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In the early 1930s, with a group of Aboriginal people, Durack ventured into a cave and was overawed by walls full of Aboriginal art. This experience compelled her to create her own Aboriginal art that she hoped would help Australians appreciate Aboriginal culture. -
In 1931 Kathleen Mary was appointed to the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Waratah, Newcastle in which she made many innovations based on her previous classroom experience. -
On 22nd July, 1945, John Brosnan was ordained a priest by Archbishop Mannix at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral Melbourne. -
Early in 1948 Kathleen Mary was appointed superior of the new St Mary's School for Deaf Children at Delgany, Victoria. -
Fletcher was ordained a priest in 1956 at St Mary's Cathedral, and in 1957 he was appointed to teach at Chevalier College, near Bowral. -
Caritas began in Australia in 1962 as the Catholic Church Relief Fund (CCRF), which became the Catholic Overseas Relief Committee in 1964. In 1996 the agency became Caritas Australia. -
Vatican II addressed relations between the Catholic Church and the modern world. -
Fr Brosnan took a vigorous role in the campaign to end capital punishment and became famous as the chaplain to Ronald Ryan, the last man hanged in Australia in 1967. Ryan's last words to him were: "Never forget, no matter how long you live, you were ordained for me." -
In 1973 the Whitlam Labor government definitively renounced the White Australia policy. In its place it established a policy of multiculturalism in a nation that is now home to migrants from nearly 200 different countries. -
Edward Bede Clancy was appointed as the auxiliary Bishop to Cardinal Freeman in the Archdiocese of Sydney in 1973. He was then ordained at St Mary’s Cathedral, in 1974. -
Edward Clancy was installed as Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn on 3 January 1979 at St Christopher’s Cathedral, Canberra. -
Archbishop Clancy’s appointment as seventh Archbishop of Sydney was announced on 22 February 1983, and he was installed as Archbishop on the 27th of April the same year. -
Up until this point Australia's most populous Christian church was the Anglican Church. Since 1986 Catholics have outnumbered Anglicans by an increasing margin. -
Edward Clancy was elevated to Cardinal on 28 June 1988. -
Fletcher established the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry in 1989.
In setting it up, Fletcher was clear he did not want to lead. He told the community: ''I want you to do this the Aboriginal way, your way." -
In 1992, the High Court of Australia decided that terra nullius should not have been applied to Australia. This decision known as the Mabo decision recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have rights to the land. -
The Native Title Act was a law passed by the Australian Parliament that recognises the rights and interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in land and waters according to their traditional laws and customs. -
The Wik claim followed on the success of the Mabo claim, where the High Court of Australia voted for whether pastoral leases do or do not extinguish native title rights. -
World Youth Day 2008 was a Catholic youth festival that started on 15 July and continued until 20 July 2008 in Sydney, Australia. It was the first World Youth Day held in Australia. -
The proportion of people reporting a religion other than Christianity in the Census increased from 5.6% in 2006 to 8.2% in 2016. With Islam making up 2.6% of Australia’s population, Buddhism with 2.4% and Hinduism with 1.9%.