26 January – The Beaumont children are abducted during a visit to Glenelg beach in Adelaide and are never seen again.[5][6][7] The abductions becomes one of Australia's most enduring mysteries.[8]
29 January – Wilhelmina Kruger, a 57-year-old cleaner is murdered as she worked her early morning shift at Wollongong's Piccadilly Arcade shopping centre.[10][11] Despite Christopher Wilder being a suspect, her murder remains unsolved.[12][13]
1 February – Victoria's State Executive Council commutes the death sentence which had been handed to 32-year-old triple murderer John Desmond David who pled guilty in November 1965 to three murders.[15] Instead of being hanged, David's sentence is commuted to 40 years imprisonment making him the fourth convicted murderer whose death sentence is commuted since Robert Peters Tait in 1962.[16]
5 February – While playing in the sand on a beach at Windang near Wollongong, a 12-year-old boy discovers the body of 29-year-old Giorgina Radoicovich.[18] A Supreme Court jury later finds her 31-year-old husband Vittorio Radoicovich not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter and is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.[19]
18 February – US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey arrives in Australia to assure the Australian government that the war is being directed by Hanoi and Peking, and that it represents one of China's numerous offensives in Asia.[22][23]
10 March – On advice from Immigration Minister Hubert Opperman, federal cabinet reverses a decision of September 1964, agreeing that non-Europeans could be selected on an individual basis to enter as immigrants with permanent resident status and naturalisation on an equal basis with European applicants.[26]
16 March – Widespread rain in New South Wales brings a slight reprieve for some areas affected by Australia's severe drought which has stricken large areas of the country since 1957, particularly in New South Wales and Queensland.[27]
30 March – Ronald Joseph Ryan is found guilty of murdering warder George Henry Hodson at HM Prison Pentridge on 19 December 1965 and is sentenced to death.[28] Peter John Walker is found guilty of manslaughter and is sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.[28]
April
7 April – New South Wales repeals the Sunday Observance Act, allowing theatres and cinemas to open, sporting events to charge admission and clubs to sell alcohol on Sundays.[29]
12 May – 21-year-old pilot Mary Fergusson on her final test flight to qualify for her full pilot's licence goes missing in Tasmania enroute from Cambridge to Flinders Island prompting a widespread search.[31] Her body and her crashed Cessna are discovered several days later, only 50 miles from the Cambridge Aerodrome where she took off.[32]
June
8 June – Ronald Joseph Ryan and Peter John Walker lose their appeals against their sentences relating to the murder of Pentridge warder George Henry Hodson on 19 December 1965.[33] After being convicted of Hodson's murder in March, Ryan was sentenced to death while Walker is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.[33]
21 July – Marcus Loane becomes the first Australian-born Anglican Archbishop of Sydney when he is elected in a 162-vote majority during a secret preferential ballot held after midnight.[38]
August
10 August – 41-year-old Helen Byrie Bernadette Jeffrey is found guilty of murdering her de facto husband 39-year-old Colin Howard Jeffrey in Healesville, Victoria on 27 March 1964, and is sentenced to death.[39] Her death sentence is later commuted to 10 years imprisonment on 23 May 1967.[40]
18 August – Australian forces engage in their first major battle in Vietnam at the Battle of Long Tan, inflicting heavy losses on NLF troops.[41]
1 September – Holden becomes the first local car manufacturer to install seat belts as standard equipment in all its new vehicles, starting with the Holden HR.[43][44]
17 September – 18-year-old David Michael Ewer is found guilty of murdering 51-year-old Kathleen McLean in the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park on 22 April 1966, and is sentenced to death.[45] His death sentence is later commuted to 30 years imprisonment on 15 March 1967.[46]
24 September – Six people, including a 12-year-old boy, are killed when a Lockheed Hudson aircraft owned by Adastra Aerial Surveys crashes near the Tennant Creek Airport.[48]
October
13 October – 25-year-old Keith Ryrie is found guilty of the murder of 5-year-old Rhonda Margaret Irwin in Melbourne on 17 April 1966, and is sentenced to death.[49] His death sentence is later commuted to 50 years imprisonment on 29 May 1967.[50]
20 October – US President Lyndon Johnson arrives for a 3-day visit of Australian east coast cities, sparking rowdy demonstrations by anti-war protesters.[51][52]
26 October – 20-year-old Anthony Lynes Burton is found guilty of murdering his parents 49-year-old Joyce Carol Burton and 51-year-old Colin Richard Burton in the Melbourne suburb of Huntingdale on 13 April 1966, and is sentenced to death.[53] His death sentence is later commuted to 30 years imprisonment on 15 March 1967.[46]
26 November – The Liberal government of Harold Holt scores a massive victory in the 1966 federal election, and is returned to power with the largest majority in the federal parliament's 65-year history.[57]
December
9 December – Australia negotiates an agreement for an American spy satellite base to be established at Pine Gap in the Northern Territory, with federal minister for external affairs Paul Hasluck signing a treaty with the United States chargé d'affaires.[58]
12 December – Victoria's State Executive Council schedules Ronald Ryan's hanging for 9 January 1967.[59]
22 December – The Federal government announces the formation of a military Task Force (including conscripts), increasing Australia's commitment to the Vietnam War to 4,500.[60]
Other events
Japan replaces Great Britain as Australia's largest trading partner.[61]
Sydney industrial designer Harry Widmer wins the prestigious F.H. Edwards Laurel Award for his design for the Kriesler Mini 41–47 portable radio.[62] The 41-47's innovative polypropylene plastic casing is the first use of this material anywhere in the world in consumer electronics.[62]
Sali Herman is announces as the 1965 winner of the Wynne Prize for a painting entitled The Red House.[64]
31 January – The Seekers arrive back in Australia for a concert tour which begins in Perth on 2 February.[65][66] While in Australia, Judith Durham serves as a bridesmaid at her sister's wedding at St Peter's Church in Eastern Hill, while Keith Potger and his wife Pamela have their marriage blessed at St Martin's Anglican Church in Hawksburn on 6 February.[67][68]
13 April – Bob Dylan's first concert in Australia is held at Sydney Stadium, marking the start of his first tour of Australia, supported by The Band.[74][75]
10 July – The Easybeats leave for London.[81][82] Their departure is delayed when they were among the 100 passengers forced to disembark their plane at Kingsford Smith Airport when an anonymous caller claimed a bomb was on the aircraft.[81]
21 May – Anthony Cook wins the men's national marathon title, clocking 2:20:44.6 in Ballarat.[91]
17 September – St. George win their 11th consecutive NSWRL premiership, defeating Balmain 23–4 in the 1966 NSWRFL Grand Final.[92] This would be St George's final premiership win until 1977. Eastern Suburbs, after not winning a single match, finish in last position, claiming the wooden spoon for the second year in a row.
^"Kambalda - Its discovery and early development". Kambalda Nickel Operations. 27 September 1993. Retrieved 26 July 2024. The Company began diamond drilling in the area in December 1965, and at 10 a.m. on 28 January, 1966, a drill operating near the old Red Hill gold mine intersected a 9 ft. wide bank of iron and nickel sulphides assaying 8.3 per cent nickel.
^"Bishop Loane chosen as new archbishop". The Sydney Morning Herald. 21 July 1966. p. 1. Retrieved 28 July 2024. He was elected by an absolute majority after midnight last night.
^"Seat belts". FB-EK Holden Car Clubs of Australia. 17 May 2007. Retrieved 25 July 2024. The first factory-fitted seatbelts were not fitted as standard equipment until 1st Sept 1966, as part of the HR 'safety upgrade'. From then onwards they were fitted as standard equipment to all models.
^"Holden HR". New Old Car Company. Retrieved 25 July 2024. In 1966, the Holden HR was introduced, including changes in the form of new front and rear styling and higher-capacity engines. The HR was the first Australian car fitted with standard front seat belts.
^"Holt sweeps back". The Sun-Herald. 27 November 1966. p. 1. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
^"Space plant a 'Russian target'". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 December 1968. p. 3. Retrieved 24 July 2024. ...the Pine Gap facility, brought into existence when the Minister for External Affairs Mr P M C Hasluck signed a treaty with the US Charge d'Affaires on December 9, 1966
^ ab"Many lives squeezed into one". The Sydney Morning Herald. 14 May 2002. Retrieved 26 July 2024. ...Edwards Laurel Award for 1966 for designing the Kreisler Mini 41-47
^Marshall, Valda (24 July 1966). "Series for the kids". The Sun-Herald. p. 80. Retrieved 24 July 2024. ...Play School with Dianne Dorgan and Alister Smart began last Monday on ABN-2
^"Leader dies". The Sun-Herald. 23 January 1966. p. 28. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
^B. K. De Garis (2000). John Ritchie (ed.). Paltridge, Sir Shane Dunne (1910–1966). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 15. Melbourne University Press. Archived from the original on 16 July 2024. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
^"Bill Cahill". Australian Football. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
