Portal:Australia/Anniversaries/April

These are the selected anniversaries for April that appear on the Australia portal. The "edit" links edit the portal subpages that are displayed as sections here.

April 1

1876 – A letter is published in the Melbourne Argus by Captain John Mason of Belfast, Victoria concerning the Warrnambool Mahogany Ship.
1905 – Paul Hasluck, 17th Governor-General of Australia, is born in Fremantle, Western Australia.
1938 – New monthly newspaper Abo Call begins publication in Sydney, focusing on issues of Aboriginal rights and edited by activist Jack Patten.
1955 – The Far East Strategic Reserve (FESR) begins in response to communist aggression in South East Asia following World War II.

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April 2

1787 – Charter of Justice signed providing the authority for the establishment of the first New South Wales Courts of Criminal and Civil Jurisdiction.
1844 – The first permanent synagogue in Australia opens in Sydney.
1845 – Ludwig Leichhardt discovers and names the Burdekin River.
1856 – South Australia introduces the secret ballot.
1905 – The Tasmanian General Post Office opens in Hobart, Tasmania.
1930 – Isaac Isaacs appointed as the third Chief Justice of Australia.
2005 – A Royal Australian Navy Westland Sea King helicopter crashes on the Indonesian island of Nias while providing humanitarian support.

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April 3

1848 – Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt was last seen on the Darling Downs.
1954 – Vladimir Petrov, a Soviet diplomat, defects to Australia, sparking the Petrov Affair.
1969 – Actor Ben Mendelsohn is born.
1982 – After almost 27 years in power, the Liberal/National coalition government is voted out in Victoria and replaced by the ALP.

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April 4

1845 – The cutter Americana is wrecked in the Torres Strait, the sole survivor, Barbara Thompson, lives with the local indigenous people until 1849.
1923 – The Country Women's Association holds its first annual conference.
1929 – A dam on the Cascade River collapses, the subsequent torrent kills 14.
1978 – Cyclone Alby kills five people in Western Australia.

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April 5

1932 – Racehorse Phar Lap is found dead.
1933 – Anthropologist and protector of Aborigines Walter Edmund Roth dies.
2004 – Australia's biggest supplier to the farming community of the potential explosive ammonium nitrate decides to pull the product from its stores in response to concerns it could be used by terrorists.

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April 6

1844 – John Gavin is the first European settler to be legally executed in Western Australia. He was executed for murder at the age of fifteen.
1895 – Waltzing Matilda is first performed at the North Gregory Hotel, Winton, Queensland.
1942 – The 41st Infantry Division arrives in Australia, during World War II one million Americans were stationed in Australia.
1991 – Death of cricketer Bill Ponsford, who twice broke the world record for the highest first-class score, aged 90.

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April 7

1815 – Bathurst, New South Wales is founded following its discovery by George Evans.
1841 – Edward John Eyre becomes the first European to cross the Nullarbor Plain, arrives in Western Australia.
1851 – Edward Hargraves proclaims the discovery of gold at Ophir, New South Wales. A court later decides that Hargraves companions William Tom and John Lister found the gold.
1896 – Edwin Flack wins the Men's 1500 metres at the 1896 Summer Olympics.
1939 – Sir Earle Page becomes the eleventh Prime Minister of Australia.
1967 – Peter John Badcoe died in the Vietnam War, he was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery, conspicuous gallantry and leadership on more than one occasion.

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April 8

1802 – Explorer Matthew Flinders meets the French explorer Nicolas Baudin at Encounter Bay.
1817 – Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac), is established.
1867 – Arthur Streeton, an artist and member of the famous Heidelberg School of Australian artists, is born in Mount Duneed, Victoria.
1930 – Brisbane City Hall is officially opened.
1933 – A secession referendum (voting card pictured) in Western Australia passes, with 68 per cent voting in favour of secession from the Commonwealth.

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April 9

1865 – Bushranger Dan Morgan is shot and killed at Peechalba Station in Victoria.
1896 – Edwin Flack wins the Men's 800 metres at the 1896 Summer Olympics.
1909 – Dancer, actor, director and choreographer Robert Helpmann is born in Mount Gambier.

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April 10

1851 – The NSW Association for Preventing the Renewal of Transportation sends a petition to Queen Victoria.
1941 – The Siege of Tobruk begins, for most of the siege, Tobruk was defended by the Australian 9th Division under General Sir Leslie Morshead.

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April 11

1921 – Bert Hinkler flies from Sydney to Bundaberg non-stop, breaking his own long-distance flying record.
1934 – Charles Ulm successfully delivers the first airmail from Australia to New Zealand.
2001 – Australia defeat American Samoa 31-0 in a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying game, an international record.

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April 12

HMAS Australia on delivery in 1913

1835 – The convict transport George III sinks in D'Entrecasteaux Channel, 139 male convicts drown.
1851 – Between 7 and 12 April, four ounces of gold were won at what would become the township of Ophir, New South Wales – the first payable gold to be won in New South Wales and in Australia.
1924 – The battlecruiser HMAS Australia is scuttled off Sydney Heads.
1961 – Actor and comedian Magda Szubanski is born.

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April 13

1829 – Melbourne's first post office opens.
1841 – The first photograph was taken in Australia by a visiting naval captain, Captain Augustin Lucas.
1855 – The University of Melbourne was established by act of the Parliament of Victoria.
1892 – Singer Gladys Moncrieff is born in Bundaberg, Queensland.
1982 – Sir Ninian Stephen appointed Governor General.
1991 – Schoolgirl Karmein Chan is abducted from her Melbourne home and later found murdered.

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April 14

1858 – Francis Thomas Gregory leads an exploration in the Murchison-Gascoyne-Lyons region of Western Australia.
1870 – Gold is discovered in Gulgong, New South Wales, sparking a major gold rush in the area.
1885 – Orbost, Victoria was proclaimed a town.
1986 – The second trial of former Attorney-General of Australia and High Court judge Lionel Murphy begins in Sydney; accused of attempting to pervert justice, he was eventually acquitted.

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April 15

Aggregate hailstone. Large hailstone with smaller stones visible.

1903 – Electric trams begin operating in Bendigo.
1944 – Fred Paterson is elected to the Parliament of Queensland, representing the seat of Bowen. He remains the only member of the Communist Party of Australia to ever be elected to an Australian Parliament.
1981 – Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock resigns from cabinet accusing the Prime Minister of gross disloyalty.
1991 – The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody hands down its findings.
1999 – A massive hailstorm hits Sydney, with most of the damage being centred on the Eastern Suburbs.

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April 16

1865 – Harry Chauvel, the first Australian to achieve the rank of general, is born in Tabulam, New South Wales.
1868 – A railway linking the Queensland town of Dalby to Ipswich is completed.
1920 – In South Australia, the town of Hummock's Hill is renamed Whyalla.
1924 – John Gunn and Phillip Collier (pictured) become Premier of South Australia and Western Australia, respectively, following Labor Party victories in two state elections.
2003 – The Australian Army's Special Operations Command begins a four-day chase of the North Korean ocean freighter Pong Su off the coast of Lorne, Victoria.

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April 17

1840 – John Ridley, the English-born inventor and agriculturalist, arrives in South Australia.
1861 – On the Burke and Wills expedition, Charles Gray dies of dysentery near Lake Massacre, South Australia, on the return journey from the Gulf of Carpentaria.
1935 – Australia's national airline, Qantas, operates its first overseas passenger flight, from Brisbane to Singapore.
2003 – The Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre (pictured), near Woomera, South Australia, is closed, with detainees transferred to the Baxter Immigration Reception and Processing Centre, near Port Augusta.
2005 – The Bali Nine, a group of nine people later convicted of attempting to smuggle heroin from Indonesia into Australia, are arrested in Indonesia.
2005 – Ownership of a replica of HM Bark Endeavour is transferred to the Australian National Maritime Museum.

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April 18

1831 – The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's oldest newspaper, is first published in Sydney, New South Wales.
1889 – Jessie Street, the feminist and human-rights campaigner, is born in Chota Nagpur, India.
1951 – Journalist and anthropologist Daisy Bates dies in Adelaide.
1952 – Sir Owen Dixon (pictured) is appointed to the position of Chief Justice of Australia, succeeding Sir John Latham.
1986 – The 22nd Annual TV Week Logie Awards are presented at the State Theatre in Sydney, with Daryl Somers winning the Gold Logie as the most popular Australian television personality.
2008 – Painter Edgar Dell, known for his watercolours of wildflowers in Western Australia, dies at the age of 106.

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April 19

1770 – Captain James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour first sight the Eastern coast of Australia.
1818 – Phillip Parker King discovers Port Essington (pictured), later one of the first British settlements in what is now the Northern Territory.
1973 – George Gregan, former captain and games record-holder of the Australian rugby union team, is born in Lusaka, Zambia.
1984 – Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold are proclaimed as Australia's national colours.
2006 – Severe Tropical Cyclone Monica makes landfall near the Lockhart River in Far North Queensland.
2010 – Carl Williams, a convicted murderer and drug trafficker who was involved in the Melbourne gangland killings, is beaten to death at Barwon Prison in Victoria.

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April 20

1770 – HM Bark Endeavour, and her captain, James Cook, first sight the eastern coast of the continent of Australia.
1836 – John Batman (pictured) and his family arrive at Port Phillip, in present-day Victoria, and settle on Batman Hill.
1908 – Forty-four people are killed and 400 injured after two trains collide at the Sunshine railway station, the junction of the Ballarat and Bendigo railway lines.
1919 – Richard Hillary, future Royal Australian Air Force pilot and author of the autobiographical The Last Enemy, is born in Sydney, New South Wales.
1954 – In the Petrov Affair, Evdokia Petrova seeks political asylum after the plane carrying her back to the Soviet Union lands at Darwin, with her escorts disarmed by Commonwealth police.

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April 21

1861 – On the Burke and Wills expedition, Burke, Wills, and King return to their base camp at Cooper Creek, having crossed the Australian continent from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
1883 – George Ernest Morrison arrives in Melbourne, Victoria, having walked 3,270 kilometres (2,030 mi) from Normanton, Queensland.
1970 – The Hutt River Province, a 75-square-kilometre (29-square-mile) property outside Northampton, Western Australia, declares its independence from Australia in response to new wheat production quotas, becoming Australia's first micronation.
1973 – Sir Arthur Fadden (pictured), the 13th Prime Minister of Australia, dies in Brisbane at the age of 79.
1976 – A gang of six men steal between A$6 million and 12 million from the Victoria Club, located in Queen Street, Melbourne.
1995 – Sir Gerard Brennan is appointed to the position of Chief Justice of Australia, succeeding Sir Harry Gibbs.

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April 22

1788 – Captain Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, sets out to explore Sydney Harbour.
1857 – The colony of South Australia achieves responsible government, after the first session of the bicameral Parliament of South Australia is held.
1887 – A cyclone hits near Broome, Western Australia, killing at least 140 people.
1917 – Painter Sir Sidney Nolan (pictured), known for his paintings of Ned Kelly, is born in Carlton, Victoria.
1983 – Diplomat Valery Ivanov, the head of the Soviet embassy in Canberra, is expelled from Australia after allegedly trying to involve Australian Labor Party official David Combe in espionage.

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April 23

1788 – A settlement is established at Parramatta, west of Sydney, New South Wales.
1873 – English-born explorer William Gosse departs Alice Springs on an expedition to Central Australia, during which he names Ayers Rock.
1874 – Explorer Alfred Gibson disappears on Ernest Giles' second expedition to the deserts of Western Australia, resulting in the naming of the Gibson Desert.
1966 – Jim Stynes, an Australian rules footballer and later charity worker, is born in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland.
2005 – Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen (pictured), the longest serving Premier of Queensland, dies at the age of 94 in Kingaroy, Queensland.

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April 24

1846 – Explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell, the Surveyor-General of New South Wales, discovers and names the Maranoa River (pictured near Mitchell), in present-day Queensland.
1899 – The Scottish barque Loch Sloy is wrecked offshore of Kangaroo Island, South Australia, killing 31 people.
1912 – The government of New South Wales grants 43 acres (17 ha) north of Sydney Harbour for the construction of a zoological garden, later known as Taronga Zoo.
1918 – In the First World War, Australian and British forces counter-attack German troops near Amiens, Frances, commencing the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux.
1933 – The Second Collier Ministry is sworn in after the Labor Party wins the 1933 Western Australian state election, with Philip Collier becoming Premier of Western Australia for a second time.
1999 – Painter Arthur Boyd, a member of the Antipodeans artists' group, dies in Melbourne, Victoria, at the age of 78.

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April 25

1829 – Captain Charles Fremantle arrives off the coast of the present-day state of Western Australia, aboard HMS Challenger, with the intention of establishing the Swan River Colony.
1896 – At the 1896 election in South Australia, women exercise their right to vote for the first time, having been given limited suffrage the previous year.
1915 – The Gallipoli Campaign commences, with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landing at Anzac Cove (painting pictured) on the Gallipoli peninsula in present-day Turkey.
1918 – In the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, Australian and British troops counter-attack German forces near Amiens, France, with Clifford Sadlier later receiving the Victoria Cross for his actions.
1927 – Anzac Day is uniformly observed in all Australian states for the first time.
1975 – The Australian embassy in Saigon, South Vietnam, is closed and staff evacuated prior to the Fall of Saigon.

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April 26

1890 – A. B. "Banjo" Paterson's poem The Man from Snowy River is first published.
1916 – Writer Morris West, the author of The Devil's Advocate and The Shoes of the Fisherman, is born in St Kilda, Victoria.
1924 – An explosion on the SS Singapore, berthed in Port Adelaide, South Australia, kills 13 people.
1939 – Robert Menzies becomes Prime Minister of Australia, succeeding interim prime minister Sir Earle Page, who served for three weeks after the death of Joseph Lyons.
1970 – Queen Elizabeth II opens the National Carillon (pictured) in Canberra, a gift of the British government commemorating the establishment of the national capital.

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April 27

1804 – Explorer Matthew Flinders climbs Arthurs Seat, on the Mornington Peninsula in present-day Victoria.
1896 – Sir Henry Parkes (pictured), known as the "Father of Federation", dies in Annandale, New South Wales, at the age of 80.
1904 – Alfred Deakin resigns as Prime Minister of Australia due to the Protectionist Party's inability to pass legislation, and is succeeded by Chris Watson, the leader of the Labor Party.
1964 – Sir Garfield Barwick is appointed Chief Justice of Australia, succeeding Sir Owen Dixon.
1971 – Relics from the wreck of the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia are recovered off the coast of the Houtman Abrolhos in Western Australia.
2014 – Three former Country Liberal MPs join the Palmer United Party, becoming the party's first representatives in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.

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April 28

1656 – The Vergulde Draeck, a Dutch East India Company ship bound for the port of Batavia (now Jakarta), is wrecked south of Ledge Point in present-day Western Australia.
1949 – At the 43rd session of the International Olympic Committee, held in Rome, Italy, Melbourne is announced as the host of the 1956 Summer Olympics, defeating bids from Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, and Detroit.
1985 – Thirty-three members, including Senator Jo Vallentine (pictured in 2011), resign from the Nuclear Disarmament Party at the national conference held in Melbourne, claiming the party had been taken over by members of the Socialist Workers Party.
1996 – In a shooting spree, 35 people are murdered by Martin Bryant in the town of Port Arthur, Tasmania.
2009 – Businessman Richard Pratt, the former president of the Carlton Football Club, dies at his home in Kew, Victoria, at the age of 74.

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April 29

1770 – Captain James Cook arrives and names Botany Bay, aboard HM Bark Endeavour.
1910 – The Second Fisher Ministry is sworn in after the Labour Party defeats the sitting Commonwealth Liberal Party at the 1910 federal election, with Andrew Fisher (pictured) becoming Prime Minister of Australia for a second time.
1941 – A 7.2-magnitude earthquake, the strongest recorded in Australia, hits near the station of Meeberrie in the Murchison district of Western Australia.
1952 – The ANZUS Treaty, a military alliance between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, comes into force.
1954 – The Soviet Union's embassy in Canberra is closed as a result of the Petrov Affair.
1988 – As part of the Bicentenary, Queen Elizabeth II opens the National Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach, Queensland.

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April 30

1831 – Captain Collet Barker, the first to explore the area around present-day Adelaide, South Australia, is killed by Aborigines near Lake Alexandrina.
1915 – During the Gallipoli Campaign, HMAS AE2, a Royal Australian Navy submarine, is sunk by enemy shellfire in the Sea of Marmara in present-day Turkey.
1969 – Sir Paul Hasluck is appointed Governor-General of Australia, succeeding The Lord Casey.
1988 – World Expo 88 (pictured), part of the Australian Bicentenary, opens in Brisbane, Queensland.
2003 – Chinese-born stockbroker Rene Rivkin is found guilty of insider trading in relation to a purchase of 50,000 shares in Qantas, the national airline of Australia.
2006 – Miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell are found alive five days after a mine collapse in Beaconsfield, Tasmania.

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