1908 in Australia

Updated on Sep 30, 2024

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Monarchy Edward VII		Population 4,190,692

Governor-General Henry Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote, then William Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley Prime minister Alfred Deakin, then Andrew Fisher Elections Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia

See also: 1907 in Australia, other events of 1908, 1909 in Australia, Timeline of Australian history.

Incumbents

Monarch – Edward VII

Governor-General – Henry Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote (until 9 September), then William Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley

Prime Minister – Alfred Deakin (until 13 November), then Andrew Fisher

State premiers

Premier of New South Wales – Charles Wade

Premier of South Australia – Thomas Price

Premier of Queensland – Robert Philp (until 18 February), then William Kidston

Premier of Tasmania – John Evans

Premier of Western Australia – Newton Moore

Premier of Victoria – (Sir) Thomas Bent

State governors

Governor of New South Wales – Admiral Sir Harry Rawson

Governor of South Australia – Sir George Ruvthen Le Hunte

Governor of Queensland – Frederic Thesiger, 3rd Baron Chelmsford

Governor of Tasmania – Sir Gerald Strickland

Governor of Western Australia – Admiral Sir Frederick Bedford

Governor of Victoria – Major General Sir Reginald Talbot (until 6 July), then Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael (from 27 July)

Events

10 March – Australians Douglas Mawson and Edgeworth David accompanied by Ernest Shackleton and others are the first people to scale Mount Erebus in Antarctica.

30 March – Commonwealth Quarantine service came into operation and took over quarantine stations in every state.

20 April – 44 are killed and 400 injured in the Sunshine train disaster.

7 May – The Coat of Arms of Australia are granted Royal Assent.

August – Boys in Australia first participated in the scouting movement, within a year of scouting starting in England

20 August – The Great White Fleet, the first visit by the U.S. Navy to Australia, arrives in Sydney.

8 October – The capital of Australia is chosen, settling a feud between rivals Melbourne and Sydney.

13 November – The Australian Labor Party withdraws its support for the minority government of Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, forcing his replacement with Andrew Fisher.

18 November – The Victorian government passes the Adult Suffrage Bill 1908, granting female suffrage for the first time.

15 December – The Invalid and Old Age Pensions Act is passed, which sets up a national aged pension scheme (except for aliens, Aboriginals and naturalized Asiatics not born in Australia)

29 December – A general election is held in Victoria. The government of Sir Thomas Bent is returned to power.

Science and technology

1 January – The Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology formally commences operation.

3 February – first trans-Tasman radio transmission (via HMS Powerful in Tasman Sea)

Arts and literature

16 May – The Commonwealth Literary Fund is established.

Henry Handel Richardson's first novel Maurice Guest is published

We of the Never Never by Mrs Aeneas Gunn is published

The poem My Country by Dorothea Mackellar first published

Film

2 February – The Limelight Department of the Salvation Army films Grand Memorial Service, a film of the funeral of Major Kenneth McLeod, the Director of the Bayswater Boys' Home. The funeral was held at the Kew Cemetery in Melbourne.

Sport

31 January – Victoria wins the 1907–08 Sheffield Shield.

11 February – Australia regains The Ashes with a 308 run victory over England.

20 April – The first New South Wales Rugby League premiership begins in Sydney.

July - The 1908 Interstate rugby league series sees the first ever matches between New South Wales and Queensland

29 August – South Sydney win the grand final to become the first NSWRFL premiers

3 November – Lord Nolan wins the Melbourne Cup.

At the 1908 Summer Olympics held in London, Australia forms a team with New Zealand and competes as Australasia. They win a gold medal for rugby football, a silver medal for middleweight boxing, and in swimming a silver medal for men's 400-metre freestyle and bronze medal for men's 1500 metre freestyle – both won by Frank Beaurepaire.

Australia's national rugby league team sets sail for England on the 1908–09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain.

Births

23 February – William McMahon, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1988)

15 May – Kevin Ellis, NSW politician (died 1975)

20 May – Henry Bolte, Premier of Victoria (died 1990)

10 July – John Armstrong, ALP senator (died 1977)

5 August – Harold Holt, 17th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1967)

10 August – Rica Erickson, Australian botanist

26 August – Alexandra Hasluck, author and social historian (died 1993)

27 August – Donald Bradman, cricketer (died 2001)

10 September – Angus Bethune, Premier of Tasmania (died 2004)

17 October – Wally Prigg, rugby league player (died 1980)

3 November – Eddie Scarf, boxer and wrestler (died 1980)

Deaths

14 February – David Syme, newspaper proprietor (born 1827)

29 February – John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, first Governor-General of Australia (born 1860)

7 March – Alfred William Howitt, anthropologist (born 1830)

11 May – Charles Kingston, Premier of South Australia (born 1850)

20 October – Vaiben Louis Solomon, Premier of South Australia (born 1853)

14 November – Ernest Favenc, explorer (born 1845)

18 November – Pierce Galliard Smith, priest (born 1826)

References

1908 in Australia Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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