1975 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1975 in Australia.

← 1974 1973 1972 1975 in Australia → 1976 1977 1978
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	Other events of 1975 Federal election Timeline of Australian history

Gough Whitlam

Malcolm Fraser

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Governor-General – Sir John Kerr
• Prime Minister – Gough Whitlam (until 11 November), then Malcolm Fraser
  • Deputy Prime Minister – Jim Cairns (until 2 July), then Frank Crean (until 11 November), then Doug Anthony
  • Opposition Leader – Billy Snedden (until 21 March), then Malcolm Fraser (until 11 November), then Gough Whitlam
• Chief Justice – Sir Garfield Barwick

• Premier of New South Wales – Sir Robert Askin (until 3 January), then Tom Lewis
  • Opposition Leader – Neville Wran
• Premier of Queensland – Joh Bjelke-Petersen
  • Opposition Leader – Tom Burns
• Premier of South Australia – Don Dunstan
  • Opposition Leader – Bruce Eastick (until 24 July), then David Tonkin
• Premier of Tasmania – Eric Reece (until 31 March), then Bill Neilson
  • Opposition Leader – Max Bingham
• Premier of Victoria – Rupert Hamer
  • Opposition Leader – Clyde Holding
• Premier of Western Australia – Sir Charles Court
  • Opposition Leader – John Tonkin
• Majority Leader of the Northern Territory – Goff Letts

• Governor of New South Wales – Sir Roden Cutler
• Governor of Queensland – Sir Colin Hannah
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Mark Oliphant
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir Stanley Burbury
• Governor of Victoria – Sir Henry Winneke
• Governor of Western Australia – Sir Hughie Edwards (until 2 April), then Sir Wallace Kyle (from 24 November)
• Administrator of Norfolk Island – Edward Pickerd (until 31 August), then Charles Buffett
• Administrator of the Northern Territory – Jock Nelson (until 12 November)
• High Commissioner of Papua New Guinea – Tom Critchley (until 16 September)

• 1 January –
  • In the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy, Northern Territory administrator Jock Nelson criticises Major General Alan Stretton's plan to recommend that emergency directors be given absolute authority in areas affected by disasters.^[1] Nelsen is supported by NT police commissioner William McLaren and Darwin mayor Harold Brennan.^[1]
  • Davis Hughes, Kenneth McCaw, William Tyree, Oliver Gillard, William Shearer, William Philip, Thomas Webb, Theodor Bray, James Foots, Douglas Tooth and John Parker are awarded the title of knight bachelor in the 1975 New Year Honours.^[2]
• 2 January – As Darwin begins to be rebuilt following Cyclone Tracy, Anglican bishop Ian Shevill writes an opinion piece for The Sydney Morning Herald in which he questions the viability of rebuilding the city in an area which is likely to experience future natural disasters.^[3]
• 3 January – New South Wales premier Sir Robert Askin retires from politics and is succeeded by Tom Lewis.^[4][5]
• 5 January – The Tasman Bridge disaster occurs in Hobart when the Tasman Bridge is struck by the ore carrier MV Lake Illawarra.^[6] The bridge partially collapses onto the vessel, which sinks.^[7] Seven crew and five motorists are killed.^[8]
• 7 January – An Executive Council Minute authorising the raising of a "temporary loan" of US$4,000 million for 20 years is reversed before it becomes public knowledge. The move to bypass the Loans Council – to become known as the "Loans Affair" – had been initiated a month earlier by several Labor Ministers without consulting Cabinet.
• 8–29 January – New South Wales experiences a three-week period of unreliable electricity supply after "militant" unionists impose bans on Electricity Commission employees maintaining power stations across the state during an ongoing pay dispute.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14]} The New South Wales government are forced to implement measures such as industrial zoning, a three-day week and a ban on electricity for non-essential industry in Sydney.^[15][16] The crisis is finally resolved at a stopwork meeting held at the Gosford Showground on 29 January.^[17]
• 13 January – Music conductor Sir Bernard Heinze is announced as 1974's Australian of the Year.^[18]
• 14 January – A major fire occurs in the Sydney CBD.^[19] For over five hours, fire brigades battle to control the blaze at Cost Less Imports in the four-storey Angus & Robertson building at 89 Castleagh Street.^[19] Thousands of people are evacuated and nearby shops are closed as the fire engulfs the building. Approximately 20 fire fighters are treated by ambulance officers after being overcome by smoke.^[19]
• 19 January – Sydney's 2JJ, the ABC's new youth station and the predecessor of Triple J, commences broadcasting.^[20][21]
• 20 January – A four-year-old boy is killed when he is hit by a motorcycle after a member of the Astro Daredevil team performs a stunt in the grounds of a hotel on the Gold Coast.^[22] The rider is ultimately acquitted of a charge of unlawfully killing the boy when a criminal court jury is directed in September 1976 to find him not guilty due to insufficient evidence.^[23]
• 26 January – The Workers Party is launched at a banquet at the Sydney Opera House where Lang Hancock is the guest of honour.^[24] The party is libertarian in principle, demanding less government intervention, as well as being virulently anti-Socialist.^[24] The name is subsequently changed to the Progress Party in 1977.

• 1 February – Having commenced broadcasting in December 1974, Australia's first FM radio station 2MBS is officially launched in Sydney by prime minister Gough Whitlam and premier Tom Lewis.^[25]
• 9 February – Lionel Murphy resigns to become a High Court judge (a move for which Garfield Barwick's appointment had set a precedent).^[26]
• 11 February – New South Wales Premier Tom Lewis decides to replace Lionel Murphy in the Senate with a non-Labor nominee.^[27] Cabinet unanimously endorses his decision with Albury's 77-year-old mayor, Cleaver Bunton selected, thus reducing Labor to 28 in the Senate.^[28] The move is seen as breaking constitutional convention and was against the advice of senior Liberals and most Premiers.^[28]
• 27 February – Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's failure to support Speaker Jim Cope in a ruling involving Clyde Cameron led to the Speaker's resignation and his replacement by Gordon Scholes.^[29] Cope had been having difficulty with the Opposition's increasing larrikinism.

• 18 March – The Victorian Government appoints the Beach Board of Inquiry to report on allegations of misconduct against the police force.^[30]
• 21 March – The 1975 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill occurs which sees Malcolm Fraser replace Billy Snedden as the leader of the Liberal Party, winning the party room ballot 37:27.^[31] Phillip Lynch retains the deputy leadership.^[31]

• 8 April – After 21 hours of bitter debate in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, a Bill to abolish the death penalty is passed 36:30, with 5 abstentions.^[32] To this end, Labor Council leader John Galbally had brought in 21 private members Bills in some 15 years. The abolition Bill must now pass the Legislative Council where lengthy debate and an even closer vote is expected.
• 23 April – The Victorian Legislative Council votes to abolish the Death penalty in a 20-13 vote.^[33] All 9 labor members in the legislative council, 11 liberal members voted in favor. 7 liberals and all 6 Country voted against.^[34]
• 25 April – The Australian Embassy in South Vietnam is closed and staff evacuated prior to the Fall of Saigon.^[35]

• 20 May – The loans affair continues with the Executive Council revoking the approval it had given on 28 January for a US$2,000 million overseas loan.^[36][37] Henceforth, all negotiations are to be conducted through the Treasury.^[38]

• 5 June – Lance Barnard's resignation to become Ambassador to Sweden leads to a reorganisation of the Federal Ministry.^[39] Social Security Minister Bill Hayden (Ipswich) replaces Jim Cairns as Treasurer, and Cameron is demoted from the Labour and Immigration Ministry to Science and Consumer Affairs (amid his own and union protests).^[39]
• 15 June – The South Australian Australian Labor Party conference gives Prime Minister Gough Whitlam a mixed reception. The Australian Workers' Union, in particular, is offended by his recent demotion of Clyde Cameron, for decades a leading figure in South Australia's Labor and Industrial Affairs.^[40]
• 27 June – Former Balmain Tigers rugby league player Kevin Yow Yeh dies in a police cell in Mackay, Queensland.^[41]
• 28 June – The 1975 Bass by-election is held.^[42] Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam campaign against each other for the first time as leaders. A swing of about 16% against the Australian Labor Party gives the seat to the Liberal candidate Kevin Newman, and the Opposition sees this as the green light for its strategy of forcing a second premature election.^[42][43]
• 30 June – Queensland Senator Bert Milliner dies, leaving a Senate vacancy.^[44] The filling of this vacancy and the controversy surrounding it becomes one of the key events of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis.

• 1 July – Medibank is introduced, Australia Post and Telecom are formed from the Postmaster-General's Department.^[45][46][47]
• 2 July – Prime Minister Gough Whitlam has Jim Cairns' commission as Environment Minister terminated for misleading Parliament.^[48] Cairns had denied having written a secret letter to a loans broker in March, but a signed letter was produced in June.^[48]
• 4 July – Sydney newspaper publisher Juanita Nielsen disappears from her Kings Cross home where she published attacks on inner-city development.^[49] Edward Trigg and Shayne Martin-Simmonds are later found guilty of conspiring to abduct her.^[50][51] In 2021, New South Police announce a $1 million reward for anyone who provides information relating to Neilsen's suspected murder.^[52]

• 3 September – Convention is breached when the Queensland Parliament rejects Australian Labor Party nominee Mal Colston to replace the deceased Senator Bert Milliner, choosing instead Pat Field (automatically expelled for having nominated against the endorsed candidate.^[53]
• 16 September – Papua New Guinea gains its independence from Australia.^[54]
• 20 September – Thirteen miners are killed in an underground coal mine explosion at the Kianga coal mine near Moura, Queensland.^[55][56]

• 1 October – Senator Albert Field (now an Independent) is granted a month's leave of absence while his eligibility to take his seat is tested in the High Court of Australia, sitting as a Court of Disputed Returns.^[57] There has been doubting as to whether he resigned in the correct way from the Public Service at the time he was appointed.^[57]
• 8 October – Prime Minister Gough Whitlam denies in Parliament that any of his senior ministers were still involved in trying to raise overseas loans in defiance of the 20 May revocation.^[58] Press reports based on information from the loan intermediary, Tirath Khemlani, suggest that Rex Connor is still involved.
• 10 October – The High Court of Australia upholds the validity of the territorial Senators legislation.^[59] In any half-Senate election, four senators, plus replacements for Bunton and Field, would take their places in the Senate at once, thus giving Labor the chance to win back control there.^[59]
• 15 October – At a Brisbane Chamber of Commerce annual luncheon, Queensland Governor Sir Colin Hannah associates himself with the criticism of the Federal Government.^[60] In the ensuing row, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam persuades Queen Elizabeth II to revoke Hannah's dormant commission to act as Governor-General.^[61]
• 16 October – The Balibo Five are killed by Indonesian troops in Portuguese Timor.^[62][63]
• 1 to 31 October – Averaged over Victoria, this stands as the wettest month since at least 1900 with a statewide average rainfall of 154.53 millimetres or 6.08 inches.^[64]

• 11 November – The 1975 Australian constitutional crisis culminates with Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissing the Whitlam government.^[65][66] Malcolm Fraser is installed as caretaker Prime Minister.^[65][66]
• 19 November – Two staff members of the Queensland Premier's department are injured when they open a letter-bomb addressed to Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.^[67]

• 8 December – 4ZZZ independent community radio station launches in Brisbane under its original callsign 4ZZ-FM.^[68]
• 9 December – New South Wales Country Party Leader Sir Charles Cutler retires and Deputy Leader Leon Punch replaces him with Tim Bruxner as his deputy.^[69]
• 13 December –
  • The 1975 Australian federal election is held. After a bitter campaign in which Labor tried to keep constitutional matters to the fore and the Coalition concentrated on inflation, unemployment and Labor's errors in office, the Fraser Government is confirmed in power, securing 54% of the vote, 91 of the 127 House seats, and 35 Senate seats.^[70]
  • The Victorian Government forms a committee to examine some of the recommendations from the Beach Board of Inquiry.
• 25 December – The Savoy Hotel fire occurs in which fifteen persons are killed in an arson attack at the Savoy Hotel in Kings Cross, New South Wales.^[71][72]

• 17 October – John Cornforth shares the Nobel Prize for Chemistry^[73][74]

• 17 January – Sam Fullbrook is announced as the winner of the 1974 Archibald Prize for his portrait of jockey Norman Stephens.^[75]
• 22 April – Ronald McKie is announced as the winner of the 1974 Miles Franklin Award for his novel The Mango Tree.^[76]
• 23 January 1976 – John Bloomfield is announced as the winner of the 1975 Archibald Prize for his portrait of Tim Burstall.^[77] However, the validity of Bloomfield's entry is questioned with Bloomfield admitting he had never met Burstall despite the conditions of the competition specifying subjects are required to have been painted from life.^[78]
• 27 February 1976 – The board of trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales rescind the 1975 Archibald Prize from John Bloomfield, determining his entry did not comply with the conditions that the portrait be painted from life.^[79] The trustees subsequently choose Kevin Connor as the 1975 Archibald Prize for his portrait of The Hon Sir Frank Kitto, KBE.^[79]
• 27 April 1976 – Xavier Herbert's novel Poor Fellow My Country is announced as the winner of the 1975 Miles Franklin Award.^[80]

• October – Picnic at Hanging Rock, directed by Peter Weir, is released.^[81]

• 1 March – "Colour Day" arrives with the launnch of full-time colour television broadcasting.^[82]
• 3 March – During a live Cedal hair products commercial on The Graham Kennedy Show, Kennedy interrupts to make "a sound like a crow", prompting criticism by the Broadcasting Control Board about the "general vulgarity and poor taste" of the show.^[83]
• 7 March – Ernie Sigley and Denise Drysdale from The Ernie Sigley Show both win Gold Logies at the Logie Awards of 1975 for being the most popular male and female personalities on Australian television.^[84]
• 19 March – The Broadcasting Control Board rules that Graham Kennedy be restricted to pre-recorded television appearances only, and only those that are approved by a station executive, prompting Kennedy to threaten legal action.^[85]
• 17 April – After remarks in which he was critical of federal minister for the media Doug McClelland were edited out of his pre-recorded program, Graham Kennedy resigns from Channel 9.^[86]

• 30 January – Western Australia wins the 1974–75 Sheffield Shield season finishing at the top of the table ahead of Queensland by five points.^[87]
• 16 March – Australia is represented by twelve long-distance runners (eight men, four women) at the third IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Rabat, Morocco. Bill Scott is Australia's best finisher, claiming the 22nd spot (36:28.0) in the race over 12 kilometres.
• 11 May – Czechoslovakia defeats Australia 3–0 in the 1975 Federation Cup held in Aix-en-Provence, France.^[88]
• 9 August – John Farrington wins his fourth men's national marathon title, clocking 2:17:20 in Point Cook.
• 23 August:
  • Glenelg kick the all-time record score for a major Australian football competition, kicking 49.23 (317) to Central District's 11.13 (79). Fred Phillis kicked eighteen goals and Peter Carey eight.
  • Eastern Suburbs set a record NSWRL/ARL/NRL winning streak of their last nineteen home-and-away games before losing the major semi-final.
• 20 September – Minor premiers Eastern Suburbs set a record NSWRL Grand Final winning margin, beating St. George 38 points to nil.^[89] South Sydney finish in last position, claiming the wooden spoon.^[89]
• 27 September – North Melbourne become the last of the then-extant VFL clubs to win a premiership, beating Hawthorn 19.8 (122) to 9.13 (67) in the 1975 VFL Grand Final.^[90]
• 4 November – The Bart Cummings-trained Think Big, ridden by Harry White, wins the Melbourne Cup.^[91]
• 29 December – Rampage is declared the handicap winner of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race while Kialoa takes line honours.^[92]

• 2 January – Chris Cheney, singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
• 17 January – Rob Stokes, politician and lawyer
• 19 January – Natalie Cook, beach volleyball player
• 4 February – Natalie Imbruglia, singer and actor
• 7 March – Leon Dunne, swimmer
• 13 March – Matt Sing, rugby league player
• 19 March – Matthew Richardson, footballer and sportscaster
• 19 April – Jason Gillespie, cricketer
• 13 May – Nathan Green, golfer
• 21 May – Anthony Mundine, rugby league footballer and boxer
• 27 May – Michael Hussey, cricketer
• 7 June – Leigh Colbert, footballer
• 9 June – Andrew Symonds, cricketer
• 23 June
  • Jane Jamieson, track and field athlete
  • Markus Zusak, novelist
• 2 July – Daniel Kowalski, swimmer
• 4 July – Scott Major, actor and director
• 5 July – Kip Gamblin, actor
• 7 July – Michael Voss, Australian footballer and coach
• 17 July – Loretta Harrop, triathlete
• 7 August
  • Megan Gale, model
  • David Matthew Hicks, prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, convicted of "providing material support for terrorism"
• 12 August – Taryn Woods, water polo player
• 21 August – Simon Katich, cricketer
• 25 August – Petria Thomas, swimmer
• 1 September – Natalie Bassingthwaighte, singer and actor^[93]
• 16 September – Shannon Noll, singer
• 18 September – Don Hany, actor
• 25 September – Scott Westcott, long-distance runner
• 28 September – Stuart Clark, cricketer
• 9 October – Mark Viduka, football (soccer) player
• 23 October – Phillip Gillespie, cricket umpire
• 31 October
  • Carla Boyd, basketball player
  • Jagan Hames, track and field athlete

• December 18 – SIA, Australian singer and songwriter

• 30 April – Aubrey Abbott, politician and administrator of the Northern Territory (b. 1886)^[94]
• 27 June – Kevin Yow Yeh, rugby league player (b. 1941)^[41]
• 30 June – Bert Milliner, Queensland politician (b. 1911)^[44]
• 14 August – Percy Cerutty – athletics coach (b. 1895)^[95]
• 27 September – Jack Lang, 23rd Premier of New South Wales (b. 1876)^[96]
• 6 November – Annette Kellerman, swimmer, actress, and author (b. 1887)^[97]

• 1975 in Australian television
• List of Australian films of 1975