1919 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1919 in Australia.

Incumbents

Monarch – George V
Governor-General – Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson
Prime Minister – Billy Hughes
Chief Justice – Samuel Griffith then Adrian Knox

State premiers

Premier of New South Wales – William Holman
Premier of Queensland – T. J. Ryan, then Ted Theodore
Premier of South Australia – Archibald Peake
Premier of Tasmania – Walter Lee
Premier of Victoria – Harry Lawson
Premier of Western Australia – Sir Henry Lefroy, then Sir Hal Colebatch, then James Mitchell

State governors

Events

8 January – Strike leader Paul Freeman was arrested outside of Dobbyn, Queensland, sparking a chain of events that would lead to his deportation.
1 March – The Potts, believed to be the world's longest running cartoon strip drawn by the same artist, is first published in The Sun News-Pictorial.
24 March – one of the most notable incidents of the Red Flag Riots occurred in Brisbane, Queensland, when a crowd of returned servicemen clashed with police. The incident had been sparked the previous day by a socialist demonstration against the continued operation of the War Precautions Act, which had angered many of the returned soldiers.
1 June – A mutiny breaks out on the Royal Australian Navy battlecruiser shortly after it arrives in Fremantle, Western Australia.
28 June – The Treaty of Versailles is signed in France, bringing Australia's involvement in World War I to an end.
18 October – Sir Adrian Knox is appointed Chief Justice of the High Court.
28 October – The Treaty of Peace Act 1919 receives Royal Assent, confirming Australia's membership as a sovereign nation in the new League of Nations, and indicating Australia's independence from the United Kingdom.
10 December – Keith and Ross Smith, piloting a Vickers Vimy, reach Darwin at the end of the first England to Australia flight.
19 December – A federal election is held. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Billy Hughes defeats the Australian Labor Party of Frank Tudor.
24 December – The Electrical Trades Union of Australia is federally registered under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1904.
The worldwide Spanish flu epidemic continues, eventually claiming almost 12,000 lives in Australia.
At the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 Australian delegates succeed in excluding recognition of the principle of racial equality in the League of Nations Covenant.

Arts and literature

10 September – J. F. Archibald, founding editor of The Bulletin dies, bequeathing money which would be used to award the Archibald Prize for portraiture.
Elioth Gruner wins the Wynne Prize for his work, Spring Frost.

Film

4 October – The Sentimental Bloke premieres in Melbourne.

Sport

Balmain win the 1919 NSWRFL Premiership
11 November – Artilleryman wins the Melbourne Cup
January 1919 – A.R.F. Kingscote wins the Australian Open

Births

6 January – Geoffrey Bingham, author and Anglican minister
3 February – Bill Alley, cricketer
16 February – Keith Carmody, cricketer
22 February – Mary Maguire, actress
1 March – Reg Sprigg, geologist
20 March - Pat Norton, backstroke swimmer
25 March – Arthur Wade, NSW politician
28 March – Tom Brooks, cricketer
10 April – Vernon Wilcox, politician
1 May – Lance Barnard, Deputy Prime Minister
15 May – Tom Drake-Brockman, politician
22 May – Peter Howson, politician
28 May – Olga Masters, writer
30 May – Jim Miller, Australian rules footballer
8 June – Bill Newton, Second World War VC recipient
24 June – Fabian McCarthy, rugby union footballer
6 July – Edward Kenna, Second World War VC recipient
15 July – Harcourt Dowsley, sportsman
14 September – Gil Langley, cricketer
6 October – Abe Saffron, Sydney crime figure
7 October – Zelman Cowen, Governor General of Australia
5 November – Thomas O'Dwyer, cricketer
19 November – Margaret Whitlam, wife of Gough Whitlam
28 November – Keith Miller, pilot and sportsman
7 December – Wilfred Arthur, World War II fighter ace
10 December – Jean Lee, last woman executed in Australia
17 December – Geraldine Halls, mystery novelist
29 December – Malcolm Mackay, politician

Deaths

9 January – Robert Harper, Victorian politician
4 February – Richard Bowyer Smith, inventor
20 March – Sir Edward Charles Stirling, anthropologist
11 May – Simon Fraser, Australian rules footballer, rower and ice hockey player
8 June – Sir Henry Briggs, Western Australian politician
21 June – Sir Thomas à Beckett, solicitor and judge
25 July – Sir Samuel McCaughey, New South Wales politician, pastoralist and philanthropist
30 July – Sir Simon Fraser, Victorian politician, pastoralist and businessman
4 August – Dave Gregory, cricketer
10 September – J. F. Archibald, publisher and journalist
12 September – Sir John Mark Davies, Victorian politician
24 September – Frank Laver, cricketer and baseball player
29 September – Edward Pulsford, New South Wales politician
7 October – Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia
13 October – Henry Saunders, Western Australian politician
25 October – William Kidston, 17th Premier of Queensland
2 November – Mephan Ferguson, manufacturer
20 December – Sir Philip Fysh, 12th Premier of Tasmania
25 December – Sir Edwin Thomas Smith, South Australian politician, brewer and businessman