Australia in 1964

Events

• 29 January – The Royal Australian Air Force takes delivery of its first two Mirage fighter jets
• 3 February – The first double-decker carriages begin trial runs on the Sydney rail network
• 4 February – Cyclone Dora strikes north west Queensland
• 10 February – Melbourne-Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne and the destroyer HMAS Voyager collide, with the loss of 82 lives
• March – There is a split in the Communist Party of Australia and the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) is formed
• April – The Menzies government refuses to ratify the International Labor Organisation convention on equal pay for women.
• April – The editors of Sydney satirical Oz magazine – Richard Neville, Richard Walsh and Martin Sharp – are charged with printing an obscene publication.
• 8 April – The Jackson-Moonie-Brisbane oil pipeline opens.
• 24 April – Melbourne woman Judy Hanrahan becomes the first female teller appointed by the Bank of NSW since WWII.
• 27 April Sir Garfield Barwick resigns as Minister for External Affairs to take up his appointment as the new Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia.
• June – Macquarie University is founded.
• 6 July – Warrant Officer Class 2, Kevin Conway of the Australian Army Training Team died; he was Australia's first Vietnam War battle casualty.
• 15 July – The first edition of The Australian is published in Canberra. It is Australia's first national daily newspaper, published by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited.
• 17 July – Donald Campbell sets new land speed record of 429 miles per hour in his jet-propelled car "Bluebird" at Lake Eyre, South Australia.
• August – The Tasman Bridge across the Derwent River opens in Hobart.
• 26 October – Notorious Perth serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke is executed at Fremantle Prison; he is the last person to be hanged in Western Australia.
• 10 November – Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces the reintroduction of National Service.
• 10 December – The Queensland government declares a state of emergency in an attempt to end the Mount Isa Mines dispute.
• 16 December – Melbourne's La Trobe University is founded.
• 31 December – Donald Campbell sets new water speed record of 276 miles per hour at Dumbleyung Lake, Western Australia.
• The Beatles tour Australia.
• Sir Percy Spender is appointed President of the International Court of Justice.
• Swimmer Dawn Fraser is named Australian of the Year