| 1951 | Australian Jesuit mission to India begins; Justin O’Brien’s The Virgin Enthroned wins the first Blake Prize for religious art; Australian-Italian bilateral assisted migration treaty begins large-scale Italian immigration, mostly Catholic |
| 1952 | James McAuley converts to Catholicism |
| 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; Sydney Chinese Catholic Mission founded |
| 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; Germaine Greer completes education at Star of the Sea Gardenvale |
| 1955-70 | Schools enrolment “explosion” |
| 1956 | Hungarian uprising, Australia accepts 14,000 refugees; McAuley and Richard Connolly collaborate on Hymns for the Year of Grace |
| 1957 | Confraternity of Christian Doctrine begun to provide religious instruction in state schools; Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem visits Australia, meets Gilroy, Mannix and Santamaria |
| 1959 | Morris West’s novel The Devil’s Advocate published |
| 1961 | Eric D’Arcy’s Conscience and its Right to Freedom published; Living Parish Hymn Book published; Calwell wins 50.5% of two-party preferred vote in federal election but fails to win government; Mannix, aged 97, interviewed on his life (clips); Selwyn Grave appointed Professor of Philosophy at UWA |
| 1962 | Second Vatican Council opens in Rome; Goulburn Schools Strike increases pressure for state aid to Catholic schools; Ted Serong appointed to lead Australian Army Training Team Vietnam |
| 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; Opus Dei begins in Australia |
| 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; Naval chaplain Fr Frank “Tiger” Lyons present at Voyager disaster |
| 1965 | Australian Catholic Bishops Conference set up |
| 1966 | Cardinal Cardijn speaks in Ballarat on work and the family |
| 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 for late vocations 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; Military Vicariate of Australia established |
| 1970 | Paul VI becomes first pope to visit Australia (newsreel); Opus Dei opens Warrane College at UNSW; Dorothy Day speaks in Australia |
| 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; explosion at Mount St Canice Convent, Hobart, kills 8 |
| 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; Australian Catholic Theological Association founded; Phillip Lynch becomes Australian Treasurer; Brian Harradine expelled from ALP and elected as independent to Senate |
| 1976 | Australia declared no longer a mission country by Rome |
| 1977 | St Columba’s Seminary closed |
| 1978 | John Paul II elected Pope; Christopher Koch’s The Year of Living Dangerously published |
| 1979 | Australian acceptance of boat people from Vietnam begins large-scale Asian immigration, including Catholics |
| 1980 | Second wave of Polish immigration begins |
| 1981 | High Court confirms state aid for church schools, denying case by DOGS (Defence of Government Schools) lobby group |
| 1982 | Freeman retires; Edward Clancy becomes Archbishop of Sydney |
| 1983 | Hawke government elected, with Lionel Bowen as Deputy PM; Vincent Buckley‘s memoir Cutting Green Hay published |
| 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; philosopher Max Charlesworth delivers Boyer Lectures, on bioethics |
| 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; Eureka Street magazine founded |
| 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; Vianney College seminary founded in Wagga Wagga; Plunkett Centre for Ethics established |
| 1994 | Police raid office of Bishop of Parramatta in search of documents related to sex abuse; pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale jailed; Catalyst for Renewal formed to promote change; Catholic Church becomes a full member of National Council of Churches in Australia |
| 1995 | Mary MacKillop declared Blessed; opening of Mary MacKillop Place Museum; Gerard Brennan appointed Chief Justice of the High Court; Closure of St Patrick’s Seminary, Manly |
| 1996 | Bishops establish “Towards Healing” and “Melbourne Response’ processes to deal with complaints of abuse of minors by clergy; William Deane appointed Governor-General; George Pell succeeds Frank Little as Archbishop of Melbourne |
| 1997 | Paul Collins’ Papal Power published; federal Euthanasia Laws Act of Kevin Andrews overturns NT euthanasia law |
| 1998 | Catholic spokesmen agree to thawing and destruction of thousands of frozen embryos left over from IVF; ACT legislation providing for information and cooling off period for women seeking abortion passed but ignored; Australian Marist Brothers establish Lavalla School, Phnom Penh for students with physical disabilities; Paul Keating calls Fr Frank Brennan “the meddling priest” for comments on Wik debate |
| 1999 | Threat of Australian military action significant in the formation of Asia’s second Christian nation, East Timor, international force led by Peter Cosgrove; David Coffey’s Deus Trinitas published |
| 2000 | Spires of St Mary’s Cathedral Sydney completed, with generous State government assistance |
| 2001 | George Pell appointed Archbishop of Sydney; opening of Melbourne John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family |
| 2002 | Malcolm Turnbull makes public his conversion to Catholicism |
| 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; Pell makes controversial comments on Islam and climate change |
| 2007 | Bishop Geoffrey Robinson‘s Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church published; ABC TV series The Abbey follows young women trying out life at Jamberoo |
| 2008 | World Youth Day held in Sydney, with visit of Pope Benedict XVI (newsreel); former Deputy PM Tim Fischer appointed first resident Australian ambassador to the Holy See |
| 2010 | Mary MacKillop canonised, the first Australian to be canonised (newsreel) |
| 2011 | Bishop Bill Morris removed as Bishop of Toowoomba for unstated reasons; first issue of Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics |
| 2013 | Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister; Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies launched in Hobart |
| 2014 | Pell appointed Prefect of new Vatican Secretariat for the Economy; Anthony Fisher appointed Archbishop of Sydney |
| 2015 | Hobart archbishop subject to anti-discrimination complaint over statement on marriage; Anthony Fisher and Peter Singer debate euthanasia at Sydney Town Hall; Abbott government accepts extra 12,000 Syrian refugees from persecuted minorities |
| 2016 | Plenary Council announced for 2020; Vatican suspends Pell-supported audit by PwC; Vincent Nguyễn Văn Long Australia’s first Asian-born bishop; Augustine Academy founded |
| 2017 | Final report of Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse severely criticises Catholic Church (more); Notre Dame Priory established in Tasmania |
| 2018 | Former Governor-General Bill Hayden baptised aged 85; Archbishop Philip Wilson’s conviction for covering up abuse overturned |
| 2019 | Victorian law requires priests to break seal of confession in abuse cases; Carmelite nuns reestablished in western NSW; cause of beatification and canonisation of Eileen O’Connor opened; last edition of Annals Australasia on the death of editor Paul Stenhouse; Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network formed |
| 2020 | Cardinal Pell freed from prison after 13 months when unanimous decision of High Court quashes his conviction for sexual abuse; churches closed during coronavirus pandemic |
Australian Catholic Historical Society
Saint Carthage’s Catholic Church in Silverton, NSW. Photographer: Tim Nichols.