| 60,000BC | Years of Aboriginal residence. |
| 1606 | Quiros searches for Terra Australis and names part of Vanuatu ‘La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo’. |
| 1641 | Catholic mission established in Timor |
| 1787 | Fr Thomas Walshe asks Lord Sydney to be allowed to go to Botany Bay with First Fleet; no known reply |
| 1788 | Jan 23 First Fleet enters Sydney Cove; Jan 25 La Perouse enters Botany Bay; Abbé Mongez, his chaplain, celebrates the first Mass within Australian territory; death and burial of Fr Receveur; 3 Feb 1788 First Anglican service. |
| 1792 | Catholic settlers at Parramatta petition Governor Phillip for a chaplain but without result; Pierson’s Point, Derwent River, named after Ambroise Pierson, chaplain and astronomer on l’Espérance; Abbé Louis Ventenat records Tasmanian native customs |
| 1793 | Fr José de Mesa, chaplain of Malaspina’s expedition, helped to recover from illness by chaplain Richard Johnson “with a kindness, spirit of unity and a simplicity that were truly of the Gospel” |
| 1795 | First recorded celebration of St Patrick’s Day |
| 1798 | Rebellion in Ireland leads to transportation of many who will become leaders of the Church in NSW |
| 1800 | Fr James Harold & Fr James Dixon arrive as convicts |
| 1801 | Third convict priest, Fr Peter O’Neil, arrives and is sent to Norfolk Island |
| 1803 | Governor King proclaims toleration of Catholics; Dixon says first public Mass and wedding |
| 1804 | March 4 Castle Hill rebellion of Irish convicts; Dixon’s permit withdrawn but appointed by Rome as ‘Prefect Apostolic of New Holland‘ |
| 1809 | Fr Dixon returns to Ireland |
| 1810 | Fr Harold departs, leaving Australia without priests |
| 1812 | Ex-convict Sydney businessman Michael Hayes writes to his brother in Rome asking for priests |
| 1817 | Fr Jeremiah O’Flynn arrives – without government credentials |
| 1818 | O’Flynn arrested and deported; worship continues at the house of James Dempsey, Catherine Fitzpatrick trains choir |
| 1819 | Visitors on the French ship Uranie communicate with Sydney Catholics |
| 1820 | Fr Philip Conolly and Fr John Therry arrive as official chaplains; meeting held to raise money for a chapel |
| 1821 | Conolly moves to Van Diemen’s Land, Therry left in charge in NSW; First Catholic school at Parramatta. Governor Macquarie lays foundation stone for St Mary’s Church, on site of later cathedral. |
| 1826 | Fr Daniel Power as chaplain; Therry moves to Parramatta. |
| 1828 | First census of NSW shows 69% of the white population Protestant and 30% Catholic. |
| 1829 | WA settlement begins. |
| 1830 | Catholic Emancipation Act promulgated for NSW. |
| 1831 | Fr CV Dowling OP arrives as chaplain. |
| 1832 | Fr John McEncroe arrives, and Attorney-General John Plunkett. |
| 1833 | Feb 18 Dr WB Ullathorne arrives in Sydney as Vicar-General; NSW Legislative Council makes grants for the appointment of four new chaplains, the completion of three unfinished churches, and £800 a year for schools and schoolteachers. |
| 1834 | John Bede Polding created bishop and appointed vicar-apostolic of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land |
| 1835 | Polding arrives in Sydney as bishop; first resident clergy appointed to districts. |
| 1836 | Governor Bourke’s Church Act provides government funds for all major churches; John Baptist Pompallier consecrated bishop for missions in Oceania; South Australia first settlers; Financing secured for Catholic orphanage; foundation of St Patrick’s Church, Parramatta, |
| 1837 | Ullathorne’s pamphlet The Catholic Mission in Australasia published in London and attracts Catholic support for mission; St Bede’s Church, Appin designed by Therry; St John’s Church, Richmond, Tas, completed |
| 1838 | Pompallier takes up residence in Auckland; first Marist priests at Woolloomooloo; St Mary’s Seminary opened at Bishop’s House; Fr Goold osa, Fr John Brady, Caroline Chisholm, Sisters of Charity arrive in Sydney; NSW Attorney-General John Plunkett achieves the conviction of seven perpetrators of the Myall Creek Massacre; Ullathorne’s pamphlet The Horrors of Transportation. |
| 1839 | First Catholic newspaper Australasian Chronicle founded; first mass in Melbourne |
| 1840 | End of Transportation to NSW; authorities alarmed by an Irish demonstration at St Patrick’s, Church Hill. |
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