January 2026
For the period 1770 to 2025, this Timeline updates sources such as the Chronology in Jupp (2021:859-867) and draws from other timelines such as SBS Special Broadcasting Services (SBS, 2023) and Racism No Way. The National Museum of Australia and National Archives of Australia produce articles on specific topics with related links for schools. The Parliamentary Library is a useful and authoritative source of information on migration statistics and policies (Parliament of Australia, 2025).
These sources do not always totally agree on dates and details of events.
1770 Captain James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain (Jupp 2001:859).
1788 The First Fleet of 11 ships brought 850 convicts from Britain and their Marine guards and officers, led by Governor Arthur Phillip. They settled at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson (or Sydney Harbour as it is now known) on January 26, the date now celebrated nationally as Australia Day. Aboriginal Australians describe this as an invasion (Lucas and Young (1994:106).
1793 The first free settlers arrive from England (Parliament of New South Wales, 2025).
1804 Settlement of Hobart Town (Jupp 2001:859).
1824 A penal settlement established at Moreton Bay, close to what is now Brisbane (Jupp 2001:860).
1829 The first free immigrants arrive at the Swan River Settlement in Western Australia (Jupp 2001: 860; ABC 2023).
1831 The British Government’s system of assisted passage immigration is approved, using funds from the sale of land in Australia.
Workers from Britain were encouraged to apply (SBS 2013)
1832 The first assisted migrants depart for Australia.
The system continued for much of the rest of the century, representing about 70% of all immigrants between 1832 and 1850 (National Museum of Australia, 2022).
1834 The first European settlement in Port Phillip District began, later to be named Victoria (Jupp 2001:860).
1835 The ‘bounty system’ began, whereby private employers who funded the passage of migrants received incentives such as refunds of passage costs. Melbourne founded (National Museum of Australia).
1836 The first immigrants arrive in South Australia (Jupp 2001:860).
1840 The end of transportation of convicts to New South Wales (Jupp 2001:860).
1842 Moreton Bay officially opened to free settlers (Jupp 2001:860).
1849 Caroline Chisholm's Family Colonization Loan Society established to encourage family migration (Jupp 2001:861).
1850 The transportation of convicts to Western Australia began (Jupp 2001:860).
1851 Immigrants were attracted to Victoria and New South Wales after gold was discovered (Jupp 2001:861). Large numbers of immigrants came to gold-bearing areas of Australia, notably Victoria (National Museum of Australia 2024b).
1852 The British Government abolished the transportation of convicts to the Eastern colonies (Jupp 2001:861).
1853 The first Chinese gold diggers arrived in Australia. (National Museum of Australia 2025).
1855 There were an estimated 20,000 Chinese miners on the Victorian diggings (National Museum of Australia 2025). The Victorian legislature passed anti-Chinese legislation to limit Chinese entry and restrict them to mining ‘Chinese protectorates’. Other colonies follow suit (Jupp 200:861).
1861 New South Wales imposed restrictions on Chinese entering the colony (Jupp 2001:861). 3.3 % of the population of Australia had been born in China (National Museum of Australia 2024b)
1863 Large scale importation of Kanaks from the Pacific Islands to work on Queensland plantations begins (Jupp 2001:861).
1867 The transportation of convicts to Western Australia ceased (Jupp 2001:861).
1867 New South Wales repealed most restrictions on Chinese immigration (Jupp 2001:861).
1868 The last convicts to be transported to Australia arrived in Western Australia (Jupp 2001:860).
1869 The Queensland Polynesian Labourers Act regulated the indenture of workers from the Pacific Islands (National Museum of Australia 2022).
1869 Permanent settlement at present-day Darwin was established (Jupp 2001:860; ABC 2022).
1869 Captain Daggers was accused of kidnapping Pacific Islanders to work on Queensland plantations, but no conviction was recorded ((Jupp 2001:862).
1883 Government support for assisted immigration to Victoria almost ceased, after a steady decline during the previous decade (Public Record Office Victoria 2025).
1883 Assisted immigration to Queensland peaked for the century at nearly 25,000. (National Museum of Australia 2025).
1886 Assisted immigration to New South Wales and South Australia ceased (Jupp 2001:862).
1888 New South Wales re-introduced restrictions on Chinese immigration. Victoria and South Australia passed similar legislation (Jupp 2001:862).
1890 The Eastern colonies entered an economic depression that brought a virtual halt to immigration during the following decade (Jupp 2001:862).
1892 The Western Australian goldrush began attracting migrants from the Eastern colonies and overseas. The population of Perth tripled from 8.447 in 1891 to 27,553 in 1901 (Golden Industry Group 2017).
1901 December. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act is passed by the British Parliament, federating the six colonies. Australia becomes a self-governing member of the British Empire and Federal elections are held (Museums of History 2025).
1901 One of first pieces of national legislation passed by the new Federal Parliament was the Immigration Restriction Act, implementing the White Australia Policy. This introduced a 'dictation test' with the prime purpose of excluding non-European migrants (Jupp 2001:863).
1901 The Pacific Islanders Labourers Act enabled the deportation of Pacific Islanders, most of whom were working as indentured labourers, after the end of 1906 (Jupp 2001:863; National Archives of Australia 2005).
1901 Although the Commonwealth took constitutional control of immigration, administrative control remained with the States until 1920 (Jupp 2002:15).
1901 The first Commonwealth of Australia British passport was issued for the Briscoes to travel to Britain via Russia (Passport Timeline: Doulman and Lee 2005:226)
1901 The policy of assimilation is confirmed with non-British migrants expected to become indistinguishable from Australians of British background (RacismNoWay, 2025).
1903 The Naturalization Act excluded non-Europeans from the right to apply for naturalization (Jupp 2001:863).
1904 Deportation of Pacific Islanders from Queensland was put into operation (Jupp 2001:863).
1906 The assisted immigration of Britons revived (Jupp 2001:863).
1912 Kingsley Fairbridge established the Child Emigration Society (Jupp 2001:863).
1913 Between 1853 and 1913 1.91 million people emigrated from the British Isles to Australia and New Zealand. Some 723,790 went as assisted migrants to Australia (Hotton 2024: Table 1).
1914 The First World War halted immigration. The War Precautions Act required registration and control of the movements of 'enemy aliens'. Several thousand Australian residents of German origin were interned during the war (Jupp 2001:863).
1917 The Naturalization Act amended to grant naturalization only after applicants renounced their own nationality and could read and write English (Australian War Memorial 2025
1918 The Commonwealth Government assumed responsibility for measures, such as quarantine, to contain the Spanish Flu pandemic (Curson and McCracken, 2025).
1919 The British Government’s Overseas Settlement Scheme offered free passages to ex-service men and women to emigrate to countries in the British Empire (Tritton 2013)
1920 The Commonwealth Government assumed responsibility for migrant selection (Jupp 2001:863).
1922 Britain's Empire Settlement Act passed (Jupp 2001:863), under which about 212,000 British ‘suitable persons’ were assisted to move to Australia in the following decade (Tritton 2013).
1925 '£34 million agreement' made between Britain and Australia for schemes to increase migration’ (Jupp 2001:863).
1929 The Great Depression began, bringing a dramatic loss in Net Overseas Migration (ABS 2021 Graph 1.1). The Australian Government halted the assisted migration scheme (Jupp 2001:863).
1930 Entry of non-British Europeans banned (RacismNoWay Timeline 2025).
1934 Riots in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, against non-British immigrants (Chiat and Cummins 2016).
1936 The Commonwealth Government allowed entry of Jewish refugees (National Archives of Australia 2025).
1938 Following a conference of 32 countries at Evian, in France, Australia commits itself to accepting 15,000 refugees from Nazism over three years (York 2003).
1939 Second World War began, and enemy nationals are interned. Immigration virtually ceases for the duration of the war (Jupp 2001:864)
1940 September. The Dunera transport carrying 2,542 ‘enemy aliens’, two-thirds being Jewish refugees from mainland Europe, arrived in Australia. Many ‘Dunera Boys remained after their release in 1941 making ‘a significant contribution to the nation’s economic, social and cultural life.’ (National Museum of Australia, 2022).
1941 The first convoy of US troops arrived in Brisbane. Between 1941 and 1945 nearly one million American troops would pass through Australia (Anzac Portal 2025).
1943 Inter-departmental Committee on Migration Policy (Love 2022:3).
1945 The Commonwealth Department of Immigration was established with Arthur Calwell as the first Minister for Immigration (Jupp 2001: 864). Calwell established an annual population growth planning target of 2% - 1% by birthrate and 1% by migration (Love 2022:3).
1945 The Assisted Migration Passage Scheme was launched as part of the Chifley Government’s ‘populate or perish’ program. Immigrants from the UK who paid £10 for their fare were nicknamed ‘Ten Pound Poms’ (Quinn 2022).
1947 The first post-war British migrants arrive. Australia agrees with the IRO (International Refugee Organization) to settle displaced persons, with the first group, mainly Baltic immigrants, arriving in November. The first Commonwealth reception and training centre for non-British migrants established at Bonegilla, Victoria (Jupp 2001: 860- 864).
1947 ‘A White Australia: Australia’s population problem’ published (Borrie et al., 1947).
1948 Migration agreement made with Malta (Jupp 2001: 864).
1949 Australian citizenship created by the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948. (National Archives of Australia 2025, Jupp 2001: 864).
1950s Assisted passage agreements made with eleven
European countries (Jupp 2001: 864).
1953 Australia and the Migrant published justifying the White Australia policy (Holt et al.1953).
1954 Australia ratified the United Nations Convention on Refugees which defined ‘refugees’ and their rights (Dastyari 2013).
1955 Australia's one-millionth post-war migrant arrived (Jupp 2001: 864).
1957-82 'Bring out a Briton' campaign initiated to encourage community groups and employers to sponsor British migrant families (Hassam 2007).
1958 The Migration Act abolished the 'dictation test' and introduces a system of entry permits/ visas (Jupp 2001:865).
1963-65 The Committee of Economic Enquiry worked on the Vernon Report which saw population growth as an economic objective in itself and recommended maintaining the net immigration rate at 100,000 a year (Love 2022: 7)
1966 March. A review of immigration led to new laws that weakened the White Australia Policy (National Museum of Australia, 2025).
1960s Australia gradually followed the example of the USA and Canada by eliminating racial discrimination in the selection of immigrants (Appleyard 1985:178).
1971-75 The National Population Inquiry also known as the Borrie Commission (Love 2022, Australian Dictionary of Biography 2025).
1972 Migrant selection policy becomes non-discriminatory on grounds of race, colour or nationality (Jupp 2001:865).
1973 Discrimination between British subjects and other migrants in residence requirements for citizenship removed (Jupp 2022:220).
1973 March Informal open-door practices between Australia and New Zealand existing since the 1920s were formalized in the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement (TTTA) (Department of Home Affairs, New Zealanders in Australia Fact Sheet 2025).
1974-75 Whitlam Government limited immigration to 80,000 per year (Love 2022:8)
1975 The Racial Discrimination Act made it unlawful to discriminate on grounds of race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin (Australian Human Rights Commission 1975).
1975 February First Report of the National Population Inquiry tabled in the House of Representatives. It stated that submissions showed that the climate of opinion in Australia was against returning to a target of 100,000 immigrants a year (Love 2022: 8).
1975 February Clyde Cameron, Labor Minister for Labor and Immigration, replaced the Immigration Planning Council with the Australian Population and Immigration Council and made a speech on the need to balance ‘populate or perish’ against ‘zero population growth’ to match available resources in a stable situation (Love 2022:9).
1976 Michael MacKeller, Liberal Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, supported ‘a commitment to population growth, with immigration as the prime factor in that growth’ but addressing any adverse effects (Love 2022:10).
1976 The arrival of first Vietnamese 'boat people' (Jupp 2001:865)
1977 Publication of the Australian Population and Immigration Council’s Green Paper on ‘Immigration Policies and Australia’s Population. MacKeller supports immigration to prevent Australia becoming a ‘stagnant society’ and the ‘only controllable factor’ to achieve population growth (Love 2022:11)
1978 The Fraser Government accepts recommendations of the 'Galbally Report' on migrant programs and services, including the encouragement of multiculturalism (Jupp 2001:866).
1979 The Community Refugee Settlement Scheme was established (Refugee Council of Australia 2025).
1981 The assisted passage scheme was terminated for non-refugee migrants (Jupp 2001:866).
1981 July All travelers, including New Zealanders and Australians required to carry passports for trans-Tasman travel for the first time (Department of Home Affairs New Zealanders in Australia Fact Sheet 2025).
1983 The Migration Act amendments introduced into Parliament ended favoured treatment of British subjects as migrants (Jupp 2001:866)
1984 The arrival of first substantial group of refugees from Africa, mostly Ethiopians (Jupp 2001:866).
1984 March Geoffrey Blainey made speech attacking Asian immigration followed by a flood of debate over his book on the same theme All for Australia (Blainey 1984).
1986 Australia abolishes jus soli ; citizenship by birthright, to prevent the children of people temporarily or illegally in Australia gaining citizenship,
(Woods 2025).
1988 August John Howard opposition leader launched the One Australia Policy to reduce Asian immigration and abandon the multicultural policy.
1988 Release of the FitzGerald Report of the Committee to Advise on Australia’s Immigration Policies: ‘Immigration: A Commitment to Australia’. This recommended a long-term planned migration intake as a10-year rolling forecast and lifting the intake from 140,000 to 150,000 (Love 2022:12).
1989 June. After events in Tiananmen Square, Prime Minister Bob Hawke offers asylum to 42,000 Chinese nationals (mostly students) in Australia (Fang and Weedon 2020).
1970s and 1980s some 120,00 Southern Asians migrated to Australia (Love 2022).
1989-90 Settler arrivals in four major categories: family migration, skilled migration, humanitarian migration, and special eligibility, accounted for 41%, 35%, 10% and 14% respectively of total settler arrivals (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1991).
1990 The Bureau of Immigration Research, established in 1989 within the Department of Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs, held a National Immigration Outlook Conference where Prime Minister Hawke stated that he was a ‘higher immigration man’ and committed the National Population Council to examine the impacts of population increase (Love 2022:13).
1991 Australia deports Vazquez, a mentally ill Cuban refugee with a criminal record, his return from Singapore led to changes to the Migration Amendment Bill 1991 to ensure that he would be imprisoned for life (Neumann 2021).
1992 Mandatory detention for asylum seekers was introduced by the Migration Reform Act (Human Rights Commission 2025).
1992’ Population and Australia’s Future’ report published by government distinguished between ‘pro-active’ and ‘responsive’ population policies and argued for a positive role for economic migration but not for immigration to address population ageing (Love 2022:14).
1994 Migration Regulations introduced (Federal Register of Legislation 2025).
1994 September Australia introduces a universal visa requirement. To maintain Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement a Special Category Visa is automatically granted to New Zealand citizens on arrival (Department of Home Affairs, New Zealanders in Australia, Fact Sheet, 2025).
1994 Mandatory Detention expanded to include all ‘unlawful non-citizens’ (Human Rights Commission 2025).
1994 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Long Term Strategies tabled a report on ‘Australia’s Population “Carrying Capacity”’ which argued that population policy and immigration should be treated as separate issues (Love 2022:16).
1997. Legislation introduced a two-year waiting period for migrant social security income support payments except the age pension, sole parent pension and disability support pension (which already had residence-based qualification criteria) (Koller 1997).
1997 Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party founded on an explicit platform to reduce allegedly massive immigration numbers and ‘stop skilled visa rorts that allow cheap foreign labour to undercut Australian workers’ a theme dating back before 1901(Scalmer 1999).
1999- 2000 5,870 unauthorized boat arrivals 94% more than in the previous year (ABS Yearbook 2002).
2001 August, the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa rescued 438 asylum seekers, mainly Hazaras from Afghanistan, from a sinking Indonesian fishing boat in the Indian Ocean (National Museum of Australia 2024).
2001 The dictum ‘we decide who comes to this country and the
circumstances under which they come’ became John Howard’s pitch to voters during the 2001 federal election campaign,
(Neumann 2021:227-228).
2001 19 October. An Indonesian fishing boat SIEVX, bound for Christmas Island, sank in international waters; 353 asylum seekers died (Armbruster 2021).
2001 The Howard Government introduced ‘The Pacific Solution’ which excised outlying parts of Australia such as Christmas Island so that asylum seeker arrivals could not automatically apply for an Australia visa (SBS 2013).
2001 Under the ‘Pacific Solution’ Manus Island and Nauru detention centres opened; they closed for the first time in 2007 (Baker 2021).
2002 Senate Maritime Incident Report. Chapter 10 ‘Pacific Solution: Negotiations and Agreements. Chapter 11 ‘Pacific Solution’: Outcomes and Costs (Parliament of Australia 2002)..
2002 The Government releases first ‘Intergenerational Report’ as part of the Budget projecting immigration rates forward for 40 years (Love 2022:17).
2006 Productivity Commission issues report: Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth’ it argued for increased skill levels of migrants but considered it ‘unlikely that immigration will have a substantial impact on income per capita and productivity’ (Love 2022:18).
2007 Prime Minister John Howard announced the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs would be renamed the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (Topsfield 2007).
2007-8 The First Rudd government, encouraged by asylum advocates, abolished Temporary Protection visas, boat turn backs and offshore processing. This led to a surge in boat arrivals, who were held in detention centres around Australia (Asylum Seekers Resource Centre 2016)..
2008 Prime Minister Rudd begins a series of speeches promoting ‘a big Australia’ and a continued expansion of the immigration program (Love
2022:19).
2008-12 Pilot Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) began. Full scheme began July 2012.
2010 Julia Gillard replaced Keven Rudd as Prime Minister, she supports a ‘sustainable Australia’ not ‘a big Australia’. Minister for Immigration and Citizenship deplores increases in temporary migration so changes to student visas implemented. (Love 2022:20).
2010 Department of Immigration and Citizenship issues paper “Immigration Labour Supply and Per Capita Gross Domestic Product: Australia 2010-2050’. It argued that ‘migration in the range of 160,00 to 210,00 provides the most beneficial impact on the rate of growth of GDP per capita’ (DIC 2019).
2011 The Government negotiated the ‘Malaysian Solution’ under which 800 boat people would be sent to Malasia in exchange for 4,000 refugees in Malaysia who would be settled in Australia (McAdam 2011).
2011 August High Court ruled M/70/2011 v Minister for Immigration that the “Malaysian Solution’ was illegal because Malaysia was not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention and did not offer legal protection to asylum seekers (O’Sullivan 2011).
2012 Report of the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers Chaired by former Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston (Andrews 2021 a).
2012 Following the Expert Panel Report, the Gillard Government reopened the offshore asylum seeker processing centres at Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. An ‘enduring’ new agreement with Nauru was signed in 2021 (Andrews 2021a).
2012 August. The Gillard government increased the humanitarian intake but also introduced measures to deter asylum seekers from considering an ‘irregular maritime journey’ to Australia. Undocumented asylum seekers were officially labelled ‘irregular maritime arrivals’ or IMAs (Garnier, 2014).
2013 Kevin Rudd returned as Prime Minister and confirmed that ‘no one who comes to Australia by boat will be resettled here’ (9NEWS 2003).
2013 July. The Australian and Papua New Guinean Governments agreed to finalize the Regional Resettlement Arrangement (RRA) authorizing regional processing in Papua New Guinea of people who have attempted to travel to Australia by boat (Andrews 2021b).
2013 September The Abbott led Liberals win the election with the slogan: ‘Stop the boats’ (Huynh 2023).
2013 September Army officer (subsequently Senator) Jim Moylan ‘appointed by the new Abbott government to design’ Operation Sovereign Borders’, the military-led policy to stop asylum seeker boats reaching Australia.’ (Jervis-Bardy 2023).
2014 The ‘Cambodian Solution’ involved Australia paying the Cambodian Government $50 million to settle an eventual 10 (sic) refugees who had been held on Nauru (International Detention Coalition 2014).
2014 The ‘Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 deliberately removes most references to the 1951 Convention from the Migration Act 1958.’ (Koser 2015).
2015 The Border Protection Services of Immigration and Customs were merged into a single Australian Border Protection Force (Department of Home Affairs 2015).
2015 A History of the disestablished Department of Immigration was published by the Department of Home Affairs to celebrate 70th Anniversary (Department of Home Affairs 2015).
2015 12,000 Syrian refugees to be accepted for entry to Australia (Hurst 2015).
2016 The Productivity Commission publishes the report on its inquiry into ‘Migrant Intake into Australia’ which required tradeoffs between economic, social and environmental aspects of wellbeing (Love 2022:25).
2017 Immigration and Border Protection bureaucracies amalgamated (Department of Home Affairs 2025).
2017 Closure of regional processing centre for asylum seekers on Manus Island after PNG court order (Baker 2021).
2017 December. Home Affairs and Border Control amalgamated into a single Ministry led by Peter Dutton (Department of Home Affairs 2025).
2018 March. Temporary Work (Skilled) visa 457 abolished and replaced with the Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa to support businesses in addressing genuine skill shortages.’ (Department of Home Affairs 2017; Wright 2018).
2018 ‘195,000 people on bridging visas, given to migrants whose substantive applications are currently being processed.’ (Gothe-Snape 2022).
2018 June. Lowy Institute Opinion Poll found 54% of Australians thought immigration numbers ‘too high’ and 14% ‘too low’ (Lowy Institute 2018).
2018 Treasury and Department of Home Affairs joint research paper: Shaping a nation: Population growth and immigration over time’ (Love 2022:26).
2018 July. Global Talent Scheme Visa 858 introduced. This was closed in 2024 and replaced by visa 858 National Innovation Visa (Department of Home Affairs 2025).
2018 August. Alan Tudge appointed Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population, David Colemen was Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs (Love 2022:27).
2018 December. Treasurer’s Forum on Population formed to advance consultation with states and local government (Love 2022:28).
2019. January. Modern Slavery Act came into force (Attorney-General’s Department 2025).
2018 After a defeat in Parliament, the Government must allow sick refugees detained in Nauru to receive medical treatment in Australia (Refugee Council of Australia 2020).
2019 March. The Government released ‘Planning for Australia’s future population’ which proposed a reduction of immigrant numbers from 190,000 to 160,000 (Love 2022:28).
2019 April. 2019-20 Budget provides for cuts to permanent visas from 190,000 to 160,000 for next four years and changes to temporary visas to encourage movement to regional areas (Sherell 2019).
2019 The Australian Government establishes a Centre for Population in the Treasury Department transferring population from the infrastructure portfolio to Treasury (Horvat 2023),
2019 May. Prime Minister Morrison appointed David Coleman as the single minister for migrant services as the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs with responsibility for the settlement of refugees, humanitarian entrants and migrants and programs for English language skills all within the Department of Home Affairs
(Open Australia 2025).
2019 August. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) issued its ‘Vision for National Population and Planning Framework’.
2019 September. The Australian Government published Planning for Australia’s Future, emphasizing the ‘shared responsibility’ of Commonwealth, States and Territories, and Local governments for managing population growth Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 2019).
2019. October. All asylum seekers removed from asylum facilities on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (Baker 2019).
2020 On March 20, the Morrison Government closed Australia’s borders to all non-citizens and non-residents to try to contain the spread of COVID-19 (Parliament of Australia 2020)
2020 All passengers who arrived in Australia after midnight on Saturday, 27 March put into mandatory quarantine in hotels for a fortnight (Worthington 2020).
2020 May. National Federation Reform Council formed including National Cabinet Reform Committee on Population and Migration to replace the Treasurers’ Forum on Population (Love 2022).
2021 September. The Australian and Nauruan Governments signed a memorandum of understanding to establish an enduring regional processing capability in Nauru (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2021)
2021. October. The Australian and Papua New Guinean (PNG) Governments agreed to finalize the Regional Resettlement Arrangement (RRA) at the end of 2021. ‘...Australian Government regional processing contracts in PNG ceased on 31 December 2021. From 1 January 2022, the PNG Government assumed full management of regional processing services in PNG and full responsibility for those who remain.’ (Andrews 2021b).
2020-21 Net overseas migration showed a loss of 88,800 people, the second most negative outcome on record (ABS 2021: Graph 1.1).
2021. Immigration fell 71% to 145,800 from 506,900 arrivals a year earlier
Emigration fell 25% to 234,600 from 314,200 departures a year earlier (ABS 2021).
2021 November. International border restrictions relaxed for fully vaccinated travelers from Australia and selected countries (AIHW 2024: Figure 1). (RBA 2024).
2022 January. Tennis star Novak Djokovic held in a detention hotel, drawing attention to the 32 refugees who had been held there for years (Groch 2022).
2022 February. International borders reopened, the Australian Government used extraordinary measures to increase arrivals of students and working holiday makers.’ (Rizvi 2023). Foreign holidaymakers allowed to enter all states and territories without going into quarantine, apart from Western Australia which re- opened in March (Goodall 2022).
2022 Australia accepted New Zealand’s offer, first made in 2013, to resettle 450 refugees, who had attempted to arrive in Australia by boat and were in detention in Nauru and Australia (ABC News 2022).
2022 February. Australia’s international borders (except for Western Australia) reopened for vaccinated travelers (AIHW 2024: Figure 1).
2022 March. Western Australia’s border reopens (AIHW 2024: Figure 1).
2022 April. The Australian Government announced that the Seasonal Worker Program would be integrated into the new Pacific Island Labour Mobility Scheme (PALM) covering 9 Pacific Countries and Timor Leste (Curtain 2025).
2022. May. Labor Acting Home Affairs Minister Jim Chalmers announced that the Tamil asylum seekers the Nadesalingam family, the public face of Australia's hardline stance on boat arrivals, were granted bridging visas to leave community detention in Perth to return to the supportive central Queensland town of Biloela (Semmler and McGhee, 2022).
2022 A Gratton Institute Report calculated that the average migrant who arrived under the Business Innovation and Investment Programme cost the taxpayer A$120,000 over their time in Australia because of their senior age on arrival (Coates and Reysenbach 2022).
2023 May. Survey shows 16% of recent migrant workers being paid less than national minimum wage (Coates and Reysenbach 2023).
2023 July. New direct pathway to citizenship for New Zealanders who had lived in Australia for four years (Department of Home Affairs, New Zealanders in Australia, Fact Sheet, 2005).
2023 In 2022-23 Australia recorded a record high net overseas migration of 518,000 (Australian Bureau of Statistics Migration Portal 2025).
2023. February. The Albanese government abolished Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas (SHEVs) by providing a pathway to permanent residence via permanent Resolution of Status (RoS) visa for around 19,000 legacy boat arrivals living in Australia since before 1st January 2014 (Refugee Council of Australia 2023).
2023 Intensive public Review of Modern Slavery Act (Attorney-General’s Department 2025).
2023 The Australian Government issued ‘A Review of the Migration System’
2023 The United Nations Committee Against Torture Report listed concerns about the treatment of people held in immigration detention centres and subject to Australia’s offshore processing policies (Coade 2023).
2023. October. Department of Home Affairs releases Rapid Review Report-Exploitation of the Visa System (Department of Home Affairs 2023)
2023 November ‘The High Court determined in NZYQ v Minister for Immigration that it is unlawful for the Australian Government to continue to detain a person where there is no real prospect that their removal from Australia will be practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future.’ (Human Rights Law Centre 2024).
2023. November. In the world’s first bilateral agreement on climate mobility the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Friendship Treaty offers 280 annual migration places for Tuvaluans plus security guarantees to aid in response to climate disasters (Gamboa and Goh 2025).
2023 December. The Labor Government released its Migration Strategy: Getting Migration Working for the Nation’ in response to the Parkinson Review of the Migration System released in March 2023. The new strategy included multi-year migration planning to replace the single year system. It aimed to reduce net migration to a pre-pandemic level of 250,000 by 2024-25. It also contained higher English language requirements, a ‘genuine student’ test, closing ‘ghost colleges’ and prioritizing skilled migration for sectors with skills shortages (Department of Home Affairs 2024).
2024 Home Affairs Migration Report for 2022-23 showed that over the 11 years to 2022-23 60% of skill stream and 42% of family stream visas were granted to people already in Australia, thus significantly confusing Net Overseas Migration (NOM) statistics (Department of Home Affairs 2024
2024 In 2022-23 Australia recorded a net overseas migration of 446,000, surpassing the Government’s target of 395,000 (Sharma 2024).
2024 February. Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Act was passed to protect temporary migrants from exploitation. (Australian Government 2024).
2024 Lowy Opinion Poll found 48% of Australians though immigration numbers ‘too high’, 40% ‘about right’ and 10% ‘too low’.’ (Lowy 2024).
2024. May. ‘The High Court unanimously ruled that the Australian government can keep asylum seekers in immigration detention indefinitely in cases where they do not ‘voluntarily” cooperate with their own deportation.’
(Dehm and Vogl 2024).
2024 June. Australia introduces the Pacific Engagement Visa scheme, creating a new pathway for Pacific Islanders to migrate to Australia (Dingwall et al 2024).
2024 July Government released ‘Towards Fairness – A multicultural Australia for all’ a report by the Multicultural Framework Review’ with 29 recommendations including establishing a Multicultural Affairs Commission and a focus on youth (Department of Home Affairs 2024).
2024 July Australia abolished Business Innovation and Investment visas sub-class 188 because many applicants were not genuine investors. Investor visas sub-class 891 were abolished March 2025 (SBS 2025).
2025 3,000 Tuvaluans enter the ballot for 280 Australian visas under Friendship Treaty migration deal (ABC 2025).
2025 March. The Australian Government confirmed a reduction to net overseas migration (Godsell 2025).
2025 August. Australia made a A$400 million deal with Nauru to deport 280 people released from indefinite detention there (Hennessy 2025). In November, Minister Burke says details of the MOU will made public ‘at various points in time’. (ABC 2025).
2025 August 31. Anti-immigration rallies held across Australia (McKeith and Adams 2025).
2025 September. The Australian Government announced that the Planning Level for 2025-6 would be set at 185,000 places with 71% to go to the Skills Stream (Department of Home Affairs 2025).
2025 October. Institute of Public Affairs Poll found 71% of Australians agreed with the statement ‘Australia should temporarily pause its intake of new immigrants until more economic and social infrastructure, such as schools, roads, hospitals, and houses, are built’ (Institute of Public Affairs, 2025).
2025 December. One millionth refugee arrival since World War 2 (Refugee Council of Australia 2025).
2025 December. Net overseas migration was 306,000 in 2024-25 down 29% from 429,000 a year earlier, the largest group was temporary students with 157,000 people. Migrant departures increased to 263,000 from 232, a year earlier (ABS 19/12/2025).
2026 January. 400 New Zealand citizens a week apply for Australian citizenship, 48% are not New Zealand born. To some this a ‘back door’ approach, to others a recognition that movement through the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement reflects relative economic conditions in New Zealand and Australia (Department of Home Affairs 2025, McArthur and Rooney 2026).
References
9NEWS, 2003. ‘No boat people will be resettled in Australia: Rudd’, 9NEWS, Canberra, 19 July, https://www.9news.com.au/national/rudd-says-no-boat-people-will-be-resettled-in-australia/8a6b83d2-5b4c-4543-b081-73c81be9feeb
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