Events
- 9 January – Yachtsman Tony Bullimore is found alive five days after his boat capsized in the Southern Ocean.
- 1 May – Tasmania becomes the last state in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality.
- 1 May – Melbourne's HM Prison Pentridge is closed.
- 5 May – The position of Chief Minister of Norfolk Island is restored.
- 20 May – A Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report calls for an apology for an early government policy of removing Aboriginal children from their parents and placing them in institutions.
- 1 July – The telecommunications market is deregulated, allowing the entry of competitors other than Telstra and Optus.
- 13 July – A crowd of over 100,000 people watches the Royal Canberra Hospital implosion. A 12-year-old girl, Katie Bender, is killed instantly and nine others are injured when debris from the site travels across Lake Burley Griffin.
- 30 July – The Thredbo landslide occurs, killing 17 people.
- 2 August – Stuart Diver, a ski instructor, is rescued as the sole survivor of the Thredbo landslide.
- 30 August – Elections in the Northern Territory re-elect the Country Liberal Party government of Shane Stone.
- 31 August – The head of Yagan, a Noongar warrior, is repatriated to Australia 164 years after being taken to the United Kingdom.
- 11 October – A state election is held in South Australia. The Liberal/National coalition government of John Olsen is re-elected, albeit with a substantially reduced minority.
- 15 October – Cheryl Kernot, leader of the Australian Democrats, defects to the Australian Labor Party.
Read more about this topic: 1997 In Australia
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“The system was breaking down. The one who had wandered alone past so many happenings and events began to feel, backing up along the primal vein that led to his center, the beginning of hiccup that would, if left to gather, explode the center to the extremities of life, the suburbs through which one makes one’s way to where the country is.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Just as a mirror may be used to reflect images, so ancient events may be used to understand the present.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when one thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to grow in the same meadow as the poppies of oblivion.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)