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1965 in Australia
Reference material by Wikipedia contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
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February 2012
February 2020
The following lists events that happened during 1965 in Australia.
Elizabeth II Viscount De L'Isle, then Lord Casey Sir Robert Menzies 11,387,665 Robert Helpmann WA, SA, NSW
1965
Incumbents
horizontal right center 280 Lord De L'Isle.jpg Viscount De L'Isle Richard Casey 1965.jpg Lord Casey
thumb|upright|140px|Sir Robert Menzies
Monarch – Elizabeth II
Governor-General – Viscount De L'Isle (until 7 May), then Lord Casey
Prime Minister – Sir Robert Menzies
Opposition Leader – Arthur Calwell
Chief Justice – Sir Garfield Barwick
State and territory leaders
Premier of New South Wales – Jack Renshaw (until 13 May), then Robert Askin
Opposition Leader – Robert Askin (until 13 May), then Jack Renshaw
Premier of Queensland – Frank Nicklin
Opposition Leader – Jack Duggan
Premier of South Australia – Sir Thomas Playford IV (until 10 March), then Frank Walsh
Opposition Leader – Frank Walsh (until 10 March), then Sir Thomas Playford IV
Premier of Tasmania – Eric Reece
Opposition Leader – Angus Bethune
Premier of Victoria – Henry Bolte
Opposition Leader – Clive Stoneham
Premier of Western Australia – David Brand
Opposition Leader – Albert Hawke
Governors and administrators
Governor of New South Wales – Lieutenant General Sir Eric Woodward (until 31 July)
Governor of Queensland – Colonel Sir Henry Abel Smith
Governor of South Australia – Lieutenant General Sir Edric Bastyan
Governor of Tasmania – General Sir Charles Gairdner
Governor of Victoria – Major General Sir Rohan Delacombe
Governor of Western Australia – Major General Sir Douglas Kendrew
Administrator of Nauru – Reginald Leydin
Administrator of Norfolk Island – Roger Nott
Administrator of the Northern Territory – Roger Dean
Administrator of Papua and New Guinea – Sir Donald Cleland
Events
January
The Kinks and The Rolling Stones tour Australia
7 January – The first hydrofoil service begins on Sydney Harbour.
10 January – Evonne Goolagong wins the NSW junior hard-court title.
11 January – The bodies of two 15-year-old girls, Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt, are found at Wanda Beach in southern Sydney.Ritchie Ruby 12 January 2025 Loved ones of the two girls murdered at Sydney's Wanda Beach reflect on the cold case 60 years on https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-12/wanda-beach-murder-anniversary-marianne-and-christine-killer/104795602 ABC News 27 January 2025 Despite the offer of an unprecedented £10,000 reward, the murders are never solved.
16 January – The vehicular ferry Empress of Australia begins operating between Sydney and Hobart.
27 January – 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.
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
11 February – Mt Isa Mines suspends all operations.
18 February – Esso-BHP strikes gas at the Barracouta well in Bass Strait.
20 February – Freedom Ride participants including Charles Perkins are ejected from the Moree municipal swimming baths after protesting against its policy of not admitting Aborigines.
20 to 26 February – Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh tours Australia.
22 February – Prince Philip opens the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra.
Talbot Duckmanton succeeds Sir Charles Moses as chairman of The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)
The Seekers' single "I'll Never Find Another You" reaches No. 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
1 March – The Amateur Swimming Union of Australia 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.
1 March – Echuca, Victoria is gazetted as a city.
6 March – The Australian Labor Party wins the South Australian election, taking government for the first time in 32 years. Labor leader Frank Walsh becomes Premier, replacing LCL leader Sir Thomas Playford, Australia's longest-serving premier, who had held office for 26 years, 4 months.
10 March – The first drawing of the national service conscription lottery.
12 March – Swan Hill, Victoria is gazetted as a city.
17 March – 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.
20 March to 26 April – The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester visit Australia.
24 March – Prime Minister Menzies announces a new concept in tertiary education as recommended by the Martin Committee on the Future of Tertiary Education in Australia.
31 March – Merle Thorton and Rosalie Bogner chained their ankles to the front bar of the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane in protest against the Queensland liquor laws that banned women from pubs.http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/merles-bar-toasts-brisbane-suffragette-20140422-371sj.html Merle's Bar toasts Brisbane suffragette Natalie Bochenski 24 April 2014 22 April 2014 brisbane times Fairfax Media
George Johnston wins the Miles Franklin Award for his novel My Brother Jack
April
27 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.
29 April – 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
1 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.
7 May – Richard Casey, Baron Casey succeeds William Sidney, 1st Viscount De L'Isle as Governor-General of Australia.
27 May – The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment leaves for Vietnam on HMAS Sydney.
29 May – The official opening of the Captain Cook Bridge, which spans the Georges River
June
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 (14 June)
21 June – The Premier of Tasmania, Eric Reece, announces the 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.Interim Report – The Future of Lake Pedder https://web.archive.org/web/20070830034734/http://lakepedder.org/resources/reports/lpcomenq/future.htm 30 August 2007 , Lake Pedder Committee of Enquiry, 29 September 1997.
30 June – At a speech to the Australian Club in London, PM Sir Robert Menzies declares that Australia is in a state of war in Vietnam.
July
2 July – Secondary school teachers in Victoria stage a strike, the first teachers' strike in Australia since 1920.
18 to 20 July - Snow is recorded as far north as the Clark Range in Queensland, killing drought-weakened livestock. At the same time, extremely heavy rainfall in the North Coast turns drought into flood, with Brisbane having its wettest-ever July day with 193.2 mm in 1.
August
13 August – A limited free-trade agreement is negotiated between Australia and New Zealand.
21 August – A report of the Vernon Committee of Economic Inquiry is tabled in federal parliament; the principal recommendations are rejected by government.
September
23 September – Roma Mitchell is appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia, the first woman to become a judge in Australia.
October
7 October – Sir Robert Menzies appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
30 October – English model Jean Shrimpton wears a controversially short white shift dress to the Victoria Derby at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia – a pivotal moment of the introduction of the miniskirt to women's fashion.
November
Churchill Fellowships are awarded for the first time.
5 November – The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, is deployed in Operation Hump in Vietnam.
7 November – An underground fire occurs at the Bulli Colliery in New South Wales; four miners are killed.
13 November – Kevin Arthur Wheatley dies in Vietnam while defending a wounded comrade. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry.
16 November – Australia imposed economic sanctions on Rhodesia following that country's unilateral declaration of independence.
December
The first section of the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway is opened.
15 December – Harry Chan becomes the first elected president of the NT Legislative Council.
Date unknown
the Australian Conservation Foundation is formed
the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT) 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
the White Australia Policy was removed from the Australian Labor Party platform at their national conference. This came after past attempts in 1959 and 1961 failed.
Science and technology
The Siding Spring Observatory opens
Arts and literature
1965 in Australian 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 Bobby Simpson.
Cricinfo series page
Rugby league: 1965 NSWRFL season St. George win the tenth of a record eleven consecutive premierships in the NSWRL, defeating South Sydney 12–8 in the Grand Final. Eastern Suburbs finish in last position, claiming the wooden spoon.
Golf: The Australian Veteran Golfers Association. (A.V.G.A.) was formed on 7 July 1965 by four businessmen, Messrs. A Hall, W.Foulsham J.Barkel and H.Hattersley.
Births
25 January – Luke Woolmer, politician
17 March – Tarnya Smith, politician
6 April – Tim Nicholls, politician
18 April – Fiona Simpson, politician
24 April – Lucinda Cowden, actress
10 May
Greg Fasala, swimmer
Paul Langmack, rugby league player and coach
13 May – John McVeigh, politician
15 May – Glenn Seton, racing driver
23 May – Paul Sironen, rugby league player
31 May – Todd McKenney, entertainer
2 June – Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh, cricketers
4 June – Michael Doohan, motorcycle racer
25 June – Stan Longinidis, heavyweight kickboxer
1 July – Simon Youl, tennis playerTasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame Honour Roll https://web.archive.org/web/20110719075136/http://www.development.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/6546/Hall_of_Fame_Book_2008.pdf 19 July 2011 , Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts (Tasmanian Government), 2008.
7 July – Irina Berezina, Ukrainian-born international chess Master and trainer
9 July – Steve Minnikin, politician
12 July – Jennifer Howard, politician
25 July – Dale Shearer, rugby league footballer
2 August
Andrew Blackman, actor and theatre director
Joe Hockey, politician
9 August – Darren Millane, Australian rules football player (d. 1991)
28 August – Steve Walters, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s.
1 September – Craig McLachlan, actor and singer
19 September – Antonella Gambotto-Burke, author and journalist
21 September – David Wenham, actor
26 October – Steve Davies, politician
29 October – Andrew Ettingshausen, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s
1 November – Michael Daley, politician
5 December – Simon Finn, politician
7 December – Deborah Bassett, rowerBASSETT http://www.worldrowing.com/athletes/athlete/689/bassett-debbie worldrowing.com 26 May 2020
11 December – Glenn Lazarus, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s.
Deaths
20 February – Lex Davison, racing driver (born 1923)
7 May – Joe Abbott, politician (born 1891)https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/abbott-joseph-palmer-joe-9303 Abbott, Joseph Palmer (Joe) (1891–1965) 1 September 2023 1 September 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230901093803/https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/abbott-joseph-palmer-joe-9303 live
15 June – Florence Sulman, author and educationalist (born 1876 in England)Henry Margaret Sulman, Florence (1876–1965) https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/sulman-florence-8713 Australian Dictionary of Biography National Centre of Biography, Australian National University 9 September 2022 en
2 November – H. V. Evatt, politician and diplomat (born 1894)
See also
List of Australian films of the 1960s
References
1965 in yes
Australia
Category:Years of the 20th century in Australia