Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles.
16 January – Large parts of Victoria are hit with power
outages, including Melbourne, Geelong and Bendigo, after bushfires
knock out power transmission lines connecting the state to the
national electricity grid.[6]
23 January – John Howard reshuffles his federal cabinet.
Such changes include the sacking of the Immigration Minister, Amanda
Vanstone.[7]
26 January – Organisers of the Big Day Out in Sydney
plead with event-goers not to bring Australian flags with them, fearing
outbreaks of racial violence. The plea is ignored, and the day
passes without incident.[8]
5 February – The first inquest into the deaths
of the Balibo Five
begins.[10]
7 February – James Hardie announces that it has
approved long-term compensation arrangements for asbestos victims.[11]
11 February – Prime MinisterJohn Howard causes a
diplomatic stir when he publicly criticises U.S. presidential
nominee Barack
Obama for his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.[12]
6 March – The Australian government approves a
proposed AUD $11.1 billion sale of the
national airline Qantas to an
international consortium after the Foreign Investment Review Board
finds that the sale would not breach foreign ownership laws.
9 March – Shadow Attorney-General Kelvin Thomson
resigns from the Opposition front bench after it is revealed that
he wrote a positive character reference for Melbourne gangland
figure and fugitive Tony
Mokbel six years ago.
14 March – An electrical fault on a Northern Line train near
the Sydney Harbour Bridge strands
4,000 passengers on Sydney'sCityRail train system for
nearly three hours, and causes substantial delays during the
evening rush hour.
16 March – Senator Santo Santoro resigns as Minister for
Ageing following a scandal involving his ownership of shares in a
company related to his portfolio. He resigns from the Senate on
March 20.
18 March – More than 200,000 people walk
across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to
celebrate its 75th anniversary.
23 March – Three people are killed when three
trucks and four cars are involved in a major collision and
explosion in Melbourne's
Burnley
Tunnel.
23 March – The PlayStation 3 games console is released
in Australia, exactly a year after the Australian release of Microsoft's Xbox 360.
10 April – Four elderly residents of the
Broughton Hall nursing home in Melbourne die after a gastroenteritis
outbreak at the home over the Easter weekend. A fifth resident dies
in hospital on 16 April.
19 April – Prime Minister John Howard announces a
report which states that unless significant rain falls in the Murray-Darling Basin within the
next six to eight weeks, Australia will face a major agricultural
crisis with no irrigation allocations available to farmers.
24 April – Two Australian soldiers are injured
when a roadside bomb goes off in Iraq.
26 April – Former immigration minister Senator
Amanda
Vanstone announces her immediate resignation from the Australian
Senate. It is announced later that day that Vanstone will take
up the position of Australia's Ambassador to Italy in late
June.
1 June – The Australian Government climate
task force releases its report, recommending Australia implement an
emissions
trading scheme by 2012. Prime Minister John Howard declines to set a target for
greenhouse gas reduction until after the 2007 election.[14]
21 June – After the release of a report into
child abuse and domestic
violence in indigenous communities, the
Prime Minister declares the situation a "national emergency" and
announces a series of measures (most of which are controversial) to
deal with the crisis.
25 June – John Laws announces his retirement from radio
after a career spanning 54 years. [21].
July
2 July – The Pasha Bulker
is refloated after 25 days aground.
2 July – Thai Airways International
flight TG999 arrives in Melbourne from Bangkok, causing a health scare when one of the
passengers is later diagnosed with polio.[22]
3 July – Wesfarmers announces a $22 billion takeover of the Coles Group in the
nation's largest ever corporate takeover.
30 July – John Brumby and Rob Hulls are elected unopposed as Premier
and Deputy Premier of Victoria respectively, following the sudden
resignation of Steve
Bracks and John
Thwaites.
27 August – The Australian Government releases
a draft booklet of Australian facts and values from which 20
questions of a citizenship test will be
drawn. Applicants for citizenship will be required to score 12 out
of 20 (60%) in the test to be eligible.[31]
13 September – Anna Bligh is sworn in as Queensland's first
female premier.
15 September – A three-year-old toddler, Qian Xun Xue (nicknamed "Pumpkin" by
authorities), is found wandering alone at Melbourne's Southern Cross Station. Police believe the
child had arrived several days before from New Zealand, and that
her father had fled to the United States.
22 September – The 171 year old Myer building in Hobart is destroyed by fire.
October
4 October – The controversial GunnsBell Bay Pulp Mill is given the
go-ahead by federal Environment and Water Resources Minister Malcolm
Turnbull, with some conditions imposed on its development and
with the Shadow minister for Environment and Water 's backing. [32]
November
6 November – An Australian children's toy
known as Bindeez is recalled
and a safety warning is issued after several children who had
swallowed the beads were hospitalised suffering the symptoms of
ingestion of gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid or
GHB. The toys are also recalled in the United States and United
Kingdom after several U.S. children suffer the same effects.[33]
9 November – The Assistant Commissioner of Victoria
Police, Noel Ashby, resigns, after a long service.
9 February – The Australian Football League
signs a five-year broadcasting contract with the Seven Network, Network Ten and pay TV provider
Foxtel, in a controversial
deal that will see half of the AFL matches played each week
broadcast on Foxtel instead of free-to-air television.
12 February – Jodi Power, a family friend of
convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, made allegations in a
paid interview on Channel Seven's Today Tonight
that Corby's sister Mercedes had previously asked Power to
transport drugs to Bali and that Mercedes had confessed to
smuggling compressed cannabis concealed inside her body into
Indonesia. Mercedes is interviewed by Channel Nine's rival program A Current
Affair on 14 February.
1 April – When it was announced on Weekend
Sunrise, The Seven Network pays $3 million for the
broadcast rights to the fourth series of Kath & Kim, a popular sitcom which
had previously aired until their final appearance on the ABC in
2005/06 as Da Kath &
Kim Code.
16 April – Australia's Leader of the Opposition Kevin Rudd and Minister
for Workplace Relations Joe Hockey discontinue their weekly
appearances on Seven's breakfast news program Sunrise after four years. The
decision follows possibly politically-damaging accusations that
Sunrise had requested that Rudd appear at a dawn service
for ANZAC Day in Long Tan, Vietnam, with the service held an hour early to
accommodate the time difference for live television.[36]
1 June – The very last ever episode of Bert's
Family Feud goes to air on the Nine Network after a 18 month run. The
show was axed due to the strong competition prize win of rival
Seven Network game show Deal or No
Deal.
19 August – Fourth series premiere of Kath & Kim at 7:30pm, now on the
Seven Network,
attracts an audience of 2.521 million nationally,[37]
making it the most watched television programme so far in 2007[38] and
the highest rating ever for a first episode in the history of
Australian television.[37]
15 October - Seven HD
is introduced, becoming the first HD-only channel operated by a
Melbourne-based commercial television network.
21 October - The Nine Network includes the "worm"
audience reaction graph in their broadcast of the election debate
between John Howard
and Kevin Rudd,
despite agreements to the contrary. The National Press Club cut
Nine's transmission feed, and the ABC cut their
backup feed. Nine continued to transmit by adding the worm to the
Sky News broadcast.[39]
2 November - Network
Ten's news anchorperson Charmaine Dragun is found dead near
Sydney, apparently due to a suicide.
1 March - Jockey Chris Munce is sentenced to 30 months
imprisonment in Hong Kong for taking bribes in exchange for racing
tips. His lawyers are appealing.
20 March - West Coast Eagles midfielder Ben Cousins is
suspended indefinitely by his club after missing two days of
training in a row. He later attends a four-week rehabilitation
clinic in the United States.
31 March - Retired swimmer Ian Thorpe is accused in French sports
newspaper L'Equipe of having tested positive for
abnormal levels of testosterone in May 2006. FINA demands an investigation into the
allegations, which Thorpe denies. Thorpe is eventually found to
have no case to answer
23 August - A horse is diagnosed with horse flu (equine
influenza) in a quarantine station at Eastern Creek. Further
horses are diagnosed at the quarantine centre, Centennial Park and
outside New South Wales over the next few days, resulting in the
cancellation of race meetings Australia-wide and
suspension of horse transportation for 72 hours on 25 August.[44]
23 September - Motorcycle racer Casey Stoner gains an unbeatable lead in
the MotoGP
world championships when he finished third in a race in Tokyo.[46]
29 September - The Geelong Football Club (24.19.163)
defeat Port Adelaide (6.8.44) to
win the 111th VFL/AFL premiership. It is
the first premiership since 1963 for the Cats, the first
premiership won by a Victorian team since 2000 and the largest ever
winning margin in VFL/AFL grand final history.
28 December – Wild Oats XI achieves line honours for
the third year running in the 2007 Sydney to Hobart
Yacht Race. Rosebud is declared the handicap winner
the following day.