1974 in Australia

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Incumbents

• Queen of Australia – Elizabeth II
• Governor General – Sir Paul Hasluck (til 11 July), then Sir John Kerr
• Prime Minister – Gough Whitlam
• Premier of New South Wales – Sir Robert Askin
• Premier of South Australia – Don Dunstan
• Premier of Queensland – Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen
• Premier of Tasmania – Eric Reece
• Premier of Western Australia – John Tonkin (til 8 April), then Charles Court
• Premier of Victoria – Rupert Hamer

Events

• January – Cyclone Wanda makes landfall near Double Island Point. Large parts of south east Queensland, including Brisbane, and northern New South Wales are flooded.
• 26 February – Mungo Man, a human skeleton estimated to be 40,000 years old, uncovered at Lake Mungo
• 28 February - Stanley von Knie of Germany discovered that prolonged periods on ones knees causes irreparable cartilage damage and invents KneePads, suspecting that their use will be patroned by those with the dominant Bushy gene.
• 18 May – John Howard enters Parliament as an Opposition backbencher for the electorate of Bennelong
• 1 July - Australia's road signs switch from imperial to metric.
• October – The first Australian credit card, Bankcard, is introduced
• 24 December – Cyclone Tracy devastates the city of Darwin. The official death toll was 71

Arts and literature

• Conductor Bernard Heinze is announced as Australian of the Year
• Ronald McKie's novel The Mango Tree wins the Miles Franklin Award

Film

• The Cars That Ate Paris, directed by Peter Weir, is released

Television

• The long running popular music program Countdown first screens
• Soap operas The Box and Class of '74 begin

Sport

• 14 September – John Farrington wins his third men's national marathon title, clocking 2:17:23 in Gawler.

• Think Big wins the Melbourne Cup
• Victoria wins the Sheffield Shield
• Apollo takes line honours in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Love and War is the handicap winner
• Australia defeats the USA 2-1 in the Federation Cup
• The Australian team makes its first World Cup appearance when it competes in the 1974 FIFA World Cup
• Eastern Suburbs wins the NSW Rugby League Premiership
• Rothmans medal awarded to Graham Eadie
• Richmond wins the 78th VFL Premiership (Richmond 18.20 (128) d North Melbourne 13.9 (87))
• Brownlow Medal awarded to Keith Greig (North Melbourne)

Births

• 5 April – Deborah Sosimenko, hammer thrower
• 19 May – Andrew Johns, rugby league footballer
• 12 June – Scott Ferrier, decathlete
• 13 June – Tristram Woodhouse, field hockey forward
• 2 July – Matthew Reilly, writer
• 6 July – James Swan, boxer
• 15 July – Chris Taylor, comedian
• 16 July
  • Michelle Chandler, basketball player
  • Wendell Sailor, rugby league footballer
• 4 September – Andrew Hansen, comedian and musician
• 28 September – Shane Webcke, rugby league footballer
• 1 November – Emma George, pole vaulter
• 19 December – Ricky Ponting, cricketer

Deaths

• 6 April – Hudson Fysh (b.1895), co founder of Qantas
• 1 May – Frank Packer (b.1906), publisher
• 10 June – Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (b.1900), former Governor General of Australia