ONE LAND · 6 ATLASES
History of Australia in maps
Australia as it appears in 6 interactive history atlases, from 1806 to 1991: Australia. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
WW2 is free — every chapter. Try chapters 1–2 of any 2 other atlases (3 with a free account). Opening a new atlas uses one of them. Membership opens all 21 — Join.
Free printable Industrial Revolution study guide, sent by email ↓
What was Australia before it was Australia? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History atlases — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.
Australia · Industrial Revolution
| Colony or dependency — the opening position | |
| Colony or dependency |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Australia · WWI
Australia sent 416,000 volunteers from under five million people — no conscription; two referendums refused it — and counted Gallipoli’s 25 April as its coming of age (Ch. 6). Monash’s Australian Corps in 1918 helped write the modern combined-arms method at Amiens (Ch. 12). One in five who embarked never returned.
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories — the opening position |
Australia · Road to WW2
| Democracies & powers fighting them — the opening position |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Australia · WW2
Fought in the Mediterranean, then — after Singapore fell and Darwin was bombed — turned from Britain to America for protection: a permanent strategic reorientation. New Guinea’s Kokoda Track is Australia’s Thermopylae.
| Western Allies — the opening position |
Australia · Cold War
| NATO & core Western allies — the opening position |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Australia · Refugee crises
Australia was a resettlement country in both crises. After 1947 it took about 182,000 DPs, binding them to two years of work wherever the government sent them, and from 1975 it resettled about 138,000 Indochinese, its first large Asian intake after the end of the White Australia policy. The 2,000 or so boat people who sailed all the way to Darwin in 1976–81 began an argument about arrivals by sea that continues.
| Western bloc or democracy — the opening position |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Related
THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE
Join the Dispatch — a short welcome series, then a letter when a new atlas opens — and a printable atlas study guide of your choice is yours now, free.
NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME