1951

February

The Department of Shipping and Transport assumes all responsibility for shipbuilding.

February 30

Jean Lee becomes the first woman to be hanged in Victoria since 1896.

March 17

All males over 19 must register for compulsory military training.

March 27

The first trans Southern Pacific flight between Australia and Chile completed by Captain Patrick Taylor in an RAAF Catalina flying boat.

April 18

Author and social workers with Aborigines Daisy Bates dies, age 90.

April 22

The Government of Robert Gordon Menzies is returned to power in a General Election, but with a reduced majority.

May 10

Special ceremonies and sporting fixtures held to celebrate 50 years of Federation.

May 27

Soldier General Sir Thomas Albert Blamey dies, age 67.

June 4

The CSIRO is at the head of a drive to control the rabbit plague using myxomatosis.

June 9

Australian School of the Air commences service.

June 13

Australia’s 20th Prime Minister Joseph Benedict Chifley dies at his desk in Canberra.

June 27

The Country of Cumberland Scheme, which determines and controls the growth and planning of Sydney, becomes operational.

June 29

Tasman Empire Airways commences its regular air service between Melbourne and Christchurch.

June 29

Long service leave and sick leave first granted to employees under NSW state awards.

July 2

The La Trobe wing of the State Library of Victoria is opened.

July 31

Tennis player Evonne Goolagong Cawley born.

July

The Chiko Roll is invented by F.G. McEnroe of Bendigo, Vic.

August 16

The Australian Financial Review commences publication.

September 1

The ANZUS treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States signed in San Francisco.

September 7

The first shipment of iron ore mined at Yampi Sound, WA, leaves for Port Kembla, NSW.

September 15

Australia’s woolgrowers reject attempts by the Federal Government to regulate their industry.

September 22

Commonwealth Railways introduces its first diesel locomotive, the ‘Robert Gordon Menzies’.

September 26

An across the board 10 percent increase in tax is introduced in the Federal Budget.

September 29

The banning of the Communist Party is defeated in a National referendum.

October 1

The Union Bank of Australia and the Bank of Australia merge to form the Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ).

October 15

A De Havilland DH-104 Dove aircraft crashes at Lake Kurrawang, WA, resulting in the loss of seven lives.

October 19

The Native Welfare Conference held in Canberra ratifies policy changes introduced by the Minister for Territories, Paul Hasluck, aimed at the assimilation of Aborigines into Australian white society.

October

Waverley Council in suburban Sydney bans the bikini swimsuit on its beaches.

November 30

The NSW Government Railways brings its first pair of diesel locomotives into service on a goods service between Sydney and Newcastle.

December 11

Dutch airline KLM commences regular flights to Australia, with an Amsterdam – Sydney service.

1952

January 28

The British film studio Ealing closes its Australian studios.

February 7

A minute’s silence observed around the nation upon the death of King George VI.

February 8

The Northern Territory News commences publication.

March 13

Imports are restricted as Australia’s foreign debt soars.

April 2

The planned mining of uranium at Radium Hill, SA, gets the go-ahead.

May 18

Sir Owen Dixon replaces Sir John Latham as Chief Justice of the Federal High Court.

May

Artist Ian Fairweather sails a raft from Darwin to Rati, south-west of Timor.

August 4

The first meeting of ANZUS delegates held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

August 4

The Helsinki Olympic Games close with Australia winning six gold, two silver and three bronze medals, and positioned ninth in the overall medal count. The ‘Lithgow Flash’ Marjorie Jackson and Shirley Strickland were among Australia’s medal winners.

August 11

Australia’s academics criticise newsreaders for adopting the "Australian drawl" in their speech.

August 21

Floods across south-eastern Australia ease.

August 25

Australia’s intake of assisted passage migrants is reduced because of a surplus of unskilled workers.

September 3

Protests at the planned construction of an oil refinery on Botany Bay close the site of James Cook’s historic landing in 1770.

September

The Victorian Trades Council lobbies the Federal Government to stop its migrant intake and address the matter of unemployment relief.

October 1

The era of free hospital treatment comes to an end with the introduction of the Commonwealth-State Hospital Benefits Scheme.

October 4

Rupert Murdoch takes over the management of News Ltd of Adelaide following the death of his father, Keith Murdoch.

October 3

Britain’s first nuclear bomb is detonated in tests within the Monto Bello Islands off the WA coast.

October 7

Cricketer Graham Yallop born in Balwyn, Melbourne.

October 13

The Overland, between Melbourne and Adelaide, becomes the first Victorian Railways service to be hauled by a diesel locomotive.

October 25

The Buddhist Society holds its first meeting in Australia in Sydney.

October 25

A policy of two airlines in active competition (Australian National Airways and Trans Australian Airlines) adopted by the Federal Government.

October 28

Australia’s 11th Prime Minister, William Morris (Billy) Hughes, dies at Lindfield, NSW

November 1

Over 400,000 lined the streets of Sydney to farewell former Prime Minister William Morris (Billy) Hughes, who was affectionately known as the "Little Digger".

October 28

Artist Elizabeth Gower born.

October 28

Joan Sutherland makes her international stage debut at Covent Garden, England.

November 4

Bushfires threaten Sydney’s outer northern suburbs of Mona Vale and North Narrabeen.

November 15

The Melbourne Argus becomes the world’s first newspaper to print colour photographs in its publication.

December 1

The Victa lawn mover, invented at Concorde in suburban Sydney by Mervyn Victor Richardson, goes on sale.

December 22

Golfer Jan Stephenson born in Sydney.

1953

January 7

Australia renews its diplomatic relations with Japan for the first time after the war and targets the establishment of trade links.

January 8

An agreement is signed giving the go-ahead to develop uranium mining at Rum Jungle, NT.

January 16

Australia enters the atomic age with the advertisement for staff to man its planned nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, near Sydney.

January 28

Australia’s 13th Prime Minister, James Scullin, dies in Melbourne, Vic.

January

The US signs a major deal to purchase Australian uranium.

February 7

Half-caste Aborigines are freed from the provisions of the Aboriginal Ordinance.

March 20

The Television Act becomes law, permitting the establishment of public and commercial broadcasts.

March 30

Actor and manager Bert Bailey dies, age 84.

April 29

The Commonwealth Trading Bank is established as a separate entity to the Commonwealth Savings Bank

May 8

Field-Marshall Sir William Slim is appointed Australia’s 13th Governor-General.

May 19

General Motors Holden produces its 100,000th car, an FJ model.

May 15

Controversy erupts over the plan to fluoridate Australia’s drinking water to prevent tooth decay.

May 20

Writer Colin Bowles (Colin Falconer) born in London.

June 2

Australia stops to listen to the radio broadcast of Queen Elizabeth II‘s coronation.

June 3

The Coronation issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly sells a record of almost 1 million copies.

June 8

Australia and Britain sign reciprocal social security benefits agreements.

June 24

The British and Australian Governments make a joint announcement about their plans for extensive nuclear weapons testing in outback Australia.

July 1

Federal Government subsidy of medical bills begins for subscribers to private medical benefits funds.

July 17

The Commonwealth Investigation Service raids the Sydney offices of the Communist Party of Australia.

July 27

The Korean War ceases as an armistice is signed and 5,000 Australian troops prepare to return home. 261 Australians were killed in the conflict and 1,538 were injured.

July 27

Film actor and producer Yahoo Serious born Greg Pead in the Hunter Valley, NSW.

August 4

The Sabre jet, Australia’s first jet aircraft, is tested in flights over Victoria.

August

A landslide at the Water Tanks between Selby and Menzies Creek on the Gembrook Line, Victoria, heralds the beginning of the end of the narrow guage railway service in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne. The decision to close the line and rip up the tracks is made on 28th April 1954.

September 12

Melburnians are shocked by the brutal murder of 14 year old Shirley Collins, who disappears from Richmond station and is found battered to death at Mt Martha, Vic.

October 4

The newspapers The Sun Herald and the Sunday Sun merge following the purchase of Associated Newspapers Limited by John Fairfax & Co.

October 27

A second atomic bomb is exploded in the desert at Emu Field in outback South Australia.

October 28

The Federal Arbitration Court abolishes its automatic quarterly adjustment of the Basic Wage.

October 29

An Australian Douglas DC-6 aircraft crashes in San Francisco, with 18 lives lost.

December 3

39 year old Sydney labourer Charles Windeyer is gaoled for seven years after being found guilty of forging 400 £10 notes.

December 4

Oil is discovered in Rough Range, Exmouth Gulf, WA.

December 11

Doubling income taxation between Australia and the US ceases.

December 13

Unionism becomes compulsory in New South Wales.

1954

January 10

War historian Reginald William Winchester (Chester) Wilmot dies in a plane crash in the Mediterranean, age 42.

January 26

Former Australian cricket captain Kimberley John (Kim) Hughes born in Margaret River, WA.

February 4

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip begin their first tour of Australia.

February 16

Queen Elizabeth II unveils the Australian-American War Memorial, Canberra.

February 19

The Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions establish the Mawson base in the Australian Antarctic Territory (webcam).

February 22

Over 22 people drown in floods in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland.

March 1

Adelaide and much of the southern section of South Australia is hit by an earthquake.

March

Womens seamless stockings go on sale in Australia.

April

Electric typewriters are introduced.

April 3

An official of the Soviet Embassy, Vladimir Petrov, requests political asylum in Australia.

April 28

The Soviet Government closes its embassy in Canberra and breaks diplomatic ties with Australia over the Petrov defection affair.

May 1

Australian National Airways begins its Brisbane-Melbourne service using Douglas DC-4s.

May 12

The Nuclear Research Foundation is established in Sydney.

May 15

Qantas begins a regular Sydney – San Francisco – Vancouver service, known as the Southern Cross route.

May 17

Boxing champion Jimmy Carruthers retires.

May 30

The Liberal Government of Robert Gordon Menzies is returned to power in a Federal Election.

July

Large uranium deposits discovered at Mary Kathleen, Qld.

July 30

Australia participtes in the 1958 British Empire Games in Vancouver, Canada.

September 8

Australia signs the South East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) Agreement.

September 17

Processing of uranium begins at Rum Jungle, NT.

September 19

Writer Miles Franklin dies, age 74.

September

Further import restrictions imposed to aid the balance of payments.

October 16

Singer Olivia Newton-John migrates to Australia from Cambridge, England at the age of 6 with her family aboard RMS Strathaird.

November 3

Minister for External Affairs, (later Sir) Richard Gavin Gardiner Casey), announces that the administration of Cocos¨ (Keeling) Islands has passed from Britain to Australia.

November 11

Off-course starting price (SP) betting to be legalised in Western Australia.

November 18

New South Wales votes by referendum to change hotel closing hours from 6.00pm to 10.00pm.

November 22

Entertainer Roy Rene ‘Mo‘ (born Henry van der Sluys) dies, age 63.

November 28

Western Australian Government Railways introduces its first diesel-electric locomotive.

November 30

Qantas begins its Sydney-Tokyo direct air service.

1955

January 2

Adelaide’s Black Sunday bushfires lead to the death of two fire fighters.

January 3

Charles Chauvel‘s movie ‘Jedda‘ is screened for the first time in Darwin.

January 12

Cockburn Sound Harbour, to the south of Fremantle, opens.

January 23

Artist Sydney Long dies, age 83.

January

The Australian Broadcasting Control Board begins hearings for the granting of the first Australian television broadcast licences.

January

The British Motor Corporation commences building Morris Minor motor cars at its plant at Zetland, Sydney. Assembled from mainly imported parts, the car was available in 2 door, 4 door and 2 door convertible models.

February 8

The Bell Bay aluminium plant in Tasmania opens.

February 10

Golfer Greg Norman born.

February 26

Nine people drown in the Hunter Valley, NSW, as the Hunter River floods.

March 1

Melbourne holds its first Moomba Festival.

March 26

New South Wales abolishes the death penalty.

March 31

The Federal Government decides to send troops to Malaya to assist the British fighting communist forces.

April 1

Hobart becomes the first Australian city to introduce parking meters.

April 23

Actress Judy Davis born in Perth, WA.

April 29

The first Hydro-Electric power station of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme is brought on line.

May 3

Cricketer David William Hookes born Mile End, Adelaide, SA.

May

The New South Wales Government announces its plan to build an opera house on Bennelong Point, Sydney.

June 6

Artist Duncan Max (Max) Meldrum dies, age 79.

July 27

Former Australian cricket captain Allan Border born.

July

Extensive bauxite deposits are discovered at Weipa, Qld.

September 26

Australia imposes further import https://www.australiaforeveryone.com.au/files/cuts to reduce its trade deficit of £256 million in the 1953-54 financial year.

October 19

1,900 Australian troops deployed in the Malayan conflict arrive in Penang.

October 20

The Leader of the opposition, Dr Herbert Vere Evatt, calls for an International inquiry into the Petrov defection affair.

October 28

The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne is commissioned.

November 9

Immigration Minister Harold Holt welcomes Mrs Barbara Porritt, Australia’s one millionth post-war migrant (photo).

November 16

A new town outside Adelaide is named Elizabeth after Queen Elizabeth II.

November 29

Melbourne Playwright Raymond Evenor (Ray) Lawler‘s ‘Summer of the Seventeenth Doll‘ opens in Melbourne.

December 2

The first commercial jet aircraft arrives in Australia at Mascot Airport, Sydney.

December 10

A forthcoming Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Fraser, enters Federal Parliament.

December 12

Robert Gordon Menzies‘ liberal Government returned for a record fourth term in a Federal Election.

December 19

Dame Edna Everage, a stage character created by comedian Barry Humphries, makes her stage debut.

December 31

The Adelaide newspaper The Sunday Mail, first published.

1956

January 1

Victoria legalises the use of mechanical hares in greyhound racing.

January 8

Actor Mel Gibson born.

January 20

The Bank of New South Wales and ANZ Bank open their Savings Banks.

January 24

Sydney’s Circular Quay railway station opens, completing the city circle underground railway loop.

February 15

A 23 day long wharf strike ends.

February

Serious floods affect north-east Tasmania, NSW and Victoria.

March 1

The first uranium from the Mary Kathleen mine, NT, is sold to the British Atomic Energy Authority.

March 15

Australia is handed down a ‘horror’ budget as the Government tries to reduce inflation and resolve Australia’s credit crisis.

March 24

A referendum in Victoria follows New South Wales’ lead and extends hotel trading hours to 10.00pm.

March 30

The Dutch and Australian Government embark on an assisted passage migration scheme for 75,000 Dutch people to settle in Australia during a 5 year period.

April 1

Queensland becomes the first state to introduce stainless steel railway carriages.

April 24

Trans Australian Airlines commences helicopter services. Australian National Airways introduces a similar service 6 weeks later.

May 19

Swimmer and industrialist Sir Frank Beaurepaire dies, age 65.

June 19

Britain explodes another nuclear bomb over the Monto Bello Islands, WA, creating a radioactive cloud that drifts over the mainland.

June 29

A 6-month long rolling shearers’ strike ends.

July 10

The Federal Government commits to supplying financial support to church schools.

July 26

Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies appointed to the Suez Canal Committee.

August 1

Poker machines legalised in New South Wales.

September 1

Woman’s Day and Woman magazines merge to create a new magazine, Woman’s Day.

September 16

TCN-9 Sydney becomes the first TV station to begin regular transmission at 7.00pm. Bruce Gyngell introduces the first program, This Is Television, with the words ‘welcome to television’.

September 27

GTV-9 Melbourne conducts its first test transmission with a one-hour broadcast of programmes at 4.30pm. From Monday 1st October the station commences daily test pattern transmission.

September 28

The Federal Government tells the Australian people that the nuclear tests at Maralinga, SA, do not pose a health threat to the general population.

October 1

The Postmaster General’s Department introduces its certified mail service.

October 1

A new political party – The Democratic Labor Party – is launched. The DLP’s first President is Alan Manning.

October 19

Eildon Dam, Vic, the largest water storage system in the southern hemisphere, opens.

November 4

Television station HSV-7 Melbourne officially launches.

November 5

Australia’s first ABC television station, ABN-2 Sydney, begins television transmission to show the Melbourne Olympic Games. On 18th November, ABV-2 Melbourne begins television transmission.

November 8

Egypt breaks diplomatic ties with Australia over the Menzies‘ Government’s support for Anglo-French military action over the Suez Canal Crisis.

November 9

Australia agrees to take 2,000 Hungarian refugees stranded in Austria after the Soviet military crackdown in that country.

November 10

Prince Philip visits Australia and attends the Melbourne Olympic Games.

December 2

ATN-7 Sydney commences television broadcasting, and along with ABV-2, ABN-2, HSV-7 and GTV-9, televises the Olympic Games. By the end of the year, 5% of Melbourne households and 1% of Sydney households own a TV set. Television broadcasts have yet to commence in other states.

December 14

The Melbourne Olympic Games end with Australia winning 13 gold, eight silver and 14 bronze medals, placing Australia third after Russia and the US in the overall medal tally. Despite attempts at making Melbourne’s Olympic debut a truly memorable affair, the Games are marred by external events which caused disquiet within. The Franco-British naval involvement in the Suez Crisis and the invasion of Hungary by the Soviet military proved relevant issues, as did the second Egyptian-Israeli conflict in the Sinai and violence in North Africa (mostly in Algeria). In total, six countries boycot the event – Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.

December 30

Writer Susan Johnstone born.

1957

January 19

The Melbourne newspaper, Argus, ceases publication after 101 years.

January 28

‘Disneyland’ begins on Australian television.

January 28

Australia’s second television station, GTV-9 Melbourne, begins transmission.

January 30

Danish architect Joern Utzon wins the £5,000 first prize for his controversial design for Sydney’s new opera house.

February 27

Long distance runner Robert de Costella born.

March 1

David Brand is elected Premier of Western Australia.

May 2

Compulsory national service by ballot announced by the Minister for Labour, Harold Holt.

May 26

Pick-A-Box, hosted by Bob and Dolly Dyer, becomes Australia’s top rating TV quiz show.

July 3

The CSIRO takes part in the International Geophysical Year activities.

July 14

Australia signs a pact with the US over the exchange of information on atomic energy.

July 24

Six die as a Lockheed Hudson aircraft crashes at Horn Island, Qld.

July

An Asian Flu epidemic sweeps the east coast of Australia, resulting in an employment absenteeism as high as 30 percent.

August 1

Sir Eric Winslow Woodward becomes Governor of New South Wales.

August 4

A.E. Shepherd becomes leader of the Opposition in Victoria on the death of John Cain Snr.

August 4

The Labor Government of Vincent Gair is defeated in the Queensland State Elections.

August 5

Brisbane City Council installs the first parking meters in Queensland.

August 6

Australia commences tinplate production at a BHP plant at Port Kembla, NSW.

August 26

The National Capital Development Commission is formed to develop Canberra as an administrative centre.

September 18

The keel of the ocean liner, SS Oriana, is laid. The largest passenger ship built at Barrow and (at that time) the largest built in England, it was built for use on Orient Line’s Australian and trans-Pacific service.

September 29

The dismantling of the tram system throughout suburban Sydney begins with the closure of the service to Botany.

September 30

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) begins to lobby for a 35-hour working week.

October 5

Ansett Transport Industries takes over Australian National Airways (ANA). The airline becomes known as Ansett-ANA.

October 10

The third and final nuclear bomb is detonated at Maralinga, SA.

November 6

The Postmaster General’s Department issues Christmas stamps for the first time.

November 13

A telephone weather information service, initially available in Melbourne, goes national. Twenty of the 400 women who work on the Melbourne telephone switchboard provide the voices of the ‘Weather Girls’.

November 23

Swimmer Shane Gould born.

November 25

South African Airways commences its Johannesburg – Perth service using Douglas DC-7B aircraft.

December 3

Bushfires rage through The Blue Mountains, NSW.

December 28

Country singer Slim Dusty is awarded a gold record for his single ‘A Pub With No Beer’, when it becomes the biggest selling record by an Australian artist.

1958

January 9

The last Australian personnel are evacuated from South Korea.

January 11

The first Sydney Opera House lottery drawn. The lottery was created to raise funds to finance its construction.

January 15

Qantas launches its first around-the-world service.

January 28

Harold MacMillan becomes the first British Prime Minister to visit Australia when he makes a two week official visit.

February 14-16

The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines is founded.

February 14

Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother arrive in Canberra at the start of an Australia-wide visit.

February 18

Ansett ANA acquires Butler Air Transport.

March 7

BHP and the South Australian Government agree on the establishment of a steel plant and rolling mills at Whyalla, SA.

March 25

The Cahill Expressway, which carries a roadway over the head of Circular Quay, Sydney, is opened to traffic by the NSW Premier, Joe Cahill.

May 2

The dictation test that all incoming migrants are required to sit is abolished.

April 2

The last section of the Pacific Highway between Sydney and Brisbane is sealed south of Taree, NSW.

April 3

Bowen, Qld, is all but destroyed by a cyclone.

April 6

The Mt Gambier region of South Australia is ravaged by a bushfire. 8 lives are lost.

April 8

Author Ethel Turner dies, age 88.

April 19

Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies opens the Lucas Heights Nuclear Facility near Sydney.

July 18

Australia participtes in the 1958 British Empire Games in Cardiff, Wales.

July 19

The last of Perth’s electric trams – between Perth city and Inglewood via Beaufort Street – are replaced by buses and trolley buses.

August 5

The migrant ship SS Fairsea departs Southampton, England, for Australia. On board are the three Gibb Brothers – Barry, 11; and twins Maurice and Robin, 8 – who would form the singing group, The Bee Gees, soon after their arrival in Brisbane. The three brothers performed to two other migrant boys in the prow of the Fairsea who would also leave their mark on Australian popular music – Red Symons (Skyhooks) and Pete Watson, a founding member of the group MPD Limited.

September 14

Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies declares the Snowy Mountains Scheme’s Tumut Pond Dam operational.

October 1

Britain transfers the administration of Christmas Island to Australia.

October 14

Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson dies, age 76.

October 24

Workers under NSW State Government employment awards granted 3 weeks annual leave per year.

November 20

Australia is linked by telex telecommunications to Britain, Canada, US and Japan.

November 22

All of Adelaide’s electric trams, excluding the Glenelg service, are replaced by buses.

November 23

The Liberal Menzies Government returned to power for a record fifth term in a General Election.

November 24

The site for Melbourne’s newest tertiary educational institution – Monash University – nominated as Clayton.

December 13

The RAAF’s first Lockheed C-130A Hercules transports arrive in Australia.

December 26

Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira sentenced to serve a gaol sentence for supplying alcohol to a full-blood Aborigine in the open and in his own country. The conviction raises controversy over the denial of Australian citizenship to the majority of full-blood Aboriginals.

1959

January 21

Large sections of Northern NSW and Southern Qld hit by major flooding.

January 26

Darwin, NT is declared a city.

February 13

Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl opens.

February 24

The National Heart Foundation formed.

March 2

The Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement commences a campaign to grant full-blood Aboriginals full Australian citizenship.

March 18

Ansett-ANA introduces the Lockheed Super Electra to its fleet of aircraft.

March 26

John ‘Black Jack’ McEwan succeeds Jack Fadden as Leader of the Country Party and Deputy Prime Minister.

May 4

The first power generated by the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme is delivered to consumers.

May 5

Construction of the Sydney Opera House begins.

May 15

Women are admitted into the ‘men only’ stand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the Melbourne Gospel Crusades of Evangelist William Franklin (Billy) Graham.

May 13

The Federal Attorney-General, Sir Garfield Edward John (Garfield) Barwick, announces plans to make the divorce laws universal in all states.

May

The City of the Gold Coast on Queensland’s far south-east coast is proclaimed.

June 1

The Billy Graham Evangelist Crusade, which visited 4 states and conducted rallies in 72 centres, ends in Sydney.

June 5

Rugby Union player Mark Ella born in La Perouse, Sydney.

June 10

The Victorian Government agrees to build an underground city railway loop.

June 10

Golfer Edwina Kennedy born.

June 10

NSW coal miners granted a 37.5 hour working week.

June 23

The Soviet Union renews diplomatic relations with Australia.

July 8

Trans Australian Airlines introduces the Lockheed Super Electra to its fleet of aircraft.

July 31

Qantas takes delivery of its first new Boeing 707 jet airliner.

September

The Triumph Herald motor car goes on sale.

September

The passenger car ferry Princess of Tasmania begins service on the Melbourne – Devonport route.

October 11

Champion motorcyclist Wayne Gardner born.

October 14

Actor Errol Lesley Thomson (Errol) Flynn dies in Vancouver, Canada, age 50.

October 24

Diplomatic relations with Egypt renewed.

November 7

The Australian and New Zealand Congress of international Co-operation and Disarmament opens in Melbourne.

November 16

Perth’s original Narrows Bridge opened by the Governor of WA, Sir Charles Gardiner (photo).

November 27

The National Service training programme is abandoned.

December 1

Wally Lewis, generally considered the greatest rugby league player of all time, born in Brisbane.

December 23

Formula One motor racing driver Jack Brabham becomes the new world champion.

December 24

Australia’s post-war migrant intake passes 1.5 million.

1960

January 2

William Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil replaces Sir William Slim as Governor-General.

January

Holden releases a new model, the FB, which features a new design (info).

February 3

The first National Conference of Australian Churches held in Melbourne.

February 15

Dr Herbert Vere Evatt, leader of the Federal Labor Party, appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

February 25

Australia and the US sign an agreement to build three space tracking stations at various locations around the country.

February 26

Seven people die as a train carrying 200 passengers plunges off a bridge near Bogantungan, Qld, as it collapses.

March 8

Arthur Calwell becomes the Federal Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Australian Labor Party.

March 19

Ringwood in suburban Melbourne is proclaimed a city. On 15th December, 1994, Ringwood city is united with Croydon city and parts of Doncaster and Templestowe city and Lillydale shire to form Maroondah city.

March 26

A cyclone causes serious damage to the town of Carnarvon, WA.

March 26

Adelaide holds its inaugural Arts Festival.

April 4

Actor Hugo Weaving born in Austin, Nigeria.

April 10

Composer and conductor Arthur Benjamin dies at the Middlesex Hospital, England, age 66.

April 21

The Commonwealth Police Force comes into being.

April 22

Severe flooding of the Derwent River damages parts of Hobart.

May 19

Telephone tapping becomes illegal, except for national security purposes.

May 24

Totalisator Agency Boards (TAB) established to help stamp out SP betting on horse races.

May 30

Vladimir Nabokov‘s ‘Lolita‘ and Brendan Behan‘s ‘Borstal Boy‘ banned by the Commonwealth Literature Censorship Board.

June 4

Hobart is the last capital city to enjoy both commercial and national television stations.

June 5

Bauxite deposits discovered in the Darling Ranges near Perth, WA.

June 10

A Trans Australian Airlines (TAA) Fokker Friendship aircraft crashes into the sea off Mackay, Qld, killing 29 people. The cause of the crash was never able to be determined.

July 7

Graeme Thorne, the son of a Sydney Opera House Lottery winner, disappears from near his home in Bondi, NSW. On the following day a ransom is demanded but the kidnapper makes no further contact. The boy’s partly decomposed body is found in bushland on 16th August.

July 10

Rugby League player Mal Meninga born in Bundaberg, Queensland.

July 10

Australia’s first natural gas field developed at Roma, Qld.

July 30

Billiards world champion Walter Lindrum dies, age 61.

August 4

Writer Tim Winton born.

August 15

The Consumer Price Index is compiled for the first time.

September 12

Australia wins eight gold medals at the Rome Olympic Games. Among the medal winners are runner Herb Elliott and swimmer Dawn Fraser.

October 3

Melbourne’s first free standing retail shopping centre opens in the suburb of Chadstone.

October 10

Poker machine mechanic Stephen Bradley is arrested in Colombo, Ceylon, for the murder of Graeme Thorne. Bradley and his wife and children had sold up and were traveling aboard SS Himalaya to Britain.

October 14

14 years after construction commenced, Sydney’s Warragamba Dam opens.

October 21

Sir Macfarlane Burnet becomes the joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on acquired immunological tolerance.

August 29

Jack Brabham becomes the Formula One Motor racing world champion for the second successive year after winning the Portuguese Grand Prix.

September

Ford Australia releases the XK Falcon, the first Australian built Ford. It was available as the Falcon sedan, station wagon, ute and van and the Falcon Deluxe sedan and station wagon. The basic sedan cost £1,137 ($2,274).

November 17

BHP and the WA Government announce plans to expand BHP’s operations at Kwinana, which includes the construction of an iron and steel plant.

November 7

The Federal Treasurer Harold Holt imposes credit restrictions on the Australian financial sector that brings on a credit squeeze.

November 25

The establishment of the National Library in Canberra gains Government approval.

November 30

Rugby League player Michael O’Connor born.

December 11

The feature film, ‘The Sundowners‘, based on a Jon Cleary novel, becomes the most successful Australian made film in the overseas markets.

December 14

In cricket, the First Test Match between Australia and the West Indies ends in a tie.