50 million years ago: Australia breaks free from the land mass that includes Antartica, and drifts north.

50,000 BC: The first Australians arrive overland from New Guinea.

12,000 BC: Tasmania and New Guinea are separated from mainland Australia as seas rises after the Ice Age.

8000 BC: Returning boomerangs are perfected and used for hunting for the first time in South Australia.

AD150: Geographer Ptolemy decides there must be an unknown southern land (terra australis incognita)

9th. Century: Seafarers from China possibly reach Australia's north coast.

1290s: Marco Polo's journal refers to a land south of Java, rich in gold and shells.

1606: Dutchman Willem Jansz, sailing east from Java, lands on the western side of Cape York Peninsula-the first verifiable European landing.

1642: Abel Tasman sees the west coast of Tasmania, names it Van Diemen's Land. Terra Australis Incognita becomes Hollandia Nova (New Holland) on maps.

1770: Captain Cook lands at Botany Bay, then sails north, charting 4,000km (2,500 miles) of coast. He names it New South Wales and claims it for England.

1773: First picture of a kangaroo seen in England.

1788: First Fleet arrives in Sydney Cove, with a cargo of convicts. First white child is born in Australia.

1793: First free immigrants arrive in Australia.

1797: Merino sheep brought from Cape of Good Hope.

1803: Publication of Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, Australia's first newspaper.

1801-3: Matthew Flinders circumnavigates Australia, proving it is a single island.

1813: Australian currency established. First crossing of the Blue Mountains.

1817: The name Australia is adopted instead of New Holland. First bank established in Sydney.

1829: Settlers land at Fremantle, and founded Perth. Colony of Western Australia founded.

1830: All Aborigines in Tasmania are rounded up and herded into reserves.

1836: Colony of South Australia established. Adelaide founded the following year.

1837: A year-old village on the Yarra River is named Melbourne, which later becomes the city of Melbourne.

1838: Myall Creek Massacre. 20 Aborigines butchered by white farmers.

1851: Southern part of New South Wales(NSW) becomes a new colony called Victoria. Gold discovered, first in eastcentral NSW, then throughout Victoria.

1854: Battle at the Eureka Stockade between state troopers and miners protesting against license fees.

1855: Van Diemen's Land changes name to Tasmania.

1859: Northern part of New South Wales becomes a new colony Queensland. European rabbits introduced near Geelong, Victoria; by 1868 they have eaten most of western Victoria.

1861: First Melbourne Cup horse race, watched by 4000 people.

1868: Transportation of convict ends.

1880: Bushranger Ned Kelley captured and hanged.

1891: Delegates from the six colonies meet in Sydney to draft constitution for Australia.

1895: Banjo Patterson writes "Waltzing Matilda".

1896: Athlete Edwin Flack represents Australia at the first modern Olympic Games.

1901 (Jan 1): Federation of the six colonies into the Commonwealth of Australia (population 3,370,000).

1901 (May): The first Commonwealth Parliament sits in Melbourne.

1914-18: 330,000 Australians serve in World war 1; 60,000 are killed, 165,000 wounded.

1915: Australian troops take a major part in the Gallipoli siege, more than 8,000 killed.

1923: Chemist Cyril Callister creates "Vegemite", Australia's future "national" food.

1927: Parliament moves from Melbourne to Canberra.

1928: Royal Flying Doctor Service founded by Rev. John Flynn in Cloncurry, Queensland.

1930: The Great Depression; 25% of Australian workforce unemployed.

1932: Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.

1939: Australia declares war on Germany in World War 2.

1941: Australia declares war on Japan in World War 2.

1945: Australian population reaches 7 million.

1950: Immigration peaks at 150,000 new arrivals.

1956: Olympic Games held in Melbourne. Launch of television in Australia.

1959: Population of Australia reaches 10 million.

1967: Aborigines granted Australian citizenship and the right to vote.

1973: Sydney Opera House completed.

1974: Darwin flattened by cyclone Tracy.

1983: The yacht Australia II win the America's Cup yacht race after being held for 150 years by the Americans.

1985: Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and the surrounding desert are returned to Aboriginal owners.

1986: Australian film "Crocodile Dundee" grosses $116 million in USA.

1988: Australia celebrates it's Bicentennial (200) year. Queen Elizabeth II opens new parliament house in Canberra.

1990: Population of Australia reaches 17 million.

1995: Australians protest strongly over French nuclear testing in the South Pacific.

1996: Local gunman massacres 35 at Port Arthur, Tasmania.

1999: Failed vote to change Australia into a republic without links to the England monarchy.

2000: Sydney hosts the hugely successful Olympic Games 2000, the first in the new millenium and considered the best ever.