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Timeline: 1901 – 1910

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1901

January 1

Federation of Australia comes into being with the Federal Constitution proclaimed. Historical documents relating to Federation.

January 30

Victorian pensioners follow those of NSW in receive one shilling a day pension.

January

BHP builds a port at Hummock Hill, SA, for shipment of iron ore from its Iron Knob mine. The town becomes Whyalla.

March 31

Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman sails from Fremantle to Wyndham at the beginning of an exploratory trek through the Kimberley region.

March 31

Australia’s first census as a united country reveals its population at 3,773,801.

April 1

Caretaker Prime Minister Demand Barton confirmed as Prime Minister in the first National General Election.

April 25

Australian troops return to Australia from the Boxer rebellion in China.

May 9

Former South Australian Premier, Frederick William Holder, becomes the Speaker in the Federal House of Representatives.

May 9

Inaugural meeting of the Federal Labour Party held.

May 10

The Duke of York and Cornwall opens the first Federal Parliament.

June 21

An attack at dawn kills 18 Victorian soldiers in the Boer War in South Africa.

July 11

Anthony Horden & Sons emporium in Sydney’s Broadway destroyed by fire.

July 24

The Presbyterian Church of Australia formed.

September 28

My Brilliant Career‘ by 22-year old girl from the bush, Miles Franklin, first published.

September 30

The White Australia bill gains support.

October 8

The first Federal Budget is handed down by the Federal Treasurer Sir George Turner. It introduces duties on tea, sugar, alcohol and tobacco.

November 26

Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman returns from a trek to the Kimberley region of WA.

December 1

The Commonwealth Post and Telegraph Act proclaimed.

December 31

Agriculturalist William James Farrer releases his new drought resistant strain of wheat called Federation.


1902

January 8

Fingerprinting introduced by New South Wales Police.

February 20

Australia’s first federal battalion sails to take part in the Boer War in South Africa.

March 9

British New Guinea formally transferred to Australian control.

March 18

The High Court of Australia established.

March 22

Flinders Column, Mt Lofty, named 22nd March to commemorate the centenary of Flinders’ sighting and naming of Mt Lofty on 23rd March 1802. The column originally erected as a trig station in 1885.

April 22

The railway line to Crookwell, NSW, opens.

April 25

Commonwealth Franchise Bill denies the right to vote to Aborigines, Asians, Africans, criminals and the insane.

April 26

Brisbane’s new library the first in Australia to use the Dewey Decimal Classification System.

May 20

Perth to Kalgoorlie rail link opens.

June 1

Australian troops head home as Boer War concludes.

June

Mundaring Weir on the Helena River and the Number One Pumping Station operational.

July 17

Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson becomes acting Governor-General.

July 28

Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira born.

August 1

‘New Idea’ women’s magazine first published.

August 1

96 miners killed in mine explosion at Mt Kembla, NSW.

August 9

Australia celebrates King Edward VII‘s coronation.

August 28

New South Wales women given the right to vote.

November 5

The utopian colony established in 1894 in Paraguay called New Australia collapses.

November 9

SS Elingamite wrecked off king Island with the loss of 43 lives.

December 2

Queensland introduces personal income tax.

December 9

The River Murray Commission established.

December 26

Brisbane, Rockhampton and Townsville, Qld, declared cities.


1903

February 9

Businessman Quong Tart dies, age 53.

February

Australia’s twenty-fifth Prime Minister, William McMahon, born Sydney.

March 9

Cyclone Leonta damages Townsville, Qld, 10 die.

March 27

An eight year drought across Australia breaks as heavy rains fall in most states.

April 5

Sydney’s ‘Sunday Sun’ begins publication.

April 15

Bendigo’s electric trams brought into service.

June 22

High Court Chief Justice Sir Garfield Barwick born.

July 17

The first Commonwealth postage stamp – bearing the names of all the Australian states and available in 15 values – goes into circulation.

July 23

Horse drawn trams replace Sydney’s steam trams.

August 8

A naval agreement with Britain agrees to joint subsidy of Australia’s defence forces.

October 1

The Federal High Court established.

October 3

The ‘Brisbane Daily Mail’ begins publication.

October 8

The House of Representatives selects Tumut, NSW, as the site for the Federal Capital. This choice is rejected by the Federal Senate a week later, preferring Bombala, NSW.

October 15

Artist and writer Rhona Olive Harris (Pixie O’Harris) born.

October 24

The ‘Border Morning Mail’ is first published in Albury, NSW.

December 7

Immigration Restriction Act used to deny stranded sailors from the shipwreck Petriana access to Australia.

December 7

New South Wales and Victoria set up Automobile clubs.

December 10

Tasmania gives the right to vote to women.

December 10

Caretaker Prime Minister Alfred Deakin given mandate in Federal Elections to continue to govern.

December 19

Miss Vida Goldstein becomes Australia’s first woman politician, representing Victoria in the Federal Senate.

December 31

Australia ends the year as the world’s largest producer of gold.


1904

January 21

Henry Stafford Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote (Lord Northcote) appointed as Governor-General.

March 2

The second Federal Parliament opens.

March 19

The first Henley-on-Yarra regatta held in Melbourne.

April 5

New South Wales’ first motor-driven fire engine imported from Britain.

April 27

Centenary Tower, Mt Gambier, SA, commemorating naming and discovery of Mt Gambier by Lieut. James Grant on 3rd December 1800, opens (Foundation stone laid 3rd December 1900).

May 2

Broadcaster Wilfred Thomas born.

June 6

South African War Memorial, North Terrace, Adelaide, unveiled.

July 1

The St Louis Olympic Games open. The games close on 23rd November. Corrie Gardner, from Melbourne, had the distinction of being Australia’s only representative at the St Louis Olympics.

July 14

Sydney’s new electric street lights turned on for the first time.

July 17

Cargo and steamship SS Nemesis wrecked off the NSW coast, 21 lives lost.

August 9

Arthur Stanley Roe is selected as Queensland’s first Rhodes scholar.

August 9

Federal Parliament settles on Dalgety, NSW, as the site of the new Federal capital, but the NSW Government disagrees.

August 16

A Federal political crisis is averted with the formation of a new government under the leadership of George Reid of the free trade Group.

August 26

Queensland exports 26,000 bags of wheat to Britain.

September 5

Norman Lindsay paintings cause a stir at the Royal Art society’s 25th Annual Exhibition.

September 23

Tattersall’s founder George Adams dies, age 65.

October 14

Seven men die in a fire at the Brilliant gold mine, Charters Towers, Qld.

October 20

Toowoomba, Qld, proclaimed a city.

December 2

1,139 mile long rabbit proof fence across Western Australia from north and south under construction.

December 3

Ipswich, Qld, proclaimed a city.

December 5

Tungsten discovered on King Island, Tas.

December 15

The Arbitration Court established.


1905

January 12

Federal Government constitutes the Australian Naval Board.

February 27

An inaugural motor vehicle reliability test sponsored by Dunlop Tyres held between Ballarat and Melbourne.

March 1

Richard Butler becomes Premier of South Australia.

March 22

Zinc refining commences at Cockle Creek, NSW.

April 1

Governor-General Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck born in Fremantle, WA.

May 24

Empire Day inaugurated on the late Queen Victoria’s birthday.

July 5

The Federal crisis continues with Alfred Deakin re-establishing a new government.

July 24

The Bubonic plague spreads across the country.

August 1

The Victorian Supreme Court admits its first female barrister and solicitor.

September 2

Hobart’s General Post Office opens.

September 6

The Australian National Defence League calls for the introduction of compulsory national service.

October

A tramway service commences in Fremantle, WA, with a number of lines which begin from the Fremantle Railway Station. The tranway is closed in 1952.

November 10

New South Wales reintroduces assisted immigration.

December 1

Steam buses begin operating between Prahan and Malvern in Melbourne.

December 18

Architect Ray Grounds born.

December 20

Widespread protests over new restrictive immigration laws.

December 21

Motor buses brought into service in Sydney.

December 29

Poet Victor Daley dies, age 47.


1906

January 1

Importation of opium banned, except for medical purposes.

January 19

William Kidston becomes the Premier of Queensland.

January 28

Cairns and Innisfail, Qld, severely damaged by a cyclone.

February 6

Historian James Bonwick dies, age 88.

March 15

Record wool sales of more than 1 million bales recorded.

May 22

Three Japanese warships visit Sydney Harbour.

May

Alfred Wernam Canning establishes the longest stock route in Australia from Kimberley Ranges to Wiluna, WA.

June 1

Natural gas used to light up the streets of Roma, Qld, but the supply runs out after 10 days.

July 13

Victoria-Tasmania wireless link opens.

July 17

Celebrated bush painter Frederick McCubbin‘s work, ‘The Pioneer‘, bought by the National Gallery of Victoria.

August 6

Sydney’s Central Railway Station opens.

August 12

Tennis coach Harry Hopman born.

August 14

New South Wales Government approves free education for all children.

August 30

The first Australian drivers licence is issued to W.A. Hargreaves in Adelaide.

September 2

British New Guinea passed into Australia’s control, re-named Papua.

September 26

Western Australia determines to hold a referendum on secession from the Commonwealth.

November 23

Bondi, NSW, becomes the world’s first lifesaving club.

November 27

Statue of Col. William Light, Victoria Square, Adelaide, unveiled. It is moved in 1938 to Montefiore Lookout, which is renamed Light’s Vision at the suggestion of the Pioneers’ Association, and a plaque added to the pedestal bears an extract from Light’s Brief Journal.

October 1

Australia signs a trade agreement with South Africa.

October 10

The South Australian Government’s assembly is dissolved when the Houses become deadlocked on franchise reform.

December 3

Media proprietor Sir Frank Packer born.

December 13

Alfred Deakin‘s Government re-elected for another three year term.

December 19

Commonwealth legislation authorises the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme.

December 24

Repatriation of Australia’s 3,600 Kanakas under way; they are being returned to the Solomon Islands by boat.

December 26

The world’s first non-documentary feature film, Charles Tait’s ‘The Story of the Kelly Gang‘ is screened at the Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne.

December

The Kiwi Boot Polish Company established.

December

The lifesaving reel invented by Lyster Ormsby used for the first time at Bondi Beach.


1907

January 22

Cooktown, Qld, devastated by a tropical cyclone.

February 15

Queensland allows Italian migrants to replace Kanaka labour on sugar plantations.

March 29

Miner Modesto Vareschetti rescued from Coolgardie mine after nine days.

April 9

Hubert Murray becomes the Administrator of Papua.

May 8

Carlton and United Breweries is formed by the amalgamation of six smaller breweries in Victoria.

July 16

Broken Hill, NSW, proclaimed a city.

July 17

Federal Government embarks on a programme to attract migrants from Britain to Australia.

July 25

Australian wins its first Davis Cup tennis competition.

July 29

Postmaster General’s Department sets goal to have a telephone service in every Australian home.

August 12

Swimmer Andrew (Boy) Charlton born.

August 16

Outcry as MPs award themselves a £600 a year pay rise.

August 19

New Zealand’s All Blacks Rugby Union team beats New South Wales 12 points to 8.

August 27

American born F. Peters commences the manufacture of Peters Ice Cream in Sydney.

September 6

Sydney University geologist Professor Tannath William Edgeworth David joins the National Antarctic Exploration expedition headed by Captain Ernest Henry Shackleton.

September 17

The northern NSW town of Murwillumbah was burnt out because it had no fire brigade.

October 2

Sir Charles Gregory Wade becomes Premier of New South Wales.

October 18

Eight clubs join to form the Surf Bathing Association of NSW.

November 9

Basic wage set at 7 shillings a day.

December 20

Women given the right to vote in Western Australia.


1908

January 1

Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology opens its first office in Melbourne.

January 27

Australia’s first Lifesaving Club carnival held on Manly Beach, NSW.

February 14

Newspaper proprietor David Syme dies, age 80.

February 23

Australia’s 25th Prime Minister, William McMahon, born Sydney.

March 16

Cockatoo Island shipbuilding yard in Sydney Harbour opens.

March 30

The Federal Government establishes the Commonwealth Quarantine Service with stations at major ports in each state.

April 22

A train packed with holidaymakers crashes as Sunshine station in suburban Melbourne, killing 44.

April 27

The London Olympic Games open. By their close on 31st October, Australia will have won four medals.

May 7

The Commonwealth Coat of Arms is adopted.

May 16

The steamship Orion disappears between Smithton, Tas, and Melbourne, with 27 lives lost.

July 1

The Australian Labour Party becomes the official political wing of the Labour movement.

July 1

Queensland introduces an old age pension scheme.

August 5

Australia’s 22nd Prime Minister, Harold Edward Holt, born Sydney, NSW.

August 9

Agreement reached on the Yass district as the site for Australia’s new Federal capital.

August 20

Twenty US warships visit Sydney Harbour on a goodwill visit instigated by Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin.

August 27

Cricketer Sir Donald Bradman born in Cootamundra, NSW.

September 5

Dorothea McKellar‘s poem, ‘My Country‘, is published for the first time in Britain.

September 5

Seven miners die in a rock fall at Mount Morgan, Qld. Five more die on 4th November.

September 8

Lord William Dudley replaces Henry Stafford Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote, as Governor-General.

September 10

The first journey by car from Adelaide to Sydney via Darwin completed by a Clement Talbot motor car.

September 1

Women in Victoria are given the right to vote.

November 13

Andrew Fisher, the leader of the Australian Labour Party, becomes Australia’s Prime Minister.


1909

January 16

British Antarctic expedition team under Captain Ernest Henry Shackleton reaches the South Magnetic Pole.

February 9

Artist Charles Conder dies, age 40.

February 13

Aviator and businessman Reginald Myles Ansett born.

March 9

Electric trams begin operating in Adelaide, SA.

March 26

Actor Chips Rafferty born John William Gaffage.

April 9

Ballet dancer and choreographer Robert Helpman born.

May 1

Half-day Saturday retail trading introduced in Melbourne.

May 24

A five month long miners’ strike at Broken Hill, NSW, ends.

June 2

Prime Minister Andrew Fisher resigns, is replaced by Alfred Deakin.

June 5

Street trams introduced in Rockhampton, Qld.

June 30

Perth Children’s Hospital opens.

July 1

The Commonwealth Government agrees to pay aged pension.

July 28

Australia granted the right to establish its own navy.

July

Australia’s first taxi service using motor cars introduced in Sydney.

July

The Victorian Government opens its first coal mine at Wonthaggi.

August 8

Mother Mary McKillop dies, age 67.

August 23

Sydney’s Long Bay Gaol opens.

September 20

The first hotel in the Australian Alps opens at Mt Kosciusko.

October 18

The state of New South Wales has granted 911 square miles of land to the Federal Government as the future site of the Federal capital.

November 6

Thirty unionists are gaoled during a coal miners strike in New South Wales.

November 8

12,000 NSW coal miners strike.

December 5

George A. Taylor of Narrabeen, NSW, makes the first glider flight in Australia in a glider he built himself.

December 9

The first powered air flight took place at Victoria Park Raceway when Colin Defries flew his machine at a height of between 2 to 15 feet.

December 10

Queensland University founded.

December 13

Military training becomes compulsory.

December 16

The former Prime Minister George Reid appointed as Australia’s first High Commissioner in London.

December 21

British Field-Marshall Horatio Herbert Kitchener arrives in Australia to advise on the make-up of Australia’s new military forces.


1910

February 8

Radio compare John (Jack) Davey born.

March 9

Mitchell Library, Sydney, opens.

March 16

Railway extended to Wonthaggi, Vic.

March 31

The liner Pericles sinks after hitting a reef off Cape Leeuwin, WA. 400 crew and passengers rescued.

April 13

Andrew Fisher‘s Labour Government returned with a record majority.

April 13

The Commonwealth Government takes over state debts.

April 14

The University of Queensland is established.

June 3

John Verran becomes the first Labor Premier of South Australia.

July 16

The first flight by an Australian built aeroplane.

July 18

A major railway crash at Richmond, Vic, sees 18 killed and nearly 500 injured.

August 9

Government gives go-ahead for the printing of paper currency.

October 21

James Sinclair Taylor McGowen becomes the first Labor Premier of New South Wales.

November 3

Berri, SA, set aside for a Murray River irrigation scheme.

November 23

The first two ships of Australia’s own Navy – the destroyers HMAS Parramatta and HMAS Yarra – make their first Australian port of call at Fremantle, WA.

November 29

Broome, WA, hit by a cyclone, killing 40 people and destroying 26 pearling luggers.

November 25

The Naval Defence Act comes into force and the Commonwealth Naval Forces are formed.

December 4

Australia’s second ski resort opens at Mt Buffalo, Vic.

December 8

Geelong, Vic, declared a city.

December 12

Mt Stromlo selected as site for a new observatory.

December 16

Ford sells its 400th Model-T car in Australia.

December 16

Invalid pensions first made available Australia wide.

December 28

The Murrumbidgee Irrigation Trust formed to develop the irrigation of NSW’s Riverina district.



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