mer
1893 to 1905: Englishman Harry Hillier collects objects made by the Dieri people in Killalpaninna, including rounded stones used in a traditional children’s game
1894: Bunuba man Jandamarra begins a war of resistance against British settlers in the West Kimberley
1897: The Queensland Parliament passes the Protection Act to control the lives of Aboriginal people and remove them from their country
1897: Bunuba resistance fighter Jandamarra is killed and beheaded at the Battle of Six Mile Creek in the West Kimberley
1898: Maino welcomes his friend Alfred Haddon, who returns to Mer and Tudu in the Torres Strait as leader of the Cambridge University Anthropological Expedition
1901: Australia is federated, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people excluded from citizenship
1907: Last prau from Makassar visits north-east Arnhem Land
1967: In a referendum, the overwhelming support of Australians gave power to the Commonwealth to pass laws in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and enable them to be counted in the census
1968: Near Broome in the Kimberley, Garadyarri man Jack Lee and Yawuru man Jimmy Dawidyi create a headdress for a Gudurrgudurr ceremony
1982: Meriam man Eddie Mabo begins legal proceedings to recognise his traditional land ownership
1983: Gunditjmara elder Aunt Connie Hart of Lake Condah, west of the Warrnambool region, begins teaching traditional weaving
1984: The Tasmanian Aboriginal community reclaims Oyster Cove, renaming it Putalina
1995: Oyster Cove is handed back to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community
2004: Dja Dja Wurrung representatives launch a court challenge against the return to the British Museum of artefacts collected at Fernyhurst in the 1850s, on loan to Museum Victoria — they were unsuccessful
2006: Tasmanian Aboriginal women take part in tayenebe, a cultural revival project drawing on traditional basket-making techniques practised at Flinders Island
2006: Ngarinyin, Worrorra and Wunambal people attend a week-long sustainable harvesting bush camp at Jingeengadi (Wire Yard) where Ngarinyin man Nuggit Gooditt makes a spearhead from a horseshoe in the Hanover Bay tradition
2006: Aunty Edna Arnold wears a possum-skin cloak similar to those of her ancestors at Birregurra — this cloak was made to be worn at the opening of the Commonwealth Games
2007: Gunditjmara people recognised by the Federal Court of Australia as the native title-holders of land and waters in the Portland region, west of the Warrnambool region
Explore more classroom resources