1968 in Australia - Events

Events

• 4 January – The search for the body of Prime Minister Harold Holt, who disappeared whilst swimming off Portsea, Victoria, is called off.
• 10 January – John Gorton is sworn in as Prime Minister of Australia after the disappearance of Harold Holt.
• 28 January – Members of English rock groups The Who and Small Faces are escorted by police from a plane at Melbourne's Essendon Airport, after the pilot diverts the flight citing the bands' behaviour.
• 1 April – American evangelist Billy Graham begins a tour of Australia.
• 17 April – A state election is held in South Australia. Steele Hall (Liberal and Country League) defeats Don Dunstan (ALP), and becomes Premier of South Australia.
• 8 April – Fluoridation of Sydney's water supply begins.
• 30 April – Jim Cairns unsuccessfully challenges Gough Whitlam for leadership of the Australian Labor Party.
• 1 May – The Duke of Edinburgh arrives in Australia for a ten day visit.
• 5 May – Three Australian journalists are killed by the Viet Cong in Saigon.
• 21 May – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visits Australia.
• 14 June – Journalist Simon Townsend, future host of Simon Townsend's Wonder World, is granted exemption from military service after lodging a fifth appeal against his imprisonment and court martial for conscientious objection.
• 18 June – The first stage of the Warringah Freeway opens in Sydney.
• 24 June – British comedian Tony Hancock commits suicide in his Sydney hotel room.
• 2 July – Fifty students are arrested during an anti-Vietnam War protest in Martin Place, Sydney.
• 4 July – Forty five people are arrested during an anti-war protest outside the U.S. consulate in St Kilda Road, Melbourne.
• 31 July – The Premier of Queensland, Jack Pizzey, dies in office.
• 1 August – Jack Pizzey's deputy, Gordon Chalk, is sworn in as his successor until the appointment of Joh Bjelke-Petersen as Premier a week later.
• 3 August – The standard gauge rail line between Perth and Kalgoorlie is completed.
• 20 August – The National Gallery of Victoria is opened in Melbourne.
• 14 October – The town of Meckering, Western Australia, is badly damaged by an earthquake.
• 28 October – The Postmaster-General's Department decreases the number of mail deliveries per day from two to one.
• 31 October – Minister for the Army Phillip Lynch admits that Australian Army troops may have breached the Geneva Convention by using water torture during the interrogation of a female Viet Cong suspect.
• 1 November – The airline Ansett-ANA is renamed Ansett.
• 14 December – A referendum is held in Tasmania to allow the granting of Australia's first casino license to the Wrest Point Hotel. The referendum is passed.
• 31 December – MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 crashes south of Port Hedland, Western Australia, killing all 26 people on board.