1942 in Australia
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "1942_in_Australia".

See also: 1941 in Australia, other events of 1942, 1943 in Australia and the Timeline of Australian history.

Incumbents

• Monarch - King George VI
• Prime Minister - John Curtin
• Governor General - Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie
• Premier of New South Wales - William McKell
• Premier of South Australia - Thomas Playford
• Premier of Queensland - William Forgan Smith (until September 16) then Frank Cooper
• Premier of Tasmania - Robert Cosgrove
• Premier of Western Australia - John Willcock
• Premier of Victoria - Albert Dunstan

Events

• February 15 - Singapore falls to the Japanese, with approximately 15000 Australian troops taken prisoner
• February 19 - Darwin is bombed by Japanese forces for the first time. At least 243 persons were killed
• March 20 - At Terowie, South Australia, American General Douglas MacArthur makes his famous speech which included the words I came out of Bataan and I shall return
• May 4 - The Battle of the Coral Sea begins
• May 19 - The prototype CAC Boomerang, an Australian designed and built fighter aircraft, takes to the air for the first time.
• May 31 - During an attack on Sydney Harbour, a Japanese midget submarine sinks the converted Sydney ferry, HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21
• July 6 - Elements of the Australian 9th Division arrive in El Alamein. The Division subsequently takes part in the First and Second Battle of El Alamein
• December 1 - HMAS Armidale, a corvette of the Royal Australian Navy, is sunk with the loss of 100 men

Science & Technology

Arts and literature

• The Pea-Pickers by Eve Langley is first published
• William Dargie wins the Archibald Prize with his portrait of James Heather Gordon VC

Film

Sport

• Colonus wins the Melbourne Cup

Births

• January 17 - Ita Buttrose, journalist
• February 19 - David Williamson, playwright
• February 24 - Colin Bond, racing driver
• March 13 - George Negus, journalist
• May 13 - Richard Butler, diplomat and Governor of Tasmania
• May 15 - Doug Lowe, Premier of Tasmania
• May 16 - Margaret Court, tennis player
• May 21 - John Konrads, swimmer
• June 2 - Mike Ahern, Premier of Queensland
• June 30 - Gerry Hand, politician
• July 2 - John Farrington, long-distance runner
• July 7 - Carmen Duncan, actress
• July 23 - Sallyanne Atkinson, Lord Mayor of Brisbane
• July 25 - Bruce Woodley, musician
• October 19 - Bronwyn Bishop, politician
• November 17 - Derek Clayton, long-distance runner
• December 23 - Quentin Bryce, Governor of Queensland

Deaths

• April 27 - Julian Ashton (b. 1851), painter
• September 3 - Mungo MacCallum - (b. 1854), scholar

See also

• 1942
• 1940s