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See also: 1964 in Australia, other events of 1965, 1966 in Australia and the Timeline of Australian history.

Incumbents

• Prime Minister - Robert Menzies
• Governor General - Viscount De L'Isle, succeeded by Lord Casey
• Premier of New South Wales - Jack Renshaw (to May 13); Robert Askin (after May 13)
• Premier of South Australia - Sir Thomas Playford (to March 6); Frank Walsh (after March 6)
• Premier of Queensland - Sir Frank Nicklin
• Premier of Tasmania - Eric Reece
• Premier of Western Australia - Sir David Brand
• Premier of Victoria - Sir Henry Bolte

Events

• actor, dancer and choreographer Sir Robert Helpmann is named Australian Of The Year

• the Australian Conservation Foundation is formed
• the Australian Foundation of National Trusts is formed
• Northern Territory patrol officers forcibly round up the last groups of the Pintubi Aboriginal people still living an independent traditional lifestyle, and resettle them on the Papunya and Yuendumu missions

Events by Month

January

• The Kinks and The Rolling Stones tour Australia
• the first hydrofoil service begins on Sydney Harbour (January 7)
• Evonne Goolagong wins the NSW junior hard-court title (January 10)
• 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 (Jan. 11)
• The vehicular ferry Empress Of Australia begins operating between Sydney and Hobart (Jan. 16)
• Queensland police are given the power to arrest without warrant and ban anyone aiding the striking Mount Isa Mines workers. Union leader Pat Mackie is banned from the site (Jan. 27)

February

• Judge Aaron Levine overturns the obscenity conviction of the editors of Oz magazine
• Charles Perkins leads The Freedom Ride, which travels through country NSW, protesting the racial discrimination against Aboriginal people.
• Margaret Court wins the Australian women's tennis singles title for the sixth consecutive year
• Esso-BHP strikes gas at the Barracouta well in Bass Strait (Feb. 18)
• Freedom Ride participants including Charles Perkins are ejected from the Moree municipal swimming baths after protesting against its policy of not admitting Aborigines (Feb. 20)
• Prince Philip opens the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra (Feb. 22)
• Talbot Duckmanton succeeds Sir Charles Moses as chairman of The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)
• The Seekers' single I'll Never Find Another You reaches #1 in the UK charts. It becomes the first recording by an Australian act to sell more than 1 million copies and eventually sells more than 1.75 million

March

• The Australian Amateur Swimming Union stuns the nation with its decision that Olympic champion and 1964 Australian of the Year Dawn Fraser will be banned from all amateur competition for ten years. The decision follows an inquiry into Fraser's alleged misbehaviour during the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (Mar. 1)
• the Australian Labor Party wins the South Australian elections, taking government for the first time in 32 years. Labour leader Frank Walsh becomes Premier, replacing Liberal leader Sir Thomas Playford, Australia's longest-serving premier, who had held office for 26 years, 4 months (Mar. 6)
• the first drawing of the national service conscription lottery (Mar. 10)
• The Queensland government legislates to ban picketing and restricting pamphlets and banners at the Mount Isa mine. The strikers workers return to work later in the month (Mar. 17)
• George Johnston wins the Miles Franklin Award for his novel My Brother Jack

April

• Police raid Melbourne's Austral Bookshop and seize copies of The Trial of Lady Chatterley, a banned book which recounts of the British obscenity trial of author D. H. Lawrence (Apr. 27).
• Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces that an Australian combat force will be sent to South Vietnam in response to a request for military aid from the South Vietnamese government.

May

• the Australian Labor Party (ALP) is defeated in the NSW state election after 24 years in government and the Liberal Party, led by Robin Askin takes power (May 1)
• The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment leaves for Vietnam on HMAS Sydney (May 27)
• the official opening of the Captain Cook Bridge, which spans the Georges River
• TV variety show In Melbourne Tonight celebrates its 2000th performance. Since its premiere in 1957 the show had earned the Nine Network over £AU4 million in advertising revenue and it attracted more viewers per capita than any other television show in the world, with the network rumoured to be paying host Graham Kennedy more than £AU20,000 per year (Jun. 14)
• at a speech to the Australian Club in London, PM Sir Robert Menzies declares that Australia is in a state of war in Vietnam (Jun. 30)

June

• 21 June - The Premier of Tasmania, Eric Reece, announced Gordon Power scheme will “result in some modification to the Lake Pedder National Park”, but it was still in development and no further details were revealed.^[1]

July

August

September

October

November

• November 5 - The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, is deployed in Operation Hump in Vietnam.
• November 13 - Kevin Arthur Wheatley died in Vietnam while defending a wounded comrade. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry.

December

Science and technology

• the Siding Springs Observatory opens

Arts and literature

• Clifton Pugh's portrait of R.A. Henderson wins the Archibald Prize for portraiture
• Larry Sitsky's opera The Fall Of The House of Usher
• Peter Sculthorpe's Sun Music I
• Joan Sutherland returns to perform in Australia after 14 years overseas
• the Canberra School of Music is established
• Ballet In A Nutshell (later the Sydney Dance Company) and the Australian Dance Theatre form
• The South Australian Theatre Company is formed
• Sydney's Philip St Theatre stages its famous comedy revue A Cup Of Tea, A Bex and A Good Lie Down. The production runs for twelve months, and the title passes into common usage.
• The Ambassador (Morris West)
• The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea (Randolph Stow)
• The Slow Natives by Thea Astley is awarded the Miles Franklin Literary Award

Film

• Faces In The Sun wins the AFI Award for Best Film

Television

• Jimmy Hannan wins the Gold Logie Award

Sport

Light Fingers won the Melbourne Cup.

Cricket: Australia lose a five test series away to the West Indies 2-1. The West Indies side includes greats such as Garry Sobers and Rohan Kanhai, while Australia featured opening batsmen Bill Lawry and Bobbie Simpson.

Cricinfo series page

Rugby League: 1965 NSWRFL season St George wins the tenth of a record eleven consecutive premierships in the NSWRL. They were not to win again until 1977, then in 1979 which is their last premiership as at Jan 2006.

Births

• April 24 - Lucinda Cowden, actress
• May 15 - Glenn Seton, racing driver
• June 4 - Michael Doohan, motorcycle racer
• July 25 — Dale Shearer, rugby league footballer
• August 2 - Joe Hockey, politician
• August 28 - Steve Walters, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 90s.
• September 1 - Craig McLachlan, actor and singer
• September 21 - David Wenham, actor
• October 29 - Andrew Ettingshausen, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 90s
• December 11 - Glenn Lazarus, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 90s.

Deaths

• February 20 - Lex Davison, racing driver (b. 1923)
• March 1 - Rocky Tresise, racing driver, protege of Lex Davison
• November 2 - H. V. Evatt, politician and diplomat (b. 1894)

See also

• 1964
• 1966
• 1960s

References