Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/18



Year 1860.—Stuart reaches from South Australia, the central point of Australia (Central Mount Stuart), and passes on almost to the opposite sea. He, in turn, dispels the notion of a great central desert.

1861.—Burke and Wills, from Victoria, reach the Gulf of Carpentaria, thus first crossing Australia from sea to sea.

1862.—Stuart, McKinlay, and Landsborough all accomplish this year the expedition across Australia from sea to sea.

SETTLEMENT. 1788.—Foundation of the colony of New South Wales, 26th January, when Sydney was founded.

1793.—Introduction of the fine-woolled Merino sheep by Mr. John McArthur, a step of unsurpassed importance to the whole of Australia.

1829.—Foundation of the colony of West Australia.

1835.—The Port Phillip District (afterwards the colony of Victoria) colonized from Tasmania; and the site of Melbourne, the capital, occupied.

1836.—Foundation of the colony of South Australia.

1840.—Cessation of transportation to New South Wales. (The colony had been founded in 1788 as a penal settlement to the mother country.)

1843.—Representative political institutions conferred upon the Australian colonies (an Assembly consisting of one third nominees of the Governor, who is always nominated by the Crown, and of two-thirds elected by the colonists.

1850.—West Australia made a penal, settlement of the mother country.

1851.—Discovery of the Australian Gold Fields by Hargreaves, 12th February. Their existence was inferred, on scientific grounds, seven years previously by Sir R. I. Murchison.

1851.—The colony of Victoria established by separation of the district of Port Phillip from New South Wales, 1st July.

1851.—Ballarat, the earliest known of the great gold fields of Victoria, discovered in September.

1855.—Branch of the Royal Mint established at Sydney; came into operation on 13th May.

1855.—Responsible self-government conceded to the Australian colonies, West Australia excepted for the present. (Government by ministries with ministerial responsibility, as in the Home Government.)

1859.—The colony of Queensland established, by separation of the Moreton Bay District from New South Wales, December.