From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also: 1939 in Australia, other events of 1940, 1941 in Australia and the Timeline of Australian history.

Incumbents

• Monarch – King George VI
• Governor-General – Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Baron Gowrie
• Prime Minister – Robert Menzies

State Premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – Alexander Mair
• Premier of Queensland – William Forgan Smith
• Premier of South Australia – Thomas Playford
• Premier of Tasmania – Robert Cosgrove
• Premier of Victoria – Albert Dunstan
• Premier of Western Australia – John Willcock

State Governors

• Governor of New South Wales – John Loder, 2nd Baron Wakehurst
• Governor of Queensland – Sir Leslie Orme Wilson
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Malcolm Barclay-Harvey
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir Ernest Clark
• Governor of Victoria – Sir Winston Dugan
• Governor of Western Australia – none appointed

Events

• February 28 – The Australian 7th Division is formed.
• March 16 – A state election is held in Victoria. The Country Party lead by Albert Dunstan is returned to government.
• June 14 – The Volunteer Defence Corps is formed, a militia force based on the British Home Guard.
• July 6 – The Story Bridge is opened in Brisbane.
• July 19 – The Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney takes part in the sinking of the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni
• August 1 – The first of sixty Bathurst class corvettes, HMAS Bathurst, is launched in Sydney.
• August 13 – An RAAF Lockheed Hudson crashes near Canberra, killing three members of Cabinet and the Chief of the General Staff.
• September 3 – The heavy cruiser HMAS Australia takes part in Operation Menace off Dakar.
• September 6 – The British prison ship HMT Dunera docks in Sydney, carrying refugees and prisoners of war considered a danger to British security, for internment in Hay and Tatura.
• October 26 – Double-decker buses replace the last cable trams in Melbourne.

Science and technology

Arts and literature

• Max Meldrum wins the Archibald Prize with his portrait of Dr J Forbes McKenzie
• The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead is published.

Film

• Forty Thousand Horsemen, directed by Charles Chauvel and starring Chips Rafferty, is released

Sport

• Old Rowley wins the Melbourne Cup
• Beaulivre wins the Caulfield Cup
• Beau Vite wins the Cox Plate
• New South Wales wins the Sheffield Shield

Births

• January 5 – Athol Guy, musician
• January 19 – Paul Calvert, Liberal Senator for Tasmania
• February 17 – Marilyn Jones, ballet dancer
• February 22 – Neil Brown, politician
• February 27 – Bill Hunter, actor
• March 1 – Robin Gray, Premier of Tasmania (1982–1989)
• March 8 – Don Barker, actor
• March 19 – Andrew Taylor, poet
• March 20 – Paul Neville, politician
• April 12 – Jack Hibberd, playwright
• April 16 – Marion Halligan, writer
• April 26 – Ian Geoghegan, race car driver (d. 2003)
• June 15 – Ken Fletcher, tennis player (d. 2006)
• June 23 – Diana Trask, country music singer
• June 25 – Judy Amoore, athlete
• June 29 – Ken Done, artist
• August 3 – Judith Troeth, Liberal Senator for Victoria
• August 16 – Bruce Beresford, film director
• August 18 – Jan Owen, poet
• August 31 – Jack Thompson, actor
• September 9 – Hugh Morgan, businessman
• September 13 – Kerry Stokes, chairman of the Seven Network
• September 15 – Allan Andrews, NSW politician
• September 21 – John Pochee, jazz musician
• October 3 – Diana Warnock, radio broadcaster and politician
• October 4 – Ian Kiernan, environmentalist, 1994 Australian of the Year
• October 5 – Bob Cowper, cricketer
• October 15 – Peter C. Doherty, medical researcher, Nobel Prize recipient
• October 19 – Ian Causley, politician
• November 1 – John Bell, actor and theatre director
• November 4 – John Sanderson, Governor of Western Australia (2000–2005)
• November 12 – John Dowd, NSW politician
• December 7 – Robin Miller, aviator and nurse (d. 1975)

Deaths

• February 3 – John Henry Michell, mathematician
• March 8 – Michael Kelly (b. 1850), Catholic Archbishop of Sydney (1911–1940)
• April 16 – Herbert James Carter (b. 1858), entomologist
• June 22 – Monty Noble (b. 1873), cricketer
• June 23 – Hugh Denis Macrossan (b. 1881), Queensland politician and judge
• July 6 – Michael O'Connor (b. 1865), WA politician
• July 22 – Sir George Fuller (b. 1861), Premier of New South Wales (1921)
• July 30 – Arthur Merric Boyd (b. 1862), painter
• July 30 – Archibald Watson (b. 1849), surgeon and professor of anatomy
• August 13 – Geoffrey Street (b. 1894), politician
• August 13 – Henry Gullett (b. 1878), politician
• August 13 – James Fairbairn (b. 1897), politician
• August 13 – Sir Brudenell White (b. 1876), Chief of the General Staff
• September 9 – Percy Abbott (b. 1869), politician
• September 11 – Issy Smith (b. 1890), soldier and Victoria Cross recipient
• September 22 – Robert Blackwood
• October 2 – Albert Green, politician
• October 14 – Helen de Guerry Simpson (b. 1897), novelist
• October 25 – Thomas Waddell (b. 1854), Premier of New South Wales (1904)
• October 31 – Frank Anstey (b. 1865), politician
• November 2 – Colin Rankin (b. 1869), soldier, politician, cane farmer and company director
• November 3 – James Fowler, politician
• November 23 – Stanley Argyle (b. 1867), Premier of Victoria (1932–1935)

See also

• 1940
• 1940s