2020 in Oceania


The following events happened in Oceania in the year 2020.

Sovereign states

Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1901 and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Ashmore and Cartier Islands

Ashmore and Cartier Islands, located in the Indian Ocean, is an uninhabited territory of Australia; administered from Canberra by the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport.

Christmas Island

Christmas Island, located in the Indian Ocean, is a non-self governing territory of Australia; administered from Canberra by the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Cocos (Keeling) Islands, located in the Indian Ocean, is a non-self governing territory of Australia; administered from Canberra by the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport.

Coral Sea Islands

The Coral Sea Islands is a territory of Australia administered from Canberra by the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts, and Sport.

Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island is a self-governing territory of Australia; administered from Canberra by the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts, and Sport.

East Timor / Timor-Leste

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste became independent from Portugal in 1975 and from Indonesia in 2002.

Fiji

The Republic of Fiji gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1970 and became a republic in 1987.

Kiribati

The Republic of Kiribati is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations that became independent in 1979.

Marshall Islands

The Republic of the Marshall Islands is an associated state of the United States.

Micronesia

The Federated States of Micronesia is an independent republic and an associated state of the United States.

Nauru

The Republic of Nauru gained its independence in 1969 and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Palau

The Republic of Palau was established in 1979 and it became an associated state of the United States in 1994.

Papua New Guinea

The Independent State of Papua New Guinea declared its independence from Australia in 1975 and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Realm of New Zealand

The Realm of New Zealand consists of the sovereign state of New Zealand, the associated states of the Cook Islands and Niue, and the dependent territory of Tokelau. It also includes the Antarctica territorial claim of the Ross Dependency.

New Zealand

New Zealand signed the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1947 and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Cook Islands

The Cook Islands is a self-governing country in free association with New Zealand.

Niue

Niue is a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand.

Tokelau

Tokelau is a self-administering dependent territory of New Zealand.

Samoa

The Independent State of Samoa became independent from New Zealand in 1962.

Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands became independent from the United Kingdom in 1978 and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Tonga

The Kingdom of Tonga became independent from British protection in 1970 and became a constitutional monarchy in 2010.

Tuvalu

Tuvalu became independent from the United Kingdom in 1978 and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Vanuatu

The Republic of Vanuatu became independent from France and the United Kingdom in 1980 and is a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.

Dependencies

British Overseas Territories

The British Overseas Territories are territories that have not been granted independence. Most are self-governing and are lightly populated.
  • Chief of state: Queen Elizabeth II

Pitcairn Islands

The Pitcairn Islands are the only British Overseas Territory located in the Pacific Ocean.

Chile

Chile declared its independence from Spain on September 18, 1810.

Insular Chile

France

French colonization of Oceania began in 1834 when Catholic missionaries arrived in Tahiti.

French Polynesia

French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity of France since 2003, though it is often referred to as an overseas country due the to its degree of autonomy.

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France since 1998.

Wallis and Futuna

Wallis and Futuna is an overseas collectivity of France since 2003.

United States

The United States expansion into the Pacific beginning with Baker Island and Howland Island in 1857.

American Samoa

American Samoa is an unincorporated unorganized territory of the U.S.

Guam

Guam is an unincorporated organized territory of the U.S.

Hawaii

Hawaii became a state of the United States on August 21, 1959. It consists of eight major islands and 129 smaller islands.

Northern Mariana Islands

Northern Mariana Islands is a commonwealth in political union with and under the sovereignty of the United States.

United States Minor Outlying Islands

The United States Minor Outlying Islands are small, isolated islands or atolls in the Pacific Ocean. Most are uninhabited, although they may be administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as National Wildlife Refuges. They are unincorporated territories of the U.S.

Events

January

February

  • February 3
  • *The tourism industry in Queensland, Australia, is hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • *A state of emergency is declared in Milford Sound, New Zealand, as rain and flooding hit the region.
  • February 6 – Waitangi Day in New Zealand and Niue
  • February 17 – Washington's Birthday, United States and territories
  • February 20 – Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces that a royal commission will look into the bushfires that devastated the country last summer. 18 million hectares burned, 28 people died, and 3,000 homes were destroyed.
  • February 28
  • *New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern state visit to Fiji.
  • * The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand is confirmed. They had recently returned from Iran via Bali.

March

April

  • April 1 – With between 150 and 200 cases of COVID-19, healthy sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt disembark to be quarantined in hotels on Guam. Infected crew members will stay on Naval Base Guam. About 10% of the crew are required to remain on the ship nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
  • April 2 – The 5,000 crew members of the USS Roosevelt cheered Captain Brett Crozier after he was relieved of duty for speaking up about the coronavirus outbreak on the ship. 60,000 people had signed a petition from Change.org asking for his reinstatement.
  • April 3
  • *Easter Island reports two cases of COVID-19. The 3,000 inhabitants of the island are nearly 100% dependent upon tourism which has been shut off. There is a daily curfew from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. and people fear they may soon be forced to beg for food.
  • *The Solomon Islands says dozens of people could be lost at sea as Cyclone Harold hits the islands.
  • April 4
  • *Vanuatu is on alert for Cyclone Harold.
  • *COVID-19
  • **Fiji announces a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases from seven to twelve.
  • **Guam has two more COVID-19 deaths and two more positive tests, bringing the total number of cases to 84.
  • **New Caledonia president Thierry Santa moves into self-isolation after a member of her crisis management team tested positive.
  • **New Zealand reports 52 new confirmed infections, bringing the total to 950.
  • **Seventy-eight New Zealanders remain on 12 cruise ships because of COVID-19-related travel restrictions around the world.
  • April 7 – The High Court of Australia unanimously quashes Cardinal George Pell convictions and substitutes verdicts of acquittal.
  • April 8 – National Health Day, Kiribati
  • April 10 – Good Friday
  • April 13
  • *Easter Monday
  • *Since March 23, 561 Fijians have been repatriated and 1,157 visitors to Fiji have been evacuated.
  • April 14 – A week after Tropical Cyclone Harold, a Category 5 superstorm, 35% of the population of Vanuatu is homeless. Three people died, but the death toll is expected to rise. 27 people died in the Solomon Islands and one died in Fiji. No deaths were reported in Tonga, but 400 homes were destroyed.
  • April 19 – Twenty-two new cases of COVID-19 infections in Taiwan are reported in sailors who recently visited Palau. Palau has not had any reported cases.
  • April 20
  • *The U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command announces that after 16 years it is ending its ending the continuous bomber presence mission in Guam in favor of forward-deploying bombers to the Indo-Pacific. The B-1B Lancer, B-52, and B-2 Spirit used to rotate back and forth to Andersen Air Force Base, but the B-1 was phased out in 2018. On April 18, B-1s flew from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, to Misawa Air Base, Japan.
  • *French Polynesian president Edouard Fritch says he is against across-the-board pay cuts for ministers and assembly members as suggested by the opposition.
  • *Second round of 2020 Kiribati parliamentary election.
  • April 25
  • *Anzac Day: Most public celebrations cancelled, but private memorials are held.
  • *Former Tonga Prime Minister Sialeʻataongo Tuʻivakanō receives a two-year suspended sentence, and a $US1,700 fine for passport, perjury, and firearm offenses.
  • *Trade unions in French Polynesia reject the government's COVID-19 pandemic relief package.
  • April 28 – St. Peter Chanel Day, Wallis and Fortuna. Chanel is the Catholic patron saint of Oceania, buried on Fortuna Island.

May

June

July

  • July 1 – Flights from Canberra to Wellington resume.
  • July 2 – Discovery Day, Pitcairn Islands
  • July 3 – Fishermen's Holiday, Marshall Islands
  • July 4 – COVID-19 pandemic: 3,000 people in nine residential towers in Melbourne, Australia are confined to their buildings in the country's strictest lockdown as new infections rise in the area.
  • July 4 – Independence Day, United States
  • July 7
  • *COVID-19 pandemic
  • **Fourteen flight attendants from Hawaiian Airlines test positive for coronavirus and go into quarantine.
  • **Authorities in New Zealand say they will press charges against a 32-year-old coronavirus patient who escaped quarantine in Auckland and went shopping at a supermarket.
  • July 8
  • *Heilala Festival Week, Tonga
  • *A new study from Stanford University shows that people from four island sites in French Polynesia bore DNA indicative of interbreeding with South Americans most closely related to present-day indigenous Colombians at around 1200 AD. People from Chile's Rapa Nui also had South American ancestry.
  • July 9
  • *Constitution Day, Palau
  • *Australia ends its extradition treaty with Hong Kong.
  • July 10 – Gospel Day, Kiribati
  • July 12 – Independence Day, Kiribati
  • July 14 – Bastille Day
  • July 17 – A 7.0Mw earthquake with an epicenter in Morobe Patrol Post, New Guinea, is recorded. Only minor damages are reported.
  • July 21 – Liberation Day, Guam
  • July 23 – Remembrance Day, Papua New Guinea
  • July 24 – Children's Day, Vanuatu
  • July 29 – Territory Day, Wallis and Futuna
  • July 30 – Independence Day, Vanuatu

August

September

  • September 4
  • *Labor Day, Marshall Islands
  • *Palau invites the United States to construct land bases, port facilities, and airfields on its territory.
  • September 7 – Labor Day, Hawaii and U.S. territories
  • September 8 – Members of the Colorado cult "Love has Won Cult” are deported after complaints of cultural appropriation.
  • September 16 – Independence Day, Papua New Guinea
  • September 18 – Independence Day, Chile
  • September 20 – Two men who were working to clear unexploded World War II bombs are killed in an explosion in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
  • September 23 – Ishmael Toroama, a former rebel leader, is elected president of Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.
  • September 24 – New Caledonia Day
  • September 25
  • *Manit Day, Marshall Islands
  • *Youth Day, Nauru

October

November

December

  • December 4 – Gospel Day, Marshall Islands
  • December 8 – Santa Marian Kamalen, Guam
  • December 10
  • *Human Rights and Peace Day, Kiribati
  • *A new report by the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University warns that the Marshall Islands and other island countries may disappear by mid-century due to climate change.
  • December 17
  • *Fiji imposes a curfew in anticipation of Cyclone Yasa, a Category 5 storm that is expected to make landall on December 18.
  • *COVID-19 pandemic: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says that her country has contracts to buy more vaccine doses than are needed and will share the excess with neighbors.
  • December 20
  • *The U.S. House of Representatives passes legislation to restore Medicaid to Marshall Islanders in the United States.
  • *COVID-19 pandemic: Samoa, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Palau, Tuvalu, and Nauru plus North Korea and Turkmenistan in Asia are the only countries that have no reported cases of the virus.
  • December 21 – Kīlauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island erupts.
  • December 22 – Two Russian Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers and four Chinese H-6K bombers fly over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.
  • December 28 – COVID-19 pandemic: The Associated Press reports that several island countries are facing food shortages, generally related to border closings.

Scheduled

Elections

National and territorial holidays

September to December

Culture

Television

The long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours continues filming by limiting studio access and practicing social distancing. As of April 21, the country reported 6,547 cases of infection and 67 deaths related to COVID-19.

Sports

By sport

;Association football / soccer
;Football
;Tennis

By date

Deaths

January to March

April to June

July to September

October to December

Television