Something new: STEAM activities for the Covid-19 lockdown!

Yes, the Playwiths have been converted into a book.

The Playwiths began in about 1995, and a couple of years back, I was urged to make a book of them.

I did, and my friends liked what they saw, but the publishers didn't. Frightening economic times, they said.

Well, I went ahead and did it in three forms:

a lo-res freeby PDF with very relaxed copyright;
a high-res low-price commercial PDF for the Kindle;
a paper and ink book from Amazon (tax laws won't let it into Australia);
did I say three? I lied. The paper version is half-tone, but soon there'll be a full colour version.

But don't worry, this web version stays here anyhow.

Full details of Playwiths, the book here

Australian science, technology and invention timeline 2.24

Find out more about GEM
This timeline began as a starting point for people looking for terms and names to use in Web searches relating to the history of Australian science and technology, and only later acquired links to relevant pages for some of these. Suggestions for additions, corrections and such are welcome — but if possible, please provide a year — suggestions which lack a year are far more likely to miss out on a place. The email address that I supply here will not reach me unless you put my first name at the front. The rest is macinnis@ozemail.com.au -- which is a spam dump.

I particularly solicit suggestions for links to Web sites covering individual items here. Links are being slowly added from the top, but I am happy to jump ahead.

This list does not feature Aboriginal invention, but that is only because there are no firm dates available for anything much before 1788. That does not mean there has not been a great deal of invention from Australia's original custodians, both back when my ancestors wore a coat of blue paint to keep them warm, and also more recently.

Suitable topics for study include the aerodynamics of the boomerang, the use of gums in the hafting of axes and spears, medical uses of plants, the fine working of stone with a kangaroo tooth, and the construction of threads and nets, boats, and the generation of fire. Also, find out how quickly Aboriginal people discovered glass as a material with many uses -- but that was mainly after 1788.

The last thing I want is for somebody with a white blindfold view of history (you point and I'll whistle) to gain comfort from what is not seen here, or for decent people to be offended by that same absence. It wasn't the technology that was missing, just the written record with established dates.

Before 1800

1629	Francis Pelsaert reports that the young of marsupials are born on the teat in the mother's pouch.
1770	Botanists Daniel Solander and Joseph Banks, later president of the Royal Society, Britain’s principal scientific body, visit eastern Australia with Lieutenant James Cook. See the Banks papers at the State Library of NSW.
1788	Elijah Leeks uses local clay to commence a pottery.
1788	Lieutenant William Dawes arrives with First Fleet and sets up first observatory.
1790	Surgeon John White publishes his Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, arguably the first Australian work of natural history.
1795	The colony of New South Wales becomes self-sufficient in grain.
1797	George Bass reports the presence of coal at Coalcliff, NSW.
1797	John Shortland finds coal deposits near Newcastle.
1797	The first grape vines were planted in New South Wales.
1797	The merino sheep is introduced into Australia.
1798	English whalers, barred during war-time from Spain's South American waters, begin operations out of Sydney.
1798	George Caley starts a systematic collection of Australian plants for Sir Joseph Banks.

1800 - 1849

1800	Governor King sends eight fleeces to Sir Joseph Banks: the first Australian wool to be exported.
1801	Nicolas Baudin and his crew start a three-year hydrographic survey of the Australian coast.
1802	Botanist Robert Brown accompanies Matthew Flinders on his circumnavigation of Australia.
1803	Sir Joseph Banks asks George Caley to discover how the "Duck Bill Animal & Porcupine Ant Eater" (platypus and echidna) breed.
1804	A number of cattle in Australia were reported to have a disease which may have been 'foot and mouth'. See this link or this link.
1804	George Caley reports that the "water mole" (platypus) is a mammal that lays eggs.
1805	The first Australian-built deep-sea whaler, the 185 ton King George, is launched.
1809	Elizabeth Macarthur begins studying and developing Merino sheep for wool production. Links at the Board of Studies and at the Historic Houses Trust and also at a site from the Parramatta City Council (I think).
1816	Sydney's Botanic Gardens are established.
1816	The first American whaling vessel to visit arrives in Hobart.
1817	Sugar cane is planted at the Botanical Gardens in Sydney.
1821	Sir Thomas Brisbane arrives as governor of New South Wales, bringing two astronomical assistants with him. They promptly build an observatory at Parramatta.
1821	The Philosophical Society of Australasia is founded in Sydney; it ceases operations in 1822. Keep an eye on this Australian Science at Work link in case they add some more detail
1823	James McBrien notes the presence of gold flakes in the Fish River, NSW.
1823	The first Australian sugar crop is planted at Port Macquarie.
1823	The first Australian wine is exported.
1824	James Busby arrives in Sydney with Spanish and French grape vine cuttings.
1827	Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, grants funds for the founding of the Australian Museum in Sydney.
1828	Twofold Bay whaling station is established. See also the Eden killer whale museum.
1829	The Van Diemen's Land (Scientific) Society is established — it ceases to exist in 1831.
1831	James Dunlop returns to Australia to take charge of the observatory at Parramatta.
1831	The first steamship built in Australia, a paddlewheeler called Surprise was launched at Neutral Bay, Sydney.
1831	Thomas Mitchell finds fossils at Wellington Caves, NSW.
1833	George Bennett provides the first accurate account of marsupial reproduction.
1836	Charles Darwin visits Australia; his observations influence his theory of evolution.
1837	George Bennett is appointed secretary and curator of the Australian Museum.
1837	Sir John Franklin establishes the first lasting scientific society, the Tasmanian Society of Natural History.
1838	John Gould, ornithologist and taxonomist, arrives in Australia.
1838	The world's first prepaid mail service operates in New South Wales.
1838	Thomas Mitchell publishes Australia's first geological map, showing the Wellington Valley.
1839	Paul Strzelecki finds gold near Hartley, NSW, but is persuaded by Governor Gipps to remain silent about his find.
1839	The U. S. Exploring Expedition fleet, commanded by Charles Wilkes, arrives in Sydney with geologist James Dwight Dana on board.
1839	W. B. Clarke, clergyman and geologist, arrives in Sydney.
1840	H. M. S. Erebus, part of the British Antarctic Expedition, with botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker on board, arrives in Hobart.
1840	James Dana and W. B. Clarke jointly examine the Hunter Valley coal fields.
1840	John Gould publishes the first of 36 parts of his The Birds of Australia.
1841	Introduction of gas street-lighting in Sydney.
1842	Ludwig Leichhardt, naturalist and explorer, arrives in Sydney from Germany.
1842	The first Australian sugar refinery is established in Sydney to refine raw sugar from the Philippines.
1842	The Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science is first published.
1843	Australia has surplus sheep, which are boiled down to make tallow for export.
1843	John Ridley successfully tests his "stripper", then known as a Reaping Machine in South Australia.
1843	John Wrathall Bull successfully tests a "stripper" in South Australia.
1844	W. B. Clarke discovers gold. See also this AGSO link which gives the date as 1841: this needs to be checked.
1844	Ludwig Leichhardt sends fossil Diprotodon bones to London.
1844	The Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land for Horticulture, Botany and the Advancement of Science, later the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land, is established.
1845	John Gilbert, naturalist, is speared to death during Leichhardt's expedition to Port Essington.
1847	T. H. Huxley arrives in Sydney on board H. M. S. Rattlesnake.
1847	The first sugar cane grown in what is now Queensland.
1848	Iron smelting begins near Mittagong, NSW.
1848	The government observatory at Parramatta is closed down.

1850 - 1899

1850	Samuel Stutchbury is appointed the first geological surveyor of New South Wales.
1850	The first Australian university is founded in Sydney, with two of the first three chairs being in the sciences.
1851	William Bland proposes an 'atmotic airship', a hydrogen balloon with a steam engine.
1853	Baron Ferdinand von Mueller is appointed government botanist of Victoria.
1853	Cobb and Co. start coaching operations.
1853	Melbourne University founded.
1854	First telegraph line links Melbourne and Williamstown.
1854	The first steam railway opens in Melbourne, linking Flinders Street and Sandridge (Port Melbourne).
1855	Governor William Denison, FRS, arrives to be governor of New South Wales.
1855	James Harrison takes out a patent for his ice-making machine, the world's first mechanical refrigeration plant.
1855	The Colonial Sugar Refining Company (later CSR Ltd) is formed, with a refinery at Canterbury, Sydney (see 1842).
1856	William Scott is appointed Government Astronomer in New South Wales.
1856	Pierre Maigre is the first person to attempt to fly a lighter-than-air craft, a balloon, in Australia. He failed in the attempt, partly due to the actions of the crowd.
1856	The ballot box (now used all over the world for voting) was invented in Victoria.
1857	Baron Ferdinand von Mueller is appointed director of Melbourne Botanic Gardens which he turns into a centre for botanical research.
1857	Work commences on the Sydney Observatory.
1858	Telegraph links Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, eventually reaching Darwin in 1872.
1858	William Dean(e) is the first person to fly a lighter-than-air craft in Australia when he ascends in the balloon 'Australasian' from the Cremorne Gardens on the northern bank of the Yarra River.
1858	Austrian geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter arrives in Sydney on board the Novara, and carries out geological exploration.
1858	Sydney Observatory established.
1859	A shipment of 24 rabbits arrives at Geelong, and the rabbits are released into the wild.
1859	A telegraph cable links Victoria and Tasmania briefly, before failing.
1859	H. C. Russell takes up the post of computer at the Sydney Observatory.
1859	The first granulated sugar is produced in Brisbane.
1859	The Royal Society of Victoria is established.
1861	John Tebbutt tracks the appearance of the Great Comet from his home at Windsor, NSW.
1862	TheVictorian government orders construction of world’s largest equatorially mounted reflector telescope.
1863	Captain Louis Hope plants the first commercial sugar cane crop near Brisbane.
1863	Robert Ellery is appointed Government Astronomer in Victoria.
1863	The first indentured kanaka labourers arrive in Queensland to work on the sugar fields.
1863	The first part of Bentham and von Mueller's Flora Australiensis is published — the seventh and final part appears in 1878.
1863	The Sydney Ice Co begins selling 7-pound (3 kg) blocks of ice in Sydney.
1866	The Royal Society of New South Wales is established.
1869	A 48" cassegrain reflector telescope begins operations at Melbourne Observatory.
1869	The first centralised sugar mill is established on the north coast of New South Wales.
1870	A successful telegraph cable links Tasmania and Victoria.
1870	Richard Butcher delivers the first John Cade lecture on forensic elimination.
1870	H. C. Russell is appointed Government Astronomer in NSW.
1870	Thomas Holt attempts to cultivate mud oysters near Sydney.
1871	First international telegram received via cable between Port Darwin and Banyuwangi, Java.
1871	Thomas Gale with John Allen as a passenger ascended in his hot air balloon "Young Australian" from Victoria Park, near Sydney University. Gale flew in a gas balloon in Adelaide in the same year.
1872	Telegraph line from Darwin to Adelaide, the Overland Telegraph, is completed, linking Australia to the rest of the world (see 1871, 1858).
1872	The first kelpie wins the first Australian sheepdog trials, near Forbes.
1872	The last occurrence of foot and mouth disease in Australian cattle.
1873	Sugar beet is tried as a crop near Anakie, Victoria.
1875	Horace Lamb becomes the first professor of mathematics at Adelaide University.
1875	Iron smelting began in Lithgow under the direction of Enoch Hughes.
1876	Stump-jump plough invented by Richard B. Smith at Kalkaburry, SA.
1876	The first plantings of Radiata pine in Australia.
1877	Frederick Wolseley and Robert Savage patent their first shearing machine.
1877	Louis Brennan patents a wire-guided and wire-driven torpedo for harbour defences.
1878	Colonies’ first telephones trialed in Sydney.
1879	Henri L'Estrange flew a balloon filled with coal gas in Melbourne. He reached an estimated 9,000 ft. before the balloon burst, but he parachuted to safety.
1879	Henry Sutton develops an electric light bulb.
1879	The first consignment of frozen meat is shipped to Britain by Thomas Mort and Eugene Nicolle.
1879	The University of Sydney establishes a separate Faculty of Science.
1879	The world's second national park (and the first national park to be gazetted) is created south of Sydney — now known as the Royal National Park.
1880	First telephone exchange opens in Melbourne, with 100 lines.
1880	The first successful consignment of frozen Australian meat reaches England.
1880	The Royal Society of South Australia is established.
1882	Edgeworth David began his studies of the continent’s geology.
1883	Train service between Sydney and Melbourne begins operations.
1884	CSR implements scientific quality control in all stages of its refining processes, a "system of chemical bookkeeping".
1884	Lawrence Hargrave reads a paper on the aerofoil wing to the Royal Society of NSW.
1884	The first successful machine shears are patented.
1884	The Royal Society of Queensland is established.
1884	William Caldwell demonstrates that monotremes are egg-laying mammals.
1885	Frederick Wolseley mounts the first machine shearing demonstration in Melbourne.
1885	Henry Sutton constructs the ‘telephane’, a kind of television.
1885	Hugh McKay patents Sunshine Harvester.
1885	Roseworthy College opens in South Australia, the nation's first agricultural college.
1886	A. F. Spawn launches his 'Climax' fruit evaporator.
1886	An agricultural college opens at Dookie in Victoria.
1886	John Ashburton Thompson demonstrates that typhoid could be spread by milk.
1886	William Farrer begins developing new strains of Australian wheat, culminating in the ‘Federation’ strain of 1901.
1888	The first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, later ANZAAS).
1888	J. T. Williams ascended to 6,000 feet above Ashfield Recreation Grounds in Sydney in a balloon and parachuted to the ground.
1889	Arthur James Arnot patents the world's first electric drill.
1890	Professor Richard Threlfall of Sydney University is the first person in the world to suggest publicly (at a meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science) that 'Hertzian waves' might be used for telegraphy — radio in other words. This was mentioned in a footnote in J. J. Fahie's Third Revised 1902 edition of A History of Wireless Telegraphy (page 291), where it would probably have remained unheard of, if excellent Ken England had not drawn it to my attention. Ken says this was almost certainly "The Present State of Electrical Knowledge" and published in "Report of Meeting, 2 , (Melbourne 1890) 27 -54".
1890	The blue cattledog is established as a pure breed.
1891	Hawkesbury Agricultural College opens in NSW.
1894	Pioneer aeronautical engineer Lawrence Hargrave lifts himself off the ground using four box kites.
1897	An expedition to Funafuti Atoll, led by Edgeworth David, establishes the truth of Darwin's theory on how atolls form.
1897	Australia’s first car with an internal-combustion engine built by Henry Austin.
1897	Gatton Agricultural College opens in Queensland.
1897	H. G. Smith and R. T. Baker start their researches on volatile plant oil research, especially eucalyptus oil, at what is now the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.

1900 to 1949

1900	Natural gas struck in a water bore near Roma, Queensland.
1901	Charles Potter takes out his first patent for the flotation separation of ores.
1902	A new telegraph cable links Southport in Queensland to Vancouver.
1902	Alexander Gillies patents a set of improvements to a previously existing milking machine.
1902	J. A. Birchall develops the first notepad in Launceston.
1902	John Ashburton Thompson describes how bubonic plague is spread by the fleas on infected rats.
1904	Stephen Dedalus reveals his 'literary algebra', June 16.
1904	Telephone link established between Sydney and Melbourne.
1905	Anthony G. M. Mitchell develops the tilt-bed thrust bearing.
1905	The Wireless Telegraphy Act is passed by the Commonwealth Parliament to regulate experiments in wireless communication.
1906	Introduction of world’s first surf life-saving reel at Bondi Beach, NSW.
1906	The world's first full-length feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is made in Australia.
1907	Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme begins.
1907	The first trunk telephone line linking Sydney and Melbourne is opened.
1909	George Augustine Taylor made the first flight of a heavier-than-air machine in Australia. Four days later, Colin Defries made the first powered flight of a heavier-than-air machine in Australia, at Victoria Park Racecourse, in Sydney. Second link.
1909	David Unaipon takes out a patent for improved sheep shears.
1910	The spun concrete process for making 'Hume Pipes' (Humespun) is patented.
1911	Douglas Mawson leads an Australian expedition to Antarctica (one member was later my science teacher).
1912	The first automatic telephone exchange for public use is opened at Geelong.
1913	Headlie Shipard Taylor patents his header harvester, on which all modern harvesters are based.
1913	George Julius installs the first automatic totalisator.
1914	The Royal Society of Western Australia is established.
1915	Alf Hannaford develops the "wet wheat pickler".
1915	George Nicholas begins experiments to develop aspirin production.
1916	The first forerunner of the CSIRO, the Advisory Council of Science and Industry, is formed.
1917	Transcontinental rail link between Sydney and Perth opens.
1918	First radio message sent between London and Sydney.
1919	Kikuyu grass was first introduced into New South Wales.
1919	Ross and Keith Smith become first to fly from Britain to Australia, taking 28 days to complete the journey in their Vickers Vimy.
1919	The forerunner of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian National Research Council, is formed.
1920	An Act of Parliament creates the second forerunner of the CSIRO, the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry.
1920	Australia’s first airline, Qantas, founded at Winton, Qld.
1920	Cliff Howard invents the rotary hoe.
1920	The first live radio program in Australia is broadcast in Melbourne.
1921	The Ford Motor Company begins assembling motor vehicles in Australia.
1922	Vegemite is invented by Cyril Callister.
1923	First radio stations begin broadcasting in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
1924	S. M. Bruce flies QANTAS, and so is the first Prime Minister to fly on official business.
1924	Commonwealth Solar Observatory (later named the Mount Stromlo Observatory) established. Walter Duffield appointed first director.
1926	Founding of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the third forerunner of CSIRO.
1926	The first cardiac pacemaker in the world is used to revive a new-born baby.
1926	The moth-borer Cactoblastis cactorum is introduced to combat the prickly pear plague.
1927	Speedo develops the racer-back style swimming costume with reduced drag.
1928	Bert Hinkler completes a solo flight from England to Australia — England no longer cut off from civilisation.
1928	Charles Kingsford-Smith and his crew complete the first air crossing of the Pacific — America no longer cut off from civilisation.
1928	Commencement of first flying doctor service, the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Service.
1929	Alfred Traeger develops the first pedal wireless transceiver for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
1930	First international telephone call made by Prime Minister James Henry Scullin.
1930	The first mechanised letter sorting machine is tested in Sydney.
1931	Beginning of air mail service to UK.
1932	George Julius invents a totalisator with an automatic odds-calculating device. Another link, this time to an unatchived copy.
1932	Lewis Brandt designs the first commercially made 'ute', commercially released in 1934.
1932	Sydney Harbour Bridge opens on 19 March.
1932	The Australian Broadcasting Commission, later the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, our ABC, and long may the spotty, snotty, grotty little government oiks, blow-in Pom wannabes and other riff-raff keep their hands off it, begins broadcasting.
1934	The first car radio is fitted to a car made by Kelly's Motors in NSW.
1934	The mysterious sheep condition called 'coast disease' is shown by Ted Lines (CSIRO) to be caused by a cobalt deficiency.
1935	The first introduction of the cane toad into Australia — a failed attempt at biological control. Cane toad link 2 Cane toad link 3
1935	QANTAS makes its first overseas flight, flying Darwin to Singapore.
1941	Evelyn Owen's newly invented Owen gun is shown to be superior in trials.
1941	Norman Gregg demonstrates link between maternal rubella and blindness in babies.
1943	Australia becomes the first country in the world to make penicillin commercially available to civilians.
1945	Founding of Australian National University (ANU) as centre of scientific research.
1945	Howard Florey is named joint winner of Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on development of penicillin.
1946	George Shepherd's 'Shepherd castors', invented in the 1930s, are commercially released.
1946	Lance Hill invents the Hills Hoist.
1947	A team at CSIR (the fore-runner of the CSIRO) built CSIRAC, the world's fifth computer, and the first to play 'computer music'.
1947	The first successful attempt at 'cloud-seeding' near Bathurst. The technique was invented by Peter Jarver.
1948	Sydney engineer Lawrence Hall invents the "Mowhall" petrol-engined rotary lawn mower, powered by his three-horsepower Hall marine engine. Its design becomes the prototype for the famous Victa lawnmower.
1949	Beginning of Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, completed in 1972.
1949	CSIRO founded.
1949	John Cade is the first to propose the use of lithium salts to treat manic patients.

1950 and after

1950	The first successful introduction of the rabbit virus that causes myxomatosis.
1950	The Flying Doctor's radio service is adapted to operate the School of the Air.
1951	Kate Campbell identifies oxygen, provided in humidicribs, as a cause of blindness in premature babies.
1952	Alan Walsh (CSIRO) develops the atomic absorption spectrometer.
1952	Jindivik, a pilotless target jet aeroplane, is invented at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories.
1952	Mervyn Victor Richardson invents the Victa rotary lawnmower.
1952	The first British atomic test was in the Monte Bello Islands, off the north-west coast of WA.
1953	CSIRO scientists in Victoria develop the first prototype of the solar water heater.
1953	The first Mills Cross radio telescope goes into operation.
1954	The Australian Academy of Science was established by Royal Charter.
1956	Saul Weiner develops a redback antivenene.
1956	Television broadcasting starts in Australia.
1957	Arthur Farnworth at the CSIRO develops a process for permanently creasing fabric.
1957	Ian McWilliam develops the Flame Ionisation Detector.
1958	Australia's first nuclear reactor opens at Lucas Heights, near Sydney.
1958	David Warren develops the prototype of the Black Box flight recorder.
1958	Qantas opens the first round-the-world air service.
1960	CR39, the first plastic spectacle lenses in the world, are made in South Australia at the Scientific Optical laboratories of Australia (now SOLA).
1960	Sir Macfarlane Burnet is declared joint winner of Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on acquired immunological tolerance.
1961	David Robinson and George Kossoff build the first commercially practical water path ultrasound scanner.
1961	Jacques Miller discovers the role of the thymus while working in Britain.
1961	The Parkes Radio Telescope begins operation (CSIRO).
1962	Standard gauge railway link between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane completed.
1963	Sir John Eccles is awarded Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on transmission of nerve impulses.
1964	Disposable latex gloves for use in surgery are invented by Ansell.
1965	Jack Grant develops the inflatable aircraft escape slide and raft.
1965	The first prototype of the wine cask is invented in Australia.
1966	First television programs from UK transmitted to Australia via satellite.
1966	Ray Bradley grows colonies of bone marrow cells in agar at the Peter MacCallum Institute in Melbourne.
1967	Brian O'Keeffe (CSIRO) proposes Interscan, a microwave landing system,
1967	The CSIRO starts work on the introduction of dung beetles into Australia.
1968	Team led by Harry Windsor performs first Australian heart transplant at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney.
1969	CSL develops a polyvalent snake antivenene.
1969	Radio telescope at Parkes (CSIRO) relays television images of first moon landing across the globe.
1970	The world's first laser lighthouse goes into operation at Point Danger, NSW.
1970	Pier Edman invents a process for sequencing proteins at the St Vincents Research Institute in Melbourne.
1971	Ord Irrigation Scheme results in creation of Lake Argyle.
1971	Ralph Sarich completes the first prototype of his orbital engine.
1972	The first full-time environmental centre is established in Sydney.
1972	John Kerr adopts the term "apoptosis" for suicidal cell death after doing most of the work leading up to the apoptosis concept while at University of Queensland, beginning in 1965.
1973	Monash University scientists report the world's first IVF pregnancy.
1974	Gordon Withnall invents the Super Sopper for drying the surface of wet sports fields.
1974	Lakes Pedder and Gordon formed by damming of Gordon River.
1975	Commonwealth Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act passed.
1975	Public FM radio and colour television broadcasts begin -- test broadcasts had happened many years earlier.
1975	Sir John Warcup Cornforth shares Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on the three-dimensional structure of molecules.
1976	Establishment of the Cape Grim atmospheric baseline station in Tasmania, the first facility in the southern hemisphere to track the changing make-up of the atmosphere.
1976	Fraser Island is protected from destruction by sand miners when it is listed as Australia's first item on the National Estate.
1978	Ted Ringwood develops Synroc as a method of storing radioactive waste.
1978	The first bionic ear was fitted to an Australian patient.
1979	Geoff Healey invents the race-cam.
1980	Questacon, the first interactive science centre in the southern hemisphere, opened at Ainslie Primary School.
1981	Struan Sutherland and colleagues develop a funnelweb antivenene.
1981	The earth leakage circuit breaker is developed in Adelaide by Gerard Industries.
1981	Sydney surfer Simon Anderson blended his single and twin-fin boards to invent the three-finned "Thruster" surfboard and won the coveted 1981 Pipeline Masters in Hawaii riding it.
1983	Barry Marshall identifies Helicobacter pylori as the cause of duodenal ulcers.
1983	Ben Lexcen's winged keel on Australia II wins the America's Cup.
1983	Cochlear formed as a company to advance the 'bionic ear' developed over the previous 10 years by Graeme Clark and his colleagues.
1983	Peter Colman and Jose Varghese solve the structure of the flu virus protein neuraminidase — this leads later to the development of Relenza.
1983	The Memtec company is formed to market membrane technologies in water treatment.
1984	World’s first 'frozen embryo' baby born in Melbourne.
1985	Bill Burch develops the first commercial use of buckyballs - the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.
1985	The Australian Beef Cattle Industry implements BREEDPLAN, the National Beef Cattle Genetic Evalution Scheme that provides estimates of genetic merit based on statistical performance and pedigree data.
1985	Robert Clancy at the University of Newcastle, develops an oral vaccine to prebent bronchitis.
1985	The Australian Beef Cattle Industry commercially releases BREEDPLAN, the National Beef Cattle Genetic Evalution Scheme called providing estimates of genetic merit based on statistical performance and pedigree data.
1986	Wayne Gerlach and Jim Haseloff discover gene shears while working for the CSIRO.
1986	Sydney designer Marc Newson attracted international attention to Australian design when created the Lockheed Lounge, a striking and innovative three-legged lounge chair with a futuristic organic shape and clad in a skin of shiny metallic plates.
1986	The first pedigree cat to be bred in Australia - the Spotted Mist - was accepted for full registration.
1987	William McBride exposed for faking data that claimed Debendox caused fetal deformities.
1988	Michael Waters discovers the structure of the human growth hormone receptor.
1988	Sydney's Powerhouse Museum was opened.
1988	Questacon - The National Science and Technology Centre was opened.
1988	The Scitech Discovery Centre was opened.
1988	The first Australian polymer bank note (invented at CSIRO) is introduced into circulation.
1989	An Australian-designed and built wave-piercing catamaran sets a new record for the crossing from New York to Portsmouth.
1990	Australia's Cooperative Research Centre program is first launched.
1990	Milan Hudecek invents the world's first reading machine for the blind in Melbourne.
1991	Edwina Cornish isolates the blue flower gene, later introduced into roses.
1991	Sydney Harbour Tunnel opens.
1991	The INVESTIGATOR Science and Technology Centre in Adelaide was opened.
1992	Fred Hollows Foundation set up to continue work of surgeon who pioneered treatment of cataract blindness among indigenous peoples and in developing countries.
1993	Detection of dark matter by a team of American and Australian astronomers - the MACHO project - using the 50" telescope at Mount Stromlo Observatory.
1995	The CSIRO develops calicivirus as an anti-rabbit agent.
1996	All Australian 'paper' currency is printed on polymer.
1996	Peter Doherty receives Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for research into cell mediated immune defence.
1996	Professor Peter Coloe (RMIT University) and Bioproperties (Australia) Pty Ltd announce the first live vaccine against Salmonella in chickens, turkeys and cattle.
1998	The Aurora solar car achieves a world record speed of 100.9 km per hour over one hour, running on commercial solar cells and lead-acid batteries, from Hay to Balranald.
1998	UNSW scientists under Martin Green create 19.8%-efficient solar cells on a low-grade substrate, and 24.4%-efficient cells on a high-grade substrate, both world records.
1999	Australian-made Relenza is approved for use as the first influenza therapy around the world.
1999	The Aurora solar car becomes the first Australian entry to win the World Solar Challenge race from Darwin to Adelaide.

This material has been assembled by Peter Macinnis, and while the collection remains copyright for any commercial purpose, it may be freely reproduced for any educational and/or non-profit purposes. It should not be mirrored or cached, because I plan to make it grow, especially by adding links to the listed items, or parts thereof.

Note that Google is usually 6 builds behind!

This file, http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/scifun/timeline.htm, was first created on March 6, 2001, most recently revised August 1, 2006, with links to 1850 now just about as complete as they will ever be. Some of these links are useful for other purposes if you backtrack to their home pages, so feel free to ferret around! Currently, I am adding a few more links each day, and I have just added the true inventor of radio or wireless telegraphy — and he was Australian!

Once again, suggestions for additions are welcome — just click on the link

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References

Ragbir Bhathal published a useful timeline for astronomy a few years ago in his Australian astronomers : achievements at the frontiers of astronomy. I have yet to see this, but by definition, any book by such a delightful and erudite bloke as Ragbir is an essential read! Publishing details: Canberra : National Library of Australia, 1996.

Other useful books:

From Digging Stick to Rotary Hoe by Frances Wheelhouse,
Scientists in nineteenth century Australia, by Ann Moyal (in fact, any book by Ann Moyal, including her delightful recent Platypus),
Darwin and Huxley in Australia by A. J. Marshall and
Lawrence Hargrave by W. Hudson Shaw and Olaf Ruhen.
While it lacks detail, the Macquarie Book of Events is also worth a search.
Joseph Banks' Endeavour Journal is now available as an e-text through Project Gutenberg.

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GEM, The Gateway to Educational Materials

Many pages on this site contain metadata to make access easier for people using the GEM, the Gateway to Educational materials. The whole idea of metadata is to make searching easier and more effective. GEM is a brilliant one-stop, any-stop access to educational resources on the Internet, and sponsored by the US Department of Education, while welcoming outsiders like me. They provide lesson plans for teachers, ideas, brain food and more, and they make searching a breeze.

To get an idea of how it works, click on the link above, or the link at the top of the page.

This site had 219,000 hits on the index page from 1999 to January 2007 and an unknown number on other pages. In January 2007, a combined counter was placed on all of the pages, counting page hits which now total