1919 in Australia - Events

Events

• 1 March – The Potts, believed to be the world's longest running cartoon strip drawn by the same artist, is first published in The Sun News-Pictorial.
• 24 March – one of the most notable incidents of the Red Flag Riots occurred in Brisbane, Queensland, when a crowd of returned servicemen clashed with police. The incident had been sparked the previous day by a socialist demonstration against the continued operation of the War Precautions Act, which had angered many of the returned soldiers.
• 1 June – A mutiny occurs on board the Royal Australian Navy battlecruiser HMAS Australia shortly after it arrives in Fremantle, Western Australia.
• 28 June – The Treaty of Versailles is signed in France, bringing Australia's involvement in World War I to an end.
• 18 October – Sir Adrian Knox is appointed Chief Justice of the High Court.
• 28 October – The Treaty of Peace (Germany) Act 1919 receives Royal Assent, confirming Australia's membership as a sovereign nation in the new League of Nations, and indicating Australia's independence from the United Kingdom.
• 10 December – Keith and Ross Smith, piloting a Vickers Vimy, reach Darwin at the end of the first England to Australia flight.
• 19 December – A federal election is held. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Billy Hughes defeats the Australian Labor Party of Frank Tudor.
• 24 December – The Electrical Trades Union of Australia is federally registered under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1904.
• The worldwide Spanish flu epidemic continues, eventually claiming almost 12,000 lives in Australia.
• At the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 Australian delegates succeed in excluding recognition of the principle of racial equality in the League of Nations Covenant.