| 1901 | Federation of Australia. |
| 1905 | Australian Catechism inaugurated. |
| 1908 | Harvester Judgment follows Leo XIII in declaring “reasonable and frugal comfort” the standard for a minimum wage. |
| 1909 | Death of Mary MacKillop, with her order having 1000 sisters; St Columba’s Seminary Springwood opened; Haberfield church the first in the world to be named after newly beatified Joan of Arc. |
| 1911 | Death of Cardinal Moran; Michael Kelly appointed Archbishop of Sydney; Catholic Federation formed in Melbourne; Francis Xavier Gsell establishes mission at Nguiu. |
| 1913 | Daniel Mannix arrives in Melbourne as Coadjutor; Eileen O’Connor founds the “Brown Nurses” to help the sick poor in their homes. |
| 1914 | World War I declared; Ben Chifley marries in a Presbyterian church, incurring automatic excommunication. |
| 1916 | Catholic Women’s Social Guild founded in Melbourne; 1916-7 conscription referendums opposed by many Catholics. |
| 1917 | James Duhig appointed Archbishop of Brisbane; Mannix succeeds Carr as Archbishop of Melbourne. |
| 1918 | Completion of Beagle Bay Church with its pearl shell altar; Special Intelligence Bureau investigates suspected Sinn Feiner Arthur Calwell. |
| 1919 | Democratic Party founded in NSW; Knights of the Southern Cross founded. |
| 1920 | Democratic Party fails in elections; Sister Liguori “flees” Wagga convent, leading to Catholic-Protestant controversy; Melbourne St Patrick’s Day procession led by 14 VC winners on white chargers; Royal Navy prevents Mannix landing in Ireland; Dr Mary Glowrey leaves Melbourne for medical missionary work in India. |
| 1921 | Poetry anthology Around the Boree Log by “John O’Brien” (Fr Patrick Hartigan) celebrates the virtues of Catholic rural life. |
| 1924 | NSW legislation to forbid the promulgation of the papal marriage decree Ne temere defeated by two votes. |
| 1925 | Silent film of Around the Boree Log (Part 1, 41MB) (Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive) |
| 1926 | Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward found Sheed & Ward publishing house in London. |
| 1928 | Crowds of half a million watch the procession ending the International Eucharistic Congress in Sydney. |
| 1929 | James Scullin becomes Australia’s first Prime Minister of Catholic background. |
| 1930 | Maude O’Connell founds the Grey Sisters in Melbourne to help poor mothers with housework and respite. |
| 1931 | Catholic radio station 2SM opened in Sydney. |
| 1932 | Joe Lyons becomes Prime Minister. |
| 1934 | Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne. (newsreel) |
| 1935 | Port Keats mission founded. |
| 1936 | Catholic Worker newspaper begins; The Grail women’s movement brought to Australia. |
| 1936-7 | Tension between Australian cricket captain Don Bradman and Catholic members of the team. |
| 1936-9 | Spanish Civil War divides Catholic opinion in Australia |
| 1937 | National Secretariat of Catholic Action established, with FK Maher & BA Santamaria as leaders; Norman Gilroy appointed Coadjutor to Sydney. |
| 1939 | Pius XII elected. |
| 1939-45 | World War II. |
| 1940 | Death of Archbishop Kelly (newsreel); Norman Gilroy succeeds as Archbishop of Sydney; first annual Catholic bishops’s social justice statement; foundation of Australian Catholic Historical Society; Matthew Beovich appointed Archbishop of Adelaide. |
| 1941 | Morris West leaves the Christian Brothers and marries. |
| 1942 | Catholic Weekly begins in Sydney. |
| 1943 | Enid Lyons elected first woman member of the House of Representatives. |
| 1944 | Death in action of war photographer Damien Parer |
| 1945 | Catholic Social Study Movement formed; Ben Chifley Prime Minister; Arthur Calwell appointed Australia’s first Minister for Immigration; Dr Woodbury founds Aquinas Academy in Sydney to teach philosophy to laity; publication of Bernard O’Reilly‘s memoir of poor Catholic rural life, Cullenbenbong and of B.A. Santamaria’s The Earth Our Mother promoting rural settlement. |
| 1946 | Gilroy appointed first Australian-born Cardinal; Fr Murtagh‘s Australia: The Catholic Chapter. |
| 1947 | Calwell’s agreement with International Refugee Organization begins large-scale immigration of Eastern European Displaced Persons. |
| 1948 | Anti-communist priest Dr Paddy Ryan debates communism before a crowd of 30,000 in Sydney; Hospitaller Brothers of St John of God establish first facility in Australia at Morisset. |
| 1951 | Australian Jesuit mission to India begins; Justin O’Brien’s The Virgin Enthroned wins the first Blake Prize for religious art |
| 1952 | James McAuley converts to Catholicism; mass Italian immigration to Australia begins. |
| 1953 | Eris O’Brien appointed Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn; 150,000 attend Fr Peyton’s Rosary Crusade in Melbourne |
| 1954 | First issue of the Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society |
| 1955 | Labor Party split pits majority of Labor Party against B.A. Santamaria‘s “Movement”; predominantly Catholic Democratic Labor Party formed; Cardinal Gilroy and Eris O’Brien visit South Vietnam. |
| 1955-70 | Schools enrolment “explosion”. |
| 1959 | Morris West’s novel The Devil’s Advocate. |
| 1961 | Eric D’Arcy’s Conscience and its Right to Freedom published |
| 1962-5 | Second Vatican Council opens in Rome; Goulburn Schools Strike increases pressure for state aid to Catholic schools. |
| 1963 | Death of John XXIII & Mannix; Paul VI elected Pope; Morris West’s The Shoes of the Fisherman the best-selling novel of the year in the U.S; Catholic Overseas Relief Committee (later Caritas) established. |
| 1964 | Mass in English; first direct government grants to Catholic schools; James McAuley’s epic poem Captain Quiros deals with Quiros’s spiritual quest in the Pacific Ocean; Arthur Calwell awarded Papal Knighthood. |
| 1965 | Australian Catholic Bishops Conference set up. |
| 1967 | Rosemary Goldie appointed Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; James Knox succeeds Justin Simonds as Archbishop of Melbourne Ronald Ryan the last person hanged in Australia, after re-converting to Catholicism. |
| 1968 | Controversies over Humanae Vitae and Vietnam; opening of St Paul’s National Seminary at Kensington; Thomas Keneally‘s novel Three Cheers for the Paraclete dramatises life in St Patrick’s Seminary, Manly; publication of Patrick O’Farrell‘s The Catholic Church in Australia: A Short History. |
| 1969 | Cardinal Gilroy knighted, the first Cardinal to be knighted since the Reformation. |
| 1970 | Paul VI becomes first pope to visit Australia; Opus Dei opens Warrane College at UNSW |
| 1971 | Gilroy retires; James Freeman appointed Archbishop of Sydney; activist priest Fr Ted Kennedy takes up work in Redfern; Mum Shirl helps establish Aboriginal Medical Service; Barry Oakley’s play The Feet of Daniel Mannix opens |
| 1970s | Substantial direct funding for Catholic schools. |
| 1972 | Sr Veronica Brady takes up position in English at University of Western Australia. |
| 1973 | First Maronite bishop in Australia; Peter Kenna’s A Hard God first performed; Sister Janet Mead’s rock version of the Lord’s Prayer. |
| 1974 | Marriage Encounter spreads to Australia; Whitlam’s appointment of Vince Gair as Ambassador to Ireland initiates constitutional crisis; Frank Little appointed Archbishop of Melbourne. |
| 1975 | Patrick Dodson ordained, first Aboriginal priest; opening of Ron Blair’s play The Christian Brothers; Indonesian invasion of East Timor results in refugees coming to Australia. |
| 1976 | Australia declared no longer a mission country by Rome. |
| 1977 | St Columba’s Seminary closed. |
| 1978 | John Paul II elected Pope. |
| 1979 | Australian acceptance of boat people from Vietnam begins large-scale Asian immigration, including Catholics. |
| 1982 | Freeman retires; Edward Clancy becomes Archbishop of Sydney. |
| 1986 | John Paul II visits Australia (newsreel); first census in which Catholics were the largest denomination in Australia; Broken Bay and Parramatta dioceses set up. |
| 1987 | Tony Abbott leaves St Patrick’s Seminary before ordination; Edmund Campion‘s Australian Catholics published. |
| 1988 | AD2000 magazine founded to promote traditionalist values; Eric D’Arcy appointed Archbishop of Hobart. |
| 1989 | University of Notre Dame, Australia established in Fremantle; Cardinal Cassidy appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. |
| 1991 | Sr Irene McCormack murdered by Maoist guerrillas in Peru; Australian Catholic University established from the amalgamation of four tertiary colleges; Brides of Christ TV miniseries dramatises convent life in the 1960s. |
| 1992 | The Leaving of Liverpool TV drama series calls attention to the abuse of child migrants; High Court’s Mabo decision on native title influenced by Catholic natural law theory. |
| 1995 | Mary McKillop declared Blessed; Closure of St Patrick’s Seminary, Manly. |
| 1996 | Bishops establish “Towards Healing” process to deal with complaints of abuse of minors by clergy; William Deane appointed Governor-General; George Pell succeeds Frank Little as Archbishop of Melbourne. |
| 1998 | Catholic spokesmen agree to thawing and destruction of thousands of frozen embryos left over from IVF. |
| 1999 | Threat of Australian military action significant in the formation of Asia’s second Christian nation, East Timor, international force led by Peter Cosgrove. |
| 2000 | Spires of St Mary’s Cathedral Sydney completed, with generous State government assistance. |
| 2001 | George Pell appointed Archbishop of Sydney. |
| 2003 | Reporter Mike Willesee speaks of his rediscovery of Catholicism. |
| 2004 | Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ released. |
| 2005 | Connor Court Publishing established; Widespread prayers before the execution of drug trafficker Van Tuong Nguyen in Singapore. |
| 2006 | University of Notre Dame Sydney campus established; Campion College liberal arts college in Western Sydney takes in first students; Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban marry in Cerretti Chapel, Manly. |
| 2007 | Bishop Geoffrey Robinson‘s Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church published. |
| 2008 | World Youth Day held in Sydney, with visit of Pope Benedict XVI. (newsreel) |
| 2010 | Mary Mackillop canonised, the first Australian to be canonised. (newsreel) |
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