1941 in Australia

1941 in Australia
Monarch	George VI
Governor-General	Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie
Prime Minister	Robert Menzies, Arthur Fadden, John Curtin
Population	7,109,898
Elections	QLD, NSW, SA, TAS

Incumbents

25 March – The Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) is formed.
31 March – The Siege of Tobruk begins.
7 April – The Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) is formed.
10 May – A general election is held in New South Wales. The ALP led by William McKell defeats the incumbent United Australia Party and Premier Alexander Mair.
12 May – The Daily Mirror newspaper is first published in Sydney.
30 June – HMAS Waterhen sinks off Libya – the first Australian naval vessel lost in the war.
3 October – Prime Minister Arthur Fadden resigns following the rejection of his budget by two independent MPs.
7 October – John Curtin is sworn in as Prime Minister after Arthur Fadden's government loses majority support in the House of Representatives.
11 November – The Australian War Memorial is opened in Canberra.
19 November – The light cruiser HMAS Sydney engages the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran in an hour-long battle off the coast of Western Australia. Both ships are sunk, the Sydney going down with 645 crew.
9 December – Australia declares war on Japan, and the Axis powers of Finland, Hungary and Romania.
13 December – A general election is held in Tasmania. The Labor Party led by Robert Cosgrove is returned to power.

William Dargie wins the Archibald Prize with his portrait of Sir James Elder, KBE
The Timeless Land by Eleanor Dark is published.

27 September – Melbourne wins the 45th VFL Premiership, defeating Essendon 19.13 (127) to 13.20 (98).
4 November – Skipton wins the Melbourne Cup.

29 January – Maggie Kirkpatrick, actress
2 February – John Cornell, actor and producer
4 February – Russell Cooper, Premier of Queensland (1989)
11 March – Kim Santow, NSW Supreme Court judge
29 March – Michael Thornhill, film producer, screenwriter and film director
31 March – Faith Leech, swimmer
10 April – Wendy Fatin, politician
17 April – Bill Landeryou, politician
24 April – John Williams, classical guitarist
11 May – Ian Redpath, cricketer
18 May – Lobby Loyde, rock music guitarist (d. 2007)
31 May – Julian Croft, poet
4 June – Kenneth G. Ross, playwright
24 June – Graham McKenzie, cricketer
28 June – Harry Quick, politician
31 July – Heather McKay, squash player
1 September – Graeme Langlands, rugby league footballer and coach of the 1960s and 1970s
22 September – Murray Bail, writer
27 September – Gay Kayler, country music singer
3 October – John Elliott, businessman
14 October – David Kemp, politician
16 October – Genevieve Lloyd, philosopher and feminist
25 October – Helen Reddy, singer
28 October – Fred Chaney, WA politician
7 November – Willi Sawall, race walker
16 November – Max Gillies, actor
13 December – Dixie Willis, middle distance runner