Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware this website contains images, voices and names of people who have died.

Defining Moments

Learn about the events, people and ideas that have shaped and defined Australia.

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Defining moment
The Battlers for Kelly’s Bush, 1975. 1971

First green bans

Defining moment
A woman is sitting in a chair with a child in her lap. A female Census staff member is smiling at the child with a pen and log book in her lap. 1971

First Nations peoples counted in Census

Defining moment
Equal pay protest, Melbourne Town Hall, 20 February 1969. 1972

Equal pay for women

Defining moment
The original Aboriginal Tent Embassy on Australia Day, 26 January 1972. L-R: Michael Anderson, Billie Craigie, Bert Williams and Tony Coorey. 1972

Aboriginal Tent Embassy established

Defining moment
Coral outcrop on Flynn Reef, off the coast of Cairns on the Great Barrier Reef. 1975

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park created

Defining moment
1900s_1976_AboriginalLandRightsAct_1 1976

Aboriginal Land Rights Act

Defining moment
Vietnamese refugees arriving in Darwin Harbour. 1976

First arrival of Vietnamese refugees by boat

Defining moment
A group of protesters with hiking gear squatting or standing on a dirt road. They are holding the Australian flag and various banners, one that reads 'NO DAMS'. 1982

Franklin Dam protests

Defining moment
Elizabeth Reid, Australia’s first advisor on women’s affairs, with Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, 1973. 1984

Sex Discrimination Act

Defining moment
Eddie Koiki Mabo at Las, on Mer (Murray Island), 1989. 1992

Mabo decision

Defining moment
Full length colour photo of an First Nations AFL player standing on the field, lifting up his jumper with one hand and pointing at his belly with the other. He has a determined and defiant expression on his face. 1993

Nicky Winmar’s stand

Defining moment
Cathy Freeman sprinting ahead of other athletes on a race track. 2000

Cathy Freeman at the Sydney Olympics

Defining moment
Sorry sky writing over Sydney Harbour. 2008

National apology to the Stolen Generations

Defining moment
530 children under the age of 14 arrive at Port Melbourne aboard the Fairsea from the United Kingdom, 1956. 2009

National apology to ‘Forgotten Australians’ and former child migrants

Defining moment
Tae Rak (Lake Condah). 2019

Budj Bim Cultural Landscape given World Heritage status