The following lists events that happened during 1975 in Australia.
Incumbents
Monarch – Elizabeth II Governor-General – Sir John Kerr Prime Minister – Gough Whitlam (until 11 November), then Malcolm Fraser Deputy Prime Minister – Jim Cairns (until 2 July), then Frank Crean (until 11 November), then Doug Anthony Opposition Leader – Billy Snedden (until 21 March), then Malcolm Fraser (until 11 November), then Gough Whitlam Chief Justice – Sir Garfield Barwick
State and territory leaders Premier of New South Wales – Sir Robert Askin (until 3 January), then Tom Lewis Opposition Leader – Neville Wran Premier of Queensland – Joh Bjelke-Petersen Opposition Leader – Tom Burns Premier of South Australia – Don Dunstan Opposition Leader – Bruce Eastick (until 24 July), then David Tonkin Premier of Tasmania – Eric Reece (until 31 March), then Bill Neilson Opposition Leader – Max Bingham Premier of Victoria – Rupert Hamer Opposition Leader – Clyde Holding Premier of Western Australia – Sir Charles Court Opposition Leader – John Tonkin Majority Leader of the Northern Territory – Goff Letts
Governors and administrators Governor of New South Wales – Sir Roden Cutler Governor of Queensland – Sir Colin Hannah Governor of South Australia – Sir Mark Oliphant Governor of Tasmania – Sir Stanley Burbury Governor of Victoria – Sir Henry Winneke Governor of Western Australia – Sir Hughie Edwards (until 2 April), then Sir Wallace Kyle (from 24 November) Administrator of Norfolk Island – Edward Pickerd (until 31 August), then Charles Buffett Administrator of the Northern Territory – Jock Nelson (until 12 November) High Commissioner of Papua New Guinea – Tom Critchley (until 16 September)
Events January 1–31 January – Bushfires burn in various parts of New South Wales and Victoria. 1 January – In the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy, Northern Territory administrator Jock Nelson criticises Major General Alan Stretton's plan to recommend that emergency directors be given absolute authority in areas affected by disasters. Nelsen is supported by NT police commissioner William McLaren and Darwin mayor Harold Brennan. Davis Hughes, Kenneth McCaw, William Tyree, Oliver Gillard, William Shearer, William Philip, Thomas Webb, Theodor Bray, James Foots, Douglas Tooth and John Parker are awarded the title of knight bachelor in the 1975 New Year Honours. 2 January – As Darwin begins to be rebuilt following Cyclone Tracy, Anglican bishop Ian Shevill writes an opinion piece for The Sydney Morning Herald in which he questions the viability of rebuilding the city in an area that is likely to experience future natural disasters. 3 January – New South Wales premier Sir Robert Askin retires from politics and is succeeded by Tom Lewis. 5 January – The Tasman Bridge disaster occurs in Hobart when the Tasman Bridge is struck by the ore carrier MV Lake Illawarra. The bridge partially collapses onto the vessel, which sinks. Seven crew and five motorists are killed. 6 January – Prime Minister Gough Whitlam meets with his French counterpart Jacques Chirac in Paris, but confirms Australia would offer no apologies for its opposition to the 1971–74 French nuclear tests in the Pacific. 7 January – An Executive Council Minute authorising the raising of a "temporary loan" of US$4,000 million for 20 years is reversed before it becomes public knowledge. The move to bypass the Loans Council – to become known as the "Loans Affair" – had been initiated a month earlier by several labor ministers without consulting cabinet. 8–29 January – New South Wales experiences a three-week period of unreliable electricity supply after "militant" unionists impose bans on Electricity Commission employees maintaining power stations across the state during an ongoing pay dispute. The New South Wales government are forced to implement measures such as industrial zoning, a three-day week and a ban on electricity for non-essential industry in Sydney. The crisis is finally resolved at a stopwork meeting held at the Gosford Showground on 29 January. 13 January – Music conductor Sir Bernard Heinze is announced as 1974's Australian of the Year. 14 January – A major fire occurs in the Sydney CBD. For over five hours, fire brigades battle to control the blaze at Cost Less Imports in the four-storey Angus & Robertson building at 89 Castleagh Street. Thousands of people are evacuated and nearby shops are closed as the fire engulfs the building. Approximately 20 fire fighters are treated by ambulance officers after being overcome by smoke. 19 January – Sydney's 2JJ, the ABC's new youth station and the predecessor of Triple J, commences broadcasting. 20 January – A four-year-old boy is killed when he is hit by a motorcycle after a member of the Astro Daredevil team performs a stunt in the grounds of a hotel on the Gold Coast. The rider is ultimately acquitted of a charge of unlawfully killing the boy when a criminal court jury is directed in September 1976 to find him not guilty due to insufficient evidence. 26 January – The Workers Party is launched at a banquet at the Sydney Opera House where Lang Hancock is the guest of honour. The party is libertarian in principle, demanding less government intervention, as well as being virulently anti-Socialist. The name is subsequently changed to the Progress Party in 1977.
February 1 February – Having commenced broadcasting in December 1974, Australia's first FM radio station 2MBS is officially launched in Sydney by prime minister Gough Whitlam and premier Tom Lewis. 3 February – Two RAAF jets on a training flight off the New South Wales North Coast receive a distress signal, which lead them to two sailors stranded in a liferaft who had survived the sinking of their eight-metre sloop the night before. The sailors are eventually retrieved by a 15,000-tonne tanker that was located approximately 20 kilometres away. Eleven 12-year-old students and their 22-year-old teacher were injured when a gas line explodes in a science laboratory at Busby High School in the Sydney suburb of Green Valley. 7 February – An 11-year-old boy dies after being attacked by a shark at Point Sinclair in South Australia. During a statewide 24-hour strike by the Queensland Municipal Officers Association, Toowoomba City Council mayor Nell Robinson famously sits at a small table in the foyer of City Hall and handles all administrative duties, including the collection of fines and rates. 8 February – Off duty police officers are stationed at the home of Lang Hancock in the Perth suburb of Dalkeith with strict security checks being performed as he holds a 21st birthday party for his daughter Gina. 9 February – Lionel Murphy resigns to become a High Court judge (a move for which Garfield Barwick's appointment had set a precedent). 11 February – New South Wales Premier Tom Lewis decides to replace Lionel Murphy in the Senate with a non-Labor nominee. Cabinet unanimously endorses his decision with Albury's 77-year-old mayor, Cleaver Bunton selected, thus reducing Labor to 28 in the Senate. The move is seen as breaking constitutional convention and was against the advice of senior Liberals and most Premiers. 13 February – The federal minister for the Northern Territory Rex Patterson announces that the Darwin Relief Fund has approved immediate payments of $10,000 for the widows of Cyclone Tracy, while each child under 16 will receive $1000. Payments of $5,000 had also been approved to families where the wife had been killed in the cyclone and an additional $2,500 approved for each child killed. 24 February – On the final day of the three-day state Labor conference in Launceston, Tasmanian premier Eric Reece announces his resignation. The announcement came after a vote in which Labor ruled that people aged 65 or over could not be endorsed as an ALP candidate at the next state election, likely voiding Reece's eligibility. However, four hours later Reece announces he has changed his mind after delegates unanimously passed a vote of confidence in Reece and ask him to stay until the end of his term. 27 February – Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's failure to support Speaker Jim Cope in a ruling involving Clyde Cameron led to the Speaker's resignation and his replacement by Gordon Scholes. Cope had been having difficulty with the Opposition's increasing larrikinism.
March 12 March – Chargé d'affaires Graeme Lewis is killed when the Air Vietnam Douglas C-54 he was a passenger on crashed during a flight between Vientiane and Saigon, killing all on board. 13 March – Four American businessmen and their Australian pilot are killed instantly when the Cessna 310 they were onboard crashed on Fitzroy Station in the Northern Territory, between Katherine and Kununurra. All four businessmen were representatives of subsidiaries of the Standard Oil Company. 14 March – ABC Radio producer Peter Whitlock who had been working in Thailand becomes trapped in the South Vietnamese city of Buôn Ma Thuột when it comes under heavy attack from communist forces. 16 March – A young child is stabbed twice in the back by a man as she played in a park in the Sydney suburb of Newtown. She is taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a stable condition. 18 March – The Victorian Government appoints the Beach Board of Inquiry to report on allegations of misconduct against the police force. Tasmanian premier Eric Reece again announces his resignation. The announcement comes after Reece initially announced his resignation at the state Labor conference in Launceston in February before changing his mind four hours later. Reece now confirms he will leave the role at the end of March to be succeeded by Bill Neilson. It's reported 47 women are to lose their jobs at Thomas Nationwide Transport as the company plans to outsource its computer work to Singapore. Chairman of TNT Sir Peter Abeles defends the move and claims the company had attempted to find new jobs for the women but none of them had accepted any new positions. The Department of Foreign Affairs asks the ambassador of Australia to North Vietnam David Wilson to make official enquires about missing ABC Radio producer Peter Whitlock who is believed to be under house arrest in Buôn Ma Thuột in South Vietnam, which was overrun by Viet Cong troops earlier in the month. Federal transport minister Charles Jones confirms Concorde will be allowed into Australia for at least three proving flights in either July or August. 19 March – 20-year-old bank teller William Rice is shot dead during an armed robbery at an ANZ Bank branch in the Sydney suburb of Bondi. In April 1977, Gary Findlay pleads guilty to murdering Rice and to also having wounded 72-year-old Thomas Edward Douglas Watson with intent to murder two days earlier. Findlay is sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment. Findlay was on parole when the offences were committed, having been sentenced in 1970 to 10 years in jail on each of three counts of armed robbery but was released on parole in November 1973. 20 March – Deputy prime minister Jim Cairns, Minister for Agriculture Ken Wriedt and Iranian government ministers jointly announce that Australia and Iran had negotiated to strengthen economic ties, with Australia agreeing to sell uranium to Iran "under favourable conditions" while Iran agrees to joint ventures in mining and agriculture Charmain Brent confirms she is filing for divorce from her husband Ronald Biggs. Brent has remained in Australia with their two sons while Biggs is now living in Brazil with his girlfriend and their seven-month-old son. 21 March – The 1975 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill occurs which sees Malcolm Fraser replace Billy Snedden as the leader of the Liberal Party, winning the party room ballot 37:27. Phillip Lynch retains the deputy leadership.