A National Australasian Convention meets, agrees on adopting the name 'the Commonwealth of Australia' and drafting a constitution.

Gold is discovered at Coolgardie, Western Australia.

According to JJ Potts this is the date the family moved from Frankston to Healesville.

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.

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.

The premiers, except for those of Queensland and Western Australia, agree to implement the Corowa proposals.

The Bathurst Conference (the second 'people's convention') meets to discuss the 1891 draft constitution

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 the 1891 draft, and then revise and amend it later that year.

The Convention agrees on a final draft to be put to the people.

The decision is made to site the national capital in New South Wales, but not within 100 miles of Sydney.

Several delegates visit London to resist proposed changes to the agreed-upon constitution.

(01 Jan) Australia becomes a federation on 1 January. Edmund Barton becomes Prime Minister; the 7th Earl of Hopetoun becomes Governor-General

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.

The High Court of Australia is established with Samuel Griffith as the first Chief Justice.

A site at Dalgety, New South Wales chosen for the new national capital

Australia takes control of south-eastern New Guinea

Dorothea Mackellar publishes My Country

The first powered aeroplane flight in Australia is made.

Andrew Fisher forms the first federal majority Labor government.

The Royal Australian Navy is founded

Australia sends women to the Olympic Games for the first time

Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth cross the Blue Mountains.

The foundation stone for the city of Canberra is put in place

Australian soldiers are sent to the First World War. This was first time Australians had fought under the Australian flag, as opposed to that of Britain's.

(25 APRIL)Australian soldiers land at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey on 25 April.

Regimental number 71 Religion Salvation Army Occupation Plasterer Address Healesville, Victoria, Australia Marital status Single Age at embarkation 24 Next of kin Father, Oliver Potts, Healesville, Victoria, Australia Enlistment date 31 January 1916 Rank on enlistment Private Unit name 37th Battalion, Headquarters AWM Embarkation Roll number 23/54/1 Embarkation details Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on board HMAT A34 Persic on 3 June 1916 Rank from Nominal Roll Private Unit from Nominal Roll 3rd Machine Gun Battalion Fate Returned to Australia 11 May 1919

The Battle of Messines 1917 Launched on 7 June 1917, the Messine offensive was designed to force the German enemy to withdraw from the main battlefront of Vimy – Arras.” The Battle exemplified tactical success through careful planning and overwhelming firepower. The primary objective was the strategically important Wyschaete-Messines Ridge, the high ground south of Ypres. The Germans used this ridge as a salient into the British lines, building their defence along its 10 mile length. Winning this ground was essential for the Allies to launch a larger campaign planned for east of Ypres. General Sir Herbert Plumer’s Second Army was chosen for the task, with three Corps allotted to secure the objective. Australian involvement came under Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Godley’s II Anzac Corps (25th British, 3rd Australian, and the New Zealand Division) which was to capture the village of Messines and advance to the flat ground beyond. The 4th Australian Division was reinforcement for II Anzac for the attack and was to complete the second phase of consolidation. Plumer’s reputation was one of caution and thoroughness in every aspect of operational planning and training. Battle plans were drawn from mid-March 1917, using large models so troops could familiarise themselves with the terrain and their objectives. The 3rd Australian Division, commanded by Major General John Monash, was the last of the Australian Infantry Divisions to join the front line in December 1916. The II Anzac Corps formed part of a 12 division attack; supported by 1,500 field guns and 700 heavy guns; relying on photographs of the enemy’s defensive positions taken by the Royal Flying Corps. For two years Australian, British and Canadian miners had engaged in subterranean warfare digging an intricate tunnel system under the enemy’s front line. The Allies used these tunnels to further tactical advantage, packing massive charges of the explosive ammonal to obliterate enemy defences. The main Australian effort was at Hill 60 where Tunnelling Companies worked for months, reinforcing and protecting the large mines in its region. The professionalism and skill of all the Allies was demonstrated by the Germans’ inability to locate mines. The attack, codenamed ‘Magnum Opus’, was set for 7 June 1917 with ‘Zero’ hour at 3:10am. A seven day preliminary bombardment was conducted to put pressure on the enemy during the days leading up to the infantry assault. Battalions were brought forward from their billets in Pont de Nieppe to the farms around the south and west of Ploegsteert Wood. Raiding parties regularly captured enemy prisoners to extract vital intelligence on German preparedness for an attack. Battalion working parties prepared for the impending battle, digging assembly or communication trenches, stockpiling shells (gas, shrapnel, High Explosive and mortar) and assisting in the bringing up of supplies to forward positions. The Germans were aware of the impending offensive, but it was coincidence that they shelled the Wood with gas while attacking troops were forming. At 11pm on 6 June, the 3rd Division was subjected to a gas attack, causing between 500 and 2000 casualties. Every German gun seemed to be pouring gas shells over, and the air was full of the whine peculiar to the aerial flight of a gas-shell. They burst all round the columns, and a number of men were killed or wounded by flying nose-caps. Occasionally the monotonous whine and pop of impact was relieved by a high explosive or an incendiary shell, and the casualties were fairly heavy. The remainder of the approach march was like a nightmare. The actual wearing of a small box-respirator is a physical discomfort at any time, but on a hot dark night for men loaded with ammunition, arms, and equipment, it is a severe strain. Wounded and gassed men were falling out, and officers and non-commissioned officers were continually removing their respirators to give orders and to keep their platoons together. A shell would burst in a platoon, the dead and wounded would fall, and the rest of the platoon would pull themselves together and move on, for above everything was the fixed determination to be in position at the Zero hour, and the realisation that this terrible gassing, if it prevented our arrival on time, might easily result in the failure of the whole operation. Messines was the first time Australians and New Zealanders had fought side by side since the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. The 3rd Division’s attacking front line stretched from St Yves to La Petite Douve Farm. They were to capture the ground to the east of Messines village all the way to the final Green Line objective. The 10th Brigade was on the left of 3rd Division’s front (alongside the New Zealand Division) and the 9th Brigade on the right, forming the southernmost flank of the great Messines offensive. The 10th Brigade was tasked with fording the La Douve River. Bridges were constructed to reach the enemy’s front line. The New Zealand Division was tasked with the capture of Messines and onwards until the Black Line was reached, whereupon the 4th Division passed through them up to the final objective of the Green Line. At 3:09am, eyes peered nervously through the darkness at watches as the final seconds ticked down. Along the front line, men waited anxiously for the subterranean cataclysm that signalled battle had commenced. At 3:10am on 7 June 1917, the detonator switches were triggered. The earth erupted into pillars of fire and earth, instantly obliterating the thousands of German troops above them.

Hotels are forced to close at 6 p.m., leading to the beginning of the 'six o'clock swill'

Second referendum on conscription is rejected. Transcontinental railway linking Adelaide to Perth is completed.

(08 AUG) Battle of Amiens

Plasterer

Prime Minister Billy Hughes signs Treaty of Versailles: the first signing of an international treaty by Australia. Australia obtains League of Nations mandate over German New Guinea.

The airline Qantas is founded

Edith Cowan becomes the first woman elected to an Australian parliament

The Smith Family charity is founded in Sydney

Vegemite is first produced

Plasterer

The first Miss Australia contest is held

The tenth parliament is formally opened in Canberra, finalising the move to the new capital

Bert Hinkler makes the first successful flight from Britain to Australia, and Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first flight from the United States to Australia. The Shrine of Remembrance is built.

Western Australia celebrates its centenary

Batsman Don Bradman scores a record 452 not out in one cricket innings

Plasterer

Sir Douglas Mawson charts 4,000 miles of Antarctic coastline and claims 42% of the icy mass for Australia

The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens

Western Australia votes at a rerefendum to secede from the Commonwealth, but the vote is ignored by both the Commonwealth and British governments

Plasterer

The last Thylacine dies

The radio series Dad and Dave begins

Sydney hosts the Empire Games, the forerunner to the Commonwealth Games

(April) Prime Minister Lyons dies in office and is replaced by Robert Menzies and the first Menzies Government

A team of scientists, under Howard Florey, develops penicillin

3 Divisions of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force join operations in the Mediterranean. After initial successes against Italy, 2nd AIF suffered defeat against the Germans in Greece, Crete, and North Africa.

Feb, Fall of Singapore. 15,000 Australians become Prisoners of War of the Japanese

Australia wins its first Oscar, with cinematographer Damien Parer honoured for Kokoda Front Line! documentary.

Cowra breakout, mass escape of Japanese prisoners of war occurs in NSW.

the Liberal Party of Australia is established with Robert Menzies as its first leader.

Minister for Immigration Arthur Calwell introduces the major post-war immigration scheme

Minister for External Affairs, Dr. H.V. Evatt is elected President of the United Nations General Assembly.

Construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme begins

1950-53 - Australian troops are sent to the Korean War to assist South Korea.

Australia signs the ANZUS treaty with the United States and New Zealand

First nuclear test conducted in Australian territory by the United Kingdom off the coast of Western Australia.

Nil

Elizabeth II and Prince Philip make a royal visit; the Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov defects, leading to the Petrov Affair and another split in the Labor Party

Democratic Labor Party splits from Australian Labor Party over concerns of Communist influence in the labour movement

Television in Australia is launched.

The song 'Wild One' makes Johnny O'Keefe the first Australian rock'n'roller to reach the national charts.