Commonwealth of Australia

State · 1905–2026 CE · at its largest around 1945 CE

Australia grew into a prosperous democracy known for its egalitarian 'fair go' ethos, its beaches and its love of sport, and it pioneered votes for women. Its story also includes the White Australia policy and the dispossession of Aboriginal peoples, whose cultures are among the oldest on Earth.

Its battles, in Battle View

Landing at Anzac Cove (1915 CE)

On its lands while it lasted

White Australia policy (1901–1973 CE): Racially restrictive immigration policies begun with the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 and progressively dismantled between 1949 and 1973.
Port Vila (c. 1907 CE): Capital of New Hebrides (1907–1980), Vanuatu (1983–today).
Stolen Generations (c. 1910–1970 CE): Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children removed from their families by Australian government agencies and churches, mostly between about 1910 and the 1970s.
Amelia Earhart’s round-the-world flight attempt (1937 CE): Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan flew eastward from Oakland via South America, Africa, India and Southeast Asia to Lae in New Guinea, about 35,000 km, before setting out on the long leg to Howland Island.
Guadalcanal campaign (1942–1943 CE): Six-month Allied campaign from August 1942 to February 1943 on Guadalcanal, the first major Allied offensive against Japan.
Battle of the Coral Sea (1942 CE): May 1942 naval battle between Japan and the US and Australia, the first in which aircraft carriers engaged and the opposing ships never sighted each other.
Bombing of Darwin (1942 CE): Japanese air raids on Darwin on 19 February 1942, the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia.
Kokoda Track campaign (1942 CE): Australian forces halted a Japanese overland advance on Port Moresby across the Owen Stanley Range between July and November 1942.
British nuclear tests at Maralinga (1956–1963 CE): Seven British atomic tests and many minor trials in South Australia that contaminated the traditional lands of the Maralinga Tjarutja people.
1967 Australian referendum (1967 CE): Over 90 percent of voters approved amending the constitution so that Aboriginal people would be counted in the census and the Commonwealth could make laws for them.
Papunya Tula painting (1971 CE): At Papunya in Central Australia, Western Desert men began painting their Dreaming stories on a school wall and then on boards and canvas. The movement brought Aboriginal art to the world.
Sydney Opera House (1973 CE): Performing arts centre designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon and opened in 1973, one of the most recognisable buildings of the 20th century.
Mungo Man discovered (1974 CE): Remains of an Aboriginal man about 40,000 years old found at Lake Mungo by Jim Bowler in 1974, among the oldest human remains in Australia.
Indonesian occupation of East Timor (1975–1999 CE): Indonesia invaded and annexed East Timor in 1975; the occupation caused more than 100,000 deaths, and East Timor voted for independence in 1999.
Honiara (c. 1979 CE): Capital of Solomon Islands (1979–today).