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← 1915 1914 1913 1916 in Australia → 1917 1918 1919
Decades:	1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s
See also:	1916 in Australian literature Other events of 1916 Timeline of Australian history

The following lists events that happened during1916 in Australia.

• Monarch –George V
• Governor-General – The Right Hon.Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson
• Prime Minister –Billy Hughes
• Chief Justice –Samuel Griffith

• Premier of New South Wales –William Holman
• Premier of Queensland –T. J. Ryan
• Premier of South Australia –Crawford Vaughan
• Premier of Tasmania –John Earle (until 15 April), thenWalter Lee
• Premier of Western Australia –John Scaddan (until 27 July), thenFrank Wilson
• Premier of Victoria –Sir Alexander Peacock

• Governor of New South Wales –Sir Gerald Strickland
• Governor of Queensland –Major Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams
• Governor of South Australia –Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry Galway
• Governor of Tasmania –Sir William Ellison-Macartney
• Governor of Western Australia –Major-General Sir Harry Barron
• Governor of Victoria –Sir Arthur Stanley

• Hotels are forced to close at 6 p.m., leading to the beginning of the "six o'clock swill": 27 March in South Australia; 21 July in Sydney after referendum of 10 June; 11 October in Victoria; during March in Tasmania.
• 14 February –Liverpool riot of 1916 – troopsmutinied against conditions at theCasula Camp. They raided hotels inLiverpool before travelling by train to Sydney, where one soldier was shot dead in a riot atCentral Railway station.
• 6 June – The Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia, the forerunner to theReturned and Services League is founded.
• 26 June –William Jackson awarded theVictoria Cross for his actions in a raid nearArmentières, France.
• 1 to 30 June – Adelaide receives 217.9 millimetres (8.58 in) of rain, its highest monthly rainfall since records began in 1839.^[1]
• 19 July –Battle of Fromelles commenced; over the next seven weeks 22 826 Australian casualties occurred.
• 23 July –Arthur Seaforth Blackburn andJohn Leak awarded theVictoria Cross for their actions (separate) at theBattle of Pozières.
• 25 July –Thomas Cooke died in theBattle of Pozières and was awarded theVictoria Cross for his gallantry in the face of the enemy.
• 29 July –Claude Charles Castleton killed in theBattle of Pozières and for his actions in bringing back wounded men before and at the time of his death, he was awarded theVictoria Cross.
• Between 9 August and 12 August –Martin O'Meara repeatedly went out and brought in wounded officers and men from "No Man's Land" under intenseartillery andmachine-gun fire during theBattle of Pozières; for his gallantry he was awarded theVictoria Cross.
• 30 August – Rescue of the 22 menImperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition who remained on Elephant Island.
• 28 October – Thefirst plebiscite on the issue of military conscription was held; it was defeated.
• 1 November – a general coal strike began in eastern Australia.
• The Labor government underBilly Hughes splits overmilitary conscription.
• 13 November –Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from theLabor Party over his support for conscription.
• 2 December –Sydney Twelve: 12 members of theIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) convicted in Sydney of conspiring to commitarson andsedition.
• 23 December –World War I:Battle of Magdhaba – In theSinai desert, Australian and New Zealand mounted troops capture theTurkish garrison.
• 28 December – Floods inClermont, Queensland claimed more than 60 lives.
• Undated – An unknown number ofIndigenous Australians, could be as many as 300 to 400, are murdered at Geegully Creek, near Mowla Bluff, in theKimberley region ofWestern Australia in an incident known as theMowla Bluff massacre. Following the beating of a white station manager byIndigenous men, an armed mob which included officials and residents rounded up a large number of Aboriginal men, women and children who were then shot and had their bodies burned.
• Melbourne, with 967.5 millimetres (38.09 in)^[2] and Hobart with 1,104.2 millimetres (43.47 in),^[3] each receive their highest annual rainfall due to a strongLa Niña.

• 6 March – TheSydney conservatorium of music accepts first students.

• Sasanof wins theMelbourne Cup
• TheSheffield Shield was not contested due to the war.
• 26 July – The1916 NSWRFL season culminates in a grand final victory toBalmain, who defeatedSouth Sydney 5–3.

• 28 February –Frank Crean, 5thDeputy Prime Minister of Australia (d.2008)
• 14 April –Don Willesee, Western Australian politician (d.2003)
• 11 July –Gough Whitlam, 21stPrime Minister of Australia (d.2014)
• 29 July –Sir Rupert Hamer, 39thPremier of Victoria (d.2004)
• 27 August –Sir James Ramsay, 20thGovernor of Queensland (d.1986)
• 11 September –Warren Bonython, conservationist and chemical engineer (d.2012)
• 14 September –John Heyer, documentary filmmaker (d.2001)
• 25 September –Jessica Anderson, novelist (d.2010)
• 27 September –Beatrice Bligh, gardener (d.1973)^[4]

• 19 May –William Sawers, New South Wales politician (born in theUnited Kingdom) (b.1844)
• 13 August –Sir George Turner, 18thPremier of Victoria (b.1851)
• 7 November –Henry Brockman, Western Australian politician (b.1845)

• List of Australian films of the 1910s

• 1916 in Australia
• 1916 by country
• Years of the 20th century in Australia

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from February 2020
• Use Australian English from February 2012
• All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
• Articles needing additional references from September 2014
• All articles needing additional references