Victor Harbor High Old Scholars
At this Time:
In 1863, a group of 67 South Sea Islanders were brought to Queensland to perform manual labour in the cotton and sugar industries. They were the first of more than 62,000 Pacific Island men, women and children who were transported to Australia over the next 40 years. Some were kidnapped, or ‘blackbirded’, others were misled.
Over the years, the Queensland government attempted to curtail their exploitation but with limited success.
In 1901, the federal government passed the Pacific Island Labourers Act, which called for the deportation of most South Sea Islanders.
1901 First Full Length Feature Film "Ned Kelly"
1902 Notepad (paper with a firm base)
1906 First Surf Rescue Reel
1910 Pipe Manufacturing
1912 Water Tank
1912 Surf Ski
1860s go to site below
Burke and Wills
Expedition
1860-1861
In the 1860s, the pearling industry began using Aboriginal divers in Western Australia rounded up and taken to sea.They went underwater with no oxygen and only minimal food as payment
First Melbourne Cup
On 7 November 1861, about 4000 people gathered at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne to watch a horserace that would become one of Australia’s most important sporting events.
Fifty-seven horses were slated to take part in the race, though only seventeen actually started. Sydney horse, Archer, trained by Etienne de Mestre, was the winner by a staggering six lengths.
Today, the Melbourne Cup is known as ‘the race that stops a nation’, drawing crowds of thousands on the first Tuesday in November every year.
Archer riden by Coutts
Melbourne Cup 1866
On 22 August 1872, the construction of the Overland Telegraph line between Adelaide and Darwin was completed. It has been described as ‘the greatest engineering feat carried out in nineteenth century Australia’.
1880s
Broken Hill
In January 1885 Phillip Charly discovered the first significant silver deposit on the Broken Hill property, a mining claim staked by Charles Rasp in 1883. The Broken Hill would eventually generate more than $100 billion.
Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (now BHP Billiton) has gone on to become the largest mining company in the world, expanding into steelworks, shipping and collieries, and greatly influencing Australia’s industrial development.
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1890s
In 1890 unionists and employer groups faced off over wages and conditions against the background of a deep economic depression across Australia.
The maritime and shearers’ strikes of 1890 and 1891 were the largest, most violent industrial actions seen in Australia, but with the government and police supporting employers both strikes failed to fulfill the unions’ objectives.
Activists realised that change for working people would only come about through combined union and political action. This led to the creation of the Australian Labor Party.
Prime Minister Ben Chifley, 1949:
