1977 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1977 in Australia.

Incumbents

Monarch – Elizabeth II Governor-General – Sir John Kerr (until 8 December), then Sir Zelman Cowen Prime Minister – Malcolm Fraser Deputy Prime Minister – Doug Anthony Opposition Leader – Gough Whitlam (until 22 December), then Bill Hayden Chief Justice – Sir Garfield Barwick

State and territory leaders Premier of New South Wales – Neville Wran Opposition Leader – Sir Eric Willis (until 16 December), then Peter Coleman Premier of Queensland – Joh Bjelke-Petersen Opposition Leader – Tom Burns Premier of South Australia – Don Dunstan Opposition Leader – David Tonkin Premier of Tasmania – Bill Neilson (until 1 December), then Doug Lowe Opposition Leader – Max Bingham Premier of Victoria – Rupert Hamer Opposition Leader – Clyde Holding (until 29 June), then Frank Wilkes Premier of Western Australia – Sir Charles Court Opposition Leader – Colin Jamieson Majority Leader of the Northern Territory – Goff Letts (until 12 August), then Paul Everingham Opposition Leader – Jon Isaacs (from 21 September)

Governors and administrators Governor of New South Wales – Sir Roden Cutler Governor of Queensland – Sir Colin Hannah (until 20 March), then Sir James Ramsay (from 22 April) Governor of South Australia – Sir Douglas Nicholls (until 30 April), then Sir Keith Seaman (from 1 September) Governor of Tasmania – Sir Stanley Burbury Governor of Victoria – Sir Henry Winneke Governor of Western Australia – Sir Wallace Kyle Administrator of Norfolk Island – Desmond O'Leary

Events

January 1 January – Six hikers who went missing in Lamington National Park on 27 December 1976 are found safe and well. They had been attempting to locate the site of the 1937 Airlines of Australia Stinson crash which occurred on 18 February 1937. 5 January – The Connellan air disaster takes place which is Australia's only aircraft suicide attack. Carried out by a disgruntled former employee of Connellan Airways, the attack claims the lives of five people including the pilot. 10 January – The Easey Street murders take place, in which two women were raped and stabbed to death in their home in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Collingwood. It was not until September 2024 that a suspect was arrested in Italy in relation to the murders. 18 January – Australia experiences its worst railway disaster at Granville, near Sydney, in which 83 people died.

February 1 February – The Federal Court of Australia began to exercise its jurisdiction. 6 February – Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II's accession as Queen of Australia. 7 February – 418 refugees of the Vietnam War arrive in Melbourne. The refugees, from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, left refugee camps around Bangkok for the largest airlift of war victims from Thailand. 27 February – ABBA arrive in Australia for their live concert tour around the country starting at the Sydney Showground.

March 8 March: The Federal Government holds a reception in Canberra for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as they begin the Silver Jubilee tour of Australia. The TAB announces the first-ever legal betting on VFL football, which came into operation on 2 April. 9 March — Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Brisbane as part of her Silver Jubilee goodwill tour. 13 March – ABBA In Australia tour concludes. 15 March: The former Australian consul to Timor Jim Dunn prepares to testify to the United States Congress on Indonesian atrocities. The Indonesian Foreign Minister Adam Malik responds by threatening that his Government would allow "demonstrations and other mass actions" against the Australian Embassy to continue if further agitation against alleged Indonesian atrocities were allowed. Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock presents a 24-page speech to Federal Parliament in which he outlines a new direction in foreign policies based on Australia's richness in a world of want. He says population and resources would be central future policies, as well as making attacks on Soviet Union military expansion. Federal Cabinet approves an agreement with the United States for the construction of the controversial Omega navigation station at a predicted cost of $15 million. 31 March – The Conciliation and Arbitration Commission’s wage decision is handed down. The Commission indicates it would hold an inquiry into various aspects of wage fixation. The Commission introduces a $5.70 a week increase on prices, prompting Federal Treasurer Phillip Lynch to say that the decision would retard the fight against inflation.

April 13 April – The Premiers' Conference is held in Canberra where all governments commit to a three-month prices and wages freeze.

May 15 May – The Australian Democrats is launched by former Liberal MP Don Chipp at Melbourne Town Hall. 21 May – The 1977 Australian referendum is held. Questions on Senate casual vacancies, referendums and retirement of judges are passed. A question on simultaneous elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate fails. A plebiscite to decide Australia's national song is won by "Advance Australia Fair". 24 May: United States president Jimmy Carter gives the Australian Government his personal assurance that US agencies (in particular the Central Intelligence Agency) were not engaged in improper activities in Australia, an issue that had resurfaced in the espionage trial of Christopher Boyce in the United States. Fraser included this information in a statement to the House of Representatives on 24 May. John Howard tables a white paper on the future of the manufacturing industry in parliament. The paper noted that despite the growth of mining, manufacturing still employed more than 1.3 million people in 1975, of whom 0.5 million had been born overseas. Manufacturing depended substantially on tariff protection and other government assistance, as well as facing ever-increasing competition from other countries, particularly in Asia.

June 15 June – The Gleneagles Agreement is unanimously approved by the Commonwealth of Nations at a meeting at Gleneagles, Auchterarder, Scotland. Commonwealth Presidents and Prime Ministers agree, as part of their support for the international campaign against apartheid, to discourage contact and competition between their sportsmen and sporting organisations, teams or individuals from South Africa. 22 June: The Uniting Church in Australia is formed following the union of the majority of Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational Union churches in Australia. Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser meets with United States president Jimmy Carter in Washington. Fraser is impressed by Carter 'as a decisive man' who would be 'setting American objectives in the great humanitarian issues'. Carter undertakes to consult Australia before any agreement was concluded with the Soviet Union on arms limitation in the Indian Ocean.

July 1 July – The Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman is established. 15 July – Anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay disappears near Griffith, New South Wales. He is presumed to have been murdered.

August 7 August – At the Association of South-East Asian Nations meeting in Kuala Lumpur, prime minister Malcolm Fraser offers ASEAN leaders a package of increased bilateral aid of $250 million, as well as an extra $10 million for joint development projects, but claimed Australia could do nothing in its present economic circumstances to reduce trade barriers against their countries' products. 9 August – A board of inquiry into Housing Commission land deals is appointed by the Victorian Government with the power to investigate Cabinet decisions and to call Ministers to give evidence. 11 August – A 24-hour strike by postal staff at Melbourne's two biggest parcel centres stops more than 25,000 parcels being handled. 15 August – Cabinet decided that Australia would negotiate bilateral safeguards agreements with purchasers covering both present and future use of the uranium. Australia would seek an understanding with other exporters on the application and enforcement of safeguards, but this would not constitute a commercial cartel to control price or quantity. 16 August – Federal Treasurer Philip Lynch presents the 1977–78 budget, with a predicted deficit of $2.21 billion. It reduces personal income tax scales from seven to three (32 per cent, 46 per cent and 60 per cent) and also provides personal tax cuts to operate from 1 February 1978. 17 August – Federal Treasurer Phillip Lynch addresses the National Press Club of Australia and blames the Arbitration Commission for the lack of improvement in unemployment for its failure to restrain wages through its decisions. 21 August – Mail services returns to normal following the end of a national postal dispute. 23 August – Cabinet makes its final decisions on uranium mining in Australia, endorsing the main findings of the Fox inquiry unless there were 'compelling reasons' for departing from them. It was agreed that mining could proceed, subject to environmental controls and a stringent nuclear safeguards regime. The Ranger Uranium Mine could be developed without further environmental assessment, but the other two mines in the Alligator River region – Jabiluka and Koongarra – would not be approved for a considerable time. Cabinet also agreed on the staged establishment of Kakadu National Park, although the Ranger, Jabiluka and Koongarra uranium leases were to be excluded from it. 24 August – Australia's first 7-Eleven convenience store opens in the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh.About Us , 7-Eleven Australia.

September 4 September – The Queensland Government bans street marches and demonstrations. 6 September: Victoria experiences a statewide 24-hour stoppage of train, tram and tramway bus services due to a strike by 20,000 public transport workers – the third strike in a month. Federal Attorney-General Bob Ellicott quits the Fraser ministry after a row with Cabinet over the conspiracy case against former Labor Ministers. Senator Peter Durack is appointed in his place. 15 September: The ACTU congress resolves to ban the mining and export of uranium from mid-November unless the Government agrees to hold a referendum on the issue. The referendum proposal is not favoured by the Australian Labor Party, most of whose parliamentary leaders are inclined to support mining. The Indian High Commissioner Shri Jagdish Chand Ajmani's military attaché Colonel Iqbal Singh and his wife are attacked by a member of the Indian Ananda Marga sect. 17 September – The 1977 South Australian state election is held. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Don Dunstan is returned to power.

October 8 October – The Tasman Bridge in Hobart re-opens after repair to the damage sustained in the Tasman Bridge disaster when the bridge was struck by the bulk ore carrier MV Lake Illawarra on 5 January 1975. 19 October: An employee of Air India’s Melbourne office is stabbed by a man who left a threatening letter, allegedly from the Ananda Marga-affiliated Universal Proutist Revolutionary Federation. Cabinet decides to review the management of explosives by Commonwealth agencies and to provide 203 more Commonwealth police for diplomatic security work, while foreign missions in Australia are urged to upgrade their security. 27 October – Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser announces that the 1977 Australian federal election will be held on 10 December.

November 12 November – The 1977 Queensland state election is held, with the Liberal-National coalition led by Joh Bjelke-Petersen gaining their fourth successive victory. 18 November – Phillip Lynch resigns as the federal treasurer and is succeeded by John Howard. 30 November – The High Court of Australia rules in the case of Cridland v Federal Commissioner of Taxation that a group of university students avoiding tax by claiming to be farmers were acting legally under provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.

December