1990 in Australia

← 1989 1988 1987 1990 in Australia → 1991 1992 1993
Decades:	1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
See also:	Other events of 1990 Federal election Timeline of Australian history

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Governor-General – Bill Hayden
• Prime Minister – Bob Hawke

Premiers and Chief Ministers

• Premier of New South Wales – Nick Greiner
• Premier of Queensland – Wayne Goss
• Premier of South Australia – John Bannon
• Premier of Tasmania – Michael Field
• Premier of Western Australia – Peter Dowding (until 12 February), then Carmen Lawrence
• Premier of Victoria – John Cain (until 10 August), then Joan Kirner
• Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory – Trevor Kaine
• Chief Minister of the Northern Territory – Marshall Perron

Governors and administrators

• Governor of New South Wales – Sir David Martin (until 7 August), then Peter Sinclair
• Governor of Queensland – Sir Walter Campbell
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Donald Dunstan
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir Phillip Bennett
• Governor of Victoria – Davis McCaughey
• Governor of Western Australia – Michael Jeffery
• Administrator of Norfolk Island – Herbert Bruce MacDonald
• Administrator of the Northern Territory – Neil Conn

January

• 2 January – A battle by the major creditors to the Bond Group of companies to gain control of the best assets begins in the Victorian Supreme Court.
• 3 January – Prime Minister Bob Hawke and New South Wales Premier Nick Greiner meet to discuss the reconstruction of Newcastle.
• 16 January – Andrew Peacock launches the Federal Opposition's Family Action Plan.
• 17 January – Prime Minister Bob Hawke is heckled by pilots while on the campaign trail.
  • The National Australia Bank buys out Britain's Yorkshire Bank.
• 18 January – The Victorian Supreme Court grants Alan Bond permission to sell an oilfield to raise cash.
  • A fateful outback trip in scorching conditions claims the lives of seven Aboriginal people from the Punmu community in the Great Sandy Desert.
• 19 January – A fire breaks out in the historic Wool Store building in Brisbane.
  • A man is charged over an alleged plan to fire-bomb Parliament in Canberra.
  • Queensland Premier Wayne Goss announces an independent inquiry into the logging industry on Fraser Island.
• 22 January – Tram dispute talks break down in Melbourne.
  • A gas leak causes the evacuation of a Melbourne building.^[1]
• 23 January – The industrial tram dispute continues as 250 trams blockade the city of Melbourne.^[2]
• 24 January – An Australian is shot dead in Bougainville.
  • A fireworks explosion occurs at an amusement park on the New South Wales Central Coast.
• 25 January – In an embarrassing turnaround, the Federal Opposition abandons its Medicare policy.
  • The International Olympic Committee President arrives in Melbourne, giving a massive boost to Melbourne's Olympic Games bid.
• 26 January – Allan Border is honoured in the Australia Day Honours.
• 27 January – A riot breaks out at a Brisbane jail.
• 28 January – Prime Minister Bob Hawke pledges millions for a new Melbourne sports stadium.
  • Police arrest a man in Melbourne alleged to be the infamous loaded note bandit.
• 30 January – An inquiry into the Grafton bus crash begins.
• 31 January – A freak storm tears a path of destruction across Mount Isa, Queensland.

February

• 2 February – Cyclone Nancy hits the town of Maryborough in Queensland.
• 7 February – Commonwealth Games athletes are welcomed home with a parade through the city streets of Melbourne.
• 8 February – An oil slick pollutes Victoria's Ninety Mile Beach.
• 12 February – Carmen Lawrence becomes the Premier of Western Australia, and Australia's first female premier, after the resignation of Peter Dowding.
• 14 February – A report is released which condemns the police rescue effort during the Newcastle earthquake.
• 15 February – The Reserve Bank of Australia cuts official interest rates by half a percent – a move which Federal Opposition MP John Hewson described as "blatantly playing politics".
• 16 February – Prime Minister Bob Hawke announces a March 24 election date.

March

• 20 March – Serial killer John Wayne Glover is arrested for a series of "Granny Murders" on Sydney's North Shore.
• 24 March – A federal election is held. The government of Prime Minister Bob Hawke is re-elected for a fourth term.
• 6 May – Six people die in the Cowan rail accident, when a CityRail Interurban train collides with a 3801 Limited steam locomotive on the banks of the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales.
• 24 June – The Victorian Government orders the closure of the Farrow Corporation building societies Pyramid, Geelong and Countrywide.
• 7 August – John Cain resigns as Premier of Victoria over a series of financial scandals, and is replaced by the first female premier of Victoria, Joan Kirner.
• 10 August - The State Bank of Victoria is sold to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for AU$1.6b, in the wake of bad debts run up by the State Bank's Tricontinental subsidiary in the 1980s.
• 1 October – The Tasmanian Greens terminate the Labor–Green Accord after Tasmania adopts the federal government's Forests and Forest Industry Strategy.
• 2 October – Opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland announces her retirement.
• 5 October – After one hundred and fifty years, ten months and two days, The Herald broadsheet newspaper in Melbourne is published for the last time as a separate newspaper. Founded in 1840 as The Port Phillip Herald, it is merged with its morning tabloid sister paper The Sun News-Pictorial and the first issue of the new Herald Sun, described by owner Rupert Murdoch as "the world's first 24-hour newspaper", with morning and afternoon editions, is published on 8 October.On the same day, the 49-year-old afternoon tabloid The Daily Mirror in Sydney is published for the last time as a separate newspaper. The first edition of The Daily Telegraph-Mirror also appears on 8 October.
• 27 October – A general election is held in the Northern Territory. The Country Liberal Party government of Marshall Perron is returned to power.
• 1 November – The Australian domestic aviation market is deregulated.
• 21 November – The Queensland state caucus amends the amend the Criminal Code and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1978–1989 to decriminalise consensual sexual activity between adult males in private.
• 29 November – Treasurer Paul Keating announces that Australia is experiencing an economic recession.
• 11 December – Media company Fairfax is placed in receivership.

Arts and literature

• Tom Flood's novel Oceana Fine wins the Miles Franklin Award

Film

• 20 September – The Big Steal is released. Directed by Nadia Tass, the film will go on to be nominated for nine AFI awards, of which it will win three.
• Blood Oath

Television

• July – Kerry Packer purchases back control of the Nine Network for A$250 million from Alan Bond, who purchased it from him for $1 billion in 1987.
• 14 September – Westpac puts Network Ten into receivership.
• 27 December – WIN Television purchases Star Television just three days before Queensland is due to be aggregated, giving them the Nine Network affiliation and leaving QTV, who were going to take the Nine affiliation, with the Network Ten affiliation.
• 31 December – The Queensland regional television market is aggregated, with Sunshine Television Network (now Seven Queensland) taking a Seven affiliation, WIN Television taking a Nine affiliation, and QTV with the Ten affiliation.
• The Seven Network is placed in receivership.

Sport

• 1 January – The VFL is renamed as the AFL (Australian Football League).^[3]
• 22 January – John McEnroe is thrown out of the Australian Open Tennis Championships.^[4]
• 27 January – Steffi Gras wins the Australian Open Tennis Championship.
  • Hayley Lewis wins her fourth gold medal at the Auckland Commonwealth Games.
• 28 January – Lisa Curry wins a gold medal at the Auckland Commonwealth Games.
• 30 March – First day of the Australian Track & Field Championships for the 1989–1990 season, which are held at the Olympic Park in Melbourne, Victoria. The men's 10,000 metres event was conducted at Canberra on 24 February 1990.
• 22 May – New South Wales (13.8.86) upsets Victoria (10.16.76) in a State of Origin match at the SCG.
• 22 July – Allan Carman wins the men's national marathon title, clocking 2:15:17 in Brisbane, while Trudy Fenton claims the women's title in 2:44:38.
• 23 July – Players' draft adopted at board meeting of NSWRL.
• 8 September – Collingwood draws its elimination final with the West Coast Eagles. The AFL finals schedule is thrown into chaos and the Grand Final is rescheduled to be played a week later than usual. Extra time is subsequently introduced for future finals matches.
• 6 October – Collingwood (13.11.89) defeats Essendon (5.11.41) to win the 94th VFL/AFL premiership. It is the first premiership won under the AFL banner and Collingwood's first premiership since 1958, thereby symbolising the end of the "Colliwobbles".
• 10 November – Mal Meninga scores a stunning last-minute try to win the second Ashes rugby league test at Old Trafford.

Births

• 24 March – Keisha Castle-Hughes, New Zealand actress
• 22 May – Wyatt Roy, politician
• 25 August – Chloe Sims, gymnast
• 1 September – Shona Morgan, gymnast
• 12 September – Hollie Dykes, gymnast

Deaths

• 4 January – Henry Bolte (born 1908), Premier of Victoria
• 9 January – Sir Edward McTiernan (born 1892), High Court judge and politician
• 15 January – Dame Peggy van Praagh (born 1910), ballet dancer
• 8 February – Sir Ernie Titterton (born 1916), nuclear physicist
• 14 February – Graeme Hole (born 1931), cricketer
• 10 March – Pat McDonald (born 1922), actress (Number 96, Sons & Daughters)
• 10 March – Sir Reg Wright (born 1905), Tasmanian Liberal senator
• 15 April – William Hart-Smith (born 1911), poet
• 5 May – Gordon Mackie (born 1912), NSW politician
• 8 June – Herbie Matthews (born 1913), Australian Rules football player and coach for the South Melbourne Swans
• 21 June – Martin Johnston (born 1947), poet
• 25 June – Peggy Glanville-Hicks (born 1912), composer
• 1 July – Albert Field (born 1910), Queensland senator
• 15 August – Jimmy Carruthers (born 1929), boxer
• 17 August – Sir David Martin (born 1933), Governor of New South Wales
• 2 September – Robert Holmes à Court (born 1937), businessman
• 26 September – Sir James Forrest (born 1905), lawyer
• 30 September – Patrick White (born 1912), author
• 14 October – Clifton Pugh (born 1924), artist
• 25 December – John Stuart Anderson (born 1908), chemist

References