Victoria historical timeline

Origins

The Kulin nations held the country around Port Phillip; in the southwest the Gunditjmara engineered stone channels and weirs to farm eels — a system now UNESCO-listed and among the oldest known aquaculture anywhere.

Turning points

Gold was found in 1851 and the colony's population multiplied within a decade. The wealth built Melbourne's boulevards and public buildings, and for a period made it one of the richest cities in the world.

Influential people

The 1854 Eureka Stockade at Ballarat — a miners' revolt against licence fees — was crushed in twenty minutes but led directly to male suffrage in the colony, and is still argued over as a founding democratic moment.

Cultural evolution

Postwar migration brought Greeks and Italians in such numbers that Melbourne was long described as one of the largest Greek cities outside Greece, and later Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian communities that shape whole suburbs.

Present-day significance

The Black Saturday fires of 2009 killed 173 people and rewrote Australian fire policy. Victoria today runs on services, education, agriculture and a substantial events economy.