1919 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1919 in Australia.

← 1918 1917 1916 1919 in Australia → 1920 1921 1922
Decades:	1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s
See also:	Other events of 1919 Federal election Timeline of Australian history

1919 in Australia
Monarch	George V
Governor-General	Ronald Munro-Ferguson
Prime minister	Billy Hughes
Population	5,193,104
Elections	Federal, Tasmania

Incumbents

Billy Hughes

• Monarch – George V
• Governor-General – Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson
• Prime Minister – Billy Hughes
• Chief Justice – Samuel Griffith (until 17 October) then Adrian Knox (from 18 October)

State premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – William Holman
• Premier of Queensland – T. J. Ryan (until 22 October), then Ted Theodore
• Premier of South Australia – Archibald Peake
• Premier of Tasmania – Walter Lee
• Premier of Victoria – Harry Lawson
• Premier of Western Australia – Sir Henry Lefroy (until 17 April), then Sir Hal Colebatch (until 17 May), then James Mitchell

State governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Walter Davidson
• Governor of Queensland – Hamilton Goold-Adams
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Henry Galway
• Governor of Tasmania – Francis Newdegate
• Governor of Victoria – Sir Arthur Stanley
• Governor of Western Australia – William Ellison-Macartney

Events

• 8 January – Strike leader Paul Freeman was arrested outside of Dobbyn, Queensland, sparking a chain of events that would lead to his deportation.
• 1 March – The Potts, believed to be the world's longest running cartoon strip drawn by the same artist, is first published in The Sun News-Pictorial.
• 24 March – one of the most notable incidents of the Red Flag Riots occurred in Brisbane, Queensland, when a crowd of returned servicemen clashed with police. The incident had been sparked the previous day by a socialist demonstration against the continued operation of the War Precautions Act, which had angered many of the returned soldiers.
• 1 June – A mutiny breaks out on the Royal Australian Navy battlecruiser HMAS Australia shortly after it arrives in Fremantle, Western Australia.
• 28 June – The Treaty of Versailles is signed in France, bringing Australia's involvement in World War I to an end.
• 18 October – Sir Adrian Knox is appointed Chief Justice of the High Court.
• 28 October – The Treaty of Peace (Germany) Act 1919 receives Royal Assent, confirming Australia's membership as a sovereign nation in the new League of Nations, and indicating Australia's independence from the United Kingdom.
• 10 December – Keith and Ross Smith, piloting a Vickers Vimy, reach Darwin at the end of the first England to Australia flight.
• 19 December – A federal election is held. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Billy Hughes defeats the Australian Labor Party of Frank Tudor.
• 24 December – The Electrical Trades Union of Australia is federally registered under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1904.
• The worldwide Spanish flu epidemic continues, eventually claiming almost 12,000 lives in Australia.
• At the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 Australian delegates succeed in excluding recognition of the principle of racial equality in the League of Nations Covenant.

Arts and literature

Main article: 1919 in Australian literature

• 10 September – J. F. Archibald, founding editor of The Bulletin dies, bequeathing money which would be used to award the Archibald Prize for portraiture.
• Elioth Gruner wins the Wynne Prize for his work, Spring Frost.

Film

• 4 October – The Sentimental Bloke premieres in Melbourne.

Sport

• Balmain win the 1919 NSWRFL Premiership
• 11 November – Artilleryman wins the Melbourne Cup
• January 1919 – A.R.F. Kingscote wins the Australian Open

Births

• 6 January – Geoffrey Bingham, author and Anglican minister (died 2009)
• 3 February – Bill Alley, cricketer (died 2004)
• 16 February – Keith Carmody, cricketer (died 1977)
• 22 February – Mary Maguire, actress (died 1974)
• 1 March – Reg Sprigg, geologist (died 1994)
• 20 March – Pat Norton, backstroke swimmer (died 2007)
• 25 March – Arthur Wade, NSW politician (died 2014)
• 28 March – Tom Brooks, cricketer (died 2007)
• 10 April – Vernon Wilcox, politician (died 2004)
• 1 May – Lance Barnard, Deputy Prime Minister (died 1997)
• 15 May – Tom Drake-Brockman, politician (died 1992)
• 22 May – Peter Howson, politician (died 2009)
• 28 May – Olga Masters, writer (died 1986)
• 30 May – Jim Miller, Australian rules footballer
• 8 June – Bill Newton, Second World War VC recipient (died 1943)
• 24 June – Fabian McCarthy, rugby union footballer (died 2008)
• 6 July – Edward Kenna, Second World War VC recipient (died 2009)
• 15 July – Harcourt Dowsley, sportsman (died 2014)
• 14 September – Gil Langley, cricketer (died 2001)
• 6 October – Abe Saffron, Sydney crime figure (died 2006)
• 7 October – Zelman Cowen, Governor General of Australia (died 2011)
• 5 November – Thomas O'Dwyer, cricketer (died 2005)
• 19 November – Margaret Whitlam, wife of Gough Whitlam (died 2012)
• 28 November – Keith Miller, pilot and sportsman (died 2004)
• 7 December – Wilfred Arthur, World War II fighter ace (died 2000)
• 10 December – Jean Lee, last woman executed in Australia (died 1951)
• 17 December – Geraldine Halls (pen name: Charlotte Jay), mystery novelist (died 1996)
• 29 December – Malcolm Mackay, politician (died 1999)

Deaths

Alfred Deakin

• 9 January – Robert Harper, Victorian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1842)
• 4 February – Richard Bowyer Smith, inventor (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1837)
• 20 March – Sir Edward Charles Stirling, anthropologist (b. 1848)
• 11 May – Simon Fraser, Australian rules footballer (Essendon), rower and ice hockey player (b. 1886)
• 8 June – Sir Henry Briggs, Western Australian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1844)
• 21 June – Sir Thomas à Beckett, solicitor and judge (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1836)
• 25 July – Sir Samuel McCaughey, New South Wales politician, pastoralist and philanthropist (born in Ireland) (b. 1835)
• 30 July – Sir Simon Fraser, Victorian politician, pastoralist and businessman (born in Canada) (b. 1832)
• 4 August – Dave Gregory, cricketer (b. 1845)
• 10 September – J. F. Archibald, publisher and journalist (b. 1856)
• 12 September – Sir John Mark Davies, Victorian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1840)
• 24 September – Frank Laver, cricketer and baseball player (b. 1869)
• 29 September – Edward Pulsford, New South Wales politician (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1844)
• 7 October – Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1856)
• 13 October – Henry Saunders, Western Australian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1855)
• 25 October – William Kidston, 17th Premier of Queensland (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1849)
• 2 November – Mephan Ferguson, manufacturer (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1843)
• 20 December – Sir Philip Fysh, 12th Premier of Tasmania (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1835)
• 25 December – Sir Edwin Thomas Smith, South Australian politician, brewer and businessman (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1830)

See also

• List of Australian films of the 1910s