1974 in Australia

← 1973 1972 1971 1974 in Australia → 1975 1976 1977
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	Other events of 1974 Federal election Timeline of Australian history

Incumbents

• Queen of Australia – Elizabeth II
• Governor General – Sir Paul Hasluck (til 11 July), then Sir John Kerr
• Prime Minister – Gough Whitlam
• Premier of New South Wales – Sir Robert Askin
• Premier of South Australia – Don Dunstan
• Premier of Queensland – Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen
• Premier of Tasmania – Eric Reece
• Premier of Western Australia – John Tonkin (til 8 April), then Charles Court
• Premier of Victoria – Rupert Hamer

Events

• January
  • A record strong monsoon gives an average rainfall over Australia of 231.69 millimetres (9.12 in), which beat the previous record by a whopping 105.11 millimetres (4.14 in),^[1] resulting in the heaviest flood of Lake Eyre for at least 500 years.^[2]
• 1 January – Queen Elizabeth II creates five new knights in New South Wales and two in Queensland in her New Year Honours List. The Chief Justice of New South Wales, Mr Justice Kerr, is made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. Broadcaster John Laws is awarded an OBE.
  • Evonne Goolagong defeats Chris Evert to win the Australian women's singles title at Kooyong.
  • Enoch Powell, Conservative MP and fiery critic of Britain's immigration laws, arrives in Australia.
• 2 January – Steelworkers at the Broken Hill Proprietary Co Ltd are awarded big pay rises which will add $28 million to its annual wage bill immediately and $38 million by next December.
  • Mary, the 16-year-old gorilla which had her right leg amputated at Taronga Zoo on 11 December 1973 dies.
  • Federal Education Minister Mr Beazley resumes work after a two-month convalescence after he collapsed in Parliament House on 6 November 1973.
  • An Ansett Airlines Fokker Friendship makes an emergency landing at Tullamarine airport after a wheel fell from the undercarriage as the aircraft lifted off the runway.
• 3 January – French President Pompidou reaffirms that France would continue to hold nuclear tests in the South Pacific. This draws an angry response from Australian unionists and the New Zealand Government.
  • In Victoria Street, Sydney, a 30-man team of workmen use sledgehammers and axes to batter down the doors of 19 houses occupied by squatters barricaded themselves in, protesting against the proposed development.
• 5 January – Deputy Prime Minister Mr Barnard makes a speech in New York to the American-Australian Association in which he declares that Australia would not be a "junior partner" in strategic and military alliances. He says that Americans must expect that Australia's relations with America will be "consistent with our status as an independent nation".
  • Four people, including three flood victims trying to get home to Darwin, die when a light plane crashes near Barkly Down homestead, 60 miles north-west of Mount Isa, Queensland.
  • Prime Minister Mr Whitlam presents the inaugural E.G. Whitlam Shield to the Australian racing team for its victory over a visiting US team at Liverpool Speedway.
• 24 January Cyclone Wanda makes landfall near Double Island Point. Large parts of South East Queensland, particularly Brisbane, and northern New South Wales are flooded.
• 31 January – Private banks ask for immediate arbitration in the bank officers' salaries dispute which had spread to all States except Queensland. The bank officers are refusing to handle commercial cheques until they are successful in their claim for a 25 per cent pay rise.
  • Air Vice-Marshal R.T.Susans makes a public plea to Prime Minister Gough Whitlam to maintain Australia's two squadrons of RAAF Mirages in Malaysia.
• 3 February – A riot of 250 inmates erupts at Bathurst Jail – at least nine prisoners are shot and a lagre part of the jail is destroyed by fire.
• 4 February – The Federal Minister for Labour, Mr Cameron, meets officials of the Australian Bank Officials Association in Melbourne in an effort to break the deadlock in the bank dispute. The Association decides to lift is week-old ban on handling commercial cheques.
  • Federal Treasurer, Mr Crean, estimates that flood damage in Queensland will probably exceed $50 million.
  • Prime Minister Gough Whitlam holds talks in Vientiane with Laotian Prime Minister Prince Souvanna Phouma and says that all foreign forces should be withdrawn from the Indo-China region by the Great Powers. He also says the United States should stop flying military hardware into Saigon.
• 6 February – High tides and heavy seas cause flooding and damage to homes and other buildings on the Queensland Gold and Sunshine Coasts and the NSW North Coast. Waves of up to 20 feet batter the coast as Cyclone Pam sweeps southward offshore.
  • Acting Immigration Minister, Senator Dr. McClelland announces he will exercise his powers under the Passport Act to cancel the passports of Alexander Barton and his son who are currently residing in Rio de Janeiro.
• 7 February – The New South Wales Government issues warrants for the arrest of millionaire businessman Alexander Barton and his son Thomas, who are in Brazil. The Federal Government can now move to have the Bartons extradited from Rio de Janeiro. The Bartons left Australia with their wives soon after the collapse of their companies and the loss of more than $250 million of the public's money.
  • In Singapore, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew bury their public feud and compliment each other on their policies. Mr Lee praises the changes in Australia's immigration policy, assistance to Aborigines and aid to refugees from Bangladesh and Pakistan.
• 26 February – Mungo Man, a human skeleton estimated to be 40,000 years old, uncovered at Lake Mungo
• 18 May – John Howard enters Parliament as an Opposition backbencher for the electorate of Bennelong
• 1 July – Australia's road signs switch from imperial to metric.
• October – The first Australian credit card, Bankcard, is introduced
• 24 December – Cyclone Tracy devastates the city of Darwin. The official death toll was 71
• Averaged over Australia, 1974 is by far the wettest year since 1890 with an annual average of 759.65 millimetres (29.91 in),^[3] which some former estimates had as high as 784 millimetres (30.87 in).^[4] It beat the previous record of 1950 by 144.06 millimetres (5.67 in).^[3]

Arts and literature

• Conductor Bernard Heinze is announced as Australian of the Year
• Ronald McKie's novel The Mango Tree wins the Miles Franklin Award

Film

• The Cars That Ate Paris, directed by Peter Weir, is released

Television

• The long running popular music program Countdown first screens
• Soap operas The Box and Class of '74 begin

Sport

• 14 September – John Farrington wins his third men's national marathon title, clocking 2:17:23 in Gawler.

• Think Big wins the Melbourne Cup
• Victoria wins the Sheffield Shield
• Apollo takes line honours in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Love and War is the handicap winner
• Australia defeats the USA 2-1 in the Federation Cup
• The Australian team makes its first World Cup appearance when it competes in the 1974 FIFA World Cup
• Eastern Suburbs wins the NSW Rugby League Premiership
• Rothmans medal awarded to Graham Eadie
• Richmond wins the 78th VFL Premiership (Richmond 18.20 (128) d North Melbourne 13.9 (87))
• Brownlow Medal awarded to Keith Greig (North Melbourne)

Births

• 5 April – Deborah Sosimenko, hammer thrower
• 19 May – Andrew Johns, rugby league footballer
• 12 June – Scott Ferrier, decathlete
• 13 June – Tristram Woodhouse, field hockey forward
• 2 July – Matthew Reilly, writer
• 6 July – James Swan, boxer
• 15 July – Chris Taylor, comedian
• 16 July
  • Michelle Chandler, basketball player
  • Wendell Sailor, rugby league footballer
• 4 September – Andrew Hansen, comedian and musician
• 28 September – Shane Webcke, rugby league footballer
• 1 November – Emma George, pole vaulter
• 19 December – Ricky Ponting, cricketer

Deaths

• 6 April – Hudson Fysh (born 1895), co founder of Qantas
• 1 May – Frank Packer (born 1906), publisher
• 10 June – Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (born 1900), former Governor General of Australia

References