1913 in Australia

Incumbents

• Monarch – George V
• Governor-General – Thomas Denman, 3rd Baron Denman
• Prime Minister – Andrew Fisher, then Joseph Cook
• Chief Justice – Samuel Griffith

State premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – James McGowen, then William Holman
• Premier of Queensland – Digby Denham
• Premier of South Australia – Archibald Peake
• Premier of Tasmania – Albert Solomon
• Premier of Victoria – William Watt, then George Elmslie
• Premier of Western Australia – John Scaddan

State governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Frederic Thesiger, 3rd Baron Chelmsford, then Gerald Strickland
• Governor of Queensland – William MacGregor
• Governor of South Australia – Day Bosanquet
• Governor of Tasmania – Harry Barron, then William Ellison-Macartney
• Governor of Victoria – John Fuller
• Governor of Western Australia – Gerald Strickland, then Harry Barron

Events

• 2 January — Australian philately proper begins in early 1913 with the Kangaroo and Map series of stamps, featuring a kangaroo standing on a map of Australia, and inscribed "AUSTRALIA POSTAGE".
• 12 March — Canberra is named by Gertrude Denman
• 1 May — The first national banknotes were introduced in denominations of 10 shillings, and 1, 5, and 10 pounds.
• 31 May — 1913 Australian referendum contained six questions: Trade and Commerce, Corporations, Industrial Matters, Trusts, Monopolies, Railway Disputes. None of these were carried.
• 21 June — HMAS Australia, commissioned at Portsmouth and sailed to Australia to become the Royal Australian Navy flagship.
• 1 to 31 August — With an average rainfall of, this is the driest area-averaged month over Queensland since at least 1900.
• Royal Commission appointed to inquire into certain charges against Henry Chinn; Chinn was supervising engineer for the transcontinental railway in Western Australia.
• Royal Commission on Northern Territory railways and ports
• Royal Commission on powellised timber
• Golden Fleece Company acquired by Caltex in 1981
• The Workers' Educational Association founded; it is Australia's largest non-government adult community education organisation.
• From 1859 until 1913, a squadron of the Royal Navy was maintained in Australian waters.
• Norfolk Island Act 1913 meant that Norfolk Island became an Australia Territory under the authority of the Australian Commonwealth.

Science and technology

• Amalgamation took place between Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company and the Australian Wireless Company forming AWA.
• The first totalisator, an entirely mechanical system invented by the Australian George Julius of Julius Poole & Gibson, was installed at Ellerslie Racecourse in New Zealand.

Film

• Moondyne
• Australia Calls, Raymond Longford's last film for Cozens Spencer was released.
• Frank Hurley's actuality film, The Home of the Blizzard, about the Douglas Mawson expedition to Antarctica, was released.

Sport

• The 1913 VFL Premiership was won by Fitzroy
• The 1913 NSWRFL Premiership is won by Eastern Suburbs for the third year in a row.Posinatus wins the Melbourne Cup
• South Australia wins the 1912–13 Sheffield Shield
• The Australian cricket team toured the United States and Canada in June to August, playing five matches, four in Philadelphia and one in Toronto.

Births

• 24 January – Ray Stehr, rugby league footballer
• 11 February – Clyde Cameron, Whitlam government minister
• 20 February – Dame Mary Durack, author and historian
• 5 March – Darby Munro, jockey
• 19 March – Smoky Dawson, country music performer
• 3 April – William Refshauge, soldier and public health administrator
• 4 April – Dave Brown, rugby league footballer
• 20 June – David McNicol, public servant and diplomat
• 2 August – Nancy Phelan, writer
• 14 August – Hector Crawford, Australian television producer
• 6 September – Ken Kennedy, speed skater and ice hockey player
• 2 October – Dame Roma Mitchell, 31st Governor of South Australia
• 30 October – Edgar Britt, jockey
• 30 December – Elyne Mitchell, author

Deaths

• 3 January – Garnet Walch, writer, journalist and publisher
• 4 February – James Styles, Victorian politician
• 18 February – George Lewis Becke, trader and writer
• 4 June – Ambrose Dyson, illustrator and political cartoonist
• 6 July – J. C. Williamson, actor
• 20 July – Joseph Vardon, South Australian politician and printer
• 3 August – William Lyne, 13th Premier of New South Wales
• 25 August – William Knox, Victorian politician and businessman
• 12 November – Sir John George Davies, Tasmanian politician, newspaper proprietor and cricketer
• 25 November – Charlie Frazer – Western Australian politician