See also: 1964 in Australia, other events of 1965, 1966 in Australia and the Timeline of Australian history.

Incumbents

• Prime Minister Robert Menzies
• Governor General Viscount De L'Isle, succeeded by Lord Casey
• Premier of New South Wales Jack Renshaw (to 13 May); Robert Askin (after 13 May)
• Premier of South Australia Sir Thomas Playford (to 6 March); Frank Walsh (after 6 March)
• Premier of Queensland Sir Frank Nicklin
• Premier of Tasmania Eric Reece
• Premier of Western Australia Sir David Brand
• Premier of Victoria Sir Henry Bolte

Events

• actor, dancer and choreographer Sir Robert Helpmann is named Australian Of The Year

• the Australian Conservation Foundation is formed
• the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT) is formed
• Northern Territory patrol officers forcibly round up the last groups of the Pintubi Aboriginal people still living an independent traditional lifestyle, and resettle them on the Papunya and Yuendumu missions

Events by Month

January

• The Kinks and The Rolling Stones tour Australia
• 7 January The first hydrofoil service begins on Sydney Harbour.
• 10 January Evonne Goolagong wins the NSW junior hard-court title.
• 11 January The bodies of two 15-year-old girls, Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt, are found at Wanda Beach in southern Sydney. Despite the offer of an unprecedented 10,000 reward, the murders are never solved.
• 16 January The vehicular ferry Empress Of Australia begins operating between Sydney and Hobart.
• 27 January Queensland Police are given the power to arrest without warrant and ban anyone aiding the striking Mount Isa Mines workers. Union leader Pat Mackie is banned from the site.

February

• Judge Aaron Levine overturns the obscenity conviction of the editors of Oz magazine
• Charles Perkins leads The Freedom Ride, which travels through country NSW, protesting the racial discrimination against Aboriginal people.
• Margaret Court wins the Australian women's tennis singles title for the sixth consecutive year
• 18 February Esso-BHP strikes gas at the Barracouta well in Bass Strait.
• 20 February Freedom Ride participants including Charles Perkins are ejected from the Moree municipal swimming baths after protesting against its policy of not admitting Aborigines.
• 22 February Prince Philip opens the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra.
• Talbot Duckmanton succeeds Sir Charles Moses as chairman of The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)
• The Seekers' single I'll Never Find Another You reaches #1 in the UK charts. It becomes the first recording by an Australian act to sell more than 1 million copies and eventually sells more than 1.75 million

March

• 1 March The Amateur Swimming Union of Australia stuns the nation with its decision that Olympic champion and 1964 Australian of the Year Dawn Fraser will be banned from all amateur competition for ten years. The decision follows an inquiry into Fraser's alleged misbehaviour during the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
• 6 March The Australian Labor Party wins the South Australian election, taking government for the first time in 32 years. Labour leader Frank Walsh becomes Premier, replacing Liberal leader Sir Thomas Playford, Australia's longest-serving premier, who had held office for 26 years, 4 months.
• 10 March The first drawing of the national service conscription lottery.
• 17 March The Queensland government legislates to ban picketing and restricting pamphlets and banners at the Mount Isa mine. The strikers workers return to work later in the month.
• George Johnston wins the Miles Franklin Award for his novel My Brother Jack

April

• 27 April Police raid Melbourne's Austral Bookshop and seize copies of The Trial of Lady Chatterley, a banned book which recounts of the British obscenity trial of author D. H. Lawrence.
• Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces that an Australian combat force will be sent to South Vietnam in response to a request for military aid from the South Vietnamese government.

May

• 1 May The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is defeated in the NSW state election after 24 years in government and the Liberal Party, led by Robin Askin takes power.
• 27 May The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment leaves for Vietnam on HMAS Sydney.

June

• The official opening of the Captain Cook Bridge, which spans the Georges River
• TV variety show In Melbourne Tonight celebrates its 2000th performance. Since its premiere in 1957 the show had earned the Nine Network over AU4 million in advertising revenue and it attracted more viewers per capita than any other television show in the world, with the network rumoured to be paying host Graham Kennedy more than AU20,000 per year (14 June)
• 21 June The Premier of Tasmania, Eric Reece, announces the Gordon Power scheme will "result in some modification to the Lake Pedder National Park", but it was still in development and no further details were revealed.^[1]
• 30 June At a speech to the Australian Club in London, PM Sir Robert Menzies declares that Australia is in a state of war in Vietnam.

July

• 18 to 20 July - Snow is recorded as far north as the Clark Range in Queensland, killing drought-weakened livestock. At the same time, extremely heavy rainfall in the North Coast turns drought into flood, with Brisbane having its wettest-ever July day with .

August

September

October

November

• 5 November The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, is deployed in Operation Hump in Vietnam.
• 13 November Kevin Arthur Wheatley dies in Vietnam while defending a wounded comrade. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry.

December

Science and technology

• the Siding Springs Observatory opens

Arts and literature

• Clifton Pugh's portrait of R.A. Henderson wins the Archibald Prize for portraiture
• Larry Sitsky's opera The Fall Of The House of Usher
• Peter Sculthorpe's Sun Music I
• Joan Sutherland returns to perform in Australia after 14 years overseas
• the Canberra School of Music is established
• Ballet In A Nutshell (later the Sydney Dance Company) and the Australian Dance Theatre form
• The South Australian Theatre Company is formed
• Sydney's Philip St Theatre stages its famous comedy revue A Cup Of Tea, A Bex and A Good Lie Down. The production runs for twelve months, and the title passes into common usage.
• The Ambassador (Morris West)
• The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea (Randolph Stow)
• The Slow Natives by Thea Astley is awarded the Miles Franklin Literary Award

Film

• Faces In The Sun wins the AFI Award for Best Film

Television

• Jimmy Hannan wins the Gold Logie Award

Sport

Light Fingers won the Melbourne Cup.

Cricket: Australia lose a five test series away to the West Indies 2-1. The West Indies side includes greats such as Garry Sobers and Rohan Kanhai, while Australia featured opening batsmen Bill Lawry and Bobbie Simpson.

Cricinfo series page

Rugby League: 1965 NSWRFL season St George wins the tenth of a record eleven consecutive premierships in the NSWRL. They were not to win again until 1977, then in 1979 which is their last premiership as at January 2006.

Births

• 22 March - Richard Wegener, banker & business manager
• 24 April Lucinda Cowden, actress
• 15 May Glenn Seton, racing driver
• 4 June Michael Doohan, motorcycle racer
• 25 July Dale Shearer, rugby league footballer
• 2 August Joe Hockey, politician
• 28 August Steve Walters, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s.
• 1 September Craig McLachlan, actor and singer
• 19 September Antonella Gambotto-Burke, author and journalist
• 21 September David Wenham, actor
• 29 October Andrew Ettingshausen, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s
• 11 December Glenn Lazarus, rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s.

Deaths

• 20 February Lex Davison, racing driver (b. 1923)
• 1 March Rocky Tresise, racing driver, protege of Lex Davison
• 2 November H. V. Evatt, politician and diplomat (b. 1894)

References