1960's

By matthew.moussa

  • heat wave

    Heat waves kills 11 in Central Australia and 13 in Sydney
  • Period: to

    1960's in Australia

  • First Adelaide Festival

  • hotels and theatres

    Hotels and theatres open for the first time on Anzac Day. Organised sport allowed in the afternoon

  • trams

    Hobart: The last tram runs. Earlier in April, a runaway tram crashed into another tram. Several vehicles, including a bus, were hit by the trams.

  • plane crash

    Mackay: TAA Fokker Friendship plane crashes, killling all 29 on board

  • men ads

    Canberra: Compulsory national service training for men ends

  • death

    Surfer's Paradise: Billiards champion Walter Lindrum dies at 61

  • nobel prize sharing

    Stockholm: Immunologist Sir Frank MacFarlane Burnet shares Nobel Prize for Medicine with Briton Peter Medawar Burnett speech on dangers of smoking recorded Nov 24, 1968

  • cricket test tied

    Brisbane: First tied cricket test Australia v West indies at The Gabba

  • commercials made in australia

    Federal Government directs all future TV commercials to be made in Australia

  • wheat selling

    Australia to sell wheat to Communist China

  • ford sacks

    The Credit Squeeze hits the car industry: GMH to dismiss 2,600 workers and on March 8, Ford sacks 980 workers, making a total of 2000 since the previous November

  • last tram run

    Sydney: Last tram runs from La Perousse to Randwick workshops

  • life imprisonment for kidnap

    Sydney: Stephen Leslie Bradley sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of kidnap victim Graeme Thorne July 1960

  • rod laver wins

    Wimbledon: Rod Laver wins Men's Singles tennis final

  • naked fine

    Sydney: Woman fined for being "unsuitably dressed" wearing a bikini at Bondi Beach

  • drug thalidomide

    Sydney: Obstetrician Dr William McBride confirms the anti nausea drug thalidomide is linked to birth defects

  • bushfires through the great divide

    Melbourne: Busfhires rage through the Great Divide and the Dandenong Ranges on the edge of Melboune, killing 8 people and destroying hundreds of houses

  • around the worlds lights

    Perth: As Astronaut John Glenn circles the Earth, the city of Perth turns on its lights. "I can see the outline of a town and a very bright light just to the south of it." Glenn dubs Perth "The City of Lights"

  • tallest building

    Sydney: Australia tallest building opens, the 25-storey AMP building

  • Southern Aurora arrives from Sydney

    Melbourne: The Southern Aurora arrives from Sydney on the new uniform-gauge line that now links the 2 states Video clip (mute)

  • thalidomide drug ban

    Federal Government bans drug thalidomide

  • rod laver wins grand slam

    New York: Rod Laver wins the Grand Slam in men's tennis after his defeat of fellow Australian Roy Emerson in the US Championships. Margaret Smith is the first Australian woman to win the US Women's Singles title

  • commenwealth games open

    Perth: Prince Philip opens the Commonwealth Games. Australia's medal tally at the end of the games is 38, the highest score for any one country in Commonwealth Games' history

  • first aboriginal to vote under the new commonwealth

    Perth: Philip Magalnir becomes the first Australian Aborigine to vote under the new Commonwealth electoral laws granting voting rights to Aborigines

  • bodies are found

    Bogle/Chandler Case: Two boys near the Lane Cove River in Sydney find the bodies of Dr Gilbert Stanley Bogle, a physicist with the CSIRO, and Mrs Margaret Chandler, wife of a CSIRO scientist. Although poisoning is suspected, the case is still unsolved

  • expellsion of a spy

    First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy, Ivan Skripov, is expelled as a spy

  • full scale mining begins

    Comalco begins full-scale mining of bauxite at Weipa on Cape York Peninsula

  • fight has been lead

    Gippsland: Aboriginal leader Pastor Doug Nicholls leads the fight against the closure of the Lake Tyers settlement

  • first australian woman wins tennis open

    Wimbledon: Margaret Smith becomes the first Australian woman to win the Women's Singles tennis championship

  • dam at Kununurra, opens

    WA: First stage of the Ord River irrigation project, the dam at Kununurra, opens

  • nuclear test done by australia

    Australia becomes the first nation to endorse the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

  • nobel prize won by scientist

    Stockholm: The Australian scientist Sir John Carew Eccles is awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on the central portions of the nerve cell membrane

  • first policy speech on TV

    Menzies becomes the first Party leader to make his policy speech on TV

  • police evict

    Darwin: Police evict the Mapoon community on Cape York Peninsula and raze community buildings to allow bauxite mining. This becomes the focus for the growing issues of aboriginal land rights

  • hydro foil service begins for the first time

    Sydney: The first hydrofoil ferry service begins

  • aircrafts collide

    Jervis Bay: The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with the destroyer HMAS Voyager, cutting it in half and killing 82 of the Voyager's officers and crew in the worst peacetime naval disaster in Australian history

  • voyager disaster opens

    Canberra: Royal Commission into the Voyager disaster opens

  • first woman to speak of nsw since the war

    Judy Hanrahan becomes the first woman teller appointed by the Bank of NSW since the war

  • beatles tour our country

    The Beatles tour Australia.

  • service introduced again

    National Service reintroduced

  • state of emergancy

    Queensland Government declares a state of emergency in an attempt to end an industrial dispute at Mt Isa mines.

  • The first hydrofoil ferry service begins

    Sydney: The first hydrofoil ferry service begins

  • dawn fraser youngest person to be australian of the year

    Dawn Fraser becomes youngest person to be named Australian of the Year

  • bus has to be escorted from Moree

    Grafton: Freedom Rides - A bus carrying 30 students, including Charles Perkins, has to be escorted from Moree after a demonstration against discrimination at the town's swimming pool

  • austarlian troops are commited to fighting by menzies

    Canberra: Prime Minister Menzies commits Australian troops to fight in Vietnam.

  • students have a protest over Springbok tour

    Melbourne: Students protest over Springbok tour - the all white Springbok Rugby Union team arrive to a hostile reception

  • menzies declare a war between vietnam and australia

    London: Prime Minister Menzies declares that Australia is at war with Vietnam

  • white australia is deleted

    The ALP deletes "White Australia" from its immigration policy

  • first woman judge

    Roma Mitchell is Australia's first woman judge, after her appointment to the South Australian Supreme Court Bench

  • Lake Burley Griffin official opened

    Canberra: Lake Burley Griffin official opened

  • menzies resigns

    The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies resigns after 16 straight years in office. Harold Holt succeeds him

  • children disappear

    Adelaide: The Beaumont children, Jane, Arnna & Grant disappear from the suburb of Glenelg

  • decimal currency is reinforced

    Australia changes over to decimal currency.

  • sydney opera house construction is seized

    Joern Utzon quits the construction of the Sydney Opera House

  • first Australian conscripts fly out for Vietnam

    Sydney: The first Australian conscripts fly out for Vietnam. Anti-conscription and anti-Vietnam War demonstrators could not get near the RAAF base at Richmond

  • viet cong was announced by australia that it was the bloodiest episode

    Long Tan: Australian troops encounter one of the bloodiest episodes yet with the Viet Cong

  • employies go on strike which were aborigine

    Wave Hill: 200 hundred aborigines employed on the Wave Hill cattle station go on strike claiming a wage of $50 a week

  • Harry Chan elected first ethnic Chinese mayor

    Darwin: Harry Chan elected first ethnic Chinese mayor

  • prisoner must stay

    Melbourne: Ronald Ryan is the last man to hang in Australia for the murder of a prison warder while escaping from Melbourne's Pentridge Jail. His execution would result in the abolition of the death penalty.

  • Tasmanian bushfires

    Tasmanian bushfires

  • new labour party leader

    Gough Whitlam succeeds Arthur Calwell to become new Leader of the Labor Party

  • australians vote in referendum

    90% of white Australians vote in referendum for proposal to count aborigines in the census and to allow the federal government to make special laws for them

  • Demonstrations against Queensland Government regulations

    Brisbane: Demonstrations against Queensland Government regulations, which require groups to apply for, and be granted, a permit before holding any public meeting in the city

  • The Federal Government announces it will set up the Office of Aboriginal Affairs

    The Federal Government announces it will set up the Office of Aboriginal Affairs

  • swimmer crashed by heavy surf

    Portsea: Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming in heavy surf south of Melbourne. His body is never found

  • 19th prime ministerafter holts disappearence

    Canberra: John Grey Gorton sworn in as Australia's 19th Prime Minister after Harold's Holt's disappearance

  • Poet Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar dies

    Poet Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar dies

  • boxing championship is won

    Tokyo: Lionel Rose wins the Bantamweight world boxing championship after defeating Masahiko "Fighting" Harada

  • exemption is granted

    Sydney: Pacifist Simon Townsend (later TV entertainer) granted exemption from National Service after being detained at Ingleburn Army Camp on bread and water rations

  • commedian dies of overdose and alcohol

    Sydney: British comedian Tony Hancock found dead in his flat after overdose of barbiturates and alcohol

  • rod laver wins tennis title

    Wimbledon: Rod Laver wins Men's Singles tennis title in the first Open Wimbledon

  • new premier and leader after following a death

    Brisbane: Joh Bjelke-Petersen becomes Premier and leader of the Country Party after the death of Pizzey

  • Opening of the National Gallery of Victoria

    Melbourne: Opening of the National Gallery of Victoria

  • greatest earthquake recorded in australia

    WA: The town of Meckering destroyed by biggest earthquake yet recorded in Australia. The quake measured 6.9 on the Richter Scale

  • massive gas leak and fire must be seized

    Melbourne: Texas oil troubleshooter Paul "Red" Adair arrives to put out massive gas leak and fire on Esso-BHP's gas and oil platform off Lakes Entrance

  • bushfire death rate increses

    Vic: Death toll from bushfires across the state reaches 15

  • featherweightboxing title is won

    London: Johnny Famechon wins World Featherweight boxng title

  • express train collides into goods

    Violet Town, Vic: Southern Aurora express passenger train crashes into a goods train from Sydney, killing at least 10 people and injuring 50

  • musical hair opens

    Sydney: Opening of musical Hair with controversial 30 second nudity scene

  • equal pay for women takes place

    Melbourne: Arbitration Commission adopts principle of equal pay for women

  • 3000 more

    Melbourne: Police battle 3,000 Vietnam war protesters outside the US Consulate

  • Artist Norman Lindsay dies at 90

    Artist Norman Lindsay dies at 90.

  • withdrawal of australian troops

    Canberra: Prime Minister Gorton announces phased withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam