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| 1861–62 |
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| John McDouall Stuart, on his third attempt to cross the continent from Adelaide to Port Darwin, succeeded. | 1 |
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| 1862, June 15 |
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| Bushrangers under Frank Gardiner conducted the most valuable stagecoach robbery in history, at Eugowra Rocks, New South Wales. | 2 |
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| 1863, July 6 |
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| Administration of the Northern Territory (central as well as northern Australia), which, since the separation of Queensland, was no longer contiguous to New South Wales, was assigned to South Australia, where there was high hope of fertile territory. | 3 |
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| 1864 |
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| Beginning of the importation of native (Kanaka) laborers into Queensland from the Solomons and other islands. The system was intended to meet the labor shortage on the sugar plantations. Though officially a system of contract labor, it soon degenerated into something closely akin to slave raiding, until regulated, to some extent, by the government. | 4 |
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| 1866 |
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| The Victoria Parliament, influenced by the writing of David Syme, an influential Melbourne editor, gave up free trade and introduced protection. The measure led to a great constitutional conflict between the assembly and the council, which was dominated by the squatter oligarchy. Similar struggles continued until finally the farmer and industrial labor groups secured control of the political situation. The other colonies followed the example of Victoria in adopting protection, with the sole exception of New South Wales, which contented itself with a tariff for revenue only. | 5 |
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| 1867 |
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| The Public Schools Act in New South Wales laid the basis for the modern system of compulsory education for the young. | 6 |
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| 1868, Jan. 10 |
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| The last convicts were landed in Western Australia, which, since 1850, had received about 9,500. Thus ended the transportation system to any part of the continent. | 7 |
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| 1870, Sept. 6 |
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| The British government withdrew imperial forces from Australia, after which the different colonies established militia systems of their own. | 8 |
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| 1872, Aug. 2 |
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| Opening of the telegraph line across the continent from Adelaide to Port Darwin, which in Oct. was reconnected with Java and so with the lines to India and Europe. | 9 |
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| 1873 |
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| Introduction of compulsory, secular schooling in Victoria. At the same time the Victoria government passed the first factory act, aimed at protection of children and women and at the maintenance of sanitary and safe working conditions. This pioneer move was improved upon in 1884 and was imitated by the other colonies. | 10 |
| The New Guinea problem. Already in 1867 the New South Wales government had appealed to London for action in the non-Dutch part of New Guinea, but the government had turned a deaf ear. In 1873 Capt. John Moresby raised the British flag on the south coast, but the home government repudiated the territorial claim implied. | 11 |
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| 1874 |
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| Crossing of the western half of the continent by John Forrest, who made his way from the Murchison River across the desert to the newly constructed south-north telegraph line and thence to Adelaide. | 12 |
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| 1878 |
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| The Queensland government annexed the islands in Torres Strait. | 13 |
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