Australian History Trivia: 100 Questions and Answers

How well do you really know Australia’s history? From the First Fleet to Federation, gold rushes to world wars, this collection of 100 Australian history trivia questions and answers covers everything from well-known facts to genuine stumpers. Perfect for family trivia nights, school holiday brain breaks, or settling an argument about who really discovered what. Work through each category below, then scroll to the bottom to check your answers.

Architected comprehensive Australian history trivia resource with categorised questions

Australian History Trivia: 100 Questions and Answers

Convict Era & Colonisation (Q1–15) (Answers below)

1. In what year did the First Fleet arrive at Botany Bay?
2. Who was the commander of the First Fleet and first Governor of New South Wales?
3. How many ships made up the First Fleet?
4. What was the original British name for the colony that is now New South Wales?
5. In which year was the colony of Van Diemen’s Land renamed Tasmania?
6. What was the main reason Britain established a penal colony in Australia?
7. Which colony was founded in 1836 as a “free” settlement, without convicts?
8. What was the name of the site where the First Fleet initially landed before moving to a better harbour?
9. Approximately how many convicts were transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868?
10. Which state was the last to receive convicts, until 1868?
11. What crime did the majority of transported convicts commit?
12. Who led the Rum Rebellion of 1808, the only successful armed takeover of government in Australian history?
13. What was a “ticket of leave” in convict-era Australia?
14. In which year did Britain officially stop transporting convicts to New South Wales?
15. What was the name of the harbour the First Fleet moved to after finding Botany Bay unsuitable?

Explorers & Early Contact (Q16–25) (Answers below)

16. Which Dutch navigator is credited with the first recorded European sighting of Australia in 1606?
17. What name did Dutch explorers give to Australia before the English arrived?
18. Which British explorer charted the east coast of Australia in 1770?
19. What was the name of Captain Cook’s ship?
20. Which explorers were the first Europeans to cross the Blue Mountains in 1813?
21. Who was the first person to circumnavigate Australia, confirming it was a single landmass?
22. Which ill-fated expedition attempted to cross Australia from south to north in 1860–61?
23. How long have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples inhabited Australia, according to current archaeological evidence?
24. What is the estimated number of distinct Aboriginal language groups that existed before European settlement?
25. Which island did Abel Tasman name after the Governor of the Dutch East Indies?

Gold Rush Era (Q26–35) (Answers below)

26. In which year was gold first officially discovered in payable quantities in Australia?
27. In which two colonies did the major 1850s gold rushes occur?
28. What was the tax miners were required to pay regardless of whether they found gold?
29. What was the name of the 1854 armed uprising by gold miners in Victoria protesting mining licence fees?
30. Where did the Eureka Stockade rebellion take place?
31. Approximately how much did Australia’s population grow during the 1850s gold rush decade?
32. Which Victorian city grew rapidly due to gold wealth and became known for its grand architecture?
33. What nationality made up a significant number of goldfield immigrants, leading to tensions and riots at sites like Lambing Flat?
34. What was a “digger” in the context of the gold rush?
35. Which of these towns was founded largely due to gold discoveries: Ballarat, or Adelaide?

Federation & Nation-Building (Q36–50) (Answers below)

36. On what date did Australia become a federated nation?
37. How many colonies united to form the Commonwealth of Australia?
38. Who was Australia’s first Prime Minister?
39. Which city was Australia’s capital before Canberra was built?
40. In what year did Canberra officially become the seat of government?
41. Who designed the layout of Canberra?
42. What is the name of Australia’s founding legal document, enacted by the British Parliament?
43. Which Australian state was the last to join the Federation, holding its referendum shortly before 1901?
44. What year did women in South Australia win the right to vote and stand for parliament, well ahead of federal legislation?
45. In what year did Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples gain the same voting rights as other Australians nationally?
46. What was the outcome of the 1967 referendum regarding Indigenous Australians?
47. Which document, enacted in 1986, ended the last constitutional ties between Australia and the UK Parliament?
48. What is the name of Australia’s national anthem, adopted officially in 1984?
49. What was Australia’s national anthem before that?
50. Which year did Australia introduce its own currency, the Australian dollar, replacing pounds and pence?

Wars & Military History (Q51–65) (Answers below)

51. In which country did the Gallipoli campaign take place?
52. On what date did the Gallipoli landing occur, now commemorated as Anzac Day?
53. What does the acronym ANZAC stand for?
54. Which war was Simpson and his donkey associated with, famous for rescuing wounded soldiers?
55. How many Australians served overseas during World War I?
56. In which country did Australian troops fight at the Kokoda Track during World War II?
57. Which country bombed the Australian city of Darwin in February 1942?
58. What was the name of the Australian prime minister who led the country through most of World War II?
59. Which conflict saw Australia commit its longest combat deployment prior to Afghanistan?
60. What is the significance of 11 November in Australian commemorations?
61. Which naval disaster in 1941 saw the Australian ship HMAS Sydney lost with all hands?
62. What was the “Battle of Brisbane,” a 1942 incident during WWII?
63. Which war memorial, opened in 1941, is Australia’s national memorial commemorating its war dead?
64. In which decade did Australia end conscription for overseas military service?
65. What is the name given to the tradition of a dawn service held on Anzac Day?

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander History (Q66–75) (Answers below)

66. What event does “Sorry Day,” observed on 26 May, commemorate?
67. What term describes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children forcibly removed from their families under past government policies?
68. In which year did the Australian Government issue a formal national apology to the Stolen Generations?
69. What was the outcome of the 1992 Mabo decision in the High Court of Australia?
70. What legal doctrine, meaning “land belonging to no one,” was overturned by the Mabo decision?
71. Which Aboriginal rights activist led the 1965 Freedom Ride protesting segregation in NSW country towns?
72. What was the Wave Hill Walk-Off of 1966 primarily protesting?
73. What is the significance of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, released in 2017?
74. What day is officially recognised in Australia as a day of mourning by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, coinciding with Australia Day?
75. Which Aboriginal flag, designed in 1971, was given copyright recognition and later purchased by the Australian Government in 2022?

Modern Australia & Notable Firsts (Q76–90) (Answers below)

76. Who was Australia’s first female Prime Minister?
77. In what year did Australia introduce compulsory voting for federal elections?
78. Which city hosted the 1956 Olympic Games, the first held in the Southern Hemisphere?
79. Which city hosted the 2000 Summer Olympics?
80. What was the “White Australia Policy,” officially dismantled between 1966 and 1973?
81. In which decade was the last major wave of assisted British migration to Australia?
82. What major postwar infrastructure project brought hundreds of thousands of migrants to Australia to build dams and power stations?
83. Which Australian became the first person to be knighted for polar exploration, later a state governor?
84. What was Australia’s first television broadcast year?
85. In which year was the Sydney Opera House officially opened?
86. Who was the architect of the Sydney Opera House?
87. What significant reform did the 1975 Family Law Act introduce?
88. Which year saw the dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by the Governor-General, a major constitutional crisis?
89. What was Medicare, introduced in 1984, designed to provide?
90. In which year did the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory gain self-government?

Culture, Society & Everyday History (Q91–100) (Answers below)

91. What was the “six o’clock swill,” a feature of Australian pub culture until the 1950s–60s?
92. Which Australian food product, made from yeast extract, was first produced in 1922?
93. What was Australia’s first credit card, introduced in the 1970s?
94. Which decade saw the introduction of decimal currency in Australia?
95. What was the “Snowy Mountains Scheme,” completed in 1974?
96. Which famous Australian racehorse, who died suddenly in the USA in 1932, remains a national icon?
97. What year did the Sydney Harbour Bridge officially open?
98. Who is credited with cutting the ribbon at the Harbour Bridge opening ceremony, before a protester interrupted?
99. What was Australia’s first national broadcaster, established in 1932?
100. Which decade is generally credited with the beginning of widespread multicultural immigration policy in Australia?

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Answers

1. 1788
2. Captain Arthur Phillip
3. 11 ships
4. New South Wales
5. 1856
6. To relieve overcrowded British prisons after the American colonies stopped accepting convicts
7. South Australia
8. Botany Bay
9. Approximately 162,000
10. Western Australia
11. Theft (most were convicted of property crimes, not violent offences)
12. Major George Johnston (deposing Governor William Bligh)
13. A form of parole allowing a convict to work and live independently before their sentence ended
14. 1840 (transportation to NSW ended; it continued to WA until 1868)
15. Sydney Cove (Port Jackson)
16. Willem Janszoon
17. New Holland
18. Captain James Cook
19. HMS Endeavour
20. Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth
21. Matthew Flinders
22. The Burke and Wills expedition
23. At least 65,000 years
24. Around 250 distinct language groups
25. Tasmania (originally Van Diemen’s Land, named after Anthony van Diemen)
26. 1851
27. New South Wales and Victoria
28. The miner’s licence fee
29. The Eureka Stockade
30. Ballarat, Victoria
31. It roughly tripled, from about 430,000 to over 1.1 million
32. Melbourne
33. Chinese miners
34. A gold miner
35. Ballarat
36. 1 January 1901
37. Six
38. Sir Edmund Barton
39. Melbourne
40. 1927
41. Walter Burley Griffin (with Marion Mahony Griffin)
42. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act
43. Western Australia
44. 1894
45. 1962 (with full removal of remaining restrictions completed by 1965 federally)
46. It overwhelmingly approved granting the federal government power to legislate for Aboriginal Australians and include them in the census
47. The Australia Act
48. “Advance Australia Fair”
49. “God Save the Queen”
50. 1966
51. Turkey (the Gallipoli Peninsula)
52. 25 April 1915
53. Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
54. World War I
55. Around 416,000
56. Papua New Guinea
57. Japan
58. John Curtin
59. The Vietnam War
60. It marks Armistice Day, the end of World War I in 1918, observed with a minute’s silence
61. The sinking of HMAS Sydney by the German raider Kormoran
62. A violent clash between American and Australian servicemen stationed in Brisbane
63. The Australian War Memorial, Canberra
64. The 1970s (conscription for Vietnam ended in 1972)
65. The Dawn Service
66. The removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families (the Stolen Generations)
67. The Stolen Generations
68. 2008
69. It recognised native title, overturning the legal fiction that Australia was unoccupied before European settlement
70. Terra nullius
71. Charles Perkins
72. Land rights and fair wages for Gurindji stockmen at Wave Hill cattle station
73. It’s a call from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders for a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament, alongside truth-telling and treaty
74. Australia Day (26 January), referred to by many as Invasion Day or Survival Day
75. The Aboriginal Flag, designed by Harold Thomas
76. Julia Gillard
77. 1924
78. Melbourne
79. Sydney
80. Immigration restrictions that favoured European migrants over others
81. The 1950s
82. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme
83. Sir Douglas Mawson
84. 1956
85. 1973
86. Jørn Utzon
87. It introduced “no-fault” divorce
88. 1975
89. Universal healthcare for all Australians
90. 1978 (NT) and 1988 (ACT, partial self-government)
91. Early pub closing at 6pm led to a rush of last-minute drinking before close
92. Vegemite
93. Bankcard
94. The 1960s (1966)
95. A major hydroelectric power and irrigation project in the Snowy Mountains, built largely by postwar migrant labour
96. Phar Lap
97. 1932
98. Premier Jack Lang, before Francis de Groot controversially cut the ribbon early on horseback
99. The Australian Broadcasting Commission (now ABC)
100. The 1970s

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