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This Timeline displays the events associated with selected family ancestors interspersed with notable historic events of the time. This Timeline is designed to emphasis the following:- 1. Australia is a young country it is only 215 years since European settlement. 2. The remoteness of the colony from England, and the slow development of communication by sailing ship, steam driven ships, telegraph, telephone, airplane and television. 3. The effect of the convict transportation system. 4. The large increase in migration caused by the discovery of gold. 5. It will show you where the arrival of your ancestors fits into the development of the country. |
| 1600 | |
| 1606 | Willem Jansz the first European know to have landed on the Australian coast, near the present site of Weipa, Qld. |
| 1616 | Dirk Hartog the first European know to have landed on the Western Australian coast. |
| 1620 Nov |
The Mayflower carrying the settlers who went to the New World (America) arrived off the coast of Massachusetts, USA. This entry is included in the Australian Timeline, to emphasise how recent the settlement of Australia is compared to the rest of the world. |
| 1642 Oct 24 | Abel Janz Tasman discovered Tasmania. He named it Van Diemans Land. |
| 1665 Sept 29 | George Wills married Susanna Pethybridge in Lustleigh, Devon, England. They had at least eight descendants who migrated to Australia during the 1800's. |
| 1700 | |
| 1770 April 20 | Captain Cook sighted Point Hicks, NSW. Australia |
| 1788 Jan | The First Fleet arrived and Sydney was settled. |
| 1790 June | The Second Fleet arrived. |
| 1791 July - Sep | The Third Fleet arrived. |
| 1798 October | Bass & Flinders circumnavigated Tasmania. |
| 1799 July | Edward Spencer Wills arrived in Sydney |
| 1800 | |
| 1801 - 1803 | Matthew Flinders circumnavigated Australia. |
| 1803 August | Lieutenant Bowen settled at Risdon, Tasmania. The following year the settlement moved to Sullivans Cove and became Hobart. |
| 1813 | The Blue Mountains were crossed. |
| 1822 c. | Charles Wills - A note on a family tree states "Went to Australia c 1822." |
| 1824 Sept | A penal settlement was established in Moreton Bay, Qld. |
| 1829 June | Captain James Stirling arrived as Lieutenant-Governor of the Swan River, WA colony, with the first settlers. |
| 1832 | Ann Wills came to Australia in convict transportation accompanied by her son, John Wills age 8 years. |
| 1835 June | John Batman 'bought' some land near Melbourne and in August 1835 he founded Port Phillip. |
| 1836 Dec 19 | Thomas Wentworth Wills was born in Sydney, NSW. He was sent to Rugby School in England at 14 years of age to finish his education. Upon his return to Australia he was very prominent in cricket and was the founder of the Australian Rules Football code. |
| 1836 Dec 28 | The first settlers arrived in South Australia. |
| 1840 | After 1840 large-scale transportation of convicts to NSW was abolished |
| 1841 Jan. 19 | Martin Wills and his wife Elizabeth arrived in Sydney on the ship "Alfred" accompanied by their children Thomas, Mary, James and Sarah. |
| 1841 March 28 | Eliza Ann Blacker arrived in Sydney with her parents William and Sarah Blacker and their other nine children. aboard the ship "Margaret". Eliza married Thomas Henry Wills on 9 October 1841. |
| 1841 August 27 | Henry Wills arrived at Port Jackson on the ship "William Metcalfe" |
| 1846 Jan 12 | The first authentic discovery of gold in South Australia was near Castambul. The 12 ounce nugget was dug up by J. Richards. |
| 1851 April 6 | The first official finding of gold in Australia was by Edward Hargraves at Lewis Ponds, Ophir (near Bathurst, NSW). It triggered off Australia's gold rush. |
| 1851 June 20 | James Esmond was the first to register a gold claim in Victoria with a 51 ounce nugget found at Clunes. |
| 1851 Aug - Dec | Gold was found at Golden Point, Ballarat & Castlemaine, Victoria. |
| 1852 Feb 11 | The first registered gold strike in Tasmania was by Charles Gould. It was located at Tullochgoram & weighed 2lb 6ozs. |
| 1852 | John Wills and Alfred Wills arrived in Sydney on the "William & Mary". |
| 1852 Dec 17 | John William Wills and his wife Nanny arrived aboard the "Hydaspes" in Sydney with their daughters Nanny, Lucy, Jane and infant son John. |
| 1853 January 3 | William John Wills (of the Burke & Wills expedition) and his brother Thomas James Wills, arrived at Williamstown, Port Phillip. |
| 1853 May | The last consignment of convicts arrived in Tasmania. |
| 1853 August 16 | Alfred W. Wills arrived in Melbourne on board the "Lady Kennaway" with his wife Eliza and sons William and James. |
| 1853 Late | Dr William Wills followed his two sons William John Wills and Thomas James Wills to Australia. |
| 1853 Oct 25 | John Thomas (Brock) Wills arrived in Port Phillip, Vic. on the ship "Great Britain". |
| 1854 Jan 30 | Cobb & Co's first passenger coach left Melbourne for Forest Creek (now Castlemaine) and Bendigo goldfields. |
| 1854 Dec 3 | Eureka Stockade uprising at Ballarat goldfields. |
| 1854 Dec 18 | Thomas Wills with his wife Emma and son Edward, arrived in Melbourne on the "Nabob". His sister Agnes Wills also came out on the same journey. |
| 1855 Feb 13 | Charles Wills arrived at Hobart Town, Tas. |
| 1856 | Elizabeth (nee Wills) Hosking arrived 1856 at Port Adelaide SA on the "Alquis". |
| 1857 | Thomas Wills arrived on the "Herefordshire" with Hannah, Henry, Pamela, Pamber or Emma. |
| 1857 Jan 27 | Thomas Wills & his wife Sarah arrived at Hobart Town on the "Great Tasmania". |
| 1857 April 19 | John Wills and Joseph Wills arrived in Melbourne aboard the "Great Britain". Also on board were Robert Wills and his wife Mary Wills. Also Ellen Newman (nee Wills). |
| 1857 Sept. 2 | Edward and Ann Thompson (nee Wills) arrived in Portland, Vic. on the "British Empire". Their children were Mary , Agnes, Edward, Richard, Anthony Joseph, Ann, Thomas and Eleanor. |
| 1859 Sept. 7 | Sarah Williams (nee Wills), arrived in Hobart on the "City of Hobart" after arriving in Melbourne aboard "The Morning Light". With her was her husband William Williams their son Thomas James Williams and daughter Maude (or Merle). |
| 1860 | The Victorian Exploring Expedition later known as the Burke & Wills expedition left Melbourne. |
| 1860 c. | John Wills arrived in Victoria, Australia |
| 1861 June | Robert O'Hara Burke, William John Wills and Charles Grey died on the return journey from the Gulf of Carpentaria after crossing the continent from south to north. |
| 1865 June 28 | H.F.Litchfield was the first to strike gold in the Northern Territory. A 52 ounce nugget found in the Finniss River, Tumbling Waters area. |
| 1867 Dec 30 | The 906 oz nugget dug up in Gympie, Queensland by Alex Meyer was the first recorded in that State. |
| 1868 Jan 9 | The last consignment of convicts arrived in Western Australia, thus ending the Transportation System which had brought 160,000 convicts to Australia in the period 1788 to 1868. |
| 1869 Oct | Police Magistrate Wills was the first to sit in judgement of Ned Kelly for highway robbery. |
| 1879 | George Wills, arrived in Sydney with his wife Emily per the "Clyde". |
| 1880 June 28 | The first telephone exchange was opened in Melbourne. |
| 1890 Jan 30 | William Thomas Wills was born. He died on 16 Nov 1960 in Box Hill, Vic. How did he travel to Australia ? |
| 1892 Sept 17 | Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Two men named Arthur Bayley & William Ford were the first in the region to register a gold nugget (59 ounce). |
| 1900 | |
| 1901 Jan 1 | The Commonwealth of Australia was inaugurated. |
| 1914 - 1918 | 1st World War |
| 1919 Dec 10 | The first flight from Britain to Australia ended when Ross and Keith Smith landed in Darwin. |
| 1930 April 30 | The first telephone call made between Australia and Britain. |
| 1932 | Sydney Harbour Bridge completed. |
| 1939 - 1945 | 2nd World War |
| 1946 Mar 25 | Thomas Charles Harvey Wills died and was buried in Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney, NSW. He was born in Willesden, UK. in 1873. How and when did he come to Australia? |
| 1973 Oct 20 | Sydney Opera House opened. |
| 1975 March | Colour television introduced to Australia. |
| 1978 July 1 | The Northern Territory was granted self-government. |
| 2000 | |
| 2005 March | This Timeline created. |