Prime Minister – Robert Menzies
Governor General – Viscount De L'Isle, succeeded by Lord Casey
Premier of New South Wales – Jack Renshaw (to 13 May); Robert Askin (after 13 May)
Premier of South Australia – Sir Thomas Playford (to 6 March); Frank Walsh (after 6 March)
Premier of Queensland – Sir Frank Nicklin
Premier of Tasmania – Eric Reece
Premier of Western Australia – Sir David Brand
Premier of Victoria – Sir Henry Bolte
actor, dancer and choreographer Sir Robert Helpmann is named Australian Of The Year
the Australian Conservation Foundation is formed
the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT) is formed
Northern Territory patrol officers forcibly round up the last groups of the Pintubi Aboriginal people still living an independent traditional lifestyle, and resettle them on the Papunya and Yuendumu missions
The Kinks and The Rolling Stones tour Australia
7 January – The first hydrofoil service begins on Sydney Harbour.
10 January – Evonne Goolagong wins the NSW junior hard-court title.
11 January – The bodies of two 15-year-old girls, Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt, are found at Wanda Beach in southern Sydney. Despite the offer of an unprecedented £10,000 reward, the murders are never solved.
16 January – The vehicular ferry Empress Of Australia begins operating between Sydney and Hobart.
27 January – Queensland Police are given the power to arrest without warrant and ban anyone aiding the striking Mount Isa Mines workers. Union leader Pat Mackie is banned from the site.
Judge Aaron Levine overturns the obscenity conviction of the editors of Oz magazine
Charles Perkins leads The Freedom Ride, which travels through country NSW, protesting the racial discrimination against Aboriginal people.
Margaret Court wins the Australian women's tennis singles title for the sixth consecutive year
18 February – Esso-BHP strikes gas at the Barracouta well in Bass Strait.
20 February – Freedom Ride participants including Charles Perkins are ejected from the Moree municipal swimming baths after protesting against its policy of not admitting Aborigines.
22 February – Prince Philip opens the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra.
Talbot Duckmanton succeeds Sir Charles Moses as chairman of The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)
The Seekers' single I'll Never Find Another You reaches #1 in the UK charts. It becomes the first recording by an Australian act to sell more than 1 million copies and eventually sells more than 1.75 million
1 March – The Amateur Swimming Union of Australia stuns the nation with its decision that Olympic champion and 1964 Australian of the Year Dawn Fraser will be banned from all amateur competition for ten years. The decision follows an inquiry into Fraser's alleged misbehaviour during the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
6 March – The Australian Labor Party wins the South Australian election, taking government for the first time in 32 years. Labour leader Frank Walsh becomes Premier, replacing Liberal leader Sir Thomas Playford, Australia's longest-serving premier, who had held office for 26 years, 4 months.
10 March – The first drawing of the national service conscription lottery.
17 March – The Queensland government legislates to ban picketing and restricting pamphlets and banners at the Mount Isa mine. The strikers workers return to work later in the month.
31 March – Merle Thorton and Rosalie Bogner chained their ankles to the front bar of the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane in protest against the Queensland liquor laws that banned women from pubs.
George Johnston wins the Miles Franklin Award for his novel My Brother Jack
27 April – Police raid Melbourne's Austral Bookshop and seize copies of The Trial of Lady Chatterley, a banned book which recounts of the British obscenity trial of author D. H. Lawrence.
Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces that an Australian combat force will be sent to South Vietnam in response to a request for military aid from the South Vietnamese government.
1 May – The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is defeated in the NSW state election after 24 years in government and the Liberal Party, led by Robin Askin takes power.
27 May – The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment leaves for Vietnam on HMAS Sydney.
The official opening of the Captain Cook Bridge, which spans the Georges River
TV variety show In Melbourne Tonight celebrates its 2000th performance. Since its premiere in 1957 the show had earned the Nine Network over £AU4 million in advertising revenue and it attracted more viewers per capita than any other television show in the world, with the network rumoured to be paying host Graham Kennedy more than £AU20,000 per year (14 June)
21 June – The Premier of Tasmania, Eric Reece, announces the Gordon Power scheme will "result in some modification to the Lake Pedder National Park", but it was still in development and no further details were revealed.
30 June – At a speech to the Australian Club in London, PM Sir Robert Menzies declares that Australia is in a state of war in Vietnam.
18 to 20 July - Snow is recorded as far north as the Clark Range in Queensland, killing drought-weakened livestock. At the same time, extremely heavy rainfall in the North Coast turns drought into flood, with Brisbane having its wettest-ever July day with 193.2 millimetres (7.6 in).
5 November – The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, is deployed in Operation Hump in Vietnam.
13 November – Kevin Arthur Wheatley dies in Vietnam while defending a wounded comrade. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry.
Science and technology
the Siding Springs Observatory opens
Arts and literature
Clifton Pugh's portrait of R.A. Henderson wins the Archibald Prize for portraiture
Larry Sitsky's opera The Fall Of The House of Usher
Peter Sculthorpe's Sun Music I
Joan Sutherland returns to perform in Australia after 14 years overseas
the Canberra School of Music is established
Ballet In A Nutshell (later the Sydney Dance Company) and the Australian Dance Theatre form
The South Australian Theatre Company is formed
Sydney's Philip St Theatre stages its famous comedy revue A Cup Of Tea, A Bex and A Good Lie Down. The production runs for twelve months, and the title passes into common usage.
The Ambassador (Morris West)
The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea (Randolph Stow)
The Slow Natives by Thea Astley is awarded the Miles Franklin Literary Award
Faces In The Sun wins the AFI Award for Best Film
Jimmy Hannan wins the Gold Logie Award
Light Fingers won the Melbourne Cup.
Cricket: Australia lose a five test series away to the West Indies 2-1. The West Indies side includes greats such as Garry Sobers and Rohan Kanhai, while Australia featured opening batsmen Bill Lawry and Bobby Simpson.
Cricinfo series page
Rugby League: 1965 NSWRFL season St George wins the tenth of a record eleven consecutive premierships in the NSWRL. They were not to win again until 1977, then in 1979. 31 years later, they won in 2010.
Golf: The Australian Veteran Golfers Association. (A.V.G.A.) was formed on 7 July 1965 by four businessmen, Messrs. A Hall, W.Foulsham J.Barkel and H.Hattersley.
24 April – Lucinda Cowden, actress
10 May
Greg Fasala, swimmer
Paul Langmack, rugby league player and coach
15 May – Glenn Seton, racing driver
4 June – Michael Doohan, motorcycle racer
25 July – Dale Shearer, rugby league footballer
2 August – Joe Hockey, politician
28 August – Steve Walters, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s.
1 September – Craig McLachlan, actor and singer
19 September – Antonella Gambotto-Burke, author and journalist
21 September – David Wenham, actor
29 October – Andrew Ettingshausen, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s
11 December – Glenn Lazarus, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s.
20 February – Lex Davison, racing driver (born 1923)
2 November – H. V. Evatt, politician and diplomat (born 1894)
