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2009 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 2009 in Australia.

Incumbents

State and territory leaders

Governors and administrators

Events

Whole year

January

February

  • 3 February – Justice Virginia Bell is sworn in as a puisne judge of the High Court of Australia, replacing Justice Michael Kirby who retired the previous day.
  • 3 February – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd unveils a second economic stimulus package to the value of A$42 billion.
  • 4 February – Heavy rain causes major flooding at Ingham in north Queensland.
  • 7 February – Bushfires in Victoria kill 173 people in what are not only the nation's worst ever bushfires, surpassing the record set by Ash Wednesday in 1983. Also the nation's worst peacetime disaster since Cyclone Mahina in 1899.
  • 13 February – The Federal Government's $42 billion economic stimulus package is passed in the Senate, paving the way for promised cash bonuses for workers around the country.
  • 22 February – Australia observes a National Day of Mourning in remembrance of the 209 (later revised downwards to 173) people who perished in the Victorian bushfires.
  • 25 February – Pacific Brands announces it is ceasing manufacturing operations in Australia, at a cost of 1,850 jobs.

March

  • 4 March –
  • Cyclone Hamish, the first category 5 cyclone since Cyclone George in 2007, develops in the Coral Sea and moves southwards along the Queensland coast causing extensive damage to the Great Barrier Reef but does not make landfall. It eventually dissipates on 14 March.
  • Australia's economy slumps 0.5 per cent, its first quarter of negative growth in 8 years.
  • 11 March – The cargo ship MV Pacific Adventurer leaks about 230,000 litres of fuel oil along 60 km of southern Queensland's coast after battling a cyclone.
  • 14 March – The Victorian bushfires are officially declared contained.
  • 20 March – Marcus Einfeld (former Superior Court judge) is sentenced to 3 years in jail for perjury relative to a speeding ticket.
  • 20 March – Emirates Flight 407 was taking off from Melbourne Airport for a flight to Dubai and failed to become airborne in the normal distance. When the aircraft was approaching the end of the runway, the crew commanded nose-up sharply causing the tail to scrape along the runway as it became airborne.
  • 21 March – A Sydney film crew claims to be 100% certain of the finding of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's plane Lady Southern Cross in the Bay of Bengal.
  • 21 March – Anna Bligh claims victory in the Queensland state election and becomes the country's first elected female Premier.
  • 22 March – A member of the Hells Angels is killed in a clash between the Hell's Angels and Comanchero motorcycle gangs in the terminal at Sydney Airport.
  • 31 March – Torrential rain around the mid-north New South Wales coast leaves thousands stranded and forces people from over 100 properties to evacuate in the Coffs Harbour area.

April

May

June

  • 3 June – Australia avoids a recession after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals the economy for the March quarter grew by a 0.4 per cent from the final quarter of 2008.
  • 4 June – Joel Fitzgibbon resigns as Minister for Defence after admitting to a breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct.
  • 15 June – Des Moran, a member of Melbourne's notorious Moran family and brother of Lewis Moran, is shot dead in Ascot Vale.
  • 19 June – Australia's first swine flu-related fatality occurs when a 26-year-old West Australian man dies in Adelaide.

July

August

  • 4 August – Over 400 police and intelligence officers conduct a series of dawn raids in Melbourne, arresting members of an alleged Islamic terrorist cell who are suspected of plotting a suicide attack on Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney.
  • 11 August – Nine Australians, including seven from Victoria and two from Queensland, are killed when their plane crashes into the side of a cliff face on their way to Kokoda, Papua New Guinea.
  • 14 August – Paul Henderson's Labor government in the Northern Territory survives a motion of no-confidence following the resignation of Alison Anderson, after receiving support from independent politician Gerry Wood.
  • 30 August – Victorian MP Tim Holding goes missing while on a solo hike on Mount Feathertop. Searchers find him alive and well two days later on 1 September.
  • 31 August– New South Wales Minister for Health and Australian Labor Party leader in the Legislative Council, John Della Bosca, resigned his Ministerial and leadership positions following public revelation of an extra-marital affair.

September

  • 23 September – Major dust storms hit Eastern Australia.

October

November

  • 11 November – Claude Choules becomes the world's oldest first-time author at the age of 108 when his autobiography The Last of the Last is published.
  • 16 November – Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull apologise on behalf of Australia to the "Forgotten Australians": people who suffered neglect and abuse as children in state care, in particular, thousands of Home Children – British child migrants forcibly emigrated to Australia until the 1960s.

December

Arts and literature

Science and technology

Film

Television

Sport

  1. the first score of fewer than three goals since 1991
  2. the lowest AFL/VFL score since Richmond kicked 0.8 (8) against St Kilda in 1961

Births

Deaths

See also

References