1908 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1908 in Australia.

Incumbents

10 March – Australians Douglas Mawson and Edgeworth David accompanied by Ernest Shackleton and others are the first people to scale Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
30 March – Commonwealth Quarantine service came into operation and took over quarantine stations in every state.
20 April – 44 are killed and 400 injured in the Sunshine train disaster.
7 May – The coat of arms of Australia are granted Royal Assent.
August – Boys in Australia first participated in the scouting movement, within a year of scouting starting in England
20 August – The Great White Fleet, the first visit by the U.S. Navy to Australia, arrives in Sydney.
8 October – The capital of Australia is chosen, settling a feud between rivals Melbourne and Sydney.
13 November – The Australian Labor Party withdraws its support for the minority government of Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, forcing his replacement with Andrew Fisher.
18 November – The Victorian government passes the Adult Suffrage Bill 1908, granting female suffrage for the first time.
15 December – The Invalid and Old Age Pensions Act is passed, which sets up a national aged pension scheme
29 December – A general election is held in Victoria. The government of Sir Thomas Bent is returned to power.

1 January – The Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology formally commences operation.
3 February – first trans-Tasman radio transmission

2 February – The Limelight Department of the Salvation Army films Grand Memorial Service, a film of the funeral of Major Kenneth McLeod, the Director of the Bayswater Boys' Home. The funeral was held at the Kew Cemetery in Melbourne.

31 January – Victoria wins the 1907–08 Sheffield Shield.
11 February – Australia regains The Ashes with a 308 run victory over England.
20 April – The first New South Wales Rugby League premiership begins in Sydney.
July - The 1908 Interstate rugby league series sees the first ever matches between New South Wales and Queensland
29 August – South Sydney win the grand final to become the first NSWRFL premiers
3 November – Lord Nolan wins the Melbourne Cup.
At the 1908 Summer Olympics held in London, Australia forms a team with New Zealand and competes as Australasia. They win a gold medal for rugby football, a silver medal for middleweight boxing, and in swimming a silver medal for men's 400-metre freestyle and bronze medal for men's 1500 metre freestyle – both won by Frank Beaurepaire.
Australia's national rugby league team sets sail for England on the 1908–09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain.