1859 - 1919

1859		Red Cross founder and Swiss businessman, Henry Dunant, witnesses his inspiration for the Red Cross movement: the horrific Battle of Solferino, in northern Italy.
1901		Henry Dunant shares the first ever Nobel Peace Prize with Frederic Passey.
1910		Henry Dunant dies in Switzerland aged 82.
1913		In anticipation of the official formation of Red Cross in Australia, NSW establishes a Red Cross executive commitee.
1914		On 4 August Britain declares war on Germany, making Australia at war too.
1914		On 13 August Red Cross in Australia formally begins and is known as the Australian branch of the British Red Cross Society.
1915		On 25 April Australian, British and New Zealand soldiers land at Gallipoli.
1915		On 15 May John ‘Simpson’ Kirkpatrick dies instantly from machine gun fire after rescuing a soldier at Gallipoli. His donkey, Duffy, still carrying his casualty, returns to the station.
1918		The World War 1 armistice is signed on 11 November and 20 Australian Red Cross nurses sent to France for the duration of the war return home.
1919		The influenza epidemic spreads throughout the world killing over 20 million people, including about 12,000 in Australia.

1920 - 1929

1920		QANTAS is founded and Australian Red Cross looks to a future during peacetime.
1921		The Red Cross Blinded Soldiers Tea Company begins.
1923		Membership to Australian Red Cross costs one shilling a year and the milk campaign for toddlers in inner Sydney is launched.
1924		Australian Red Cross sends £1800 to Japan after the devastating Great Kanto Earthquake kills between 100,000 and 140,000 people.
1925		Tuberculosis grips NSW and Australian Red Cross engages in its first large peace-time initiative – care and prevention of the disease. Heart valve surgery is introduced.
1926		The British Red Cross institutes the world's first blood transfusion service.
1927		The Cenotaph is erected in Martin Place, Sydney and each week for many years Junior Red Cross groups place a laurel wreath at its base.
1928		The International Committee of the Red Cross forwards a communiqué announcing that Australian Red Cross is now a recognised part of the ‘Movement’.
1929		The Great Depression begins.Red Cross Victoria moves to introduce a blood transfusion service.

1930 - 1939

1931		New Zealand is recognised as a Red Cross National Society. The first Australian-born Governor-General, Sir Isaac Isaacs, is appointed. Since 1914 the spouse of the GG has traditionally been the President of Australian Red Cross.
1934		Australian Red Cross begins to award medals to people for 20 years of service.
1935		Australian Red Cross ‘comes of age’ and becomes as known for its peace time activities as it had previously been for its war efforts. King George V dies and Edward VIII succeeds him.
1936		Eleanor MacKinnon, the founder of Junior Red Cross in Australia, dies.
1937		Australian Red Cross establishes a formal presence in the Northern Territory.
1939		WWII breaks out and Australian Red Cross experiences a huge surge in membership.

1940 - 1949

1940		Blood plasma is first used in transfusions.
1941		The HMAS Sydney is sunk by a German raiding ship, Kormoran, off Carnarvon, Western Australia, killing all 650 crew. Australian Red Cross is incorporated by Royal Charter as a society, making it no longer a branch of the British Red Cross.
1942		Evacuees from Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch Indies pour into Australia and are greeted by Australian Red Cross. The Japanese bomb Darwin for the first time and Australian Red Cross is there to give aid to the wounded and service evacuees.
1943		Thirty thousand sheepskins and 400 bales of wool are sent as a gift to the Russian Red Cross.
1945		WWII ends.
1946		More than 25 years after the end of the war, over 800 WWI ex-servicemen seek help from Australian Red Cross for the first time.
1947		Tuberculosis is still a community threat and Australian Red Cross hires a TB specialist. Blood donors are now able to register in country towns.
1948		Australians become citizens of their own country; no longer classed as subjects of the British Empire.
1949		There are now 69 Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies around the world.

1950 - 1959

1951		The Korean War breaks out and Mt Lamington, New Guinea, erupts, killing over 3000. Australian Red Cross provides blood and serum to casualties.
1956		Australia hosts the Olympic Games in Melbourne.
1957		The Australian government ratifies the four Geneva Conventions of 1949.
1958		The Norweigan migrant ship, Skaubryn, catches fire with 1000 people aboard. All lives are saved and the passengers are transported to Australia. The Queen Mother visits Australia and inspects about 600 Australian Red Cross Voluntary Aids in NSW. NSW experiences its worst bushfires on record and Voluntary Aids provide first aid treatment and care for the homeless.
1959		It is 100 years since the founder of Red Cross, Henry Dunant, witnessed the Battle of Solferino. Celebrations are held around the country.

1960 - 1969

1960		Australian Red Cross sends the first medical relief team, consisting of eight doctors, to the Congo.
1961		The blood service in NSW collects its millionth voluntary blood donation, which will ultimately assist in a heart operation.
1963		Australian Red Cross sends comfort packs containing newspapers and magazines to sick and wounded Australian and New Zealand troops in Vietnam.
1964		Australia suffers its first Vietnam War casualty.
1965		Australian Red Cross Volunteer Tutor Scheme begins. The scheme gives assistance to children of ex-servicemen and white Russian families with educational problems.
1967		The Blood Transfusion Service introduces the Rh Project aimed at preventing Rh Disease in newborn babies.
1968		Red Cross Calling, to become the society’s largest annual fundraiser, begins in NSW. A total of $142,000 is collected by volunteers.

1970 - 1979

1970		Red Cross NSW purchases a property in Clarence Street and moves in two years later.
1971		An Australian Red Cross and New Zealand Red Cross Field Force team withdraw from Vietnam and return home after the closure of the Australian field hospital.
1972		Following the breakdown of mail service between France and Australia, the Australian Red Cross Message Service is introduced. Use of this service for family messages is accepted on compassionate grounds. Papua New Guinea moves towards becoming an independent Red Cross society. Until the ’70s it was a division of Australian Red Cross.
1974		Cyclone Tracy hits Darwin and within a few hours a team of 20 personnel from Red Cross NSW are on their way to the city. For Australian Red Cross, dealing with the aftermath of Tracy continues for many months.
1975		Eight-hundred and eighty-five first aid certificates are issued in NSW. Eighteen years later in 2003, over 22,000 people will have successfully completed an Australian Red Cross First Aid Course.
1977		The day that 83 people are killed and 213 injured in the Granville train disaster, over 3000 people line up in front of Red Cross House in Sydney to donate blood.
1979		The Kampuchean Relief Appeal is launched in September by actor Leonard Teale.

1980 - 1989

1990		The Breakfast Club, a forerunner to the Good Start Breakfast Club, begins at schools in the Hunter Valley.
1991		During the Gulf War, the Tracing Agency becomes extremely active with messages passing to and from Iraq and Australia. Thirteen years on, some people in Iraq are still not found. In June, the federal government ratifies the 1977 Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
1992		A landmark $1 million is raised in NSW for Red Cross Calling.
1993		Australian Red Cross agrees to administer the Asylum Seekers Assistance Scheme on behalf of the federal government.  The Glen Mervyn Young Women’s Health Program, based at Randwick, is formally opened.
1994		Australian Red Cross takes part in a drought response program, sending 30 tonnes of personal supplies in 7000 parcels to affected families in rural NSW.
1995		Red Cross NSW now has eight regional centres supporting its work locally – South West Sydney, Illawarra, Murray Riverina, Hunter, Central Coast, Western Region, Northern, and Penrith.
1996		International Federation of Red Cross launches a ‘Landmines Must Be Stopped’ campaign. The late Princess of Wales was to become a high-profile supporter of the initiative.
2000		A groundbreaking new course, called Save A Mate, teaches peers and people who work with young with substance abusers how to administer life-saving first-aid techniques.
2001		Following the attacks on the Twin Towers, Australian Red Cross assisted a number of families who lost loved ones in the disaster. Three years on ARC continues to help four NSW families in areas relating to distribution of funds, referrals and emotional support.
2002		Australian Red Cross wins a NSW Government tender to administer the HOPE Project (overdose prevention and education), for parents and carers of substance abusers.
2003		Red Cross volunteers place more than half a million reassuring phone calls to the frail, aged and isolated, through the Telecross service.
2004		Australian Red Cross, in partnership with Sanitarium, launches the national program Good Start Breakfast Club.