Empire · since 1901 · Australasia & Oceania

Commonwealth of Australia

Also known as Australia

Britain founded a convict colony at Sydney in 1788, claiming the land despite more than 50,000 years of Aboriginal occupation. Six separate colonies grew, driven by wool, wheat and the gold rushes of the 1850s, while frontier violence and disease devastated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

On 1 January 1901 the colonies federated as the Commonwealth of Australia, a self-governing dominion with a parliament modelled partly on Britain's and partly on that of the United States. One of its first laws began the White Australia policy restricting non-European immigration. Australians fought in both world wars, notably at Gallipoli in 1915, and from 1942 the country turned to the United States as its main ally. Mass immigration from Europe and later Asia transformed the country, and the White Australia policy was dismantled by 1973.

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Years

since 1901

Capital

Melbourne (temporary), then Canberra from 1927

Greatest extent

1901, about 7.69 million km²

Region

Australasia & Oceania

The whole continent and Tasmania, excluding external territories and the Antarctic claim