2005 in Australia

← 2004 2003 2002 2005 in Australia → 2006 2007 2008
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	Other events of 2005 Timeline of Australian history

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Governor-General – Michael Jeffery
• Prime Minister – John Howard

Premiers and Chief Ministers

• Premier of New South Wales – Bob Carr (until 3 August), then Morris Iemma
• Premier of South Australia – Mike Rann
• Premier of Queensland – Peter Beattie
• Premier of Tasmania – Paul Lennon
• Premier of Western Australia – Geoff Gallop
• Premier of Victoria – Steve Bracks
• Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory – Jon Stanhope
• Chief Minister of the Northern Territory – Clare Martin
• Chief Minister of Norfolk Island – Geoffrey Robert Gardner

Governors and Administrators

• Governor of New South Wales – Marie Bashir, Lady Shehadie
• Governor of South Australia – Marjorie Jackson-Nelson
• Governor of Queensland – Quentin Bryce
• Governor of Tasmania – William Cox
• Governor of Western Australia – Ken Michael
• Governor of Victoria – John Landy
• Administrator of the Northern Territory – Ted Egan
• Administrator of Norfolk Island – Grant Tambling

Events

• 11 January – Nine people are killed in bushfires in South Australia, making them the worst fires seen in Australia since Ash Wednesday, and until the Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009.
• 8 February - Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone announces a closed inquiry to be headed by former AFP commissioner Mick Palmer, to investigate how Cornelia Rau came to be held in solitary confinement at Baxter Detention Centre and why she did not receive treatment despite suffering from schizophrenia.
• 9 February - Queensland Premier Peter Beattie releases an edited transcript of an interview between Cornelia Rau and officers at the Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre on July 5, 2003.
• 10 February - Queensland Premier Peter Beattie apologises for the failure of his agencies to properly care for Cornelia Rau.
• 11 February - Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone admits that criminals who have finished their prison sentences and are awaiting deportation are being held among asylum seekers at the Baxter Detention Centre.
• 13 February - Federal Treasurer Peter Costello breaks ranks with Prime Minister John Howard and says he and the government are sorry for the way Cornelia Rau was treated.
• 25 February – Parts of the Sydney suburb of Macquarie Fields erupt into rioting following the death of a 19-year-old in a police pursuit.
• 26 February – The ALP government of Geoff Gallop is re-elected in Western Australia for a second term.
• 27 February - Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone announces an extension of the Rau inquiry from original date of March 24. Neil Comrie, the former Victorian Police Commissioner, is recruited to help Mick Palmer in the inquiry investigations.
• 22 March - Stuart Copeland, the Queensland Shadow Minister for Health, raises the issue of Doctor Jayant Patel's clinical practice during Question Time in the Queensland Parliament. Copeland had been alerted to Patel's inadequacies by Toni Hoffman, a nurse at the Bundaberg Base Hospital.
• 25 March - Rob Messenger, the National Party Member of Parliament for Burnett, raises the matter of Doctor Jayant Patel in a speech to the Queensland Legislative Assembly. He calls for Patel's suspension.
• 2 April – The Shark 02 Royal Australian Navy Westland Sea King helicopter crashes off the coast of Nias, killing nine people.
• 9 April - Queensland Health Minister Gordon Nuttall announces an inquiry into patient safety at Bundaberg Base Hospital in the wake of the "Dr Death" controversy at the hospital.
• 17 April – The Bali Nine are arrested for drug smuggling in Indonesia
• 2 May – Douglas Wood is taken hostage in Iraq. He is later rescued on 15 June.
• 6 May – The scandal concerning the 2001 deportation the Philippines of Australian resident Vivian Solon first comes to light.
• 23 May - The Morris Inquiry into the Queensland public hospital system (headed by Tony Morris QC) begins in Brisbane.
• 26 May – National Sorry Day is renamed National Day of Healing.
• 27 May – Schapelle Corby convicted of drug smuggling by an Indonesian court, and sentenced to 20 years in prison (later reduced to 15 and then reverted to 20 years).
• 1 June – The Indonesian embassy is subjected to a bioterrorism hoax.
• 3 June - The COAG meeting between the State Premiers and the Prime Minister is held. The Premiers agree to disagree with the Prime Minister on industrial relations, but make a commitment to the establishment of a national system of apprenticeships to address the skills shortage.
• 28 June - Three suspects in a 2002 gang rape in Hurstville finally arrested in dawn raids in New South Wales.
• 29 June - Rain brings drought relief and flooding across New South Wales.
  • New South Wales Supreme Court finds no evidence of neglect against Westmead Hospital in the Rhiannon Richards brain damage suit, leaving her family to pay both sides' legal costs.
  • New South Wales health authorities warn parents of an outbreak of whooping cough across the state, urging parents to immunise their children.
  • Former Federal Labor Opposition Leader, Mark Latham's autobiography is released, causing uproar in the Labor Party.
• 14 July - Following the release of the Palmer Inquiry report, Prime Minister John Howard and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone apologise to Cornelia Rau, who was mistakenly held in detention for 10 months, and to Vivian Solon, who was deported to the Philippines. The 200-page report identified systemic weaknesses in the Department of Immigration which contributed to Ms Rau's detention, the failure to establish her identity, and to meet her mental health needs. The report says that those same mistakes were made in Vivian Solon's case.
• 27 July – After ten years in power, Bob Carr resigns as Premier of New South Wales. He is replaced by Morris Iemma on 3 August.
• 21 August – Michelle Leslie is arrested in Bali after being found with two ecstasy pills in her handbag at an open-air dance party just outside Kuta. She is found guilty, and sentenced to three months in prison on 18 November, but is released on 20 November as she had already served her sentence.
• 29 August – After describing Bob Carr's wife Helena as a "mail-order bride", NSW Opposition Leader John Brogden resigns. He attempts suicide on 30 August.
• 12 October – The Bali Memorial, Melbourne commemorating the victims of the 2002 Bali bombings is officially opened.
• 2 December – Van Tuong Nguyen is hanged in Singapore for drug offences. He is the first Australian to be executed since 1993.
• 11–12 December – The 2005 Cronulla riots take place, with the rioting centred on Cronulla and other beachside suburbs. There is also rioting in the Greater Western Suburbs area of Sydney. Attacks on people of Middle Eastern appearance are also reported in Perth and Adelaide.
• 31 December – Sections of the Trans-Australian Railway near Nurina on the Nullarbor Plain were washed away by flooding, halting passenger and freight services for up to five days.

Arts and literature

• Andrew McGahan's novel The White Earth wins the Miles Franklin Award.
• Gail Jones is awarded the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for Sixty Lights.
• Tim Winton's short-story collection The Turning wins the Christina Stead Prize for fiction.
• Sonya Hartnett's novel Surrender wins the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction.

Film

• 13 October – The Australian government passes a bill granting film directors a share of the copyright in their films.
• 26 November – Look Both Ways wins best film at the Australian Film Institute Awards 2005.
• Little Fish
• Wolf Creek

Television

• 8 January – Australia Unites: Reach Out To Asia raises $20 million for the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami relief effort. It is also the first time that Australia's three major commercial television stations have co-operated to broadcast such an event.
• 25 May – Graham Kennedy dies at age 71. The network on which most of his shows aired, the Nine Network, passes up the offer to broadcast his funeral & the Seven Network arrives, axes Nine's coverage and Seven picks it up and wins it. Nine does eventually show parts of the funeral live.
• 26 June – Douglas Wood is interviewed by Sandra Sully about his time as a captive after Network Ten pays a reported $400,000 for an exclusive interview.
• 15 August: Big Brother: Greg Mathew, along with twin brother David Mathew, also known as "The Logan Twins" is announced the winner of the fifth series.
• 20 November – Madonna's Warner Bros. single "Hung Up" defeats Gold Digger by Kanye West and Jamie Foxx to be crowned the title of the ARIA single debuting at #1. This was the last Top 50 ARIA charts on ABC TV's Rage to be shown on the Seven Network. Only Seven Local TV and ABC TV will continue the Rage's Top 50 Charts until the end of July 2006, when it launches jtv.
• 16 December: Good Morning Australia finishes its 12 year run on Network Ten from the studios of ATV-10. Host Bert Newton leaves Ten and signs with the Nine Network to host the game show Bert's Family Feud.

Sport

• 4 March – First day of the Australian Track & Field Championships for the 2004–2005 season, which are held at the Sydney Olympic Park in Homebush. The 10,000 metres (men and women) were conducted at the Zatopek Meet in Melbourne, Victoria on Saturday 4 December 2004. The relays were conducted at Canberra on Sunday 6 February 2005.
• 6 March – Giancarlo Fisichella wins the Australian Grand Prix in his first race for Renault F1 at Albert Park.
• 19 March – Sydney Kings defeat Wollongong Hawks 112-85 in Game 3 of a series sweep in the NBL Grand Final series. The win completed the only three-peat in league history.
• 3 April – Suzuki rider Troy Corser takes both race victories in front of his home crowd, Phillip Island at the Superbike World Championship round.
• 3 July – Brett Cartwright wins the men's national marathon title, clocking 2:18:16 in Brisbane, while Jackie Fairweather claims the women's title in 2:34:34.
• 26 August – The inaugural A-League national football (soccer) season begins. In the first game, Adelaide United FC defeat the Newcastle United Jets 1-0 at EnergyAustralia Stadium in front of 13,000 people.
• 3 September – The Melbourne Phoenix defeat the Sydney Swifts 61-44 in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy netball grand final.
• 12 September – Cricket: England wins The Ashes back from Australia for the first time since 1987 in The 2005 Ashes series
• 24 September – The Sydney Swans (8.10.58) defeat the West Coast Eagles (7.12.54) to win the 109th VFL/AFL premiership. It is the first flag for the Swans in 72 years.
• 2 October – The Wests Tigers defeat the North Queensland Cowboys 30-16 to win the 2005 NRL grand final. It was the first finals series for the Wests Tigers.
• 2 October – With heavy rain cancelling the second race at Imola, Troy Corser secures his second Superbike World Championship.
• 9 October – Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly win the Super Cheap Auto Bathurst 1000 for the Holden Racing Team. It was Skaife's fifth win, and Kelly's first. It was also a seventh consecutive win for Holden, extending the longest winning streak in the races history.
• 16 October – Valentino Rossi wins his fifth consecutive Australian motorcycle Grand Prix on his Yamaha at Phillip Island.
• 1 November – Makybe Diva wins the Melbourne Cup horse racing event for a historic 3rd time in a row and is immediately retired.
• 13 November – French rallyist François Duval and co-driver Stéphane Prévot take victory for in their Citroën Xsara at the season ending Rally Australia.
• 16 November – The Socceroos qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1974, by defeating Uruguay in a penalty shootout at Telstra Stadium.

Deaths

• 8 January – Campbell McComas, 52, impersonator, broadcaster, comedian
• 11 January – Miriam Hyde, composer and pianist
• 24 January – June Bronhill, soprano opera singer
• 16 March – Bob Bellear, first indigenous judge
• 25 March – Davis McCaughey, Governor of Victoria
• 26 March – Paul Hester, drummer for Split Enz and Crowded House (suicide)
• 23 April – Joh Bjelke-Petersen, 94, Premier of Queensland from 1968–1987.
• 23 April – Al Grassby, politician and minister in the Whitlam government
• 29 April – Sara Henderson, 69, author
• 1 May – René Rivkin, 60, Australian stockbroker
• 25 May – Graham Kennedy, 71, radio and television, performer
• 9 June – Gloria Ida Logan, 78, artist and lecturer
• 16 June – Ross Stretton, ballet dancer and director
• 25 June – Harry Gibbs, Chief Justice of the High Court
• 3 July – W. Rubuntja, Aboriginal artist and activist
• 15 July – Ronald Wilson, Justice of the High Court
• 17 July – Joe Vialls, conspiracy theorist
• 18 July – Amy Gillett, cyclist
• 29 August – Margaret Scott, 70, author and poet
• 8 September – Donald Horne, academic and social critic
• 9 September – John Wayne Glover, serial killer
• 12 October – Frank Galbally, 82, lawyer, criminal advocate, defender in celebrated murder trials; described as the "father of Australian multiculturalism"
• 14 October – Winifred Curtis, 100, botanist
• 18 October – William Evan Allan, World War I veteran
• 24 October – Frank Wilson, actor
• 1 November – Michael Thwaites, intelligence officer and participant in the Petrov Affair
• 5 November – Hugh Alexander Dunn, diplomat
• 10 November – Kristian Fredrikson, stage and costume designer
• 2 December – Peter Menegazzo, cattle baron
• 3 December – Peter Cook, Labor senator
• 3 December – Lance Dossor, concert pianist
• 5 December – Kevin "Big Kev" McQuay, entrepreneur
• 12 December – Eric D'Arcy, Roman Catholic archbishop emeritus
• 26 December – Kerry Packer, Australia's richest man & the major shareholder in PBL, which owns the Nine Network, Crown Casino & a large number of magazines.