1931

January 7

Guy Menzies makes a sole trans-Tasman flight from Sydney to New Zealand, which takes 12 1/2 hours.

January 8

A gold nugget weighing 77 pounds is found near Kalgoorlie, WA, by Jack Larcombe.

January 19

Canberra Airport opens.

January 19

Australian National Airways (ANA) begins a daily Hobart to Melbourne air service.

January 21

The first Australian born Australian Governor-General, Sir Isaac Isaacs, sworn in.

January 22

All wages cut by 10 percent to cushion the effects of the economic depression.

January 31

The Golden Eagle gold nugget, weighing 1,135 ounces, found 64 km south of Coolgardie, WA.

February 1

Floods damage more than 1,000 homes in a belt from Innisfail to Brisbane.

February 18

Explorer Douglas Mawson reaches MacRobertsonland, Antarctica.

February 23

Opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (Helen Porter Mitchell) dies, age 69.

March 5

10,000 people meet in Wagga Wagga, NSW, to discuss a proposed new state called Riverina.

March 6

Holden Motor Bodies Ltd merges with General Motors Aust. Ltd.

March 10

The Apex Club is formed in Geelong, Vic.

March 11

Media proprietor Rupert Murdoch born in Melbourne.

March 22

Australian National Airways (ANA) ‘s aircraft Southern Cloud goes missing on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney. The wreckage is not found until 1958.

March 23

Sydney’s Evening News suspended until the economy improves.

April 2

SS Malabar is wrecked near Long Bay, Sydney.

April 25

National Soldiers’ Memorial to South Australian sailors and soldiers who fell in the Great War 1914-1918, corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, Adelaide, unveiled. A separate World War Two memorial was unveiled 11th November 1956 and one for the Malay Peninsula, Korean, Borneo and Vietnam campaigns was unveiled on 25 July 1987.

April 27

The first air mail service between Britain and Australia commences.

April 30

NSW Government’s State Savings Bank closes, being forced to merge with the Commonwealth Savings Bank.

May 5

Unity Party formed.

May 25

Sir Douglas Copland heads a committee set up to investigate the worsening economic crisis.

June 20

NSW Police involved in a bloody battle with 18 Communists over an eviction order.

July 23

A New Guard is founded in Sydney to protect the community from ‘Communists and anarchists and other wreckers’.

July 30

The lowest temperature ever recorded in Australia thus far – 25º F (-3.9º C) – is measured at Mt Hotham, Vic.

August 15

Engineers express concern that the cables holding up the two sections of the partly-built Sydney Harbour Bridge might snap in severe gales.

August 20

New South Wales holds its first State Lottery.

September 14

Artist Tom Roberts dies, age 75.

October 2

SS Strathnaver, the first of five new ocean liners built for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) to service to burgeoning England – Australia run, departs Tilbury Docks, London, on its maiden voyage to Australia. All five ships had names commencing with the Scottish word "Strath", causing them to be known as the Strath Sisters.

December 3

The Australian Pound is devalued.

December 11

Statute of Westminster adopted, freeing the Commonwealth Parliament from Imperial legislation.

December 21

Government of James Scullin defeated in a General Election. Joseph Lyons of the United Australia Party forms a new government.

1932

January 30

New South Wales Government demands Commonwealth Government bails it out in order to meet overseas interest payments.

February 4

Severe bushfires sweep the Gippsland area of Victoria.

February 28

The Central to Wynyard section of Sydney’s underground City Circle railway opens.

March 20

Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.

March 30

Brisbane’s William Jolley bridge opens.

April 7

Racehorse Phar Lap found dead in the United States.

April 27

Chief Justice of the High Court, Sir Adrian Knox, dies age 68.

May 9

Clarence River Bridge, Grafton, NSW, opens.

May 13

Gold discovered at Cracow, Queensland.

May 14

NSW Governor Sir Philip Woolcott Game, dismisses the NSW Premier, John Thomas (Jack) Lang, for his continued refusal to make payments on a loans, a breach of Federal law.

May 16

Nationwide unemployment hits an all-time high of 30 per cent.

June 13

The United Australia Party under Bertram Sydney Barnsdale Stevens wins the NSW General Election. John Thomas (Jack) Lang‘s Labour Party’s reduced its number of seats from 55 to 21, and 4 former Lang Government ministers lose their seats.

July 1

The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s formation celebrated by its first broadcast from the NSW State Conservatorium.

July 30

Australia takes part in the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Australia’s team consisted of one 12 competitors but they won three medals.

August 9

Forensic science is first used in a court of law in Australia when ballistic evidence is used to identify a weapon that fired a cartridge.

August 19

City of Sydney Eisteddfod inaugurated.

September 1

Holyman Airlines begins flights between Launceston and Flinders Island, Tas.

October 13

Australia’s first automatic traffic lights are installed on the corner of Kent and Market Streets, Sydney.

November 22

Lady Millie Peacock, Member for Allandale, sworn into the Victorian Parliament, becoming Victoria’s first female parliamentarian.

November 23

The Dog on the Tuckerbox statue is unveiled by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons at Gundagai.

November 23

Businessman Douglas Frank Hewson (Frank) Packer and former Federal Treasurer, Edward Granville (Red Ted) Theodore, form Sydney Newspapers Ltd.

December 8

The English cricket team introduces bodyline tactics at the First Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground under Captain Douglas Robert Jardine.

December 23

The P&O liner SS Strathaird becomes Australia’s first cruise ship when she departs Sydney for a five-night cruise with just two ports of call – Brisbane and Norfolk Island.

December 26

A recent census shows Australia’s full-blood Aboriginal population has fallen to a record low of 60,101 persons.

1933

January 23

Labor politician and Governor-General William George (Bill) Hayden born Brisbane.

February 8

The Antarctic Territory, excluding Adelie Land, claimed as Australian territory.

March 14

The Archibald Fountain dedicated in Hyde Park, Sydney.

March 16

The first feature film about the HMS Bounty mutiny, ‘In The Wake of the Bounty‘, opens at the Prince Edward Theatre, Sydney.

April 11

Western Australians vote to secede from the Commonwealth of Australia.

April 28

Australian pioneer aviator Bert Hinkler dies in a plane crash near Florence, Italy.

May 30

Actress Jill Perryman born.

June 9

NSW Industrial Commission reaffirms the 44 hour working week.

June 12

The magazine The Australian Women’s Weekly first published.

June 19

Imperial Airways commences flights between England and Australia.

August 3

Three times Olympian Frank Beaurepaire forms the Olympic Tyre and Rubber Co.

August 3

Officials of the football codes Rugby League and Australian Rules meet with a view to merging.

August 28

The Brisbane Courier Mail first published with the amalgamation of the Brisbane Courier and the Daily Mail.

September 5

Australia signs its first trade pact with New Zealand.

October 3

Tennis player Neil Andrew Fraser born.

October 9

Under threat of the cancellation of the Australian cricket tour of England, the MCC assures Australia that there will be no more bodyline bowling.

October 28

A new flight record of 6 days, 17 hours and 45 minutes between England and Australia is set by Charles Ulm, G.V. Allan and G.P. Taylor.

1934

January 18

Qantas Empire Airways formed.

January 22

An electric trolley bus comes into service from Liverpool Street, Sydney, to Potts Point.

January 31

Race riots erupt in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, WA, after the death of a local football hero whose death was caused by a punch to the head by an Italian barman.

January

Severe bushfires ravage Tasmania’s Derwent Valley region, north western forests and west coast.

February 15

Television personality Graham Kennedy born in Melbourne.

February 17

Writer and entertainer John Barry Humphries born.

March 15

75 die as cyclone hits the coastal strip from Townsville and Cooktown, Qld.

April 18

The Federal Arbitration Court returns the Basic Wage to 1931 levels.

April 20

The first passengers to travel by air from Australia to England depart Sydney.

May 11

Adam Lindsay Gordon becomes the only Australian to be honoured with a memorial bust in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey, London.

July 28

Melbourne’s new His Majesty’s Theatre opens.

August 4

Australia participtes in the 1934 Empire Games in London, UK.

August 8

And Aboriginal by the name of Tuckiar, sentenced to death in August 1933 for murdering a policeman, wins an appeal against his sentence in the High Court.

August 13

Flood waters damage many buildings and take two lives in towns along St Vincents Gulf, SA.

August 17

The Australian Government places an order for 42 new aircraft for the RAAF.

August 24

Mildura, Vic, is proclaimed a city.

August 28

Scientist Professor Tannath William Edgeworth David dies, age 76.

September 3

The finding of the body of a woman near Albury, NSW, sparked the beginning of what became known as the ‘Pyjama Girl‘ mystery.

September 17

In a Federal Election, the Douglas Social Credits fail to win a seat in spite of receiving almost 170,000 votes.

October 21

Charles Kingsford Smith and P.G. Taylor complete the first west-east aerial crossing of the Pacific in the Fokker F VIb, Southern Cross, taking 33 days.

October 19

Charles Prince of Morphettvale, SA, sentenced to two years’ gaol for fraud after racing the same horse, named Erbie, and winning in three states under three different names.

October 20

The Holyman Airlines DH86 aircraft ‘Miss Hobart’ goes missing on a flight from Launceston to Melbourne. On board was the airline’s founder, Victor Holyman.

October 24

C.W.A. Scott and T. Campbell Black win the air race from London to Melbourne. Their flight, in a De Havilland D.88 Comet aircraft, took 2 days, 23 hours and 14 seconds.

October

The reconstructed Captain James Cook’s cottage opens in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens.

November 2

Tennis player Kenneth Robert Rosewall born.

November 11

The Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance is dedicated by the Duke of Gloucester.

November 19

The Duke of Gloucester visits Portland, Vic, to conclude the celebrations of Victoria’s centenary.

1935

January 19

Rock singer Johnny O’Keefe born.

January

Reginald Ansett establishes a Hamilton to Melbourne air service.

February 22

Sydney’s 2UW becomes Australia’s first radio station to begin broadcasting 24 hours a day.

February 25

Qantas Empire Airways commences a regular air service between Darwin and Singapore.

March 10

Australian rules football player and coach Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer born in WA.

April 2

In Victoria, the Country Party joins with Labour to defeat the United Australia Party.

April 11

Author Rosa Praed dies, age 84.

May 16

Charles Kingsford Smith‘s Fokker F VIb, Southern Cross aircraft almost lost when a piece of a propeller broke off on an airmail flight to New Zealand.

May 24

Britain refuses Western Australia the right to secede from the Commonwealth.

May 28

Harold Park, Sydney, opens as Australia’s first harness racing track.

June 13

A shark disgorges a tattooed arm off Coogee, Sydney, sparking a murder investigation.

July 1

Australian Associated Press is formed.

August 8

Radio personality John Laws born in Wau, New Guinea.

August

General Motors Aust. Ltd. commences assembly of cars at a new factory built on land provided by the Victorian Government at Fisherman’s Bend, Melbourne.

September 25

The Nepean Dam, NSW, completed.

September 26

Goldsborough Mort & Co.’s main woolstore at Pyrmont, NSW, destroyed by fire, taking with it over 30,000 bales of wool.

October 2

Federal Member for Fremantle, WA, John Curtin, elected leader of the Labor Party.

October 5

Sydney’s Luna Park on Lavender Bay opens. Many of its attractions were brought from Glenelg, SA.

October 7

Writer Thomas Keneally born.

October 15

Sir John Latham appointed Chief Justice of the High Court.

October 18

BHP acquires Australian Iron & Steel Ltd.

November 9

Aviator Charles Kingsford Smith goes missing, presumed dead, age 38. His aircraft, Lady Southern Cross, went missing near the Bay of Bengal on its way to Singapore.

November 10

Frank Packer forms Australian Consolidated Press Ltd.

November 15

Australia imposes trade sanctions on Italy after its invasion of Abyssinia.

November 29

The Federal Government stops the importation of cane toads for release into Queensland’s sugar cane fields that were introduced from Hawaii to combat an outbreak of the grey-backed beetle.

December 6

The Pavlova is created by Bert Sachse, chef of the Esplanade Hotel, Perth. It is named after one of the hotel’s most famous guests, Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova.

1936

January 2

Military service pensions introduced.

January 24

Alexander Hore-Ruthven, Lord Gowrie, sworn in as Governor-General.

February 27

VFL footballer and coach Ronald Dale (Ron) Barrassi born.

March 12

Voting made compulsory in Western Australian state elections.

March 23

The first Australian owned oil company, Australian Motorists Petrol Company Limited (AMP) founded.

March 25

Tasmania linked to the mainland by telephone cable.

April 10

The Australian Civil Aviation Board founded.

May 11

Council for Civil Liberties founded.

May 24

Brisbane’s first traffic lights installed in Queen Street.

June 16

Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins born.

July 1

Japan and the Us retaliate against a new tract pact between Australia and Britain aimed at reserving the balance of trade between the latter two countries.

July 8

Australia increases the size of its military forces in response to the increase in Fascism in Europe.

July 24

The anti-Nazi play, ‘Till The Day I Die’, banned.

August 5

The first move to introduce the 40 hour working week is rejected.

August 1

As the Australian team marches passed Adolph Hitler at the Berlin Olympic Games., they looked right but failed to return the Nazi salute. Athlete Jack Metcalfe won a bronze medal, Australia’s only medal win from its 35 competitors. It was Australia’s worst ever result.

August 27

The A.C.T.U. embarks on a 2 minute strike in support of its push for a 40 hour working week.

September 8

The last known Tasmanian Tiger dies in the Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart.

September 19

Centenary celebrations held in towns and cities across South Australia.

October 30

In an attempt to reject her application for entry into Australia, immigration officials give British subject Mr Mary Freer a dictation test in Italian.

November 21

Hume Dam brought into commission and officially opened by Governor-General Lord Gowrie.

November

Bushfires ravage the towns of Casino, Mullumbimby and the Blue Mountains, NSW.

December 3

Paid annual leave is first introduced into a Federal award, for commercial printers.

December 9

Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation granted land at Fisherman’s Bend, Melbourne, to build aircraft.

December 10

King Edward VIII abdicates because of his association with an American divorcee, Mrs Wallis Simpson.

December 16-18

A Brisbane to Adelaide air race is held as part of South Australia’s centenary celebrations.

December

The ABC sets up its concert orchestras in all capital cities.

1937

February 1

Author Mary Gilmore named a Grand Dame in the King George VI New Year honours list.

February 9

The Cairns, Qld, region is badly damaged by a cyclone.

February 10

Australia establishes a diplomatic mission in the US, with the appointment of Mr F.K. Officer as Australian Counsellor on the staff of the British Ambassador in Washington, D.C.

February 14

Cricketer William Morris (Bill) Lawry born in Thornbury, Melbourne, Victoria

February 14

Walter Burley Griffin, the architect who designed Canberra, dies, age 60.

February 18

13 killed in a coal mine explosion at Wonthaggi, Vic.

March 1

Australia’s first air traffic controllers are appointed at Mascot (Sydney), Essendon (Melbourne), Dorafield (Adelaide) and Archerfield (Brisbane) airports.

March 8

The wreckage of an Airlines of Australia Stinson aircraft is found in the McPherson Ranges near the Qld-NSW border after disappearing on 19th February.

March 8

A Federal referendum rejects Prime Minister Joseph Lyons‘ proposal to have aviation controlled nationally rather than state by state.

March 9

Construction begins on the University of Queensland buildings, St Lucia.

March 11

Darwin is badly damaged by a cyclone.

April 1

Australia’s first Police & Citizens Boys Club opens in Woolloomooloo, Sydney.

April 1

Australian rules footballer and coach Haydn Bunton Junior born in Melbourne. He became the youngest ever coach in a major league of the code.

April 8

A policy of assimilation of Aborigines into the white community is adopted by the Federal Government.

April 20

Regular air mail services established with the United States of America.

May 31

The long-running radio serial ‘Dad and Dave’ is first aired.

June 1

Novelist Colleen McCullough born in Wellington, NSW.

June 15

Sydney’s last steam tram service, between Sans Souci and Kogarah, is replaced by electric trolley buses.

June 15

Volcanic eruptions reshape the coastline near Rabaul, New Guinea. 6,000 people are left homeless.

July 13

The Port Pirie to Port Augusta, SA, railway line opens.

September 4

Champion swimmer Dawn Fraser born at Balmain, NSW.

September 9

Airlines of Australia takes delivery of its first commercial airliner, a Douglas DC-3.

October 23

The Japanese invasion of China leads to a call for Australia to boycott trade with Japan.

October 25

The Joseph Lyons Government is returned for a third term of office in Federal Elections.

October

The South Australian Government threatens to cancel BHP’s mining leases if it fails to establish a blast furnace at Whyalla.

November 18

Australia’s first air-conditioned train, which will run between Melbourne and Albury, NSW, is christened Spirit of Progress. It enters into service five days later.

November 19

Sculptor George Rayner Hoff dies, age 42.

November 20

Hubert Opperman completed his journey on bicycle from Fremantle to Sydney in 13 days, 9 hours and 22 minutes.

December 2

Housing Commission of Victoria established.

1938

January 26

Sydney celebrates its 150th birthday. The launch Rodney capsizes in Sydney Harbour.

January 31

Pix magazine launched.

February 7

Five people die as Bondi Beach by a succession of three giant freak waves.

February 12

The first Empire (Commonwealth) Games to be held in Australia conclude in Sydney. Australia topped the medal tally, winning 24 gold medals.

March 4

The Federal Government reintroduces assisted passage migration.

March 10

An infantile paralysis (poliomyelitis) epidemic claims its 1,983rd victim.

April 1

New England University College established in Armidale, NSW.

April 18

Jim Broadbent sets a new flight record for an England to Australia flight. He arrived in Darwin after travelling 5 days, 4 hours, 21 minutes.

April 18

Australia’s first Grand Prix motor race held on Mt Panorama, Bathurst, NSW.

April 20

Athlete Betty Cuthbert born.

May 20

An embargo is placed on the export of iron ore in an effort to conserve Australia’s natural resources.

May 30

A Sydney to Papua New Guinea air service commences.

June 22

Poet and journalist C.J. Dennis dies, age 61.

July 6

Rose Bay flying boat airport becomes operational with the departure of the Qantas flying boat ‘Cooee’ departing for London.

July 9

Australia agrees to accept Austrian and German refugees.

July

Policy of contributory health and medical insurance adopted.

August 9

Tennis player Rodney (George) Laver born in Rockhampton, Qld.

September 30

Sydney’s North Shore tram services replaced by motor buses.

September 30

Topless bathing for men becomes legal in Victoria.

October 24

Attorney-General Robert Gordon Menzies warns on the likelihood of war in Europe.

October 26

Australian National Airways Douglas DC-2 ‘Kyeema‘ crashes near Mt Dandenong, Vic, killing all 18 persons on board.

November 8

RAAF orders fifty Lockheed Hudson Reconnaissance Bombers from the US.

November 18

Wharfies at Port Kembla refuse to load pig iron bound for Japan which they say will be used in Japan’s war against China and possibly against Australia in the future.

November 28

Tasman Empire Airways Ltd formed.

November 30

Australia’s military forces pass 52,000 for the first time.

December 5

Fire destroys 13 houses in Lugarno, Sydney.

December 10

Norman Lindsay‘s novel ‘The Age of Consent’ published.

December 19

The works of Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira first exhibited at the Fine Art Society Gallery, Melbourne.

December 28

Sydney Mail newspaper ceases publication.

1939

January 16

Australia’s worst bushfires on record claim 70 lives in Victoria

January 16

A heatwave, bringing record temperatures to Adelaide, buckles railway tracks and melts wax heads on shop dummies.

January 23

Waterside workers agree to load pig iron to Japan, ending a 9-week dispute.

January 29

Feminist Germaine Greer born.

February 22

The current issue of the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper is the first to be printed on newsprint made from 100 percent Tasmanian eucalypt produced at the new Associated Pulp and Paper Mills at Burnie, Tas.

March 27

The first Australian made warplane, the Wirraway, makes its first test flight.

March

Port Hedland, WA, hit by a severe cyclone.

April 7

Australia’s fourteenth Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, dies in his Sydney office.

April 19

Robert Gordon Menzies elected leader of the United Australia Party following the death of the former leader, Joseph Aloysius Lyons.

April 26

Robert Gordon Menzies sworn in as Australia’s fifteenth Prime Minister.

May 18

Sydney’s Minerva Theatre opens.

June 3

Survey conducted of the Indian Ocean flying boat route between Australia and South Africa.

June 30

Meatworks are denied paid annual leave by the Commonwealth Arbitration Court because the industry cannot afford it.

July 3

Ready mixed concrete becomes available for the first time in Australia with the commencement of trading by the Readymix Concrete Company in Sydney.

July 20

Federal Government instigates a National Manpower Register following the escalation of international tension and the fear of war breaking out.

July 26

Australia’s thirtieth Prime Minister, John Winston Howard, born in Earlwood, NSW.

August 6

Sydney gangster Guido Caletti of the Palmer Street mob shot dead by a member of the rival Brougham Street mob.

August

Some NSW coalminers awarded a 40-hour working week.

September 4

Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies declares war on Germany in consequence to its invasion of Poland.

September 5

Large numbers of enemy aliens are arrested and interred.

September 6

Emergency radio regulations introduced following the outbreak of war.

September 6

Censorship is imposed on Australia’s media throughout the duration of the war.

September 9

The price of numerous items are brought under the control of the Federal Government until further notice.

September

The RAAF requisitions civil aircraft for use by the military in war (three DC-3s from ANA and two Empire Flying Boats from Qantas).

October 12

The RAAF joins Empire air training scheme.

October 21

Federal Government passes legislation to introduce conscription.

October 22

Publisher Sir John Langdon Bonython dies, age 91.

October

G.M.H. motor vehicle plants across Australia have modified their output to contribute towards the war effort.

November 19

The Sydney newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, commences publication.

November 19

Two planes collide over Mascot Airport, killing six people.

December 5

W.J. McKell replaces John Thomas (Jack) Lang as the leader of the NSW Parliamentary Labor Party.

December 6

Historian Sir Ernest Scott dies, age 72.

December 16

Sydney’s suburban rail network extended from Sutherland to Cronulla.

December 20

Australia’s first short wave radio broadcast service, "Australia Calling", commences.

December 26

Film director Fred Schepisi born.

1940

January 15

Painter Keith Looby born.

January 16

Australia takes delivery of fifty Lockheed Hudson Reconnaissance Bombers.

February 17

Ballet dancer and director Marilyn Jones born.

March 9

A coal strikes goes national.

March

The C.S.I.R. establishes a Radiophysics laboratory with the view to developing radar technology.

March

Bushfires ravage the Derwent Valley, Tas, King Island and South Australia.

April 17

The ocean liner Queen Mary makes her first visit to Australia and picks up AIF troops from Sydney bound for the Middle East.

April 19

The Australian Labor Party formed.

May 1

Trans Tasman flying boat service commences between Sydney and Auckland.

June 11

Australia declares war on Italy after Italian troops begin attacking France.

June 17

Ten organisations, including the Communist Party of Australia, declared illegal.

July 6

Brisbane’s Story Bridge opens.

July 20

HMAS Sydney sinks the Italian cruiser ‘Bartolomeo Colleoni‘.

July

Construction begins on the Captain Cook Graving Dock at Garden Island, Sydney, which will link the island to the mainland.

July 18

Compulsory national service introduced for training in home defence.

August 1

The first Australian built minesweeper, HMAS Bathurst, launched at Cockatoo Island shipyards.

August 13

Ten people, including three Federal Cabinet ministers, die as an RAAF bomber crashes in Canberra. The ministers killed were the Minister for the Army, Brigadeer Geoffrey Austin Street; Minister for Air James Valentine Fairbairn; Vice President of the Executive Council, Sir Henry Somer Gullett. The Chief of Staff, Sir Cyral Brudenell Bingham White, was also killed. A cairn marks to locality.

August 16

Film director Bruce Beresford born in Sydney.

August 19

Sir John Latham, Chief Justice of the High Court, appointed Minister to Japan to cement and extend cordial relations between Australia and Japan. Within 18 months, Japan would commence attacking the Australian mainland.

August 31

Actor Jack Thompson born in Sydney.

September 23

The government of Robert Gordon Menzies returned to power in a Federal Election.

October 1

Petrol rationing commences.

October 26

Melbourne’s last cable-drawn tramcars replaced by electric powered cars.

October 28

The Advisory War Council formed.

November 9

Bass Strait closed to commercial shipping during wartime.

November 22

Australian minesweeper Goorangal sunk inside Port Phillip Heads after being torn almost in half in a collision with an outward bound passenger-cargo ship.

November

Margaret Doyle becomes Australia’s first woman announcer, working for the ABC.

December 12

The Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force formed.

December 14

New military conscription call ups for training in the Citizen’s Forces. The call up is in line with Australia’s policy of having a 25,000 strong wartime defence force.

December 21

The first wartime land action by Australian troops occurs outside Bardia in Italian Libya.

December 26

The classic Australian movie, ‘Forty Thousand Horsemen‘, directed by Charles Chauvel and starring Chips Rafferty, premieres in Sydney.