1908 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1908 in Australia.

Incumbents

 * Monarch – Edward VII
 * Governor-General – Henry Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote (until 9 September), then William Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley
 * Prime Minister – Alfred Deakin (until 13 November), then Andrew Fisher
 * Chief Justice – Samuel Griffith

State premiers

 * Premier of New South Wales – Charles Wade
 * Premier of South Australia – Thomas Price
 * Premier of Queensland – Robert Philp (until 18 February), then William Kidston
 * Premier of Tasmania – John Evans
 * Premier of Western Australia – Newton Moore
 * Premier of Victoria – (Sir) Thomas Bent

State governors

 * Governor of New South Wales – Admiral Sir Harry Rawson
 * Governor of South Australia – Sir George Ruvthen Le Hunte
 * Governor of Queensland – Frederic Thesiger, 3rd Baron Chelmsford
 * Governor of Tasmania – Sir Gerald Strickland
 * Governor of Western Australia – Admiral Sir Frederick Bedford
 * Governor of Victoria – Major General Sir Reginald Talbot (until 6 July), then Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael (from 27 July)

Events

 * 10 March – Australians Douglas Mawson and Edgeworth David accompanied by Ernest Shackleton and others are the first people to scale Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
 * 30 March – Commonwealth Quarantine service came into operation and took over quarantine stations in every state.
 * 20 April – 44 are killed and 400 injured in the Sunshine train disaster.
 * 7 May – The Coat of Arms of Australia are granted Royal Assent.
 * August – Boys in Australia first participated in the scouting movement, within a year of scouting starting in England
 * 20 August – The Great White Fleet, the first visit by the U.S. Navy to Australia, arrives in Sydney.
 * 8 October – The capital of Australia is chosen, settling a feud between rivals Melbourne and Sydney.
 * 13 November – The Australian Labor Party withdraws its support for the minority government of Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, forcing his replacement with Andrew Fisher.
 * 18 November – The Victorian government passes the Adult Suffrage Bill 1908, granting female suffrage for the first time.
 * 15 December – The Invalid and Old Age Pensions Act is passed, which sets up a national aged pension scheme (except for aliens, Aboriginals and naturalized Asiatics not born in Australia)
 * 29 December – A general election is held in Victoria. The government of Sir Thomas Bent is returned to power.

Science and technology

 * 1 January – The Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology formally commences operation.
 * 3 February – first trans-Tasman radio transmission (via HMS Powerful in Tasman Sea)

Arts and literature

 * 16 May – The Commonwealth Literary Fund is established.
 * Henry Handel Richardson's first novel Maurice Guest is published
 * We of the Never Never by Mrs Aeneas Gunn is published
 * The poem My Country by Dorothea Mackellar first published

Film

 * 2 February – The Limelight Department of the Salvation Army films Grand Memorial Service, a film of the funeral of Major Kenneth McLeod, the Director of the Bayswater Boys' Home. The funeral was held at the Kew Cemetery in Melbourne.

Sport

 * 31 January – Victoria wins the 1907–08 Sheffield Shield.
 * 11 February – Australia regains The Ashes with a 308 run victory over England.
 * 20 April – The first New South Wales Rugby League premiership begins in Sydney.
 * July - The 1908 Interstate rugby league series sees the first ever matches between New South Wales and Queensland
 * 29 August – South Sydney win the grand final to become the first NSWRFL premiers
 * 3 November – Lord Nolan wins the Melbourne Cup.
 * At the 1908 Summer Olympics held in London, Australia forms a team with New Zealand and competes as Australasia. They win a gold medal for rugby football, a silver medal for middleweight boxing, and in swimming a silver medal for men's 400-metre freestyle and bronze medal for men's 1500 metre freestyle  – both won by Frank Beaurepaire.
 * Australia's national rugby league team sets sail for England on the 1908–09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain.

Births

 * 23 February – William McMahon, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1988)
 * 15 May – Kevin Ellis, NSW politician (died 1975)
 * 20 May – Henry Bolte, Premier of Victoria (died 1990)
 * 10 July – John Armstrong, ALP senator (died 1977)
 * 5 August – Harold Holt, 17th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1967)
 * 10 August – Rica Erickson, Australian botanist (died 2009)
 * 26 August – Alexandra Hasluck, author and social historian (died 1993)
 * 27 August – Donald Bradman, cricketer (died 2001)
 * 10 September – Angus Bethune, Premier of Tasmania (died 2004)
 * 17 October – Wally Prigg, rugby league player (died 1980)
 * 3 November – Eddie Scarf, boxer and wrestler (died 1980)

Deaths



 * 14 February – David Syme, newspaper proprietor (b. 1827)
 * 29 February – John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, 1st Governor-General of Australia (born in the United Kingdom and died in France) (b. 1860)
 * 7 March – Alfred William Howitt, anthropologist, explorer, and naturalist (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1830)
 * 23 March – Alexander Paterson, Queensland politician (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1844)
 * 11 May – Charles Kingston, 20th Premier of South Australia (b. 1850)
 * 20 October – Vaiben Louis Solomon, 21st Premier of South Australia (b. 1853)
 * 14 November – Ernest Favenc, explorer, journalist and author (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1845)
 * 18 November – Pierce Galliard Smith, cleric (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1826)