Australia's Democratic Story

1927

First Commonwealth Parliament House opened in Canberra

Australian Loan Council established to coordinate borrowing by State and Commonwealth governments

1928

Murder of Aboriginal people at Coniston prompts Commonwealth report on conditions in the Northern Territory

Referendum to add Section 105A to the Australian Constitution successful

1929

Commonwealth constructs railway from Oodnadatta to Alice Springs and from Darwin to Birdum

1931

Sir Isaac Isaacs becomes the first Australia-born Governor-General

1932

New South Wales Governor dismisses Premier Jack Lang for defying Commonwealth ruling on repayment of overseas loans

1933

Western Australians vote to secede from the Commonwealth

Commonwealth Grants Commission established to consider applications from States for grants under Section 96 of the Constitution

Australian Antarctic Territory declared by Britain

1934

Commonwealth government refuses entry to Czechoslovakian Communist, Egon Kisch, on the basis of the Dictation Test, given in Scottish Gaelic

Secession Act passed in Western Australia, subsequently rejected by British Parliament

Constitution Act 1934 (Tas)
Guarantee of religious and civil liberty for Tasmanians

1937

Commonwealth Government refused to forward to the King a petition requesting an Aboriginal representative in the House of Representatives

1938

Sesquicentenary celebrations of British settlement of New South Wales – 'day of mourning' organised by Aboriginal people

1939

Australia joins Britain in declaration of war on Germany

1940

Australia declares war on Italy

Communist Party of Australia outlawed

Australia's first diplomatic posts set up in Washington, Tokyo and Ottawa

1941

After Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Australia declares war on Japan

1942

Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 (Cth)
Australian law comes of age

Japanese air raids on Darwin, Katherine, Townsville, Broome and Wyndham and submarine attacks in Newcastle and Sydney harbours and on shipping along eastern coastline

Commonwealth takes over income tax as wartime measure

1943

Dame Dorothy Tangney (Senate) and Dame Edith Lyons (House of Representatives) first women elected to Federal Parliament

1945

War ends; United Nations established at conference in San Francisco – feminist activist Jessie Street and eighteen men comprise Australian delegation led by Herbert Vere ('Doc') Evatt

1946

Referendum to add Section 15.xxiiiA to the Australian Constitution successful

1947

Northern Territory Legislative Council established

1948

Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 (Cth)
Announcing the birth of the Australian citizen

1950

Australian troops sent to Korean War

1951

Assisted migration arrangements with Italy, then Germany, Greece and Austria