1958 in Australia

Decades:	1930s; 1940s; 1950s; 1960s; 1970s;
See also:	Other events of 1958; Federal election; Timeline of Australian history;

1958 in Australia
1958 in Australia
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor-General	William Slim
Prime minister	Robert Menzies
Population	9,842,333
Elections	Federal, VIC

The following lists events that happened during 1958 in Australia.

Incumbents

State premiers

Premier of New South Wales – Joseph Cahill
Premier of Queensland – Frank Nicklin
Premier of South Australia – Thomas Playford IV
Premier of Tasmania – Robert Cosgrove (until 26 August), then Eric Reece
Premier of Victoria – Henry Bolte
Premier of Western Australia – Albert Hawke

State governors

Governor of New South Wales – Sir Eric Woodward
Governor of Queensland – Sir Henry Abel Smith (from 18 March)
Governor of South Australia – Sir Robert George
Governor of Tasmania – Sir Ronald Cross, 1st Baronet (until 4 June)
Governor of Victoria – Sir Dallas Brooks
Governor of Western Australia – Sir Charles Gairdner

Events

14 January – Qantas Airways introduces a round-the-world air service from Australia to London.
20 January – The Royal Australian Naval College is moved back to Jervis Bay Territory from Flinders Naval Depot in Victoria.
28 January to 11 February – Harold Macmillan visits Australia, the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to do so while in office.
14 February to 7 March – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother visits Australia for the second time.
21 March – John McEwen replaces Arthur Fadden as federal leader of the Country Party.
24 March – The Cahill Expressway in Sydney opens, the first true freeway in Australia.
1 April – William John O'Meally becomes The last person flogged in Australia in Melbourne's Pentridge Prison.
3 April – A cyclone destroys most of the town of Bowen in Queensland.
15 April – Monash University is founded in Melbourne, Victoria.
11 May – Construction of Australia's largest man-made lake, Lake Eucumbene on the Eucumbene River in the Snowy Mountains, is completed.
31 May – Henry Bolte's Liberal government is re-elected in Victoria.
19 July – The last tram service runs in Perth.
26 August – Robert Cosgrove retires as Premier of Tasmania, and is replaced by Eric Reece.
30 September – The ANZAC Day Act 1958 receives Royal Assent, making ANZAC Day (25 April) a national public holiday in Australia.
26 October – The wreckage of the Australian National Airways Avro 10 aircraft, VH-UMF Southern Cloud, is found. The aircraft had been missing since 1931.
22 November – A federal election is held. The Liberal-Country coalition led by Robert Menzies defeats H. V. Evatt's Australian Labor Party with 74 seats to 45 in the House of Representatives, a majority unprecedented since Federation, gained from preferences from the Democratic Labor Party.

Unknown dates

Aquila Shoes, a shoe manufacturing company, founded.
Johnny O'Keefe has his first hit with Wild One.
Radio station 2UE publishes the first Australian Top 40.

Science and technology

26 January – The HIFAR nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights goes critical for the first time.

Unknown dates

Australian engineer Dr. David Warren of Melbourne's Aeronautical Research Laboratories constructs the world's first flight recorder ("black box").

Arts and literature

11 December – The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) opens in Sydney.
William Edwin Pidgeon wins the Archibald Prize with his portrait of journalist Ray Walker
Eric Smith wins the Blake Prize for Religious Art with his work The Moment Christ Died
Randolph Stow wins the Miles Franklin Award for To the Islands
Russel Ward releases The Australian Legend

Film

8 March - The film Bridge on the River Kwai was released in Sydney.

Television

October - Autumn Affair, first television soap opera produced in Australia debuts
1 November – The first episode of Bandstand goes to air on TCN-9, hosted by Brian Henderson.
22 November – The 1958 Australian federal election is the first to be televised.