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Years in Australia:	2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Centuries:	20th Century · 21st century · 22nd century
Decades:	1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years:	2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Contents 1 Incumbents 2 Events 2.1 January 2.2 February 2.3 March 2.4 April 2.5 May 2.6 June 2.7 July 2.8 August 2.9 September 2.10 October 2.11 November 2.12 December 2.13 Non-specific Dates 3 Arts and literature 4 Film 5 Television 6 Sport 7 Births 8 Deaths

[edit] Incumbents

• Queen of Australia - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Governor General - Michael Jeffery
• Prime Minister - John Howard
• Premier of New South Wales - Morris Iemma
• Premier of South Australia - Mike Rann
• Premier of Queensland - Peter Beattie
• Premier of Tasmania - Paul Lennon
• Premier of Western Australia - Geoff Gallop, then Alan Carpenter
• Premier of Victoria - Steve Bracks
• Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory - Jon Stanhope
• Chief Minister of the Northern Territory - Clare Martin

[edit] Events

[edit] January

• January 1 - Bushfires grip parts of the Central Coast and the Riverina in New South Wales and the Wimmera in Victoria after one of the hottest New Years Days on record.
• January 2 - A skydiving plane crash near Willowbank in Queensland claims five lives.
• January 9 - Communities in the Pilbara region of Western Australia are evacuated due to Tropical Cyclone Clare.
• January 10 - Six Australians die when a bus flips over in Egypt.
• January 16 - Premier of Western Australia Geoff Gallop resigns, sighting clinical depression as the reason.
• January 22-January 29 - Bushfires affect several towns in Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia & Tasmania. Three volunteer firefighters are killed.
• January 24 - Alan Carpenter replaces Gallop as Premier of Western Australia

[edit] February

• February 18 - Six teenagers are killed and another is injured in a hit and run accident in Cardross, Victoria, near Mildura.

[edit] March

• March 18 - South Australia & Tasmania vote in parliamentary state elections. Both ALP governments are re-elected.
• March 20 - Tropical Cyclone Larry strikes Innisfail & Cairns in Far North Queensland. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, no-one is killed.
• March 27 - The controversial WorkChoices industrial relations reforms come into effect.

[edit] April

• April 7 - John Landy retires as Governor of Victoria, and is succeeded by David de Kretser.
• April 18 - More than 19 AFP officers are injured as the capital of the Solomon Islands, Honiara, erupts into rioting. In response to this, the Prime Minister of Australia orders an Army deployment of 220 troops.
• April 21 - Private Jacob Kovco becomes the first casualty of Australia's involvement in the Iraq campaign. The reason given initially was that his gun had accidentally discharged while cleaning his gun, although this was later retracted. It was later stated that he had accidentally shot himself while skylarking with his pistol.
• April 25 - A small earthquake causes a rock fall in a gold mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania. Eleven miners come out, but three are left inside. One of them is found dead on April 28. The other two are freed on May 9.
• April 26 - The body of Bosnian civilian contractor Juso Sinanovic is taken to Australia instead of the body of Private Kovco. Private Kovco's body later arrived in Australia on April 29.

[edit] May

• May 16 - Bill Stefaniak topples Brendan Smyth as leader of the ACT Liberal Party.
• May 25 - Australian troops are redeployed to East Timor after fresh outbreaks of violence.

[edit] June

• June 2 - The AU$1.4 billion sale of the Myer department store chain to Newbridge Capital & the Myer family is completed.

[edit] July

• July 9 - Revelations are published in News Limited newspapers that, in 1994, John Howard made a secret deal with Peter Costello to hand over the leadership of the Liberal Party to him after having served two terms in office as Prime Minister.

[edit] August

• August 8 - Census night.
• August 18 - US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. launches a $16 billion takeover bid for Coles Group. KKR later withdraw their offer.

[edit] September

• September 4 - Steve Irwin dies in a marine accident off Queensland's coast.
• September 8 - Peter Brock is killed in a smash when his rally car skids off a bend and hits a tree.
• September 9 - Peter Beattie is re-elected Queensland premier at an early state election.

[edit] October

• After some of the hottest October days on record, bushfires ravage parts of New South Wales, Victoria & Tasmania.
• October 18 - Linda Lavarch resigns as Queensland's Attorney-General to seek treatment for depression, after it is revealed she refused a deal to return Jayant Patel (dubbed "Dr Death" by the media) to Australia to face criminal charges.
• October 20 - Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation company buys a 7.5% stake in its main competitor, John Fairfax Holdings (publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Australian Financial Review).
• October 25 - New South Wales Police minister Carl Scully is sacked after it is shown that he had misled parliament on two occasions about the 2005 Cronulla riots.
• October 25 - Comments that Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly made about women who dressed immodestly being responsible for rape are made public in The Australian. The Sheik is forced to retract such comments on October 26.

[edit] November

• November 22 - Sydney is covered in smoke after raging fires in the Blue Mountains.
• November 25 - Steve Bracks is re-elected Victorian premier at the state election.
• November 29 - One is dead, another feared missing & eight more are rescued when a Blackhawk helicopter crashes in waters off the coast of Fiji.

[edit] December

• December 4 - Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard successfully challenge Kim Beazley and Jenny Macklin in a caucus ballot for leadership and deputy leadership of the Australian Labor Party.

[edit] Non-specific Dates

• Investigation into AWB Limited's role in the Oil-for-Food Programme, sometimes referred to as Wheatgate or Oil for wheat. The official inquiry states that AWB directors did know about the kickback payemts as early as 2001 & that government ministers did not know about the kickbacks, although this was not in their brief.

[edit] Arts and literature

[edit] Film

• Ten Canoes, the first full-length feature film made entirely in an Australian Aboriginal language, wins a special jury prize at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

[edit] Television

• January 1 - Mildura Digital Television, a joint venture between WIN Television Mildura & Prime Television, goes on air in the Mildura area of Victoria as a Network Ten digital-only affiliate.
• January 5th- The Seven and Ten Networks win the rights to broadcast the AFL for a record $780 milliom dollars. A record for tv in Australia
• January 30 - Channel Nine launches a new logo, dropping the famous dots and replacing it with a stand-alone nine in a blue box.
• February 2006 - Wheel Of Fortune returns and starts in 2006, featuring Larry Emdur & Laura Csortan as hosts.
• February 9 - It is announced that Eddie McGuire will become Channel Nine's new CEO.
• February 20 - Television Sydney formally launches after three months of testing, giving Sydney community television for the first time in almost two years.
• May 21 - Brant Webb & Todd Russell speak to Tracy Grimshaw about their time underground in Beaconsfield in a 2 hour special called The Great Escape. They are paid a reported $2.6 million by Channel Nine for the right to talk to them.
• June 4 - After 12 years & a record-breaking 510 episodes, the last episode of the Seven Network show Blue Heelers goes to air.
• September 14 - Today Tonight host Naomi Robson is deported from Indonesia after doing a story on a West Papuan boy called Wa Wa who, supposedly, was going to be eaten by cannibals. This sparks a war of words between Seven & Nine, who ran the original story on Wa Wa in May on 60 Minutes.
• September 16 - Television in Australia turns 50. The next day, this is commemorated with a live TV special from Star City, Sydney on the Seven Network.
• September 30 - The Fox Footy Channel ceases broadcasting. It is replaced by Fox Sports 3 & Fox Sports News on October 1.
• October 18 - PBL announces the sale of 50% of the Nine Network, including its 50% stake in ninemsn & ACP to CVC Asia Pacific for $4.5 billion.

[edit] Sport

• February 16 - Dale Begg-Smith wins Winter Olympic gold in the men's moguls at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
• February 23 - Alisa Camplin adds to her gold in Salt Lake City with a bronze in the women's aerials.
• March 5 - Sydney FC defeats the Central Coast Mariners 1-0 to win the inaugural A-League championship.
• March 15-March 26 - The 2006 Commonwealth Games take place in Melbourne. Australia finishes on top of the medal tally for the fourth consecutive time & wins a record 221 medals-84 gold, 69 silver & 68 bronze.
• March 28 - Queensland defeats Victoria to win the Pura Cup.
• April 30 - St Kilda players & umpires fail to hear the final siren. St Kilda scores behind after siren has gone, resulting in the match being a draw. This is later overturned on an appeal to the AFL commission & Fremantle is awarded the four points.
• May 17 - At Aussie Stadium, Anthony Mundine defeats Danny Green in their long awaited bout.
• June 9-July 9 - The Socceroos participate in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany for the first time since 1974. They are drawn in Group F along with Brazil, Croatia & Japan. They come second in their group & face off against Italy. They lose to them 1-0 as a result of a controversial penalty awarded in the dying seconds of the match.
• July 5- Queensland defeats New South Wales 16-14 in the dying stages of the match to take out the State of Origin series for the first time since 2002. It is also the first State of Origin match played in Melbourne since 1997.
• September 30 - In a rematch of the previous year's AFL Grand Final, the West Coast Eagles (12.13.85) defeat the Sydney Swans (12.12.84) to take out the 110th VFL/AFL premiership. It is the first time since 1966 that the Grand Final has been decided by a margin of one point.
• October 1 - The Brisbane Broncos defeat the Melbourne Storm 15-8 to take out the 99th NSWRL/ARL/NRL premiership. It is the first time that the grand final has not involved any teams from New South Wales & the first time since 2000 - the last time the Broncos won - that a non-NSW team has taken out the premiership.
• October 8 - Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup win the V8 Supercars Bathurst 1000 race for Team Betta Electrical, Ford's first win since 1998. They are the inaugral winners of the Peter Brock Trophy.
• November 7 - Delta Blues wins the 2006 Melbourne Cup.
• November 21 - Ian Thorpe announces his retirement from competitive swimming.

[edit] Births

[edit] Deaths

• January 1 - Dawn Lake, 78, entertainer and widow of Bobby Limb
• January 3 - Steve Rogers, 51, Cronulla rugby league great
• January 5 - Sophie Heathcote, 30, actress
• January 9 - Andy Caldecott, 41, motorcyclist
• March 9 - Harry Seidler, 82, architect
• March 28 - Pro Hart, 77, artist
• April 24 - Jimmy Sharman jnr, 94, boxing troupe impresario
• May 7 - Richard Carleton, 62, journalist
• August 28 - Don Chipp, 81, politician
• September 4 - "The Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, 44, environmentalist & documentarian
• September 4 - Colin Thiele, 85, author
• September 8 - Peter Brock, 61, motor racing driver
• September 15 - Abe Saffron, 86, notorious Sydney nightclub owner and suspected underworld figure
• October 3 - Peter Norman, 64, athlete
• November 2 - Wally Foreman, 58, sports commentator
• November 11 - Belinda Emmett, 32, actress