1963 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1963 in Australia.

1963 in Australia
MonarchyElizabeth II
Governor-GeneralWilliam Sidney
Prime ministerRobert Menzies
Population10,950,379
Australian of the YearJohn Carew Eccles
ElectionsFederal, QLD

←

 1963
in
Australia

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Decades:
  • 1940s
  • 1950s
  • 1960s
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
See also:

Incumbents
Sir Robert Menzies

State Premiers

State Governors

Events
  • John Carew Eccles is announced as the Australian of the Year
  • The first stage of the Ord River Scheme is completed
  • British nuclear tests at Maralinga ceased
  • March – a special federal conference of the Australian Labor Party was called on the building of a North-west Cape communications facility which would support the US nuclear submarine capability. Despite the opposition of the Left faction, the Australian Labor Party National Executive voted narrowly to support the base.
  • 21 March – At the conference, Arthur Calwell and Gough Whitlam were photographed outside the venue at Kingston in Canberra. Although Calwell was the Leader of the Opposition, neither man was a member of the federal executive. Menzies jibed that the ALP was ruled by "36 faceless men".[1]
  • 14 August – Yolngu people petitioned the Australian House of Representatives with a bark petition after the government sold part of the Arnhem Land reserve on 13 March to a bauxite mining company. The government did not consult the traditional owners. When bauxite mining at Nhulunbuy near Yirrkala went ahead, the Yolngu took their case against the mining company to the Northern Territory Supreme Court. Despite their claim not being upheld in the 1971 court decision, non-indigenous Australians were alerted to the need for indigenous representation in such decisions, and a permanent parliamentary standing committee was created to scrutinise developments at Yirrkala, among other initiatives related to the indigenous people's moral right to their lands.
  • 1 November – Indigenous Australians could vote in federal elections on the same basis as other electors when an amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act became law. The November 1963 election was the first federal election for Indigenous people in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. Indigenous voting rights in other states had been in place since 1949.
  • 15 November - The Queensland Police Service raids the town of Mapoon, forcing residents at gunpoint to leave their houses and board a boat for relocation 200 km to the north.[2]
  • 30 November – Federal election: The Coalition government was returned with an increased majority of 10 seats over the Australian Labor Party. The election was for the House of Representatives only.

Science and technology

Arts and literature
Main article: 1963 in Australian literature

Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott is awarded the Miles Franklin Literary Award

Film

Short films produced in Australia included the following screened at the Venice Film Festival

  • Adam and Eve – Dusan Marek
  • Along the Sepik – Ian Dunlop
  • Russell Drysdale – Dahl Collings
  • Sidney Nolan – Dahl Collings
  • They Found a Cave – Andrew Steane – XV Int. Festival Films for Young People
  • William Dobell – Dahl Collings

Others:

  • The Queen Returns – The 1963 Australian visit of Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh was filmed by the Commonwealth Film Unit. Much of the 30-minute film is devoted to Canberra and its history as the Queen's visit coincided with Canberra's Jubilee Celebrations – 50 years since the founding of the city.

Television

Nine Network founded as the "National Television Network"

The panel show Beauty and the Beast premieres on the Seven Network.

Sport

Births

Deaths
  • 19 March – Lionel Hill, Premier of South Australia (born 1881)
  • 28 May – Margaret Preston, artist (born 1875)
  • 1 June – Walter Lee, Premier of Tasmania (born 1874)
  • 21 June – Harvey Sutton, track and field athlete (born 1882)
  • 10 October – Roy Cazaly, Australian Rules football player (born 1893)
  • 2 November – Daniel Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne (born 1864)

See also

References
  1. "Boilermaker Bill's Jakarta jottings; Boilermaker Bill McKell Labor Legend". Crikey. 10 September 2004. Archived from the original on 11 September 2005. Retrieved 3 April 2006.
  2. Tony Koch (2 November 2010). "Notorious bureaucrat who oppressed Aborigines dies unlamented". The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
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