Visit the links below to the NSW Parliament’s ‘Time-line of democracy in NSW’:

Before European settlement

• Aboriginal land
• Origins of our parliamentary system
• Henry VIII and the Reformation Parliament
• The Stuarts
• Glorious Revolution
• European exploration

1788–1810 Early European settlement of NSW

• Convict settlement
• The early Governors
• Rum rebellion
• Beginnings of a judicial system

1810–21 Governor Lachlan Macquarie

• Governor Macquarie: the last autocrat
• Justice under Macquarie
• The Rum Hospital

1822–42 The first legislature

• First legislature
• 1823-28 Independent legal system
• 1825-42 Legislative Council expands
• 1825-42 Developing a balance: Judiciary, Governor and Council
• The Colony by 1842
• The Constitution Act

1843–55 Towards responsible government

• 1843 First elected Legislative Council
• 1852 NSW
• 1851 Gold rushes begin
• Gaining responsible government

1856–89 Responsible government and colonial development

• 1856 New parliament
• Public service
• 1858 Electoral reform
• 1856-89 Growth
• 1856-89 Government
• 1856-89 Social change
• Comparison of late 19th century democratic systems: Australia and Britain

1890–1900 Towards Federation

• Turbulent Times: NSW in 1890s
• Electoral reform
• Emergence of political parties
• Women's Suffrage Movement
• First moves toward Federation
• Achieving Federation

1901–18 The early federal period and WWI

• Federation and the NSW Parliament 1901
• Votes for women 1902
• Indigenous Australians and the vote
• Political parties
• World War I and conscription split

1919–29 The Twenties

• An uncertain interlude
• Changing the electoral system
• A day of changes
• First woman Member of Parliament
• The Legislative Council under threat
• Heroes and villains

1930–39 Depression and crisis

• The Lang Government and the crisis
• The changing role of the Governor
• Reforming the Legislative Council
• To the eve of war

1939–65 War and post-war

• Parliament and World War II
• A quarter century of Labor governments
• Post-War development and social change
• Increasing Commonwealth power

1966–88 From Vietnam to bicentenary: social and economic change

• A changing world
• The political balance
• Rebuilding Parliament House
• Democratising the Legislative Council
• Bicentenary of a nation

2000 To the millenium

• Economic rationalism, social issues and changing attitudes
• A changing Legislative Council
• Into the millennium