Contact
Booking.com

Timeline: 1921 – 1930

Note: The content on this page has been lifted from a website that was created some time ago. As a consequence, it may contain links that are broken and no longer work. We are in the process of checking and updating all links on this and similar pages. Unfortunately it is a very time consuming task so it will be some time before the updates are completed. We apoligise for this inconvenience.


1921

January 12

A large fire destroys many buildings in central Perth, WA.

March 1

Mrs Edith Dircksey Cowan becomes the first woman to be elected to Parliament. She is elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of West Perth.

April 4

John Lysaght Ltd begins production of galvanised steel sheeting at Newcastle, NSW.

April 12

Bert Hinkler sets a new flying record, travelling the 1,300 km journey from Sydney to Bundaberg, Qld, in his Baby Avro aircraft in 8 hours 40 minutes.

April 21

Australia’s first Rotary Club formed in Melbourne.

May 1

Federal legislation establishes Australia’s permanent national military forces.

May 9

German New Guinea placed under a civil government. It has been under military control since Australian forces captured the former German colony in 1914.

June 14

The wage difference between a tradesman and a labourer is set at a ratio of 10:7.

June 5

The ship ‘Our Jack‘ sinks near Manning River, NSW, with 5 lives lost. The following day another tragedy occurs at the same location when the Fitzroy sinks with a further loss of 30 lives.

June 19

At 75,604, the Aboriginal population of Australia reaches its lowest point ever, being reduced by 77 percent since colonisation began.

July 8

The drilling of Springleigh bore, Qld, the deepest bore in Australia, is completed.

July 28

Wheat is shipped in bulk, rather than bagged, from a Sydney terminal for the first time.

August 7

The first circumnavigation of Australia by air is completed.

August 11

Essendon Airport, Melbourne, opens.

August 23

Brisbane, Qld, is hit by an epidemic of the Bubonic plague.

September 4

The overhead electrification of the railway line to Broadmeadows, Vic, is completed.

September 20

Over 70 men die when an explosion entombes them in a coal mine at Mount Mulligan, North Queensland.

September 20

The first lock on the Murray River is completed at Blanchetown, SA.

September 22

A royal commission into Australia’s railways recommends the adaptation of the standard railway gauge throughout Australia.

October 1

Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) (AWA) begins broadcasting concerts in Melbourne.

October 20

The Labor Party adopts a policy of socialisation of industry, distribution, production and exchange.

October 26

The first group of boys brought to Australia by Dr. Barnardo arrives in Sydney aboard the P&O vessel SS Berrima.

November 9

The Royal Australian Air Force formed.

November 13

Ginger Meggs, the creation of Sydney cartoonist James Charles Bancks, is first published in Sydney’s Sunday Sun newspaper.

December 5

A rural airmail service to Geraldton and Derby is inaugurated in Western Australia by WA Airways.

December 15

Tariff Board established.

December 30

Ultimo College and East Sydney technical School (occupying the former Darlinghurst Gaol) open in Sydney, providing training for up to 16,000 technical students.


1922

January 6

Sydney’s Daily Mail newspaper begins publication.

February 14

Tasmanian women become eligible to stand for State Parliament.

March 13

The first Australian manufactured airliner, the Australian Aircraft and Engineering Company’s BI, is demonstrated at Mascot, Sydney.

March 28

Australia’s first Aboriginal parliamentarian, Neville Bonner, born.

April 11

Australia and New Zealand sign an agreement for reciprocal preferential tariffs.

April 13

Pioneer aviators Ross Smith and Lieutenant J.M. Bennett are killed on a test flight in England.

April 21

The Country Womens Association formed in New South Wales.

June 15

BHP closes its steel plant at Newcastle, NSW, because of the high price of local coal.

June 17

Queensland Premier Sir Robert Philp dies, age 70.

July 4

The All-Australian New States Conference, held in Albury NSW, proposes the subdivision of four existing states into a number of smaller states. The new proposed states include the Riverina district of NSW, Northern Queensland, the Eastern Goldfields of WA, the northern area of WA, Southern Monaro area of NSW, the NSW Central Tablelands and the NSW Central West.

July 27

Australia signs a Pacific Treaty with the US. It is one of six treaties signed at the international conference held in Washington DC, USA.

August 12

John Blyth Hayes is elected Premier of Tasmania.

August 16

The first Queensland radio broadcast is of a concert from Savoy Theatre, Clayfield.

August 31

Politician and judge Lionel Murphy born.

September 4

Writer and poet Henry Lawson dies at Abbotsford, Sydney, age 55.

September 14

Melbourne’s Sun News-Pictorial first published.

September 20

Queensland is the first state to introduce unemployment benefits, earning the state the nickname of Loafers’ Paradise.

September 25

NSW, WA and Victorian governments sign an agreement with Britain to share in the cost of schemes to establish British settlers within those states.

October 15

Northern Territory granted one non-voting member in the House of Representatives.

November 2

Qantas establishes its first regular air service, between Charleville and Cloncurry, Qld.

December 11

The first Who’s Who In Australia published.

December 15

Queensland is the first state to abolish the death penalty.

December 20

The Nationalist Party wins the Federal General election. William Morris (Billy) Hughes remains the Prime Minister of Australia.

December 23

Remembrance Club founded in Hobart, Tas, by Major-General Sir John Gellibrand.

December 30

Five Sydney businessmen, each calling themselves ‘Mr Smith’, treat children in a home for underprivileged children to a Christmas party. The charity they form, by which they intend to continue their anonymous work, is called the Smith Family.


1923

March 19

The Hobart Symphony Orchestra gives its inaugural performance.

March 23

Cape York, Groote Eylandt and the Torres Strait Islands suffer damage in a series of cyclones.

April 4

Australia supports the adoption of Esperanto as a practical future world language.

April 28

Construction begins on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

May 30

Agreement reached between the Federal and State governments that the states will levy income taxes and the Commonwealth will levy company and business taxes.

June 11

The NSW Labor Party adopts the ‘Red’ objective, which permits affiliations with other Labour movements, particularly the Communist Party.

July

John Thomas (Jack) Lang elected leader of the NSW Labor Party.

August 4

James Cavill opens the Surfers Paradise Hotel at Elston on Queensland’s south coast.

August 28

Construction begins on the temporary Parliament House below Camp Hill, Canberra, ACT.

August

Vegemite begins production by Fred Walker Company, later Kraft Foods.

September 1

21 coal miners killed in an explosion at the Bellbird coal mine in the NSW Hunter Valley.

September 26

Forrest Place is officially opened in Perth, WA.

October 11

Sydney and Brisbane linked by telephone for the first time.

October 12

Cairns, Qld, proclaimed a city.

October 15

The first passenger service to Canberra is introduced – a twice daily (excluding Sunday) mixed train running from Queanbeyan to Kingston Power House, stopping en route for workers at Molonglo Internment Camp.

October 24

Composer Donald Banks born.

November 5

Riots in Melbourne after 627 policemen are suspended over the introduction of plainclothes supervising constables.

November 24

Rinderpest cattle disease outbreak in Western Australia.

November 24

Sydney radio station 2SB broadcasts the first wireless radio programme in Australia.

November

The Victorian Government makes registration on the electoral role and voting compulsory.

December 1

The railway link between Townsville and Mt Isa, Qld, completed.

December 6

The National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA) formed in Sydney.


1924

January 10

Wireless radio station 2FC, operated by retailer Farmer’s, begins experimental broadcasting.

January 25

A Japanese naval training squadron visits Sydney.

January

An experimental station is established at Randwick, Sydney, to design and built aircraft.

January

US automobile manufacturer General Motors grants Melbourne motor body building company Holden Bros. the right to assemble General Motors cars in Australia.

April 7

Australia’s longest recorded period of temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit is recorded at Marble Bar, WA. It ran for 161 days.

April 14

The Australian naval flagship HMAS Australia is scuttled east of Sydney Heads.

April 21

Canberra’s first public railway station opens adjacent to Uriara Rd (now Wentworth Ave).

May 5

Racial riots occur at Bunyan, Qld, involving locals clashing with Southern Europeans brought to Australia to work the sugar plantations.

June 3

Air mail service between Adelaide and Sydney commences.

June 15

Morwell Power Station begins generating electricity for Melbourne.

July 17

Andrew (Boy) Charlton is among the Australia medal winners at the Paris Olympic Games.

July 25

The Bass Strait oil field is first tapped when traces of oil are found in a bore at Lakes Entrance, Vic.

July 25

Voting in all Federal elections becomes compulsory.

August 14

The last Cobb & Co. horse-drawn coach makes its last run in the Surat, Qld, area.

August 21

The large scale open cut coal mines at Yallourn, Vic, begin production.

September 23

The Big Brother Movement is instigated to sponsor migration of British youth to Australia.

September

The inaugural Australian Rules Football Brownlow Medal is awarded to Edward ‘Carji’ Greeves of the Geelong Footbal Club. The award is regarded as the most prestigious award for individual players in the league. It is named after a Geelong player and long-serving administrator who was active in the early days of the Victorian Football League, Charles Brownlow.

October 8

Education via wireless broadcast planned.

November 17

The statue of the Rt Hon. Sir Samuel Way, sometime Chief Justice, Lieutenant-Governor, and Chancellor of the University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, unveiled.

December 3

Ford Australia registered.

December 4

Wharf labourers and coal trimmers around Australian ports strike over overtime conditions.

December 5

Australia’s first Woolworths store opens in Sydney’s Imperial Arcade.

December 20

Artist Clifton Pugh born.

December 23

The Brisbane to Cairns, Qld, rail link opens.

December 1

The Government Statistician confirms Sydney’s population has passed 1 million. The estimated population is 1,008,500.


1925

January 5

The C-36 series steam locomotive begins production at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops, Redfern, Sydney.

January 21

Philip Whistler Street appointed Chief Justice of New South Wales.

January 26

Sydney radio station 2UE begins broadcasting. It is Australia’s first commercial radio station.

February 1

Melbourne Town Hall is badly damaged by fire.

February 11

The full blood Aboriginal population in New South Wales falls to an all time low of 1,085 persons.

February 24

5DN, Adelaide’s first commercial radio station, begins broadcasting.

March 8

3UZ, Melbourne’s first commercial radio station, begins broadcasting.

April 10

Air services in Australia are extended with flights to Mildura, Hay and Broken Hill with Cootamundra, NSW, acting as the central place of exchange.

April 20

Social reformer Rose Scott dies, age 77.

April 25

The Australian War Memorial founded in Canberra.

May

Over 30,000 Cactoblastis Cactorum moth eggs are imported from Buenos Aires to control the prickly pear pest in NSW and Qld.

May 29

Floods across southern New South Wales result in the drownings of five people.

June 4

The first Europe – Australia flight arrives in Perth from Italy, having travelled a distance of around 18,200kms.

June 10

A derailment on the Traveston, Qld, railway bridge results in the loss of 10 lives.

June 16

John Thomas (Jack) Lang, leader of the New South Wales Labor Party becomes Premier of NSW.

June 29

Sir John Lawrence Baird, recently elevated to the peerage and taken the title of Lord Stonehaven, is appointed Australia’s Governor-General.

June

The Bank of New South Wales sets up the Australian Guarantee Corporation to provide finance for the purchase of motor vehicles.

July 1

A 44-hour working week granted to Queensland railway workers.

July 9

A Widgeon seaplane designed by the experimental section of the Royal Australian Air Force at Randwick, NSW, ditches into Botany Bay.

July 4

The Seaman’s union is de-registered.

July 27

The Government radio station 4QG begins broadcasting in Brisbane, Qld.

August 14

The Country Party of NSW formed.

September 23

Artist John Coburn born.

October 24

Cricketer Kenneth Donald (Slasher) Mackay born in Windsor, Queensland.

October 31

The Sydney radio station 2KY begins broadcasting.

November 16

Stanley Melbourne Bruce and the Nationalist Party are returned to power in the Federal Elections.

November 17

Conductor Sir Allan Charles MacLaurin MacKerras born.

December 5

Maroubra Speedway, Sydney, opens.


1926

January 1

44-hour working week approved for all workers in New South Wales.

January 19

The 10th Federal Parliament opens.

February 15

Sydney commercial radio station 2GB begins broadcasting.

February 17

Bushfires in the Gippsland, Vic, area claim 30 lives.

February 24

New South Wales introduces widows pensions.

February

Coon cheese first created and patented by Edward William Coon.

March 2

Sydney’s first electric train runs from Central Station to Mortdale, NSW.

March 17

Preferential voting used for the first time in NSW Legislative Assembly elections.

April 2

SS Dorrigo sinks off Double Point, Qld, 22 people drown.

April 2

Formula One motor racing champion Jack Brabham born Sydney, NSW.

April 27

Writer and poet Ada Cambridge dies, age 81.

May 25

Beryl Mills wins the inaugural Miss Australia competition.

May 26

The Institute of Science and Industry to be replaced by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

May 26

A train collision at Caulfield, Vic, kills three people.

June 4

Cricketer Fred Spofforth dies at Long Ditton, Surrey, England, age 72.

June 7

Legislation is passed by the Federal Government permitting the Northern Territory to be divided into two parts along the 20th parallel of latitude.

July 6

A posse of white stockmen hunts down and kills up to 100 Aborigines in WA’s East Kimberley region, after the death of a colleague at the hands of an Aboriginal man.

August 22

The Western Australian Secessionist League is formed.

August 28

Lionel Laughton Hill becomes Premier of South Australia.

September 4

The Canberra Times newspaper begins publication.

September 15

27 people are killed in NSW’s worst rail disaster on the Blandford to Murulla line.

September 25

The RAAF makes a 10,000 mile defence survey flight of New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.

November 1

General Motors (Australia) sets up an assembly plant for its cars in Melbourne, using bodies provided by Holden in Adelaide, and mechanical running gear from its US plants.

November 7

Opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland born at Point Piper, Sydney.

November 25

The first exhibition of Australian modern art held in Sydney at the Grosvenor Gallery.

December 21

The first loop in Sydney’s underground City Circle railway, between Central and St James Stations, opens.

September 23

Voting in Victorian Legislative Assembly elections becomes compulsory.


1927

February 9

The Queensland town of Cairns is damaged by a cyclone.

February 19

NSW Government approves payment of child endowment.

February

The Tasman Peninsula (map) and other southern areas of Tasmania are ravaged by bushfires.

March 17

HMAS Sydney, the first of two Modified Leaner Class light cruisers being built in Scotland for the Royal Australian Navy, is launched.

April 13

The first public overseas radio service, known as the Beam Service, begin operation between Australia and England.

May 6

The Australasian Council of Trade Unions formed in Melbourne.

May 10

Australia’s new but temporary Parliament House opened by the Duke of York (later King George VI). At the opening, attended by over 30,000 people, Dame Nellie Melba sings ‘God Save The King‘.

May 30

The use of mechanical hares introduced at greyhound racing meetings at Epping in suburban Sydney.

May

The opening of Parliament House in Canberra is celebrated by the release of Australia’s first commemorative issue postage stamp.

June 6

Playwright Allan Seymour born.

June 13

Country singer Slim Dusty born David Kirkpatrick at Kempsey, NSW.

June 20

All Australian states join the new Australian Loan Council.

June 30

Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Thomas Philippe Ulm circumnavigate Australia by air in a record 10 days, 5 hours and 15 minutes in a Bristol Tourer.

July 30

Australia’s 9th Prime Minister, Joseph Cook, dies at Bellevue Hill, NSW.

August 2

The Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh is proclaimed a city.

August 8

The Cenotaph in Martin Place, Sydney, is dedicated by NSW Premier John Thomas (Jack) Lang.

August 10

Electric trains brought into service on Sydney’s North Shore line between Hornsby and Milsons Point.

August 23

The Federal Government imposes a tariff on imported rice to protect the local industry.

August 1

The slaughter of over 600,000 koalas and 1 million possums during the month of August commences. It is instigated by the Queensland Government to assist the fur trade. Public outcry leads to it being a one-off rather than the annual event the Government had planned.

September 12

Queensland sugar mill workers end their 4-month long strike over a mill’s new owner not giving preference to previous mill workers.

September 28

The Federal Police Force formed.

October 10

John Thomas (Jack) Lang‘s Labor Government defeated in NSW elections. National Party leader Sir Thomas Rainsford Bavin becomes the Premier.

October 28

One of Australia’s most notorious criminals, Joseph Leslie Theodore ‘Squizzy’ Taylor, dies age 43 when he is gunned down in a shootout with another criminal in suburban Carlton, Melbourne.

November 3

40 die as the ocean liner Tahiti cuts the Sydney Harbour ferry Greycliffe in half near Watsons Bay.

November 7

The railway link between Sydney and Broken Hill is completed.

December 7

Champion boxer Albert (Young Griffo) Griffiths dies, age 58.


1928

January 21

Artist John Olsen born.

February 21

Seaplane carrier HMAS Albatross launched at Cockatoo Island, Sydney.

February 23

Bert Hinkler performs the first solo flight from England to Australia.

March 9

Armidale Teachers College, NSW, established.

April 1

Australia’s first motor racing Grand Prix race held at Phillip Island, Vic. The event is won by British entrant Captain A.C. Waite driving an Austin 7.

April 28

The Commonwealth Shipping Line is sold to the British White Star Line for £1.9 million.

May 9

The Australian Inland Mission and Qantas jointly establish a medical air service for outback Australia.

May 10

Qantas establishes a daily mail service between Brisbane and Toowoomba, Qld.

May 18

RAAF tests its Southampton Supermarine flying boat at Point Cook, Victoria. It is assembled in Australia from British parts.

May 30

Artist Kevin Charles ‘Pro’ Hart born in Broken Hill, NSW.

May 31

Cadbury’s chocolate begins production at its new factory at Claremont, Tasmania.

May

Industrial Chemical Industries (ICI) begins production in Australia.

June 10

Aviator Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Thomas Philippe Ulm arrive in Brisbane in Fokker F VIb, Southern Cross, after an 11,000 kilometre flight over the Pacific from Oakland, California, in three stages.

June 10

Public telegraph service between Australia and Montreal, Canada, commences.

June 11

RAAF chooses the DH60 Moth (tech details) as the replacement for its Avro 504K trainer aircraft.

August 6

Australia’s only gold medal at the Amsterdam Olympic Games is won by sculler H.R. Pearce. Andrew ‘Boy’ Charlton wins two silver medals; Edgar Gray wins a bronze medal in cycling. It is the first Games in which women have been able to complete. Australia has one woman in its team; Miss E. Robinson, who fails to qualify for the walking race finals.

August 8

Jazz musician Don Burrows born.

August 31

The new blast furnace at Port Kembla, NSW, lit for the first time.

September 3

NSW voters reject a referendum calling for the prohibition of alcohol.

September 12

The first flight from Australia to New Zealand completed by Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Thomas Philippe Ulm in their Fokker F VIb, Southern Cross.

September 27

Dame Nellie Melba makes her final operatic performance in Australia in Melbourne.

October 22

Australia’s 6th, 8th and 10th Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher, dies in England, age 66.

November 2

Police fire on around 1,500 striking Melbourne waterside workers who are picketing Princes Pier. Four unionists are wounded, one seriously. The police action is taken when unionists break through a line of police protecting volunteer stevedores loading ships.

November 19

Stanley Melbourne Page‘s Nationalist Country Party returned to power in the Federal elections, but with a reduced majority.

December 10

Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Thomas Philippe Ulm form Australian National Airways Ltd.

September 31

The first ‘talkie’ – a feature film with sound – is screened in Sydney. The movie is ‘The Jazz Singer‘ starring Al Jolson.


1929

January 2

Bunnerong Power Station, Sydney, brought online.

January 30

Owen Dixon appointed to the High Court bench.

March 31

The Fokker F VIb, Southern Cross, flown by Charles Kingsford Smith, is forced to land in the Kimberly Region of WA. It is found and rescued on 6th April.

April 7

Floods in Tasmania cause the Cascade Dam to burst, flooding properties and killing 27 people (photo).

April 29

Composer Peter Sculthorpe born in Launceston, Tasmania.

May 14

Australia’s first air mail stamp issued. It depicts an Australian pastoral scene.

May 21

The Georges River Bridge in Sydney’s south opens.

June 3

Fremantle, WA, proclaimed a city.

June 7

Sydney’s lavishly decorated State Theatre opens.

July 10

The Fokker F VIb, Southern Cross lands in London and establishes a new record time for a flight from Australia to Britain of 12 days 21 hours and 18 minutes.

July 14

Anthropologist Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer dies, age 69.

August 2

The narrow gauge railway line between Alice Springs, NT, and Adelaide, SA, is completed.

August 6

The first Ghan train arrives in Alice Springs, NT, from Port Augusta, SA.

October 4

The state of Western Australia celebrates its centenary.

October 21

The Dixson Wing of the State Library of NSW opens.

October 14

Labor wins its first peacetime General election; James Scullin becomes Prime Minister.

November 8

Compulsory military training abolished by the incoming government.

November 21

The Scullin Government increases duty on many imported goods to protect local industry.

November 27

5,000 Merino sheep are exported to Russia.

December 3

William Morris (Billy) Hughes forms the Australian Party.

December 18

Fighting at the Rothbury coal mine near Newcastle, NSW, results in the death of a man and injury of hundreds of others after 10,000 to 15,000 miners are stood down after refusing to work.

December 24

The effects of the 24th October collapse of the New York Stock Exchange begins to flow on to the local finance industry.

December 31

National Party Leader John Douglas Anthony born.


1930

January 1

Australian National Airways (ANA) starts regular services between Sydney and Brisbane.

January 6

Cricketer Don Bradman scores 452 not out for New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground, a world record.

January 17

Australia signs an agreement with Germany regarding the liquidation of German property in Australia.

January 31

Francis Chichester arrives in Sydney after completing a flight from London in a Gypsy Moth.

February 2

Australia stops overseas lending and imposes a tariff embargo and rationing of imports because of a dramatic fall in export prices.

February 12

Melbourne’s Spencer Street Bridge opens.

February 17

A 19-year old man is killed by a shark at Brighton Pier, Melbourne.

March 11

Historian Geoffrey Blainey born.

March 30

Entertainer Rolf Harris born in Bassendean, a suburb of Perth, WA.

April 1

Douglas Mawson‘s Antarctica expedition arrives in Adelaide.

April 11

Norman Lindsay‘s new novel, ‘Redheap’, banned on moral grounds.

April 24

A mass meeting of unemployed in Melbourne for the Anti-Starvation Crusade.

April 30

Radio telephone link between London and Sydney opens.

May 8

Brisbane City Hall opens.

May 21

Australia’s 27th Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, born Toorak, Vic.

May 24

Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia. The flight takes 19 days.

June 1

Australian National Airways (ANA) begins a regular air service between Melbourne and Sydney.

July 12

Lewis Lasseter leaves Alice Springs with a party of seven in search of his ‘lost’ reef of gold.

June 26

Aviator Charles Kingsford Smith arrives in New York on his round the world flight.

July 22

At the Second Cricket Test at Lords, cricketer Don Bradman scores 254 from 376 deliveries.

July

All states are linked by trunkline telephone.

August 1

Sales tax first imposed on imported and locally manufactured goods.

August 16

Australia participtes in the inaugural British Empire Games in Hamilton, Canada.

August 19

The two halves of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, held by cables, meet at 10am.

September 29

Pianist and conductor Richard Bonynge born in Sydney.

October 6

Cricketer Richie Benaud born in Penrith, Sydney.

November 20

The depression begins to bite hard as unemployment reaches 20 percent.

November 11

The Anzac Square Memorial in Brisbane is dedicated.

December 17

NSW Government attempts to rescue its crumbling hospital system by introducing Government-run lotteries.

December 18

Perth is linked by telephone to the rest of Australia, via Adelaide.

December 19

Herbert Vere Evatt appointed Justice of the High Court (fact file).



This website is published as information only. Please direct enquiries about places and services featured to the relevant service provider. | About Us | Email us

Design and concept © 2019 Australia For Everyone |

Booking.com
Booking.com