1902 in Australia

1902 in Australia

1899 • 1900 • 1901 • 1902 (1902) • 1903 • 1904 • 1905

Other events of 1902 • Timeline of Australian history

Incumbents

• Monarch – Edward VII
• Governor-General – John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun
• Prime Minister – Edmund Barton

State premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – John See
• Premier of South Australia – John Jenkins
• Premier of Queensland – Robert Philp
• Premier of Tasmania – Elliott Lewis
• Premier of Western Australia – George Leake (until 1 July), then Walter James
• Premier of Victoria – Alexander Peacock (until 10 June), then William Irvine

State governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Admiral Harry Rawson (from 27 May)
• Governor of South Australia – Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson (until 17 July)
• Governor of Queensland – Major General Sir Herbert Chermside (from 24 March)
• Governor of Tasmania – Captain Sir Arthur Havelock
• Governor of Western Australia – Sir Arthur Lawley (until 14 August)
• Governor of Victoria – Sir George Clarke

Events

• 7 February – The Waterside Workers Federation is formed.
• April – Averaged over Australia, the driest month on record with only 3.74 millimetres (0.15 in).^[1] Over half the continent was absolutely rainless and less than 3 percent outside Tasmania had more than 10 millimetres (0.39 in).^[2]
• 31 May – The Second Boer War, in which Australia is involved, ends.
• 12 June – The Commonwealth Franchise Act granted most Australian women the right to vote and stand in federal elections.
• 31 July – A coal gas explosion kills 96 in the Mount Kembla mining disaster
• 1 August – New Idea magazine is first published.
• 3 November – Postmaster-General James Drake opens a submarine telegraph cable from Southport, Queensland to Vancouver, Canada, completing a British Empire communications line.
• 18 December – The mayors of Sydney and Melbourne are conferred the title of Lord Mayor
• 26 December – Brisbane is declared a city.
• 26 December – Ada Evans becomes the first female law graduate in Australia.
• As a culminating to the Federation Drought, this was by raw totals the driest year averaged over Australia since 1890 with only 314.46 millimetres (12.38 in)^[3](though by area-averaged mean decile it was only tenth driest).

Unknown dates

• The world's first successful pyritic smelting takes place at Mount Lyell, Tasmania

Arts and literature

• 17 September – Opera singer Nellie Melba arrives in Brisbane for her first Australian tour after 16 years in Europe.
• James White wins the Wynne Prize with his bronze sculpture In Defence of the Flat

Sport

• 27 September – Collingwood wins the 1902 VFL grand final, defeating Essendon 9.6 (60) to 3.9 (27) at the first final to be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a record crowd of 35,000.
• 11 November – The Victory wins the Melbourne Cup
• New South Wales wins the Sheffield Shield

Births

• 15 January – Dan Dempsey (died 1960), rugby league footballer
• 25 February – Vince Gair (died 1980), politician
• 2 May – Alan Marshall (died 1984), writer
• 22 May – Leslie Herron (died 1973), Chief Justice of NSW
• 12 July – Vic Armbruster (died 1984), rugby league footballer
• 17 July – Christina Stead (died 1983), writer
• 28 July – Albert Namatjira (died 1959), painter

Deaths

• 27 February – Breaker Morant (born 1864), soldier
• 6 March – Frederick William Piesse (born 1848), member of the federal parliament for Tasmania
• 24 June – George Leake (born 1856), Premier of Western Australia

See also

• 1902
• 1900–1909