1901

The White Australia policy

The Commonwealth of Australia formed a policy that would change the history of Australia forever, the White Australia Policy. This policy concluded that the colour of everyone who came into the country, must be white, unless you were able to succeed in the dictation test. The dictation test started of as a ordinary English test, but it was soon turned into a test where the tester could chose from any European languages to make it harder to exclude non-whites. The policy also restricted the rights and freedoms of non-whites including Aboriginal people.

Dictation Example

1909

The stolen generation

The stolen generation is the number of Aboriginal and half caste generations that the Government ''stole'' from their families thinking it was protecting them. The children were put into church missions, and badly mistreated.  They were made to sleep in cramped beds, to speak English and completely removed from Aboriginal culture. The exact number of children removed is unknown, but some say between 20,000 to 25,000 or one in three. It is unbelievable that the government and "protector" could think that stealing the kids was helping them.

1939

Aboriginals and WWII

In 1939, about 3000 Indigenous Australians went to war. In the beginning, the English people didn't want have the Aboriginals in the war because they didn't trust them, but the threat of an Immediate Japanese invasion forced the leaders to allow them to enroll. The Aboriginals wanted to go war because When they went to war, they received more food, got payed a lot, and most of all, they felt like they were being treated equally. Meanwhile, Back in Australia, the government was controlling Australia a bit differently. The rights of Indigenous Australians was shifted yet again, not in a good way. Blackouts and Brownouts were enforced, meaning that Aboriginals could not go out of their homes.

1948

Australian Citizenship

In 1948, the title "Australian Citizen" was created and was given to anyone who was born in Australia including Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. To be an Australian citizen, you had to abide with law, defend Australia if the need arises and pay your tax. Even though they were now recognised as "Australian citizens", Aboriginals were still unable to vote until the next year.

1949

Voting Rights

  Louder Than One Voice

Aboriginal people are given the right to enroll and vote in Commonwealth elections if they have enrolled for State elections or have served in the Armed Forces. At that time, Indigenous Australians in Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory were still not allowed to vote in state elections, meaning they did not have the right to vote in federal elections. 
It was in March 1962, that the right to vote was moved on to all Aboriginal people by the Menzies Liberal and Country Party government.

Electoral Milestones - Timetable for Indigenous Australians

1958

FCAA established

The Federal Council for the Advancment of Aborigines (Later changed to the Federal Council for the Advancment of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders(FCAATSI)) was established to end discrimination and mistreatment of Aboriginals by both Black and White people. Their goal was to help the Aboriginals who had less voting, wage, land and education rights.

1967

1967 Referendum

90.77% of Australian community voted "yes" to count Aboriginal people in the census and give the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Aboriginal people. This was a significant amount Australians, willing to count aboriginals as "human" rather than under the Flora and Fauna act. The first census including Aboriginals was in 1968, a year after the vote.