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what happened in the 1960's
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7 March – Arthur Calwell becomes leader of the Australian Labor Party
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14 October – The Warragamba Dam is opened by the Premier of New South Wales.
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2 January – Oral contraceptives are first sold in Australia
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12 August – Richmond become the only team since 1922 to fail to score a goal in a VFL/AFL match.
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30 November – Ansett-ANA Flight 325, a Vickers Viscount aircraft, crashes into Botany Bay shortly after takeoff, killing all 15 on board
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The Australian Ballet is founded.
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28 September – Paddington tram depot fire: One fifth of the Brisbane tram fleet is destroyed when the Paddington tram depot is burnt down in suspicious circumstances. 65 trams are destroyed.
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John Carew Eccles is announced as the Australian of the Year
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1 November – Indigenous Australians could vote in federal elections on the same basis as other electors when an amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act became law.
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4 February – Cyclone Dora strikes north west Queensland
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June – Macquarie University is founded.
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31 December – Donald Campbell sets new water speed record of 276 miles per hour at Dumbleyung Lake, Western Australia
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11 January – The bodies of two 15-year-old girls, Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt, are found at Wanda Beach in southern Sydney. Despite the offer of an unprecedented £10,000 reward, the murders are never solved.
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Margaret Court wins the Australian women's tennis singles title for the sixth consecutive year
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13 November – Kevin Arthur Wheatley dies in Vietnam while defending a wounded comrade. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry.
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14 February: Decimalisation; the Australian Dollar replaces the Australian pound
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23 August – two hundred Gurindji people walk off Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory in protest at low wages and poor conditions
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7 February – Black Tuesday in Tasmania – massive bushfires devastate much of the Tasmanian capital of Hobart and surrounding areas.
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1 July – The postcode system of postal address coding is introduced throughout Australia.
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4 January – The search for the body of Prime Minister Harold Holt, who disappeared whilst swimming off Portsea, Victoria, is called off.
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20 August – The National Gallery of Victoria is opened in Melbourne.
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30 April – Sir Paul Hasluck becomes Governor-General of Australia after the retirement of Lord Casey.
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16 December – Prime Minister John Gorton announces that a withdrawal of Australian Army troops from the Vietnam War would begin in 1970.
