15th century
| 1420—60 | Prince Henry of Portugal develops the caravel as a sea-going vessel, improves navigation and begins sponsoring sea voyages to Africa and into the Atlantic to find and colonise the Azores and Cape Verde islands. |
| 1488 | Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz rounds southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. |
| 1492 | Christopher Columbus sails west from Spain, discovering the West Indies. |
| 1493 | Papal decree gives Spain the right to new lands west of a line drawn pole to pole through the Atlantic Ocean. |
| 1494 | Treaty of Tordesillas gives Spain the right to new land discovered to the west of a meridian 390 miles west of the Cape Verde islands; Portugal has all new lands on the other side of this line. |
| 1497 | Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sails to India via the Cape. English begin looking for a Northwest Passage into the |
| Pacific via Canada—John Cabot sent by Henry VII. |
16th century
| 1500 | Pedro Alvares Cabral claims Brazil for Portugal, having found it en route to India. |
| 1510 | Portuguese seize Goa. |
| 1511 | Portuguese seize the Moluccas. |
| 1513 | Vasco Nunez de Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama and claims the Pacific Ocean for Spain. |
| 1520 | The Portuguese have established settlements in the Persian Gulf, India and Indonesia, and trade bases in China and Japan. |
| Ferdinand Magellan enters the Pacific via the Straits of Magellan, finds the Philippines and is killed there in a civil war. | |
| 1521–23 | Portuguese sailor Cristovao de Mendonca reputed to have explored the east and south coast of Australia in three caravels, one of which is wrecked near Warrnambool, Victoria. |
| 1522 | Juan Sebastian Elcano brings one of Magellan’s five ships, Victoria, back to Spain—the first ship to circumnavigate the world. |
| 1529 | Treaty of Zaragoza draws another meridian east of the Moluccas to delineate two halves of the Earth and divide them between Spain and Portugal. |
| 1542 | Jean Rotz map, showing Java la Grande, given to Henry VIII. |
| 1547 | The Dauphin Map shows Java la Grande. |
| 1550 | Pierre Descelier’s world map includes Java la Grande. |
| 1565 | Spanish colonise the Philippines. |
| 1567 | Spaniard Alvaro de Manana de Neira finds the Solomon Islands. |
| 1576 | English still looking for the Northwest Passage—Martin Frobisher makes first of three voyages to the Arctic. |
| 1577 | Sir Francis Drake is the first Englishman to enter the Pacific, and the first English captain to take a ship around the world. |
| 1580 | The union of Spain and Portugal begins. |
| 1583 | Englishman Humphrey Gilbert looks for the North-west Passage and claims Newfoundland for Britain. |
| 1586 | English still looking for the Northwest Passage—John Davis reaches Baffin Land. |
| 1594 | Spain closes port of Lisbon to the Dutch, denying them access to the spice trade. |
| 1595 | Cornelius Houtman pilots four Dutch ships to the East Indies. |
| 1598 | Dutch established at Java. |
17th century
| 1600 | English East India Company formed (becomes British East India Co in 1707). |
| 1602 | Dutch East India Company formed. |
| 1606 | Pedro Fernandes de Queiros finds Vanuatu’s largest island; thinks it is Terra Australis and names it Austrialia del Espiritu Santo in honour of the Spanish king’s Austrian connection. |
| Dutch captain Willem Janszoon in Duyfken explores the Gulf of Carpentaria, thinking it’s New Guinea. | |
| Luis Vaez de Torres continues Queiros’ explorations and sails through the Strait named after him, circumnavigates New Guinea and claims it for Spain. | |
| 1611 | Dutch admiral Hendrik Brouwer sails south from Africa, then east, then north to the Indies, shaving six months off the trip. |
| 1613 | Dutch East India Company orders sea captains to take the ‘Brouwer route’ and it becomes the standard Dutch route. |
| 1616 | Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog lands on the Western Australian coast. |
| 1617 | The Dutch and English East India companies sign a friendship pact. |
| 1618 | Willem Janszoon explores Australia’s North West Cape, assuming it’s an island. |
| 1622 | The first English ship to sight Australia, Tryall, is wrecked on rocks off the west coast. |
| 1627 | Dutchman Pieter Nuyts explores Australia’s southwest coast as far as Ceduna and has charts made. |
| 1629 | Dutch East India Company ship Batavia wrecked on Abrolhos Islands off Western Australia. |
| 1636 | Anthony Van Diemen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, encourages exploration to the south. |
| 1642 | Dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovers Van Diemen’s Land and New Zealand. |
| 1644 | Tasman explores the Gulf of Carpentaria. |
| 1652–74 | Anglo–Dutch Wars. |
| 1656 | Gilt Dragon wrecked on reef 100 km north of modern-day Perth. |
| 1688 | English explorer William Dampier repairs the Cygnet on northwest Australian coast. |
| 1689 | Dutchman William of Orange becomes William III of England. |
| 1699 | Dampier sent to explore Australia’s east coast in Roebuck; lands at Shark’s Bay and maps coast to Roebuck Bay, then explores islands to north. |
18th century
| 1750s | British Navy trials copper sheathing on ships. |
| 1755 | Huge earthquake and tsunami destroy Lisbon and the Portuguese archive of the Indies. |
| 1768 | Captain James Cook’s Endeavour voyage to the Pacific. |
| 1769 | British watchmaker Larcum Kendall builds the marine chronometer K1, from clocks designed and created by John Harrison. |
| 1770 | Cook finds and maps east coast of Australia and claims it for Britain. |
| 1772 | Cook’s Resolution voyage to the Antarctic Circle. |
| 1774 | Cook finds Norfolk Island. |
| 1775 | American War of Independence begins. |
| 1778 | Franco–American Alliance; France at war with Britain. |
| 1779 | Spain enters war against Britain as ally of France and America. |
| Joseph Banks suggests a convict settlement at Botany Bay. | |
| 1780–84 | Fourth Anglo–Dutch War. |
| 1781 | Entire British fleet copper-sheathed. |
| 1782 | End of the American War of Independence. |
| 1783 | Problems with copper sheathing become apparent as iron bolts corrode through electrolytic reaction—leaks appear. |
| James Matra’s plan of colonisation in New South Wales. | |
| 1785 | Sir George Young’s plan of colonisation. |
| 1786 | Decision to found a settlement at Botany Bay. |
| 1788 | Sydney founded by the First Fleet. |
| French navigator Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de La Perouse in Botany Bay, January to March. | |
| Norfolk Island settled. | |
| 1788–89 | HMS Sirius circumnavigates the world through the southern oceans to bring supplies from Cape Town to Sydney. |
| 1789 | Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on William Bligh’s Bounty. |
| 1790 | HMS Sirius wrecked on a reef at Norfolk Island. |
| 1791 | Convicts Mary and William Bryant steal a government fishing boat and escape from Sydney’s Port Jackson to Timor with two babies and seven other convicts. |
| Beacon erected near The Gap along the Sydney coast. | |
| 1792 | Bruni D’Entrecasteaux and his French expedition explore Tasmania. |
| 1795–96 | George Bass and Matthew Flinders make local voyages in Tom Thumb from Port Jackson. |
| 1798 | Bass discovers Bass Strait and Western Port, and finds escaped convicts living on island off Australia’s south coast. |
| Bass and Flinders circumnavigate Tasmania in the sloop Norfolk, built on Norfolk Island. |
19th century
| 1801 | Flinders sets off in Investigator to circumnavigate and map Australia. |
| 1802 | John Murray discovers Port Phillip. |
| Flinders meets Nicolas Baudin’s French expedition in | |
| Encounter Bay, South Australia. | |
| 1803 | Hobart established. |
| Flinders circumnavigates Australia; he is shipwrecked as a passenger on Porpoise when returning to England, and is imprisoned in Mauritius until 1810. | |
| 1806 | Convicts and crew seize the brig Venus at Port Dalrymple, Tasmania, and sail to New Zealand. |
| 1814 | Norfolk Island abandoned. |
| 1816 | Escaped convicts hijack the brig Trial from Sydney Harbour; it is wrecked at Trial Bay, New South Wales. |
| 1818 | Macquarie Lighthouse built at The Gap, near Sydney Heads, by Francis Greenway. |
| 1824 | Norfolk Island becomes the place of worst punishment for British convicts. |
| 1826 | Captain Peter Dillon finds remains of La Perouse’s expedition on Vanikoro Island. |
| Dumont D’Urville sails the Astrolabe into Western Port. | |
| 1828 | D’Urville salvages La Perouse items from Vanikoro. |
| 1829 | Britain claims Western Australia (Swan River Settlement), thereby claiming all Australia. |
| First immigrants to Swan River. | |
| Convicts seize the brig Cyprus in Recherche Bay, Tasmania, and sail to China. | |
| 1834 | Convicts seize the brig Frederick from Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania, and escape to Chile. |
| 1836 | ‘Mahogany ship’ first seen by European settlers near Warrnambool. |
| 1845 | Migrant ship Cataraqui wrecked on King Island: 400 dead. |
| 1850 | Lighthouses established in Bass Strait. |
| Western Australia becomes a penal colony. | |
| Regular coastal trade by sail and steam becomes standard mode of transport around Australia. | |
| 1855 | Convict transportation to Norfolk Island ceases. |
| 1856 | Descendants of Bounty mutineers gifted Norfolk Island by Queen Victoria. |
| 1857 | Dunbar wrecked at The Gap: 121 dead; one survivor. Catherine Adamson wrecked just inside Sydney Heads: 21 dead. |
| 1858 | Hornby Lighthouse built at South Head, and Sydney Harbour operations modernised |
| 1861 | A racehorse called Archer travels to Melbourne by steamship and wins the first Melbourne Cup. |
| 1876 | The Catalpa rescues Fenian prisoners from Fremantle and takes them to the US. |
| Georgette wrecked near Margaret River; 16-year-old Grace Bussell and Aboriginal stockman Sam Isaacs save many lives. | |
| 1878 | Loch Ard wrecked near Port Campbell, Victoria. |
| 1880 | Last confirmed sightings of the ‘mahogany ship’. |
| 1890 | Robert Louis Stevenson visits Sydney on a Janet Nichol voyage. |
| 1895 | Mark Twain visits Australia on a sea voyage from Canada. |
| 1899 | Banjo Paterson leaves for the Boer War on the horse transport troopship SS Kent. |
20th century
| 1902 | Banjo Paterson dives from a pearl lugger in Queensland. |
| 1941—44 | Japanese submarines and aircraft carriers attack Australia and sink more than 50 ships. |
| 1945 | Voyage of Leaside Park from Liverpool to Fremantle. |
| 1947–82 | Massive assisted migration programs to Australia. |
| 1960s | With new roads and air travel, the era of coastal shipping as Australia’s main form of internal transport ends. |
| 1970s | Arrival of ‘boat people’ in aftermath of Vietnam War. |
| 1980 | ‘First Australian Symposium on the Mahogany Ship’ and possible early Portuguese discovery of Australia. |
| 1987 | Second symposium on the ‘mahogany ship’ held. |
21st century
| 2000 to present | Public debate and paranoia over sea-borne illegal immigration and ‘people smuggling’ from war zones in Asia and the Middle East. |
| Refugee detention centres established on Christmas Island and Nauru. | |
| 2001 | The ‘Tampa incident’ sparks fierce political debate and international condemnation of Australia’s refugee policy. |
| 2005 | Third symposium on the ‘mahogany ship’ held. |
