1902 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1902 in Australia.

In 1902 women were finally allowed to vote and stand in federal elections.

Incumbents

 * Monarch – Edward VII
 * Governor-General – John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun
 * Prime Minister – Edmund Barton

State premiers

 * Premier of New South Wales – John See
 * Premier of South Australia – John Jenkins
 * Premier of Queensland – Robert Philp
 * Premier of Tasmania – Elliott Lewis
 * Premier of Western Australia – George Leake (until 1 July), then Walter James
 * Premier of Victoria – Alexander Peacock (until 10 June), then William Irvine

State governors

 * Governor of New South Wales – Admiral Harry Rawson (from 27 May)
 * Governor of South Australia – Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson (until 17 July)
 * Governor of Queensland – Major General Sir Herbert Chermside (from 24 March)
 * Governor of Tasmania – Captain Sir Arthur Havelock
 * Governor of Western Australia – Sir Arthur Lawley (until 14 August)
 * Governor of Victoria – Sir George Clarke

Events

 * 7 February – The Waterside Workers Federation is formed.
 * April – Averaged over Australia, the driest month on record with only 3.74 mm. Over half the continent was absolutely rainless and less than 3 percent outside Tasmania had more than 10 mm.
 * 31 May – The Second Boer War, in which Australia is involved, ends.
 * 12 June – The Commonwealth Franchise Act granted most Australian women the right to vote and stand in federal elections.
 * 31 July – A coal gas explosion kills 96 in the Mount Kembla mining disaster
 * 1 August – New Idea magazine is first published.
 * 3 November – Postmaster-General James Drake opens a submarine telegraph cable from Southport, Queensland to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, completing a British Empire communications line.
 * 18 December – The mayors of Sydney and Melbourne are conferred the title of Lord Mayor
 * 26 December – Brisbane is declared a city.
 * 26 December – Ada Evans becomes the first female law graduate in Australia.
 * As a culmination of the Federation Drought, this was by raw totals the driest calendar year averaged over Australia since 1890 with only 314.46 mm (though by area-averaged mean decile it was only eleventh driest).

Unknown dates

 * The world's first successful pyritic smelting takes place at Mount Lyell, Tasmania

Arts and literature

 * 17 September – Opera singer Nellie Melba arrives in Brisbane for her first Australian tour after 16 years in Europe.
 * James White wins the Wynne Prize with his bronze sculpture In Defence of the Flat

Sport

 * 27 September – Collingwood wins the 1902 VFL grand final, defeating Essendon 9.6 (60) to 3.9 (27) at the first final to be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a record crowd of 35,000.
 * 11 November – The Victory wins the Melbourne Cup
 * New South Wales wins the Sheffield Shield

Births

 * 15 January – Dan Dempsey, rugby league footballer (d. 1960)
 * 25 February – Vince Gair, politician (d. 1980)
 * 2 May – Alan Marshall, writer (d. 1984)
 * 22 May – Leslie Herron, Chief Justice of NSW (d. 1973)
 * 12 July – Vic Armbruster, rugby league footballer (d. 1984)
 * 17 July – Christina Stead, writer (d. 1983)
 * 28 July – Albert Namatjira, painter (d. 1959)

Deaths

 * 27 February – Breaker Morant, convicted military officer, bush poet and drover (born in the United Kingdom and died in South Africa) (b. 1864)
 * 6 March – Frederick William Piesse, Tasmanian politician (b. 1848)
 * 24 June – George Leake, 3rd Premier of Western Australia (b. 1856)