Events
- 8 January – Sir Thomas Bent retires as Premier of Victoria, and is replaced by John Murray.
- 9 March – Electric trams begin operation in Adelaide.
- 31 March – Victoria is the last Australian state to grant women's suffrage.
- 30 April – Tasmania begins to use the Hare-Clark single transferable vote method in the 1909 general election.
- 26 May – The Protectionist Party and the Free Trade Party merge to form the Fusion Party), led by Alfred Deakin.
- 2 June – The Labor government of Andrew Fisher is ousted from office by Alfred Deakin's Fusion Party, and Deakin becomes Prime Minister for the third time.
- 5 June – Steam trams begin operation in Rockhampton, Queensland.
- 18 August to 21 August – Disastrous floods strike Victoria.
- 6 October – Martha Rendell becomes the last woman to be hanged in Western Australia.
- 9 October – John Earle becomes Premier of Tasmania, leading Tasmania's first Labor government, however Earle's minority government only lasts a week.
- 10 December – The University of Queensland is established.
- 14 December – New South Wales passes law ceding land to the Commonwealth for construction of the national capital, Canberra.
- 21 December – British Field Marshal Lord Kitchener arrives in Darwin after an invitation from Alfred Deakin to review Australia's military and defence plans.
- 24 December – Former Prime Minister Sir George Reid resigns from Parliament to become Australia's first High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Read more about this topic: 1909 In Australia
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—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
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“At all events there is in Brooklyn
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—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)