1980 Vanuatu becomes an independent nation after months of secessionist unrest.

1980 Seventh Day Adventist minister Michael Chamberlain and his wife Lindy claim a dingo took their baby Azaria from a camp site near Ayers Rock. Lindy is later jailed for murder but pardoned in 1987.

1981 Australian cricketer Trevor Chappell bowls the last ball underarm to deny <New Zealand victory in a World Series Cup final.

1982 Australia and New Zealand sign the Closer Economic Relations agreement.

1983 Men At Work's Down Under hits No. 1 around the world.

1983 "Ash Wednesday" fires kill 72 people in Victoria and South Australia.

1983 Alan Bond syndicate yacht Australia II defeats U.S. defender Liberty to win the America's Cup.

1985 French government agents bomb the Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing a crewman.

1985 Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is handed over to the Mutijulu Aboriginal community.

1966 Decimal currency is introduced in Australia, and in New Zealand the following year.

1986 Australian Treasurer Paul Keating warns that unless industry becomes more competitive, the country is destined to become a "banana republic".

1986 Goods and Services Tax (GST) introduced in New Zealand.

1986 Neighbours makes its TV debut on Network Ten. It later becomes Britain's top-rating show, launching starlet Kylie Minogue.

1987 The New Zealand All Blacks win the inaugural Rugby World Cup.

1987 Maori becomes an official language of New Zealand.

1987 Fijian soldier Sitiveni Rabuka leads a military coup that topples Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra.

1988 Australian Kay Cottee becomes the first woman to sail solo non-stop around the world.

1989 Kanak rebel leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou is assassinated in New Caledonia.

1990 Dame Catherine Tizard becomes first female Governor-General of New Zealand.

1991 New Zealand's controversial Employment Contracts Act is passed.

1992 The High Court of Australia rejects the principle of terra nullius in Mabo v. Queensland (No 2), recognizing native title.

1993 Palau achieves independence.

1994 Volcanic eruption devastates Rabaul in PNG; 100,000 evacuated.

1995 The Northern Territory becomes the first jurisdiction in the world to legalize voluntary euthanasia.

1995 Team New Zealand wins the America's Cup.

1987 France resumes nuclear tests in the south Pacific, sparking protests in Australasia and French Polynesia. The next year France, the UK and the US sign the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty.

1996 In the worst ever massacre by a lone gunman, Martin Bryant shoots dead 35 people and wounds 18 at the historic site of Port Arthur in Tasmania.

1997 Australian M.P. Pauline Hanson launches the One Nation party.

1997 PNG Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan is voted out of office after confirming a secret deal to pay mercenaries to fight secessionist rebels on Bougainville.

1997 Jenny Shipley becomes New Zealand's first female Prime Minister.

1998 Tsunami strikes PNG's West Sepik province; over 2,200 killed.

1999 Australian troops lead a U.N. peacekeeping force in East Timor.

1999 Referendum on whether Australia should become a Republic is rejected by the voters, mainly because they want direct election of a President; nevertheless, Monarchists celebrate.