On 11 November 1975 Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and his Labor government became the first (and only) government in Australian history to be dismissed by the Governor-General. Sir John Kerr, who was earlier appointed Governor-General by Whitlam, justified his actions by arguing that the government couldn’t pass Bills, including its own Budget Bills, through the Senate. After the dismissal, an election was held and the Whitlam government was defeated. The dismissal was a controversial decision, and people still debate whether it was the correct thing for a Governor-General to do.

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Thylacine cranium

Gold cradle

An ancient midden of freshwater mussel shells at Lake Mungo

Map of the Great Dividing Range

A dingo on Fraser Island, Queensland

Pleistocene human footprints at Willandra Lakes in south-eastern Australia

‘Race to the Gold Diggings’ board game

Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851, by William Strutt, 1864

Black Thursday, engraved by Julian Rossi Ashton, 1851

Black Thursday, February, 1851, engraved by F.A. Sleap

Cataraqui shipwreck site, King Island, 1887

Diving for pearl-shell on the north-east coast

Flying dingoes, 1974, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri

Gold Washing. Fitz Roy Bar, Ophir Diggings, 1851, by George Angas

Mother whale, by Narritjin Maymuru, 1978

Mr E.H. Hargraves returning the salute of the gold miners [5th] of the ensuing May, June 1851, by T.T. Balcombe