1911

January 1

The Federal Government takes control of the Central Australia Railway.

January 1

The land upon which Canberra will be built is transferred from the NSW Government to the Federal Government.

January 2

Government of the Northern Territory transfers from South Australia to the Federal Government.

January 13

Queensland Premier Johannes Bjelke-Peterson born.

January 18

A worldwide competition to design the national capital is announced.

January 27

The Land newspaper first published.

February 2

WA becomes the first state to introduce compulsory preferential voting.

February 16

The University of Western Australia opens. It is the first free university in the British Empire.

March 3

Palmerston, NT, is renamed Darwin after evolutionist Charles Darwin who sailed the nearby coast in the 1830s.

March 16

Two people are killed when a cyclone strikes Cairns, Port Douglas and Innisfail, Qld.

March 24

142 die as the passenger steamer Yongala sinks off Cape Bowling Green south of Townsville, Qld.

March

Australian rules football player Haydn Bunton Senior born in Albury, NSW. Regarded by some observers as the game’s greatest ever player, he remains the only player to have received both the Brownlow Medal &emdash; for the best and fairest player in the Victorian Football League (VFL) &emdash; and the Sandover Medal.

April 3

The first Commonwealth Census held.

April 4

The first Australian assembled warship, the destroyer HMAS Warrego, launched at Cockatoo Island, Sydney.

April 25

A.M. Longmore becomes the first Australian to receive an international aviation certificate.

May 1

Uniform postage charge of one penny adopted across Australia.

May

Queensland sugar workers strike for better conditions and an eight hour working day.

May 23

The newly opened Myer drapery store in Bourke Street, Melbourne, holds its inaugural May sale.

June 27

Australia’s first military academy, Duntroon, opens within the Australian Capital Territory.

August 16

Catholic Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran dies, age 80.

July 31

Thomas Denman, 3rd Baron Denman, becomes Governor-General.

September 9

Australia’s 24th Prime Minister, John Grey Gorton, born Kew, Vic.

October 5

Royal Australian Navy inaugurated.

October 6

Compulsory preferential voting is introduced Federally.

November 17

Federal bill passed to establish the Commonwealth Bank.

December 2

Adelaide scientist Douglas Mawson leads the first Australian expedition to the South Pole.

1912

January 8

Douglas Mawson establishes the first base at Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica.

February 7

Norwegian whalers establish a whaling station at Jervis Bay, NSW.

February 9

Australia’s first wireless radio station opens in Melbourne.

March 6

A general strike in Brisbane, which lasted five weeks, ends.

March 12

Writer Katherine Kylie Tennant born.

March 21

SS Koombana sinks off Bala Bala Harbour, WA, killing 38.

March

New South Wales government examines in the issue of ‘decency’ in surf bathing on the state’s beaches.

April 15

Under new laws, strikes and lock-outs are no longer punishable by imprisonment in NSW.

May 4

Steele Rudd‘s stage play, On Our Selection, begins its first theatrical production.

May 16

Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin wins a worldwide competition to design the national capital.

May 28

Author Patrick White born.

May 30

Australia’s first naval cruiser, HMAS Melbourne, launched in Britain.

June 29

Australia’s first air race held between Parramatta and Surry Hills, NSW. Parramatta man W.E. Hart won against American pilot A.B. ‘Wizard’ Stone.

July 13

Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme opens at Yanco, NSW.

July 22

Australia wins two gold medals at the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. Sarah ‘Fanny’ Durack won the 100 yards freestyle swimming gold medal and the men’s swimming team won the men’s relay.

July 31

Australia’s first automated telephone exchange opens in Geelong, Vic.

August 6

H.A. Petrie is appointed Australia’s first military aviator.

August 17

The Australian Flying Corps established with a training course opened at Point Cook, Vic.

August 19

Sydney’s first radio station, POS, begins broadcasting from premises at suburban Pennant Hills.

August 31

Work begins on the construction of Taronga Zoo, Sydney.

August

Charles Cozens Spencer opens his film studios at White City, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.

September 13

Writer Joseph Furphy (Tom Collins) dies, age 68.

September 16

Construction commences simultaneously on the eastern and western sections of the Trans Australia Railway line.

September 24

A maternity allowance of £5 approved.

September 26

The Australian Inland Mission established by Rev. John Flynn.

October 16

Forty two miners die in a fire at the Mt Lyell copper mine, Tas.

October 18

Australia’s tallest building and Sydney’s first skyscraper, Culwulla Chambers, completed and opened.

October 24

Australian aviator Harry G. Hawker sets a British aeronautical record with a flight lasting 8 hours and 23 minutes.

November 9

British journalist and amateur anthropologist Daisy Bates appointed as honorary Protector of the Aborigines of South Australia.

December 10

Brisbane newspaper, Daily Standard, first published.

December 16

Actor George Rignold dies, age 73.

December 18

A small arms manufacturing plant opens at Lithgow, NSW.

December 31

Australia officially the preferred destination for British immigrants ahead of Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India.

December

Arthur Howard invests and patents the rotary hoe.

December

Industrial Arbitration Acts passed in WA (21st December) and SA (19th December).

1913

January 9

Former Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition, Alfred Deakin, resigns from Parliament for health reasons.

January 13

Australian post offices become agencies for the Commonwealth Savings Bank.

January 14

Composer and pianist Miriam Hyde is born.

January 30

Six people are killed in a rail crash at Murphy Creek, Qld.

January

Tasmania opens its first state high schools, in Hobart and Launceston.

March 12

The site of Canberra declared at a ceremony on Capital Hill.

April

Track laying commences on the east-west Trans Continental railway at Port Augusta, SA.

May 1

Australia’s first bank note issued. It is worth 10 shillings.

May 5

Yarralumla is purchased by the Federal Government as the official residence of the Governor-General.

May 22

Australia’s first two submarines, AE1 and AE2, are launched in Britain.

June

Point Cook Aviation School, Vic, opens.

July 2

A furore erupts over the announcement that the image of a kangaroo on the penny postage stamp will be replaced by the bust of the king.

July 31

Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd (AWA) formed.

August 3

New South Wales Premier, Sir John William Lyne, dies age 69.

September 25

Poet Kenneth ‘Seaforth’ Mackenzie, born.

October 4

HMAS Australia, Australia’s first Naval fleet flagship, is commissioned.

October 5

Australia’s Naval fleet, comprising of the flagship HMAS Australia; three light cruisers – HMAS Melbourne, HMAS Sydney and HMAS Encounter (on loan until the completion of HMAS Brisbane); three torpedo boat destroyers – HMAS Warrego, HMAS Parramatta and HMAS Yarra, arrive in Sydney, their new home port.

October 31

The Sunshine Harvester Grain Header is patented by its inventor, Hedley Taylor.

November 15

Melbourne Public Library opens.

November 20

Bundaberg, Qld, is proclaimed a city.

December 12

Douglas Mawson and his expedition members are rescued from Antarctica after a harrowing journey.

December 22

Victoria’s first Labour Government, under Premier George Elmslie, lasted only 13 days as Elmslie’s Government was defeated in a censure motion 36 to 3.

December 31

Australia’s first oil and motor spirit merchant, Golden Fleece, set up by Melbourne businessman Harold Sleigh. Golden Fleece ceases to exist in 1981 when its operations are taken over by Caltex.

1914

February 10

Geelong Grammar School opens.

February 17

An inquiry into the cost of living declares that the minimum income needed for a family of four is £2 8shillings per week.

March 14

A railway crash at Exeter, NSW, becomes the state’s worst rail accident. 14 people die and 20 are injured.

March 27

SS St Paul wrecked off Cape Moreton, Qld, with 18 lives lost.

March 30

Norfolk Island is transferred to Commonwealth ownership.

April 11

G.J. Coles opens his first store, in Collingwood, Vic. His store’s slogan was ‘nothing over a shilling’.

April 24

The Country Party is formed.

May 2

Seventy miners die in an accident at the Great Extended Hustlers Gold Mine at Bendigo, Vic.

May 25

The first revenue-earning train hauled by NSWGR locomotive 1210 arrives in Canberra via a branch railway line between Queanbeyan, NSW, and Canberra, though at this time, little of Canberra exists.

June 6

Sydney’s first automated telephone exchange brought into operation.

July 18

Australia’s first air mail service commences with mail being carried by air between Melbourne (Melbourne Showgrounds) and Sydney (Moore Park).

August 5

Australia also at war after Britain declares war on Germany.

August 6

Due to the outbreak of World War I, exports are prohibited.

August 11

Due to the outbreak of World War I, the Commonwealth Government imposes press censorship.

August 11

Red Cross is established in Australia as a Branch of the British Red Cross Society in Melbourne.

September 6

Andrew Fisher commences his third term as Prime Minister of Australia.

September 24

Athlete and Empire Games gold medallist, Decima Norman, born.

September 29

The Melbourne Stock Exchange reopens, its trading having been suspended on the announcement of the outbreak of war, to prevent panic dealing.

October 8

The 6th Federal Parliament opens in Melbourne.

November 10

Australian naval vessels sink the German warship, Emden, near Cocos Islands.

December 3

Australian fisheries research ship Endeavour disappears after leaving Macquarie Island, Antarctica.

December 23

Electoral enrolment and voting becomes compulsory in Queensland.

1915

January 1

In Australia’s first military hostilities on home soil, a train is attacked by two armed Turks outside Broken Hill. Four passengers are killed and seven others wounded.

January 15

The art of surf board riding demonstrated at Freshwater Beach, Sydney, by Hawaiian Olympian, Duke Kahanamoku, on a board made of sugar pine.

January

Bushfires destroy properties in the Huon Valley, Tasmania, over a period of two weeks.

February 1

Large opal deposits found in the Stuart Range, SA, at a locality known to the local Aborigines as Coober Pedy.

March 9

BHP‘s first blast furnace, located at Newcastle, NSW, becomes operational.

March 16

The Riverina and Wheatbelt districts of WA and SA are in the grip of a 6-month long drought.

March 20

The Inaugural State Surf Life Saving Championships are held at Bondi, NSW.

April 6

The first steel ingots are produced by BHP at Newcastle, NSW.

April 20

The Australian Flying Corps leaves for overseas service.

April 30

The news of the exploits of Australians landing at Gallipoli, Turkey, reaches Australia.

April 30

Australia loses its first warship, submarine AE2, sunk by a Turkish torpedo in the Sea of Marmora.

May 6

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra is reformed by Henri Verbrugghen, first director of the new NSW Conservatorium of Music.

May 16

John Simpson Kirkpatrick, ‘the man with the donkey’, is killed while carrying soldiers to safety at Gallipoli.

May 19

Lieutenant Corporal Albert Jacka becomes the first Australian in the Great War to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

May 31

Poet Judith Arundell Wright born.

June 5

The foundation stone for the first lock on the River Murray, named after pioneer navigator Capt. William R. Randell, laid at Blanchetown, SA. The lock is completed in 1922.

June 12

Aspirin first made in Australia by 31-year old Melbourne Pharmacist George Richard Rich Nicholas under the name Aspro.

June 18

The first lock on the Murray River opens at Blanchetown, Vic.

July 14

Pioneer aviator Lawrence Hargreaves dies, age 65.

July 31

Lamington National Park, Qld, proclaimed.

August 10

The first Australian built military aircraft, the Boxkite, is test flown at Point Cook, Vic.

August 18

The Federal Government to take over income tax from states.

September 4

A narrow corridor of land at Jervis Bay acquired by Commonwealth Government for a port for the Australian Capital Territory.

September 13

Electoral enrolment and voting in Federal referenda made compulsory.

September 20

Returned Soldiers Association formed in Sydney at a meeting of returned wounded soldiers.

September 23

The British conduct in the Dardanelles, and at Gallipoli in particular, is criticised by Australian journalist Keith Arthur Murdoch.

September 30

HMAS Brisbane, Australia’s first locally built cruiser, is launched at Cockatoo Island Dockyards, Sydney Harbour.

October 8

Artist Emanuel Phillips Fox dies, age 50.

October 27

Prime Minister Andrew Fisher resigns, owing to ill health. William Morris (Billy) Hughes takes over.

October 30

The C.J. Dennis book, ‘The Songs Of A Sentimental Bloke‘, first published.

November 12

The Queensland Government abolishes its Legislative Council (upper house).

November 12

The Gilgandra, NSW, ‘Coo-ee’ marchers arrive in Sydney.

November 26

Federal Government denies the right of males of military age to leave the country without a passport.

December 1

NSW and SA’s Women’s Police branches formed.

December 15

The Murray River Commission established to develop and control irrigation along the Murray River.

December 29

Queensland Government imposes land tax.

1916

January 21

Theatrical manager George Musgrove dies, age 62.

February 14

15,000 AIF troops take part in a mutiny at the Casula Camp near Liverpool, NSW, over a new training syllabus. They are joined by 10,000 sympathetic civilians.

February 17

A train derailment at Campania, Tas, leaves four dead.

March 20

The first contingent of Australian troops land in France.

April 26

Writer Morris West born.

June 2

The Electrolytic Zinc Company is established in Tasmania to treat zinc ore from Broken Hill and local mines.

July 11

Australia’s 26th Prime Minister, John McEwan, born Chiltern, Vic.

July 15

The Federal Government buys 15 steamships to start a merchant shipping line.

July 19

The Australian 5th Division takes part in the Battle of Fromelles in France.

July 21

The NSW Government introduces 6pm closing of hotels during wartime.

July 21

The Federal Government to fix food prices during the war.

August 5

The tally of Australian troops killed in action during seven weeks of fighting in the Somme Valley thus far tops 23,000.

August 29

NSW Government Aviation School established at Richmond, NSW, with three US Curtiss Jenny trainers.

September 12

Returned soldiers form Returned Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Imperial League of Australia in Brisbane.

October 2

Conscripts are first called up for training under the Defence Act.

October 27

Boxer Les Darcy stows away on a freighter to Chile in defiance of the ban on military age men leaving Australia.

October 27

Four ministers in Prime Minister William Morris (Billy) Hughes‘ government resign over a proposed conscription referendum regarding overseas duty for conscripts.

November 1

Australians vote ‘No’ to compulsory overseas military service by conscripts.

November 14

Prime Minister William Morris (Billy) Hughes leaves the Labour Party with four ministers and 19 members, to set up the National Labour Party.

December 1

Striking miners win their demand for an 8-hour working day.

December 20

Britain buys the whole of the 1916-17 Australian wool clip at a fixed price.

December 27

The Dent Island and Flat Top Island lighthouses in the Whitsunday Passage, Qld, damaged by a cyclone.

December 28

Clermont in North Queensland is totally destroyed by cyclonic storms. 62 drown in floods.

1917

March 14

Daylight saving begins, with clocks being put forward an hour.

March 14

Naturalised aliens born in enemy countries are disenfranchised for the duration of the war.

March 21

Writer Frank Hardy born.

March 28

Australia’s first fatal air crash occurs when Basil Watson dies age 23 when his biplane crashes into Port Phillip.

April 4

An electric tram replaces Adelaide’s last horse-drawn tram, which ran from Adelaide to Port Adelaide.

April 22

Artist Sidney Nolan born.

May 5

William Morris (Billy) Hughes‘ new National Party voted into government in a Federal Election.

May 24

Boxer Les Darcy dies in Memphis, Tennessee, a broken man, age 21.

July 6

SS Cumberland sinks off Gabo Island, Vic, after hitting a mine laid by the German raider Wolf.

August 14

Lieutenant Charles Edward Kingsford Smith shot down over France after having five aerial victories.

August 31

10,000 people protest over Australia’s inflation rate, which exceeds 20% per year.

September 12

The Federal Government curtails sporting activities as many eligible men are avoiding military service by being involved in sport.

September 20

A 7-week long General Strike by over 95,000 NSW workers ends.

September 26

All German place names changed in South Australia in response to anti-German sentiments in the community.

October 17

The two sections of the trans-continental rail link between Port Augusta, SA, and Kalgoorlie, WA, commenced from both ends, meet at a point near Ooldea. The first train passes over the track a week later.

November 12

Captain William J. Stutt completes the first same-day daylight flight from Melbourne (Point Cook) to Sydney (Richmond) via Cootamundra, pioneering one of Australia’s main air routes over the following three decades.

November 15

The Murray River Commission formed by the SA, NSW, Vic and Commonwealth governments.

December 12

Commonwealth Police Force instigated.

December 20

Artist Frederick McCubbin dies, age 62.

December 20

Prime Minister William Morris (Billy) Hughes fails a second time to convince Australian voters to say ‘yes’ in a referendum on conscription for overseas duty.

1918

January 10

Prime Minister William Morris (Billy) Hughes resigns after his referendum for conscription is rejected for a second time, but is recalled.

January 22

A tropical cyclone flattens Mackay, Qld.

February 2

Storms lash Melbourne, killing two people and destroying many homes.

February 2

Former WA Premier Sir John Forrest becomes the first Australian born person to receive a British peerage. He is declared Baron Forrest of Bunbury.

March 14

Actor John McCallum born.

April 8

Warrnambool, Vic, declared a city.

April 30

Scientist John McGarvie divulges his formula for the anthrax vaccine.

June 26

Steamer Wimmera, travelling between Auckland, NZ, and Sydney, is sunk by the German raider Wolf. 26 crew and passengers drown.

September 3

Explorer and WA Premier Sir John Forrest dies, age 71.

September 12

Australia’s 4th Prime Minister, George Huston Reid, dies in London, age 70.

September 20

Steamer Undolo sinks off Wollongong, NSW, after hitting a mine laid by German raider Wolf.

September 22

The first wireless message direct from England is received by Ernest Fisk (MD, AWA), at his home in Wahroonga, NSW.

September 26

NSW Teachers Federation established.

October 4

Preferential voting system adopted for the Federal House of Representatives.

October 31

Turkish forces surrender and sign an armistice with the Allies, largely due to the efforts of the Australian Light Horse Brigade.

November 21

Australian naval craft HMAS Australia, HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Sydney represent Australia at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet. Hostilities cease at 11am on 11th November.

December 3

Compulsory enrolment and voting in elections in Western Australia introduced.

December 10

HMAS Australia and HMAS Brisbane dispatched to the Black Sea to support White Russian forces against the Communist Army.

December 17

Over 700 protesters in Northern Territory demand the resignation of the Territory’s Administrator, Dr John Anderson Gilruth, amid allegations of mismanagement.

December 20

The first Farmers Union elected.

December 21

A deadly strain of influenza hits Australia, believed to have been brought to the country from Europe by returned servicemen.

1919

January 3

Architect Robin Boyd born in Melbourne.

January 13

Extensive bushfires in Victoria destroy property and claim three lives.

January 22

Victoria’s first case of the pneumonic influenza or Spanish Flu reported.

January 25

New South Wales’ first case of the pneumonic influenza or Spanish Flu reported.

March 1

The comic strip, The Potts, created by James Newton Russell, first published in Smith’s Weekly.

March 6

Commonwealth Government commits to give free housing to returned soldiers.

March 24

19 people wounded as shots are fired at an anti-Bolshevik rally in Brisbane.

April 25

Anzac Day first commemorated with returned soldiers across Australia marching in parades.

April

Migration scheme to attract Britain’s returned soldiers launched.

May 28

Electric trams begin running between Sandringham and Essendon, Melbourne.

July 1

Australian magazine, Aircraft, first published in Sydney.

July 15

The rail link between Broken Hill and Menindee, NSW, opens in standard gauge.

July 25

Writer Nat Gould dies, age 61.

July

Melbourne’s first rail service by electrified trains – between Flinders Street and Essendon – begins after a trial run.

August 13

George Fisk of AWA demonstrates radio broadcasting in Sydney.

August 26

A 15-week seaman’s strike, which crippled Australian sea trade, ends.

September 10

Journalist and publisher J.F. Archibald (John Feltham), after whom the Archibald Prize is named, dies age 63.

September 10

The White Australia Policy introduced.

September

F.H. Gordon & Co. begins production in Sydney of Australia’s first car, the Australian Six. 980 of the vehicles are built in Australia from local and imported American parts between 1919 and 1926 at a plant in Ashfield, a suburb of Sydney.

October 7

Australia’s 2nd, 5th and 7th Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin dies, age 69.

October 7

Governor-General Sir Zelman Cowan born.

October 17

Adrian Knox appointed Chief Justice of the High Court following the retirement of Sir Samuel Walker Griffith.

October 22

C.J. Dennis‘ 1915 best-seller, The Sentimental Bloke, released as a feature film.

October 28

Preferential voting approved for the Senate.

November 3

The largest gathering ever recorded in Melbourne affirms Ireland’s right to self government.

November 24

Rain brings relief to drought affected parts of New South Wales, three quarters of the state’s farm lands having been rendered useless by the lack of rain.

November 26

Victorian Government commits to establishing coal powered electricity generating power stations near the Morwell coal fields in the La Trobe Valley.

December 10

Aviators Ross and Keith Smith arrive in Darwin upon completing the longest flight in world history from Britain to Australia.

December 12

Captain H.N. Wrigley and his mechanic, Sergeant Murphy, make the first north-south trans continental flight across Australia from Darwin, NT, to Point Cook, Vic.

December 14

William Morris (Billy) Hughes and his Nationalist Party returned to power in a General Election, despite a swing to the Labour Party.

December 16

A.L. Long makes the first aircraft flight across Bass Strait.

December 31

The toll of the Spanish Flu epidemic is 11,552 confirmed deaths.

December 31

1919 declared the year of the strike following many strikes by workers, including one involving 5,400 miners at Broken Hill who have been idle since May.

1920

January 75

Australian Country Party formed.

January 7

Australia’s first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, dies age 70.

January 22

Australia wins the Davis Cup tennis tournament for a second time.

March 1

David Fletcher Jones establishes a tailoring company in Warrnambool, Vic.

April 18

The Baha’i faith established in Australia.

April 20

Australia takes part in the opening ceremony of the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games. Among the Australian competitors were Frank Beaurepaire and Fanny Durack.

May 24

Australia’s first Orthodox Lebanese Church consecrated in Sydney.

May 27

The Prince of Wales arrives in Melbourne at the start of his visit to Australia.

May

The Borough of Mentone and Mordialloc in suburban Melbourne is created by severance from Moorabbin Shire.

June 2

Australian pilot Herbert John Louis (Bert) Hinkler sets a non-stop flight record from England to Australia. He left Croydon, England, in a single-seater Baby Avro.

July 10

Western Australia’s teachers strike for better wages.

July 13

Western Australia’s public servants strike over a wages dispute.

July 24

Artist Arthur Boyd born in Murrumbeena, a suburb of Melbourne.

August 3

A train crash at suburban Hurstville, NSW, kills five people.

August 12

Publisher, journalist and social reformer Louisa Lawson dies, age 72.

September 1

The Flinders Naval Base opens on Westernport Bay, Victoria.

September 2

The barque Southern Cross sinks in Bass Strait. 11 drown.

October 7

Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster, sworn in as Australia’s 7th Governor-General.

October 19

The Princes Highway between Melbourne and Sydney opens.

November 6

A board is established to tackle the prickly pear pest by biological means.

November 7

An estimated 10,000 people in Melbourne demonstrate against the British ban on Archbishop Daniel Mannix visiting Ireland.

November 11

11 people die in a rail crash near Wokalup, WA.

November 19

The Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service Ltd (Qantas) formed in the Queensland outback town of Winton.

November 30

F.S. Briggs sets out on a flight from Melbourne to Perth.

December 15

The Commonwealth Bank given responsibility for issuing new bank notes.

December 23

Australia’s mandate over New Guinea is confirmed by the League of Nations.