1940 in Australia

Incumbents

• Monarch – George VI
• Governor-General – Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Baron Gowrie
• Prime Minister – Robert Menzies
• Chief Justice – Sir John Latham

State Governors

• Governor of New South Wales – John Loder, 2nd Baron Wakehurst
• Governor of Queensland – Sir Leslie Orme Wilson
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Malcolm Barclay-Harvey
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir Ernest Clark
• Governor of Victoria – Sir Winston Dugan
• Governor of Western Australia – ''none appointed''

Events

• 28 February – The Australian 7th Division is formed.
• 16 March – A state election is held in Victoria. The Country Party led by Albert Dunstan is returned to government.
• 14 June – The Volunteer Defence Corps is formed, a militia force based on the British Home Guard.
• 6 July – The Story Bridge is opened in Brisbane.
• 19 July – The Australian cruiser takes part in the sinking of the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni
• 1 August – The first of sixty s,, is launched in Sydney.
• 13 August – An RAAF Lockheed Hudson crashes near Canberra, killing three members of Cabinet and the Chief of the General Staff.
• 3 September – The heavy cruiser takes part in Operation Menace off Dakar.
• 6 September – The British prison ship docks in Sydney, carrying refugees and prisoners of war considered a danger to British security, for internment in Hay and Tatura.
• 21 September – The 1940 federal election results in a hung parliament, with Prime Minister Robert Menzies remaining in office at the head of a minority government.
• 16 October – Country Party leader Archie Cameron resigns and is succeeded by Arthur Fadden as acting leader.
• 26 October – Double-decker buses replace the last cable trams in Melbourne.

Arts and literature

• Max Meldrum wins the Archibald Prize with his portrait of Dr J Forbes McKenzieThe Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead is published.The Magic Basket a musical play for children by Alfred Wheeler is published

Film

Sport

• New South Wales wins the Sheffield Shield
• Eastern Suburbs win the 1940 NSWRFL season, defeating Canterbury-Bankstown 24–14. Western Suburbs finish in last place, claiming the wooden spoon.

Births

• 5 January – Athol Guy, musician
• 19 January – Paul Calvert, Liberal Senator for Tasmania
• 17 February – Marilyn Jones, ballet dancer
• 22 February – Neil Brown, politician
• 24 February – Ian Shelton, Australian rules football player
• 27 February – Bill Hunter, actor
• 1 March – Robin Gray, Premier of Tasmania
• 8 March – Don Barker, actor
• 19 March – Andrew Taylor, poet
• 20 March – Paul Neville, politician
• 12 April – Jack Hibberd, playwright
• 16 April – Marion Halligan, writer
• 24 April – Trevor Kent, actor
• 26 April – Ian Geoghegan, race car driver
• 15 June – Ken Fletcher, tennis player
• 17 June – Alan Murray, Australian golfer
• 23 June – Diana Trask, country music singer
• 25 June – Judy Amoore, athlete
• 29 June – Ken Done, artist
• 10 July – Keith Stackpole, cricketer
• 3 August – Judith Troeth, Liberal Senator for Victoria
• 16 August – Bruce Beresford, film director
• 18 August – Jan Owen, poet
• 31 August – Jack Thompson, actor
• 8 September – Robin Miller, aviator and nurse
• 9 September – Hugh Morgan, businessman
• 13 September – Kerry Stokes, chairman of the Seven Network
• 15 September – Allan Andrews, NSW politician
• 21 September – John Pochee, jazz musician
• 3 October – Diana Warnock, radio broadcaster and politician
• 4 October – Ian Kiernan, yachtsman and environmentalist, 1994 Australian of the Year
• 5 October – Bob Cowper, cricketer
• 15 October – Peter C. Doherty, medical researcher, Nobel Prize recipient
• 19 October – Ian Causley, politician
• 21 October – Peter Arnison, Governor of Queensland
• 1 November – John Bell, actor and theatre director
• 4 November – John Sanderson, Governor of Western Australia
• 12 November – John Dowd, NSW politician
• 9 December – Ron Boswell, politician
• 19 December – Jane Mathews, judge

Deaths

• 3 February – John Henry Michell, mathematician
• 5 February – Bill Wilks, New South Wales politician
• 8 March – Michael Kelly, Catholic archbishop
• 16 April – Herbert James Carter, entomologist
• 20 April – Sir Ernest Gaunt, naval admiral
• 22 June – Monty Noble, cricketer
• 23 June – Hugh Denis Macrossan, Queensland politician and judge
• 6 July – Michael O'Connor, Western Australian politician
• 22 July – Sir George Fuller, 22nd Premier of New South Wales
• 27 July – Bluey Wilkinson, speedway rider
• 30 July
• * Arthur Merric Boyd, painter
• * Archibald Watson, surgeon and professor of anatomy
• 13 August
• * James Fairbairn, Victorian politician
• * Henry Gullett, Victorian politician
• * Geoffrey Street, Victorian politician
• * Sir Brudenell White, 10th Chief of the General Staff
• 9 September – Percy Abbott, New South Wales politician
• 11 September – Issy Smith, soldier and Victoria Cross recipient
• 22 September – Robert Blackwood, New South Wales politician
• 2 October – Albert Green, Western Australian politician
• 14 October – Helen de Guerry Simpson, novelist
• 25 October – Thomas Waddell, 15th Premier of New South Wales
• 31 October
• * Frank Anstey, Victorian politician
• * John Keating, Tasmanian politician
• 2 November – Colin Rankin, Queensland politician and soldier
• 3 November – James Fowler, Western Australian politician
• 23 November – Sir Stanley Argyle, 32nd Premier of Victoria
• 11 December – Belle Golding, feminist, suffragist and labour activist
• 20 December – Tom Foster, composer