2024 in Australia

Australia-related events during the year of 2024

The following is a list of events including expected and scheduled events for the year 2024 in Australia.

2024 in Australia
MonarchCharles III
Governor-GeneralDavid Hurley, then Sam Mostyn
Prime ministerAnthony Albanese
Population26,473,055 people at 31 March 2023.[1]
Australian of the YearGeorgina Long and Richard Scolyer
ElectionsTasmania, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory, Queensland

←

  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2021
 2024
in
Australia

→

Decades:
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
  • 2020s
  • 2030s
See also:

Incumbents

Monarch

Governor-General

Prime Minister

Deputy Prime Minister

Opposition Leader

Chief Justice

State and territory leaders

Governors and administrators

Events

January

  • 1 January –
    • It becomes illegal to import disposable vapes into Australia.[2]
    • As Victoria transitions to clean energy, the state imposes a ban on natural gas connections for new dwellings, apartment buildings and residential subdivisions.[2]
    • Fortnightly Centrelink payments for welfare recipients increases by approximately 6%.[2]
    • Federal Cabinet documents from 2003 are made public for the first time.[3] Controversy arises when its discovered the Morrison Government failed to hand over some documents relating to Australia's involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the National Archives in 2020 for public release.[4] Anthony Albanese announces an inquiry will be held to find out whether or not the documents were withheld intentionally.[5]
    • A 76-year-old woman is allegedly sexually assaulted by a 29-year-old intruder at an aged care facility in Coffs Harbour.[6] A 29-year-old man is subsequently arrested and appears in Port Macquarie Local Court on 5 January 2024 charged with aggravated sexual assault and breaking and entering with intent.[7]
  • 2 January –
  • 3 January – A 24-year-old man is arrested by New South Wales Police Force Taskforce Magnus detectives and charged with the murder of major Sydney gangland figure Alen Moradian in an underground carpark on 27 June 2023.[10]
  • 4 January – ADF personnel arrive in South East Queensland after being deployed to help the region in the aftermath of severe weather over the Christmas/New Year period.[11] In Far North Queensland, there are also calls for ADF assistance to help with the clean-up following severe weather caused by Cyclone Jasper.[12]
  • 5 January – Queensland premier Steven Miles announces a $5 million funding agreement between the state and federal government which would see discounted flights and accommodation being offered to tourists to entice them back to Far North Queensland following Cyclone Jasper.[13]
  • 6 January – Eight attendees of the Hardmission Festival at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse are hospitalised in a critical condition after suspected MDMA overdoses.[14] Seven of those patients are placed in induced comas.[15]
  • 7 January – A 31-year-old man is arrested after allegedly stabbing four strangers at random in Melbourne throughout the previous night.[16] He is charged with 14 assault offences and one of possessing a controlled weapon.[17]
  • 8 January –
    • A light aircraft with ten people onboard flips and crashes on Lizard Island while attempting to land on the island's runway.[18] Despite some of those onboard sustaining injuries, the nine adults and one child survive.[19]
    • The New South Wales Police Force claim to have dismantled a criminal syndicate allegedly attempting to export more than a million dollars of Australian reptiles, including 257 lizards, to Hong Kong.[20]
  • 9 January – Prime minister Anthony Albanese warns Australian supermarkets to pass on savings to consumers stating: "It's not acceptable to see record profits at a time when people are doing it so tough."[21][22] He announces former Labor minister Craig Emerson will lead a review of the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct while Queensland premier Steven Miles writes to the CEOs of Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and IGA expressing concern about the disparity between retail prices and the amount farmers are paid.[23][24] The Coalition also call for an ACCC inquiry, accusing the supermarkets of imposing excessive retail markups.[25]
  • 10 January –
    • Woolworths Group confirms that Woolworths Supermarkets and Big W will no longer be stocking Australia Day-themed merchandise citing declining sales and the broader discussion about the national holiday.[26] Liberal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton calls for a boycott on Woolworths for its decision.[27][28][29][30]
    • An armed 34-year-old man is shot dead by police after a two-hour siege outside a medical centre in Nowra, New South Wales.[31][32][33]
    • Prime minister Anthony Albanese announces financial support for flood victims in Victoria as Murchison experiences moderate flooding with the Goulburn River peaking at 10.47 metres, with an expected peak of 10.4 metres at Shepparton on 13 January.[34][35]
    • Transport for NSW confirms a park built above the Sydney's Rozelle Interchange has been closed to the public just three weeks after it opened due to the discovery of asbestos in mulch around a children's playground.[36] The discovery prompts an urgent audit to determine the number of other sites which could be affected.[37]
  • 14 January – Mary Donaldson becomes the first Australian-born queen consort of a European monarchy when she is proclaimed Queen of Denmark when her husband Frederik X ascends the throne following the abdication of his mother Margrethe II.[38] The decision to mark the occasion by temporarily replacing the Aboriginal flag with the Danish flag at Parliament House in Hobart sparks criticism from some in Tasmania's Aboriginal community.[39]
  • 15 January –
  • 16 January – A 27-year-old mine worker is killed at BMA's Saraji coal mine near Dysart after he is crushed between a B-double and a utility while working in the fuel-bay area of the mine.[42]
  • 17 January –
    • Severe storm activity in the south-western region of Western Australia causes widespread and lengthy power outages.[43][44]
    • A 33-year-old man and a 26 year-old-man are both charged with murder after the fatal shooting of a 34-year-old man whose body was found by a passing motorist on Yeppoon Road near Rockhampton in the early hours of 17 November 2023.[45][46]
  • 18 January –
    • Workplace Relations minister Tony Burke meets with the Australian Maritime Officers Union and DP World amid an ongoing dispute over pay and conditions which is causing major disruptions at port terminals.[47] Burke refuses to use his ministerial powers to intervene but criticised DP World and accuses the company of acting in bad faith.[48]
    • Two 16-year-old boys are charged with murder following the death of a 33-year-old doctor in the Melbourne suburb of Doncaster after an alleged aggravate burglary on 13 January 2024.[49]
  • 19 January – Queensland premier Steven Miles officially announces a state parliamentary inquiry into grocery prices at the major supermarkets after meeting with executives from Woolworths, Coles and Aldi.[50]
  • 20 January – The MV Bahijah, a live export ship carrying sheep and cattle which departed Fremantle, Western Australia on 5 January is ordered by the Department of Agriculture to return to Australia due to threats against commercial vessels in the Red Sea amid a deteriorating security situation.[51]
  • 21 January – The Victorian Liberal and National opposition announced that they would be withdrawing its support for a state treaty, reversing their previous support for the proposal.[52][53][54][55] This follows the Queensland opposition reversing their support on October 2023.
  • 23 January – Former prime minister Scott Morrison announces his intention to formally resign from parliament, ending his 16-year tenure as the federal Member for Cook.[56] Morrison's departure will trigger a by-election in the safely held Liberal seat of Cook.[57]
  • 24 January –
  • 25 January –
  • 27 January – Queensland state Labor MP Jim Madden resigns from parliament to vie for a position as a local councillor with Ipswich City Council in the 2024 Queensland local elections on 16 March.[65] Madden's resignation triggers the 2024 Ipswich West state by-election which premier Steven Miles recommends to be held on 16 March - the same day as the local elections and the 2024 Inala state by-election.[66]
  • 28 January – Another monument for Captain James Cook is vandalised in Fitzroy North’s Edinburgh Gardens in Melbourne. The stone monument is severely damaged, with vandals cutting through the base, disfiguring the bronze effigy, and spraying “Cook the Colony” on the toppled pillar.[67]
  • 29 January – A 29-year-old woman survives an attack by a bull shark in Sydney Harbour.[68]
  • 30 January – Australian retailer Godfreys enters voluntary administration with the company's 54 stores expected to close as a result.[69]
  • 31 January – A 62-year-old Coen man is charged with murder following the disappearance of a Kowanyama woman, who was last seen in February 2013 aged 23.[70] After the man appears in court via videolink, he is remanded in custody due to appear in court again in April 2024.[70]

February

  • 1 February –
  • 3 February –
    • The bodies of a mother and son, a 76-year-old woman and a 55-year-old man, are discovered after they were allegedly murdered in the Adelaide suburb of Rosewater. A 43-year-old man is subsequently charged with two counts of murder.[74][75]
    • A 70-year-old woman dies after being allegedly stabbed in the chest in front of her six-year-old granddaughter during an alleged robbery at a shopping centre in the Ipswich suburb of Redbank Plains.[76] A 16-year-old boy is subsequently charged with murder.[77]
  • 4 February –
    • 51-year-old Samantha Murphy disappears after leaving her home in Ballarat to go for her regular morning run.[78] Her disappearance triggers a widespread search and appeal from police for CCTV or dashcam vision from the day she disappeared.[79]
    • The body of a 74-year-old man is found in a backyard near Wollongong.[80] The man's 48-year-old son is subsequently arrested and charged with murder.[81]
  • 5 February – Australian writer Yang Hengjun receives a suspended death sentence in Beijing, five years after being charged with spying and imprisoned in China. [82]
  • 6 February – The Australian Parliament returns for the first sitting day of 2024.[83][84]
  • 7 February – Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce is filmed late at night engaged in a conversation on his phone while lying on his back on a footpath in the Canberra suburb of Braddon.[85][86] Joyce said he had fallen to the ground from a plant box he had been sitting on while talking to his wife on the phone while on his way back to his accommodation.[85][86]
  • 8 February – Labor's Right to Disconnect bill passes the Senate but they are forced into an attempt to introduce additional legislation to reverse an amendment which allows for criminal penalties for employers who breach a Fair Work Commission order to stop contacting workers.[87][88]
  • 9 February – Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock appears before a parliamentary hearing for the first time where she says she doesn't agree with the International Monetary Fund that Australia should be lifting interest rates higher.[89]
  • 10 February – Sitting Liberal MP David Honey loses preselection for the next Australian federal election, being defeated by Sandra Brewer.[90]
  • 12 February –
  • 14 February –
  • 15 February – Anthony Albanese releases a joint statement with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon to express their concerns over Israel's plan for a ground offensive in Rafah.[98] The joint statement is issued after Australian foreign minister Penny Wong expresses her own concerns, describing any ground invasion of Rafah as "unjustifiable".[98]
  • 16 February –
    • The Sydney asbestos crisis worsens as the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority confirms bonded asbestos has been discovered in mulch at a Woolworths supermarket in Kellyville, the St John of God Hospital in North Richmond and a park in Wiley Park.[99] The list of contaminated sites now totals more than twenty sites.[100] In each case, the contaminated mulch is traced back to a waste facility in Bringelly.[101]
    • Tropical Cyclone Lincoln crosses the Northern Territory coast between Port McArthur and the Queensland border as a category 1 system, bringing heavy rain to communities near the Gulf of Carpentaria.[102]
    • Two groups of approximately 25 foreign nationals are discovered in Beagle Bay, Western Australia after they are believed to have travelled from Indonesia by boat, prompting Australian Border Force officials to travel to the coastal town to question the men.[103] The arrival of the men prompts federal opposition leader Peter Dutton to accuse Anthony Albanese's government of weakening Australia's border protection arrangements.[104] In turn, Albanese accused Dutton of politicising the incident and undermining the country's border protection regime.[104] Another group of foreign nationals are discovered at a remote campsite north of Beagle Bay the following day.[105]
    • 42-year-old mother of five Rebecca Young is allegedly stabbed to death by her husband who then kills himself in an apparent murder-suicide in the Ballarat suburb of Sebastopol.[106][107]
  • 17 February – Sitting Liberal MP Ian Goodenough loses preselection for the next Australian federal election, being defeated by Vince Connelly.[108]
  • 19 February –
    • Northern Territory Country Liberal MP Joshua Burgoyne is charged by NT Police with careless driving causing serious harm after a two-vehicle accident in Alice Springs on 26 August 2023, and will face court for the first mention of the alleged offence on 4 March 2024.[109]
    • Former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown is arrested for trespassing at a anti-logging protest in Tasmania.[110]
    • Asbestos-contaminated mulch is found at another seven locations in Sydney, bringing the total to 41 separate sites.[110]
  • 20 February –
    • The bodies of a 39-year-old man, his 41-year-old wife and their 7-year-old son are discovered in two separate locations in Sydney.[111] A 49-year-old taekwondo instructor is subsequently charged with murder.[112][113]
    • Queensland Police Service commissioner Katarina Carroll announces she is stepping down from her position on 1 March 2024, five months before her contract expires.[114]
    • Virgin Australia chief executive officer Jayne Hrdlicka announces she is leaving the company but will continue to serve as CEO until a replacement is appointed.[115]
    • Labor senator for Western Australia Louise Pratt announces she will step down at the next Australian federal election citing health reasons.[116]
  • 21 February –
    • Woolworths chief executive officer Brad Banducci announces his intention to retire in September 2024, with Amanda Bardwell to succeed him in the role.[117][118]
    • Qantas appoints John Mullen as chairman to succeed Richard Goyder from July 2024.[119]
    • Christopher Saunders, the former Catholic Bishop of Broome, is arrested in Broome by the WA Police Child Abuse Squad and taken into custody.[120] He is subsequently charged with 19 offences dating back to 2008.[120] Saunders' arrest comes after police raided a Broome property on 15 January 2024.[121]
  • 26 February –
    • Vandals saw through the ankles of a statue of Captain Cook in East Melbourne, toppling it.[122]
    • The Board of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras withdraws their invitation to the NSW Police Force to march in the 2024 Mardi Gras amid the investigation into the alleged murders of television presenter Jesse Baird and his partner Luke Davies.[123][124] The Australian Federal Police confirm the following day that they have made the decision to also withdraw from marching in the Mardi Gras parade.[125]
  • 27 February –
    • Two bodies are found at Bungonia, near Goulburn, New South Wales, likely to be those of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.[126] The bodies are discovered four days after a New South Wales police officer was charged with their murders.[127]
    • More than 30,000 residents in Victoria receive text messages strongly encouraging them to leave their homes due to extreme bushfire risk.[128]
    • Former prime minister Scott Morrison delivers his final speech as a member of the Australian Parliament.[129]
    • The Albanese government's legislation for modifying the stage three tax cuts passes the Senate in an evening sitting.[130]
    • Justice Glenn Martin rules that COVID-19 vaccination mandates for some Queensland frontline workers breached section 58 of the Human Rights Act and declared directives given to Queensland Police Service staff were unlawful.[131] Queensland premier Steven Miles responds by saying the state government was seeking crown law advice but that he stands by the actions taken by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic in Queensland.[132]
  • 28 February – An agreement is reached between the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Board and the NSW Police Force, which sees gay and lesbian liaison police officers permitted to march in the annual parade, but without their uniforms or weapons.[133]
  • 29 February –

March

  • 1 March – An outage occurs at the national Triple Zero centre which is believed to have contributed to the death of a person who suffered a cardiac arrest after their emergency call was unable to be forwarded to paramedics, prompting Telstra to issue an apology.[136] An investigation concludes the incident was caused by a technical fault, a failure in the backup process and a communication error.[137]
  • 2 March –
  • 4 March – Simon Kennedy is selected by the Liberal Party to run as their candidate in the 2024 Cook by-election following the resignation of Scott Morrison.[141]
  • 5 March – A large fire occurs on Jemena's gas pipeline near Bauhinia in Central Queensland which impacts gas supplies to the city of Gladstone.[142]
    • It is reported in the media that soccer player Sam Kerr was charged with "racially aggravated harassment" of a police officer, which allegedly took place in Twickenham on 30 January 2023. She pleads not guilty to the charge. The case is due for trial in February 2025.[143][144] It is later reported that Kerr is alleged to have called the police officer a "stupid white bastard".[145]
  • 6 March –
  • 7 March –
  • 11 March – Fifty people are injured aboard LATAM Airlines Flight 800 after the aircraft suddenly dropped altitude after departing Sydney causing passengers and crew to be thrown to the roof in what LATAM Airlines described as a "technical fault'.[153][154]
  • 13 March:
    • Seven people are found alive in Western Australia after a three-day search, after they became stranded in the outback due to widespread flooding caused by a stationery trough.[155] Police had previously stated they had urgent welfare concerns for the family members when they failed to arrive home in the remote community of Tjuntjuntjara, having departed Kalgoorlie-Boulder on 10 March.[155]
    • A 37-year-old miner is killed while another is critically injured following a rockfall inside the Ballarat Gold Mine in Victoria.[156]
  • 14 March – An Australian woman is one of two foreign tourists killed in Bali when a landslide sweeps away the villa they were staying in.[157]
  • 16 March –
  • 18 March –
  • 19 March – Ahead of the 2024 Tasmanian state election, American actor Leonardo DiCaprio makes an appeal on Instagram for logging in Tasmania to come to an end.[165]
  • 20 March –
    • In an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News, former United States president Donald Trump threatens to oust Australian ambassador Kevin Rudd from his position if he shows any hostility should Trump again become president.[166]
    • Foreign minister Penny Wong meets her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Canberra for the Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue.[167] Prior to Wang's meeting with former prime minister Paul Keating the following day, Wong warns that Keating is "entitled to his views" but that "he does not speak for the government nor the country."[168]
  • 21 March – Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi hosts former Australian prime minister Paul Keating at the China consulate in Sydney.[169]
  • 23 March –
  • 25 March –
    • A British national dies after jumping from the Noosa Sound Bridge in Queensland in an apparent accident.[175]
    • Federal Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey announces he will not be recontesting the next Australian federal election.[176]
  • 26 March –
    • Violence and unrest breaks out in Alice Springs which leads to Northern Territory chief minister Eva Lawler declaring a state of emergency and the introduction of a two-week curfew for under 18's.[177] There are also calls for federal intervention.[178]
    • It is revealed a wild magpie which had been visiting a Gold Coast couple and bonding with their English staffy since they rescued it as a chick in 2020 had been "voluntarily surrendered" to DESI who accused the couple of taking the magpie from the wild and keeping it unlawfully.[179] The magpie's seizure draws widespread condemnation with Queensland premier Steven Miles stating that common sense needed to prevail in this instance and that he would support the authorities to work with the couple so they could obtain the appropriate permits.[180][181][182]
  • 28 March –
  • 30 March –
    • Australian businessman John Singleton takes out a full page advertisement in The Weekend Australian praising Ben Roberts-Smith who in a civil defamation trial in 2023 was found by Justice Anthony Besanko to have murdered four unarmed prisoners in Afghanistan - a finding that Roberts-Smith has appealed in the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia.[189][190][191]
    • An Australian UN UNIFIL observer is among those injured in an Israeli drone strike while patrolling Lebanon's southern border.[192]
  • 31 March –
    • Five people are rescued in a major operation after 26 people became stranded by rapidly rising flooding at a campground at East Leichhardt Dam near Mount Isa.[193][194]
    • A 38-year-old man and a 65-year-old man drown in a hotel pool on the Gold Coast after going to the aid of their two-year-old daughter and granddaughter who had slipped into the pool.[195][196]

April

  • 2 April – Foreign minister Penny Wong confirms an Australian World Central Kitchen aid worker has been killed in an apparent Israeli air strike in Gaza.[197]
  • 3 April – Sam Mostyn is announced as Australia's next Governor-General, succeeding David Hurley.[198] Some right-wing commentators such as Sky News Australia host Chris Kenny and former executive director of the libertarian think tank Institute of Public Affairs, John Roskam,[199] politician Pauline Hanson,[200] and conservative lobby group Advance Australia, criticised the appointment owing to her past activism,[201] which included having referred to Australia Day as "Invasion Day" and support for Australia to become a republic.[202]
  • 4 April – The state member of the Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall announces he will leave the New South Wales Parliament in May to pursue employment in the private sector. Marshall's impending resignation will trigger the 2024 Northern Tablelands state by-election.[203]
  • 4–6 April – Intense torrential rainfall affects parts of New South Wales and Queensland, with the Greater Sydney region, the Mid North Coast and the Illawarra being among the areas worst affected.[204] More than 150 flood rescues are carried out, and two bodies are found in floodwaters in Brisbane and Sydney respectively.[205][206][207] The Warragamba Dam spills over with authorities also expecting the Woronora Dam, Cataract Dam and Nepean Dam to overflow.[208]
  • 9 April –
    • A 21-year-old man appears in the Magistrates Court in Ballarat, Victoria charged with the murder of his 23-year-old ex-partner Hannah McGuire whose body was found in a burnt out car in Scarsdale on 5 April.[209] McGuire's death is the third such death in the Ballarat area allegedly caused by a male perpetrator following the alleged murders of Rebecca Young and Samantha Murphy, which sparks a national conversation about the prevention of violence against women, and the organisation of a snap rally to protest against men's violence.[210][211][212][213]
    • Foreign minister Penny Wong uses a speech at the Australian National University in Canberra to announce that the Australian Government is considering recognising Palestinian statehood, and repeats that the international recognition of Palestine as a state could assist in building momentum towards a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.[214] Her comments provoke widespread debate and criticism.[215][216][217][218]
    • The Tasmania Civil and Administrative Tribunal finds the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart had engaged in direct discrimination after refusing a man entry into the "Ladies Lounge" exhibit during his visit in April 2023.[219] The museum is ordered to stop refusing entry to people who do not identify as "ladies" within 28 days.[219]
  • 13 April –
    • Six people are killed in a mass stabbing at Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney.[220][221] The offender is shot dead by police inspector Amy Scott who is praised for her actions.[222][223][224] John Singleton's daughter Dawn and Kerry Good's daughter Ashlee are among the victims who were fatally stabbed. A security officer who was working at the centre is also stabbed to death.[225][226]
    • The 2024 Cook by-election is held, which is easily won by Liberal candidate Simon Kennedy who achieves 62.61% of the first preference vote, defeating his nearest rival Greens candidate Martin Moore who attracts 16.68% of the first preference vote.[227][228]
  • 15 April –
  • 16 April –
    • Australia's e-safety commissioner Julie Inman Grant orders X and Meta to remove footage of the stabbing of Mar Mari Emmanuel.[234] The order is met with resistance from Elon Musk and prompts a protracted debate about free speech, with Musk refusing to delete the videos although it had blocked the content in Australia.[235][236] A two-day injunction to compel X to hide posts that include the footage of the attack was later extended to 10 May 2024.[237]
    • Outgoing Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci is threatened with jail time after failing to answer a question put to him by Greens senator Nick McKim during a Senate inquiry into supermarket pricing.[238]
    • Authorities report the worst mass coral bleaching incident on the Great Barrier Reef on record.[239]
  • 17 April – New research released by The Australia Institute finds that red imported fire ants will likely cost Australians more than $22 billion by the 2040's if eradications efforts are unsuccessful.[240]
  • 22 April –
    • 28-year-old Molly Ticehurst is found dead at a property in Forbes, New South Wales.[241] A 28-year-old man is subsequently charged with her alleged murder.[241]
    • Steve Gollschewski is named as Queensland's new police commissioner, succeeding Katarina Carroll.[242]
  • 23 April – 49-year-old Emma Bates is found dead at a property in Cobram, Victoria.[243] A 39-year-old man is subsequently charged with her alleged murder.[243]
  • 25 April –
  • 26 April –
    • 30-year-old Erica Hay is found dead in a fire-damaged property in Perth.[248] A 35-year-old man is subsequently charged with her alleged murder.[248]
    • Weekend rallies against gender-based violence commence being held across Australia organised by advocacy group What Were You Wearing, as part of a nationwide campaign to end violence against women.[249] Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's appearance at the rally in Canberra on 28 April ends in controversy when his claims that his requests to speak at the rally had been declined were described by organiser Sarah Williams as a "full out lie" who then breaks down in tears.[250][251]
  • 29 April – A 10-year-old girl is allegedly stabbed to death by her 17-year-old sister in Boolaroo, New South Wales.[252] The older sibling is subsequently arrested and charged with murder.[252]
  • 30 April –

May

  • 1 May – Qantas issues an apology after a data breach allowed customers using the app to see information of other passengers including their names and their upcoming flights.[260]
  • 2 May –
    • A jury takes just 30 minutes to find 36-year-old Portmorseby Cecil guilty of the violent murder of his 71-year-old mother-in-law Sue Duffy, whom he stabbed 15 times with a hunting knife during a fit of rage in Rockhampton on 21 August 2022.[261][262]
    • A 21-year-old man dies after allegedly being stabbed in a beach carpark in Coffs Harbour.[263] A 36-year-old man is subsequently arrested on 3 June 2024 and charged with the alleged murder.[264]
  • 3 May – Mexican authorities in Ensenada, Baja California confirm three bodies have been discovered near where Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend went missing on 27 April.[265]
  • 4 May –
    • Queensland's assistant minister for health Brittany Lauga alleges she was drugged and then sexually assaulted on 28 April 2024 during a night out in Yeppoon, with the alleged incident filmed by bystanders who then post the video on Snapchat.[266]
    • A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife is shot dead by Western Australia Police with a single shot in a Bunnings carpark in the Perth suburb of Willetton after two tasers "didn't have the full desired effect". He was subsequently found to have stabbed another man a short time earlier nearby. Premier Roger Cook later described the boy as having been radicalised online.[267]
  • 5 May – The triennial week-long Beef Australia expo gets underway in Queensland.[268][269]
  • 6 May –
    • The body of a man is discovered off the coast of Sydney after he is earlier reported missing when he goes overboard on the P&O Cruises ship Pacific Adventure.[270][271]
    • In a settlement with the ACCC, Qantas agrees to pay a $100 million fine and to repay $20 million in compensation to customers after allegedly selling tickets for more than 8,000 flights which had already been cancelled.[272]
    • Queensland premier Steven Miles uses Labour Day to announce that the state's public servants will soon be entitled to ten days paid leave to access reproductive health care at a cost of $80 million each year.[273] A pro-Palestine protestor is later arrested for allegedly throwing eggs at Miles during the annual Labour Day March in Brisbane.[274][275]
  • 7 May –
    • Melbourne school Yarra Valley Grammar confirms two of its male students have been expelled following the discovery of an offensive spreadsheet in which female students were ranked on their appearance.[276] A number of other students are also suspensded over the dossier which included references to sexual violence and used the term "unrapeable".[277] Victorian premier Jacinta Allan describes the behaviour of the students as "misogynist, disgraceful, disgusting and utterly unacceptable".[278]
    • The Reserve Bank of Australia announces it will leave the interest rate steady at 4.35%.[279]
  • 8 May –
  • 9 May – Hunter Valley Grammar School attracts criticism and prompts a national debate after their decision to rename their annual Mother's Day stall to "Family Gift Stall".[283][284][285][286]
  • 10 May –
    • Bruce Lehrmann is ordered by the Federal Court of Australia to pay most of Network 10's legal fees following his failed defamation case against the network and journalist Lisa Wilkinson.[287]
    • A tornado hits the Western Australian city of Bunbury causing extensive damage, and causing at least two people to be admitted to hospital.[288][289]
    • Norio Nagata, the vice-speaker of Minokama city assembly in Gifu Prefecture in central Japan resigns after an alleged incident involving the daughter of Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson in which Nagata allegedly sexually harassed her at a karaoke afterparty following a welcome reception on 3 April.[290] Minokamo's mayor Hiroto Fujii had earlier issued an apology to its sister city, which Dickerson accepted.[291]
  • 11 May –
  • 13 May –
    • A 19-year-old man is sentenced to 14 years in jail after pleading guilty to the murder of 41-year-old Emma Lovell during a break-in at her Brisbane home on 26 December 2022, where the man fatally stabbed Lovell.[296]
    • A 53-year-old pilot successfully completes a belly landing at Newcastle Airport after his plane's landing gear fails.[297]
    • An autonomous driverless train loaded with iron ore derails after the train, operated by Rio Tinto, collides with a set of stationery wagons near Karratha prompting the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator to investigate.[298]
  • 14 May –
    • David McBride is sentenced to five years and eight months jail after pleading guilty to stealing and sharing classified military documents, which were then used by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for the program The Afghan Files, to broadcast allegations of Australian soldiers being involved in illegal killings.[299]
    • Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivers the 2024 Australian federal budget.[300]
  • 15 May –
    • The Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal dismisses an appeal against Hobart City Council's decision to remove a statue of Tasmanian premier William Crowther.[301] However before the decision was delivered, vandals had cut the statue down and sprayed graffiti on the plinth.[302]
    • Labor senator Fatima Payman accuses Israel of genocide and calls on her own party to cease trade with Israel.[303] Her comments, particularly her use of the controversial phrase "From the river to the sea" draws widespread condemnation.[304][305][306]
  • 16 May –
    • The Federal Court of Australia rules that federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek does not need to consider environmental impacts of emissions when she gives approvals for gas or coal projects.[307]
    • Australians are urged to reconsider their need to travel to New Caledonia after violent riots break out in the French territory.[308] Foreign minister Penny Wong later states that Australia is working with authorities to assess options to ensure the safe return of Australians who are stranded in New Caledonia.[309]
  • 18 May –
  • 19 May –
    • It's revealed that six soldiers serving at RAAF Base Richmond tested positive to illicit drugs just days before special forces soldier Jack Fitzgibbon was killed during parachute training on 6 March 2024.[312]
    • A New South Wales police officer on traffic duty near Sydney's Hyde Park is allegedly stabbed in the head by a 34-year-old man.[313] The officer is treated for non-life threatening injuries at the scene before being taken to St Vincent's Hospital.[313]
    • Six people are arrested in Melbourne after pro-Palestinian protestors descend on the pro-Israel "Stop the Hate, Mate" rally held on the steps of Parliament House and organised by a Christian group called Never Again is Now.[314]
    • The bodies of a 38-year-old man and a two-year-old boy are discovered in Lismore, New South Wales after a suspected murder-suicide.[315]
  • 21 May –
    • Telstra confirms it plans to sack 2,800 people in a cost-cutting measure, with most of the jobs to be axed at the end of 2024.[316]
    • Eight Australians are among the 18 passengers hospitalised after sustaining injuries aboard Singapore Airlines Flight 321 when the aircraft hit severe clear-air turbulence enroute from London to Singapore, killing a 73-year-old British passenger.[317] Among the 211 passengers, there were 56 Australians on board the aircraft during the incident.[317]
    • The first group Australians stranded in New Caledonia are successfully evacuated by the Royal Australian Air Force.[318]
  • 22 May –
    • Supreme Court judge Elizabeth Hollingworth sentences 52-year-old Sven Linderman to 31 years in jail for killing his girlfriend Monique Lezsak in front of her 10-year-old-daughter in May 2023.[319]
    • Agriculture Victoria confirms the H7N3 strain of avian influenza has been detected at an egg farm in Victoria, forcing hundreds of thousands of chickens to be euthanased.[320] The Victorian Department of Health also confirm there had previously been a human case of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza after a child returning from overseas tested positive in March, but who has since recovered.[321]
  • 23 May – An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.9 occurs in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales.[322]
  • 24 May – 59-year-old Jennifer Petelczyc and her 18-year-old daughter Gretl are murdered by 63-year-old Mark James Bombara who then shoots himself dead in the Perth suburb of Floreat.[323] Bombara's daughter subsequently accuses WAPOL of repeatedly ignoring her requests for help with her father.[324] Federal social services minister Amanda Rishworth also describes the response from WAPOL prior to the murders as "inadequate."[325]
  • 30 May – The "Keep the Sheep" campaign is launched by Western Australia's agricultural sector, protesting the Federal Government's decision to end live sheep exports.[326] The campaign's launch is preceded by a large protest rally in Perth the following day in which trucks and farm vehicles were used to bring traffic to a crawl in the Perth CBD.[327]

June

  • 1 June –
    • Deputy prime minister Richard Marles is confronted by officers from China's People's Liberation Army at the Shangri-La Dialogue conference in Singapore after they took issue with Marles' speech.[328]
    • An explosion destroys a townhouse in the Western Sydney suburb of Whalan, trapping a woman and causing injuries to five others.[329] The woman's body is eventually found by rescue crews in the early hours of 3 June.[330]
    • The body of a 28-year-old hiker is discovered in Tasmania, having been last seen on 29 May 2024 while hiking at Frenchmans Cap.[331]
    • Three teenagers whose vehicle became bogged are rescued from a remote beach on Western Australia's Mid West Coast after a pilot spots a distress message they had written in the sand prompting him to contact the authorities, with a second pilot also spotting the message.[332]
    • A severe storm hits Bunbury in Western Australia causing extensive damage to the city.[333]
  • 2 June –
    • The body of a 78-year-old woman is discovered at a Canberra townhouse with police treating her death as a domestic violence incident.[334]
    • The body of Natasha Ryan is discovered on a golf course in Rockhampton.[335] Police say there are no suspicious circumstances.[335]
    • The body of a 64-year-old man is discovered in the Northern Territory, after he went missing while hiking along the Larapinta Trail.[336]
    • Human remains discovered by police during an unrelated operation in the Blue Mountains on 30 April 2024 and 27 May 2024 are identified as belonging to Geelong woman Kellie Ann Carmichael who disappeared on 29 April 2001.[337][338]
    • The bodies of a woman and a man are discovered at a property at Albany Creek near Brisbane in a suspected murder-suicide.[339]
    • A man is killed when the e-scooter he was riding collides with a ute near Newcastle.[340]
    • The body of a 61-year-old woman is discovered in the Perth suburb of Byford. Her 33-year-old son is subsequently arrested approximately 200 kilometres away in Bindi Bindi. [341]
  • 3 June –
    • P&O Cruises Australia announces it will be ceasing operations in 2025 when it is folded into its parent company Carnival Cruise Line.[342]
    • Federal member for Gilmore Fiona Phillips announces she will be taking extended leave to recover from surgery to remove a large oral tumour.[343]
  • 4 June –
  • 6 June –
    • The National Anti-Corruption Commission announces it will not pursue new corruption investigations into six public officials associated with the Robodebt scheme, despite receiving referrals from Catherine Holmes following the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme.[346]
    • Queensland deputy coroner Stephanie Gallagher finds that the 2017 death of Contance Watcho was "suspicious" but there was insufficient evidence to identify anyone involved in her death.[347]
    • A 16-year-old girl who tortured a 13-year-old girl for four hours on 11 March 2023 in Tewantin while filming it and then uploading it to social media is sentenced in the Maroochydore District Court to two years' detention, wholly suspended with a conditional release order, and ordered to do 160 hours of community service but without a conviction being recorded.[348]
  • 7 June –
  • 9 June –
  • 10 June – The United States Consulate General in Sydney is vandalised by a pro-Palestinian activist.[354]
  • 11 June –
    • Victoria Police confirm a teenage boy had been arrested and then released pending further inquiries during their investigation into the circulation of obscene deepfake photographs depicting approximately 50 female students in years 9 to 12 from Bacchus Marsh Grammar School.[355] Victorian premier Jacinta Allan condemns the actions of the alleged perpetrators.[356]
    • Federal Liberal MP Gavin Pearce announces he will not be recontesting the next Australian federal election.[357]
  • 12 June –
  • 13 June –
    • 35-year-old Tobias Sahlstorfer is sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 36-year-old Mark Boyce in the Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth South in January 2017.[362] Sahlstorfer is the second person to be sentenced for Boyce's murder, with Joshua Roy Grant also sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2019 with a non-parole period of 20 years.[363]
    • The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal dismisses an appeal by former teacher Chris Dawson who appealed against his conviction for murdering Lynette Sims.[364]
    • It's announced an independent inquiry will be held into the National Anti-Corruption Commission's decision not to pursue new investigations into public officials associated with the Robodebt scheme despite receiving referrals from Catherine Holmes following the Royal Commission.[365]
  • 15 June – It's reported approximately 300 executive positions from Transport for NSW are expected to be abolished over a period of three years.[366]
  • 16 June – Several hundred protestors gather outside Adelaide Zoo during a visit by Chinese premier Li Qiang who announces two new pandas will be loaned to the zoo when Wang Wang and Fu Ni return to China.[367]
  • 17 June –
  • 18 June – Former treasurer of New South Wales Matt Kean announces his resignation from politics.[370] Prime Minister Anthony Albanese subsequently announces Kean as the new chair of the Climate Change Authority.[371]
  • 19 June –
    • The Melbourne office of Labor MP Josh Burns is extensively damaged by pro-Palestinian protestors who vandalise the office by smashing windows, pouring paint and starting fires.[372] Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemns the attack and said the targeting of a Jewish MP was "very distressing".[372]
    • Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton and the Liberal party reveal seven sites for their proposed Nuclear power plants.[373][374][375]
    • A delegation of Australian senior ministers including Richard Marles, Penny Wong and Pat Conroy arrive in Papua New Guinea at attend the 30th Ministerial Forum in Port Moresby.[376] During the visit, Australia announces a range of initiatives under a bilateral security agreement with Papua New Guinea.[377]
    • A jury finds 33-year-old Justin Laurens Stein guilty of murdering 9-year-old Charlise Mutten in January 2022.[378]
    • A 34-year-old woman is allegedly shot and killed as she sat in her own vehicle with her two children in her driveway in the Queensland city of Mackay.[379] A 31-year-old man is subsequently charged with her murder, and the attempted murder of neighbour who attempted to render assistance.[379]
  • 20 June –
  • 21 June – The bodies of a man and a woman with gunshot wounds are discovered on an isolated walking track near Wreck Beach in Victoria but police say there are not treating the deaths as suspicious.[384][385]
  • 23 June – Adelaide's Westfield Marion shopping centre in Adelaide is sent into a lockdown when two group of teenage boys allegedly start brawling in the food court, with some armed with extendable batons and a machet.[386] Two teenage boys are later arrested and charged with assault, affray and aggravated robbery.[387]
  • 24 June – South Australia's so-called "bicycle bandit", 73-year-old former police officer and firefighter Kym Allen Parsons is sentenced in the Supreme Court to 35 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 28 years after admitting to carrying out eleven armed robberies across the state between 2004 and 2014, stealing nearly $359,000.[388] However, he dies two days later on 26 June 2024 after having been granted access to voluntary assisted dying.[389]
  • 25 June –
    • WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is freed from HM Prison Belmarsh in the United Kingdom after agreeing to plead guilty to one charge of breaching the espionage law in the United States in a deal which allows him to return home to Australia.[390][391]
    • The bodies of two men, a woman and a teenage boy are discovered at a property in the Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows.[392] Police say they don't believe the deaths to be suspicious.[392]
    • 57-year-old former Jetstar pilot Greg Lynn is found guilty by a jury of murdering 73-year-old Carol Clay in Victoria's Wonnangatta Valley in 2020.[393] However, the jury acquits him of murdering 74-year-old Russell Hill.[393]
    • Labor senator Fatima Payman risks expulsion from her party when she crosses the floor to vote against Labor when the Australian Greens move a motion calling for the senate to recognise the State of Palestine.[394] Payman later reveals she had been rebuked by Anthony Albanese during a "stern but fair" conversation, who also bars her from Labor caucus meetings during the current parliamentary sitting as punishment.[395]
  • 26 June – Julian Assange arrives back in Australia, with his plane touching down in Canberra just after 7:30pm, after which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese phones Assange to welcome him home.[396]
  • 27 June – Two teenagers who attacked former rugby union player Toutai Kefu, his wife and their two adult children during a home invasion in August 2021 are sentenced to seven years and eight years in custody respectively.[397]
  • 28 June –
    • A large street brawl erupts in Halls Creek, Western Australia with police alleging up to 60 people were involved in the "out of control gathering" prompting extra officers to be flown into the town to assist.[398] Police allege up to 40 of the people involved in the brawl were armed with sticks, stones, bricks, knives and metal bars.[398] By Sunday morning, nine people had been charged for offences relating to being armed and the failure to follow orders from police.[398]
    • A woman aged in her 50's dies in Mighell, Queensland after an alleged domestic violence related stabbing.[399] Her 51-year-old defacto partner is subsequently charged with murder.[399]
  • 29 June –
  • 30 June –
    • At least three people are killed when a Greyhound Australia coach carrying 33 people collides with a car towing a caravan on the Bruce Highway near the town of Gumlu.[403]
    • Labor senator Fatima Payman confirms she has now been indefinitely suspended from the Labor caucus following an interview on ABC TV's Insiders program where she said she would cross the floor again if need be.[404] A Labor spokesperson confirms that Payman had been suspended because she had placed herself outside the privilege" of participating in the caucus but would be permitted to return when she decides to respect the caucus and her colleagues.[404]

July

  • 1 July –
  • 2 July –
    • Australia issues statements to several social media and search engine websites commanding them to draft and enforce guidelines to prevent minors from seeing inappropriate material by 3 October, or else the companies will face national restrictions.[407]
    • A man who stole Nick Kyrgios' car after holding Kyrios' mother at gunpoint is sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court to more than four years jail after earlier pleading guilty to offences including robbery with an offensive weapon.[408]
    • A 12-year-old girl goes missing near Palumpa, Northern Territory after reportedly being attacked by a crocodile.[409] The human remains belonging to the girl are located by Northern Territory Police on 4 July 2024.[410]
  • 3 July –
    • A woman's body is discovered at a tip in the Melbourne suburb of Epping, triggering a homicide investigation.[411]
    • Australian online bookseller Booktopia enters voluntary administration.[412][413]
  • 4 July –
  • 5 July – A 24-year-old man dies in a workplace accident at a joinery business in Roma, Queensland.[417]
  • 6 July –
    • Papua New Guinea petroleum minister Jimmy Maladina is arrested in Sydney and charged with an alleged domestic assault offence following an alleged altercation with a 31-year-old woman in Bondi.[418]
    • A man is shot dead by police after allegedly approaching officers with a knife at a police station in Townsville.[419]
    • The annual NAIDOC Awards are held in Adelaide, where Muriel Bamblett is named NAIDOC Person of the Year and Dulcie Flower receives the Lifetime Achievement Award.[420]
  • 7 July –
    • A 10-month-old girl and two boys, aged 2 and 4, die in a house fire in the Sydney suburb of Lalor Park.[421] Four other children aged between 6 and 11 as well as a 29-year-old woman are taken to hospital.[421] A 28-year-old man is subsequently arrested and placed into custody and under police guard in hospital.[421]
    • Four off duty NT police officers are allegedly assaulted by a group of approximately 20 youths in Alice Springs.[422] This incident coupled with several other violent incidents in the town prompt the Northern Territory's police commissioner to implement a three-night curfew for both children and adults.[423]
    • A 24-year-old man serving as an infantry team leader for the Ukrainian Foreign Legion becomes the seventh Australian killed while fighting in Russo-Ukrainian War following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[424]
    • During an appearance on ABC TV's Insiders, deputy leader of the Greens Mehreen Faruqi repeatedly refuses to answer a question about whether terrorist organisation Hamas should be dismantled.[425][426]
    • Bill Shorten confirms sex work will no longer be funding through the NDIS under planned reforms.[427]
    • During an appearance on Network 10's The Project, former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull describes current Liberal leader Peter Dutton as a "thug" having also described Dutton as a "thug" in the 2024 ABC series Nemesis.[428][429]
  • 10 July –
    • The three bodies of an Australian couple and a family member are discovered dead at a luxury resort at Tagaytay in the Philippines in a suspected murder.[430]
    • Violence continues in Alice Springs with approximately 50 people being involved in an afternoon brawl outside a Coles supermarket.[431] Three men and two teenage females are arrested and a number of weapons seized including spears, nulla nullas, a baseball bat and a machete.[431]
    • A Fraser Coast Regional Council staff member threatens to call the police on One Nation leader Pauline Hanson for doing a live interview with Sky News Australia while standing next to a statue of Mary Poppins in the Queensland city of Maryborough.[432] Fraser Coast deputy mayor Paul Truscott and CEO Ken Diehm both apologise to Hanson the following day with Truscutt describing the request as "unfounded" due to the fact that the statue is located in a public place.[433]
  • 11 July –
  • 12 July –
    • Less than four months after winning the 2024 Ipswich West state by-election, Darren Zanow announces he won't be recontesting his seat at the 2024 Queensland state election due to being diagnosed with an incurable brain disease.[436]
    • John Setka resigns as secretary of the Victorian branch of the CFMEU, citing pressure from "relentless" media coverage.[437] Setka's resignation came just before Nine newspapers published serious allegations of corruption within the CFMEU.[438] Federal workplace relations minister Tony Burke indicates he sought advice on how to respond to the allegations.[439]
  • 13 July –
  • 14 July –
    • Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, federal opposition leader Peter Dutton, ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd, and former prime ministers Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott are among current and former Australian leaders who condemn the attempted assassination former president Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.[442][443]
    • The bodies of a man and a woman are discovered in Melbourne's Maribyrnong River but Victoria Police don't believe the deaths are linked.[444] While police believe the woman's death to be suspicious and is being investigated by the Homicide Squad, the man's death is believed to be non-suspicious.[445] Despite the bodies being found within 90 minutes of each other approximately 1.7 kilometres apart, police say there is nothing to link the two deaths.[445]
  • 15 July –
    • Victorian premier Jacinta Allan says she has asked Labor's national executive to suspend the construction division of the CFMEU from the Victorian Labor Party following allegations of serious misconduct.[446] Allan describes the allegations as "thuggish and appalling" and which she says have been referred to Victoria Police and the IBAC.[446] National CFMEU secretary Zach Smith also confirms the Victorian branch would be placed into administration as he establishes an independent process to investigate the allegations, which will be overseen by a "leading legal figure".[446]
    • Queensland police discover the body of a 28-year-old woman with multiple stab wounds at a home in the Ipswich suburb of Leichhardt.[447] A 36-year-old man is subsequently charged with the woman's murder.[447]
    • After a four-week trial in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court, three men are found guilty of multiple charges relating to the gang rape of three young women at an Airbnb apartment in Newcastle during a bucks party weekend in 2022.[448]
    • The Australian Government confirms King Charles III and Queen Camilla will visit Australia in October 2024.[449]
    • During his weekly spot on local radio station 4RO, Queensland Labor MP Barry O'Rourke admits he uses the electoral roll to obtain addresses of people who leave negative comments on his Facebook page so he can visit them in person, which prompts accusations of intimidation from federal LNP MP Michelle Landry and One Nation's James Ashby.[450][451] However, premier Steven Miles defends O'Rourke, describing it as "a entirely appropriate use of the electoral roll."[452]
  • 17 July –
    • The allegations of serious misconduct within the CFMEU continues to have repercussions with federal workplace minister Tony Burke asking the Australian Federal Police to investigation the allegations, describing the alleged conduct as "abhorrent" and "intolerable."[453] The ACTU also suspends the construction and general division of the CFMEU as it calls on its members to support the appointment of an independent administrator.[454] New South Wales premier Chris Minns also moves to suspend the union from the NSW Labor Party and seeks to stop the party receiving donations from the union.[455] Anthony Albanese also confirms the Queensland branch will also affected by the decision to appoint an administrator.[456]
    • A memorial service is held near Amsterdam to commemorate the 10th anniversary of when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing 298 people including 38 Australians.[457]
    • Fortescue Mining announces that approximately 700 of its staff are to be made redundant.[458]
  • 18 July –
    • The Australian Labor Party's national executive cuts ties with the CFMEU's construction division, suspending the affiliation with the New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmanian branches of the ALP.[459]
    • Electronic prescription provider MediSecure confirms the personal data of 12.9 million Australians were stolen in the large scale data breach earlier in the year.[460]
    • The ATSB releases its final report into the collision of two Viper S-211 Marchetti planes above Port Phillip Bay in November 2023 in which pilot Stephen Gale and camera operator James Rose were killed.[461]
  • 19 July –
    • A major IT network outage occurs in Australia and globally affecting a large number of companies and services.[462]
    • Former New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet announces he is leaving parliament to take up a position as BHP's United States head of corporate and external affairs.[463]
    • A 23-year-old woman dies after allegedly being deliberately struck by a four-wheel-drive in Daisy Hill, south of Brisbane.[464] A 24-year-old woman is subsequently charged with murder.[464]
  • 21 July – A 40-year-old man and one of his twin two-year-old daughters are killed at Sydney's Carlton railway station after the pram carrying the twin girls rolled onto the tracks and into the path of an oncoming train. New South Wales premier Chris Minns describes it as "a very confronting and sad day."[465]
  • 22 July – Two Australian broadcast technicians in France for the Nine Network's Olympics coverage are allegedly assaulted in Le Bourget.[466]
  • 23 July –
    • French police confirm they are investigation allegations that a 25-year-old Australian woman was allegedly gang raped by five men in Paris in the early hours of 20 July.[467]
    • A 23-year-old surfer has his leg severed in a shark attack on the New South Wales Mid North Coast near Port Macquarie.[468] He is flown to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle in a stable but critical condition.[469]
  • 24 July –
    • Four teenagers are sentenced to between 17 and 19.5 years imprisonment for the 2022 murder of 16-year-old Declan Cutler in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir after they were all found guilty following a judge-only trial in February 2024.[470]
    • The body of a 27-year-old bushwalker is discovered by search crews near one of the approaches to Tasmania's Federation Peak.[471] Police confirm the man appears to have died after an apparent significant fall, with the body unable to be retrieved until windy conditions ease.[471]
    • Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath lodges an appeal over the sentences handed down to two teenagers who attacked Toutai Kefu and his family in 2021, with D'Ath stating that it is being lodged "on the grounds the sentences imposed were manifestly inadequate."[472]
    • It's confirmed the wreckage of the MV Noongah, which sank in 1969 with the loss of 21 lives, has been discovered off the coast of South West Rocks, New South Wales.[473]
  • 25 July –
    • Two pilots die when their helicopters collide on a cattle station near Camballin, Western Australia.[474]
    • Federal cabinet ministers Linda Burney and Brendan O'Connor announce they are retiring and will not recontest the next Australian federal election.[475]
    • A former coal miner becomes the first Australian to win a black lung disease case at trial and is awarded $3.2 million in damages after being diagnosed with pneumoconiosis in 2018, having worked in coal mines in New South Wales and Queensland.[476]
    • The Federal Court of Australia rules that there is insufficient evidence that weedkiller Roundup causes cancer, dismissing a major class action against parent companies Monsanto and Bayer.[477]
  • 28 July –
    • Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reshuffles his cabinet due to the impending retirements of Linda Burney and Brendan O'Connor, which sees senator Malarndirri McCarthy succeed Burney as the minister for Indigenous affairs while Andrew Giles is moved to the skills and training portfolio.[478] Clare O'Neil also moves to the housing portfolio.[478]
    • Roughly 40 members of the Victorian chapter of the far-right National Socialist Network hold a flash rally, where they marched from Melbourne’s Fed Square to Flinders Street Station, clad in all black and carrying a large "Mass Deportations Now" banner. One person was "arrested at the scene and was interviewed for grossly offensive public conduct,” a spokesperson for Victoria Police said. [479][480]
  • 29 July –
    • Sakina Muhammad Jan becomes the first person to be jailed under Australia's forced marriage laws, after ordering her 21-year-old daughter to wed a man who later murdered her.[481]
    • Rex Airlines enters a trading halt, with speculation that the company is seeking voluntary administration. This sparked comparisons with Bonza, who was collapsed and wound up later in the year.[482] Rex later suspended ticket sales, with plans to exit back out of the metropolitan market and/or appoint EY as administrators.[483]
    • Twenty Carls Jr. restaurants in Australia close immediately after the company's Australian licensee entered voluntary administration.[484]
  • 30 July –
    • Victoria's health department confirms 33 people have been diagnosed with Legionnaire's Disease within an outbreak affecting the northern and western suburbs of Melbourne.[485]
    • A woman in her 90's is the first person to die in the Legionnaire's Disease outbreak in Melbourne.[486]
  • 31 July – Billson's Brewery enters administration.[487] Thirty staff at the company are made redundant.[488]

August

  • 1 August –
    • A man aged in his 60's becomes the second person to die in Melbourne's Legionnaires' disease outbreak.[489]
    • Foreign minister Penny Wong advises Australians in Lebanon to leave immediately as tensions increase between Israel and Hezbollah following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.[490]
    • Controversy arises when it emerges an Officeworks employee in the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick had denied service to a Jewish man in March 2024, refusing to laminate an article from The Australian Jewish News because she was "pro-Palestine."[491][492] Officeworks apologises, stating their polices were incorrectly applied and that the staff member had undergone education regarding discrimination which included resources from the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.[493]
    • The Queensland Government's ban on new gas exploration throughout the Channel Country comes into effect, stopping any new fracking projects after amendments were made to the Regional Planning Interest Regulation Act 2014.[494]
  • 2 August –
  • 3 August –
    • Northern Territory police commissioner Michael Murphy uses a speech at the Garma Festival to publicly apologise to "Aboriginal Territorians for the past harms and the injustices caused by members of the Northern Territory police."[497]
    • A 40-year-old Newcastle man falls into the Annan River near Cooktown, Queensland while walking along the riverbank and fails to resurface.[498] Human remains are later found in a crocodile which had been euthanased by wildlife officers.[498]
  • 5 August – Prime minister Anthony Albanese announces that the government has elevated Australia's terrorism threat from "possible" to "probable" but that it did not mean a terrorist attack was "inevitable."[499]
  • 6 August –
  • 7 August –
    • A 4.1 magnitude earthquake occurs at Woods Point, Victoria just before 4:00am, with seismologists concluding that it was an aftershock from the 2021 Mansfield earthquake.[502]
    • The water temperature around the Great Barrier Reef is reported to have reached a 400-year record high, which is causing more mass bleaching events.[503]
    • QantasLink announces it will cut a total of 51 jobs at its maintenance facility in the New South Wales city of Tamworth, as it ends heavy maintenance operations due to the phasing out of Q200 and Q300 aircraft which are being replaced by additional and Q400 aircraft.[504] The announcement angers federal member for New England Barnaby Joyce.[505]
    • The Department of Industry, Science and Resources is charged in the ACT Magistrates Court with one count of breaching work, health and safety laws after an alleged incident in July 2022 involving a 9-year-old child who allegedly received burns when their hands caught fire upon touching a plasma globe in a Questacon gallery after using alcohol-based hand sanitiser, with the matter scheduled to be mentioned on 12 September.[506]
  • 8 August –
    • 53-year-old crocodile expert Adam Britton is sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court to more than ten years imprisonment, after having earlier pled guilty to 56 charges relating to the rape, torture and murder of more than 42 dogs between 2014 and April 2022.[507] He also admitted to four charges of accessing child exploitation material.[507]
    • South Australian opposition leader David Speirs resigns from the Liberal Party leadership but will continue to serve in state parliament as the member for Black.[508]
    • A 48-year-old Australian man dies in Indonesia after hitting his head on a reef while surfing in North Sumatra, with DFAT confirming they are providing assistance to the man's family.[509]
  • 9 August – With 107 confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease in Melbourne, Victoria's chief health officer Clare Looker confirms all cases in the outbreak are linked to a cooling tower in the suburb of Laverton North.[510]
  • 10 August – A 24-year-old man is allegedly stabbed at a caravan park in Hervey Bay on Queensland's Fraser Coast, and later dies from his injuries.[511] A 14-year-old girl is subsequently charged with his alleged murder.[511]

Future and scheduled events

Sport

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

Holidays

Australian Capital Territory

Source:[703]

Art and entertainment

January

February

March

April

May

June

  • 3 June – The Fair Work Commission finds that journalist Antoinette Lattouf was sacked by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation when she was taken off air while she was a fill-in host on ABC Radio Sydney's Mornings program in December 2023.[757] The Fair Work Commission rejected the ABC's claim that Lattouf wasn't sacked as she had been paid for the full week.[757]
  • 7 June –
  • 8 June – Attendees of Vivid Sydney's Love is in the Air drone show claim they felt trapped after a larger than expected amount of spectators gathered at Circular Quay to watch.[760]
  • 12 June – It's reported News Corp Australia will be making up to 40% of its sales staff redundant amidst a corporate restructure of the company.[761]
  • 15 June – American comedian Jerry Seinfeld commences a national tour, with the first of his seven Australian stand up shows held in Perth.[762] At some of his Australian shows, Seinfeld encounters pro-Palestine protestors.[763][764]
  • 16 June – Through his lawyers, Robert Irwin threatens production company StepMates Studios with legal action if a two-minute cartoon they produced for Pauline Hanson's One Nation's YouTube Channel is not taken down.[765] Depicting Irwin guiding Bluey on a mock tour of Queensland, Irwin's lawyers claim the cartoon is defamatory and features the unauthorised and deceptive use of Irwin's image.[765] However, Pauline Hanson defends the cartoon and indicates that it won't be taken down.[766]

July

August

Television

January

  • 14 January –
  • 15 January – Network 10's rebooted Gladiators hosted by Beau Ryan and Liz Ellis premieres.[782]
  • 19 January - The Nine Network announces former A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw will co-host medical documentary series Do You Want To Live Forever?[783] Nine also reveals Nine News reporters Dimity Clancy and Adam Hegarty are joining 60 Minutes.[784]
  • 24 January – Andrew O'Keefe, the former host of Deal or No Deal, The Chase Australia and Weekend Sunrise, is found guilty of common assault, common assault occasioning actual bodily harm, breaching an AVO and drug possession after assaulting his former partner during an argument in 2021.[785]
  • 28 January – After succeeding Kay McGrath in January 2020, Katrina Blowers anchors her final weekend edition of Seven News Brisbane and is succeeded by Samantha Heathwood.[786][787] Blowers and Heathwood both succeed Kendall Gilding as anchors of the 4pm weekday edition.[788]
  • 29 January –
    • The first edition of 10 News First: Afternoon goes to air on Network 10 presented by Narelda Jacobs.[789]
    • The Australian version of Tipping Point hosted by Todd Woodbridge debuts on the Nine Network.[790]
    • Seven's game show The Chase Australia hosted by Larry Emdur introduces a "Double Trouble" format.[791]
    • Deal or No Deal is revived by Network 10, hosted by Grant Denyer.[792]
    • The ninth season of Australian Idol debuts on the Seven Network.[793]
    • Australian Survivor: Titans V Rebels hosted by Jonathan LaPaglia debuts on Network 10.[794]
    • The eleventh season of Married at First Sight debuts on the Nine Network.[795]
    • Nine News Melbourne airs an photoshopped image of Victorian state MP Georgie Purcell which appears to enlarge her breasts and expose her midriff.[796] After Purcell accuses Nine of sexism, they issues an apology blaming automation from Photoshop during resizing.[797][798]

February

  • 2 February –
    • A collaboration between BBC Studios/Ludo Studio and Australian hardware chain Bunnings is officially launched, which sees six Bunnings stores temporarily rebranded to Hammerbarn, in homage to a 2020 Bluey episode, "Hammerbarn".[799][800]
    • Better Homes and Gardens returns to the Seven Network for its 30th season.[801]
  • 4 February – Insiders returns to ABC TV with the first guest for 2024 being the Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.[802][803]
  • 16 February – The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's ombudsman clears Indigenous Affairs editor Bridget Brennan of breaching impartiality standards during a live cross to News Breakfast on Australia Day in which she used the phrase "always was and always will be Aboriginal land", which prompted 25 complaints.[804][805]
  • 18 February – Former Totally Wild and Studio 10 reporter and Gamify host Jesse Baird and his partner Luke Davies disappear.[806][807] A 28-year-old New South Wales police officer, who Baird previously dated, is subsequently charged with their murders.[806]
  • 19 February – An episode of ABC TV's Four Corners attracts attention after Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci attempts to have comments he made about former ACCC chair Rod Sims edited out, before momentarily walking away when Grigg refused.[808]

March

  • 2 March – The Seven Network announces Simon Cohen, Rosie Morley and Lana Taylor as the judges on its upcoming home renovation reality program Dream Home hosted by Chris Brown.[809]
  • 8 March – Network 10 reboots Ready Steady Cook as a weekly Friday night program hosted by Miguel Maestre.[810]
  • 15 March – The Nine Network's director of news and current affairs Darren Wick officially announces he is leaving the network after 29 years, stating "I'm tired and need a rest."[811]
  • 19 March – Feras Basal becomes the first Arab Australian to win Australian Survivor, winning the eleventh season Titans Vs Rebels.[812]
  • 22 March –
  • 24 March –
    • The tenth season of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! premieres on Network 10, hosted by Julia Morris and new co-host Robert Irwin.[816]
    • Australian Idol judge Marcia Hines is taken to hospital after collapsing in her dressing room prior to the show going to air.[817]
  • 25 March – The finale of Australian Idol's ninth season airs on the Seven Network, which is won by Dylan Wright who beats out Amy Reeves and Denvah Baker-Moller.[818]

April

May

  • 1 May – Southern Cross Television in Tasmania is issued with a breach notice by the Australian Communications and Media Authority after a viewer complained about poor closed captioning for the hearing impaired while watching the 9 November 2023 edition of Nightly News 7 Tasmania.[832][833]
  • 7 May – Network 10 confirms The Bachelor Australia and The Masked Singer Australia won't be airing in 2024.[834]
  • 8 May – It's announced Mildura Digital Television which carries Network 10 into the Sunraysia region of Victoria will be shutting down on 30 June 2024 with its owners the Seven Network and WIN Television preparing to hand back the licence to the ACMA, citing unprofitability.[835]
  • 9 May – The Australian Broadcasting Corporation announces that the ABC TV Plus and ABC Me digital multi-channels will be rebranded to ABC Family and ABC Entertains from June.[836] ABC Kids programming will continue to air on Channel 22 throughout the day before ABC Family commences airing family-friendly content from 7:30pm each night.[836]
  • 10 May – Network 10 announces the celebrity contestants which will make up the cast for the next The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition series. Among the cast are Tai Tuivasa, Billy Brownless, Brooke McClymont, Adam Eckersley, Chloe Logarzo, Emily Gielnik, Havana Brown, Jett Kenny, Luke McGregor, Natalie Bassingthwaite, Peter Hellier and Ian Thorpe.[837]
  • 19 May – It's revealed that the Nine Network's veteran news director Darren Wick left the company in March 2024 after a complaint was made by a female staff member alleging inappropriate behaviour.[838] This prompts other women to come forward and make further claims about Wick's alleged behaviour.[839][840][841] Nine Entertainment subsequently acknowledges the claims of Wick's alleged inappropriate behaviour.[842] The company sends a letter to all employees admitting the trauma some staff had experienced and informs them an external review will be undertaken of the television news and current affairs division, with staff also asked to complete refreshed sexual harassment prevention training by the end of June.[842]
  • 21 May – Australian comedian Marty Fields confirms his family is considering changing the phrasing on a plaque in Melbourne honouring his late parents, television personalities Maurie Fields and Val Jellay, which is vandalised for the second time in a year.[843] Fields believes the vandal finds the term "the King and Queen of Vaudeville" egregious due to its reference to royalty.[843]
  • 26 May – Chief political correspondent for ABC TV's 7.30 program Laura Tingle uses a forum at the Sydney Writers' Festival to describe Australia as "a racist country" and openly criticises federal opposition leaders Peter Dutton's budget reply speech in which he outlined his party's migration policy.[844] Her comments prompt widespread commentary.[845][846][847][848][849] The ABC denies reports the ABC Board are in emergency talks regarding Tingle's comments.[850]
  • 29 May – ABC News director Justin Stevens confirms 7.30's chief political correspondent Laura Tingle had been counselled over remarks she made at the Sydney Writers' Festival on 26 May, stating the comments would not have met the ABC's editorial standards and that her comments "lacked the context, balance and supporting information of her work for the ABC".[851][852]

June

  • 2 June – ABC TV's digital multi-channels ABC TV Plus and ABC Me broadcast programming for the final time, prior to the channels being rebranded with new programming from 3 June.[853]
  • 6 June – Nine Entertainment chairman Peter Costello is accused by The Australian journalist Liam Mendes of shoving him at Canberra Airport.[854] Costello denies the allegation and says Mendes simply fell over after walking backwards into an advertising placard.[854]
  • 7 June –
  • 9 June – Peter Costello resigns from his position as chairman of Nine Entertainment and steps down from the board following the alleged incident involving The Australian journalist Liam Mendes at Canberra Airport on 6 June 2024.[857]
  • 13 June –
    • Paul Higgins signs off for the final time after 21 years as the weather presenter on ABC News Victoria, and after a 38-year television career which began in 1986 as the host of ABC TV's Behind the News.[858]
    • It's announced that Paul Barry will step down as host of ABC TV's Media Watch program in December 2024 after presenting the show for 11 years.[859]
  • 15 June – Nine News presenter and reporter Jo Hall is congratulated for reaching her 45th anniversary with the Nine Network.[860]
  • 21 June – Robert Ovadia confirms he has been sacked by the Seven Network.[861]
  • 23 June – The seven Gold Logie nominees for 2024 are announced as Tony Armstrong, Larry Emdur, Robert Irwin, Asher Keddie, Sonia Kruger, Andy Lee and Julia Morris.[862]
  • 27 June –
    • After playing the character of Toadie on Neighbours since 1995, it's announced Ryan Moloney will leave his role on the soap to pursue his ambitions of becoming a director.[863]
    • It's announced Seven News Gold Coast weather presenter Paul Burt is one of many Seven Network employees being made redundant amid a restructure of the network.[864]
  • 30 June – Mildura Digital Television which carries the Network 10 signal into the regional Victorian city of Mildura and the surrounding Sunraysia region ceases broadcasting when its owners, WIN Television and the Seven Network hand back the licence to the ACMA citing its unprofitability.[865] After a new bill passes through federal parliament, local residents will be able to access the VAST service at their own cost to enable them to continue watching Network 10 programming.[866]

July

  • 3 July – Lisa Millar announces she will be leaving her role as co-host of ABC News Breakfast after five years.[867] Millar also announces she is leaving the ABC's news division after 31 years to focus on programs like Muster Dogs and Back Roads.[867]
  • 9 July – The grand finale of the first series of Dream Home airs on the Seven Network, with Queensland brothers Rhys and Liam Almond being declared the winners of the series.[868]
  • 10 July – It emerges that the Seven Network is planning to add a brief astrology segment to the 6pm Seven News bulletins which is to be compiled by The Morning Show's astrologer Natasha Weber.[869][870]
  • 12 July –
    • Veteran Seven News Brisbane presenter Sharyn Ghidella announces she has been let go from the Seven Network after 17 years.[871]
    • A new weekly comedic segment called "The 6:57pm News" debuts nationally on the Seven News bulletins, presented by Mark Humphries.[872]
  • 16 July – Nat Thaipun wins the 16th season of MasterChef Australia.[873]
  • 19 July – It's announced Australian actor Dougie Baldwin has been cast in CBS sitcom Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.[874]
  • 31 July –
    • The live broadcast of Network 10's The Project is interrupted with a repeat of The Dog House due to a fire alarm prompting the evacuation of the crew, studio audience and hosts Waleed Aly, Sarah Harris, Sam Taunton and Nick Cody.[875]
    • After six years of hosting The World on the ABC News channel, Beverley O'Connor announces she is leaving the ABC after 15 years with the broadcaster.[876][877]

August

  • 1 August – Network 10 celebrates its 60th anniversary.[878][879]

Deaths

January

Stephen Laybutt

February

Lowitja O'Donoghue

March

Ian Heads

April

Noel Ratcliffe
  • 3 April – Stefano Cherchi, Italian jockey (b. 2001)[923]
  • 4 April – Bob Lanigan, rugby league player (b. 1942 or 1943)[924]
  • 8 April –
  • 9 April – Nathan Templeton, television journalist (b. 1979)[927]
  • 13 April – Ian Parmenter, chef and television presenter (b. 1945)[928]
  • 15 April – Noel Ratcliffe, golfer (b. 1945) (death announced on this date)[929]
  • 16 April –
    • Peter Davidson, Australian rules footballer (b. 1963)[930]
    • Gavin Webb, musician (b. 1946)[931]
  • 17 April – Neil Rogers, swimmer (b. 1953) (death announced on this date)[932]
  • 22 April – Brian Tobin, tennis player and executive (b. 1930)[933]
  • 24 April – Terry Hill, rugby league player (b. 1972)[934]
  • 25 April –
  • 26 April –
    • Peter Ingham, Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1941)[937]
    • Graham Webb, radio and television presenter (b. 1936)[938]
  • 30 April –

May

Mike Nugent
  • 2 May – Ian Hayden, Australian rules footballer and barrister (b. 1941)[941][942]
  • 3 May – Tony Bleasdale, politician (b. 1946) (died on flight between China and Australia)[943]
  • 6 May –
    • Mike Nugent, Paralympic athlete (b. 1946)[944]
    • Johnny Walker, racing car driver (b. 1944)[945]
    • Brian Wenzel, actor (b. 1929) (death announced on this date)[946]
  • 7 May – Ignatius Jones, singer and producer (b. 1957) (born and died in the Philippines)[947]
Cam McCarthy

June

John Blackman
  • 1 June –
  • 2 June – Natasha Ryan, former suspected murder victim (b. 1984) (death announced on this date) [965]
  • 4 June –
    • John Blackman, radio and television presenter (b. 1947)[966]
    • John Todd, Australian rules footballer (b. 1938) (death announced on this date)[967]
  • 5 June – Ross Booth, Australian rules footballer and commentator (b. 1951 or 1952) (death announced on this date)[968]
  • 7 June –
  • 10 June –
  • 11 June –
  • 14 June – Guy Warren, artist (b. 1921)[975]
  • 17 June – Leon Berner, Australian rules footballer (b. 1935)[976]
  • 18 June – Alan Gold, author (b. 1945)[977]
  • 21 June – Fred Smith, Australian rules footballer (b. 1941)[978][979]
  • 22 June –
  • 23 June – David Tunley, musicologist (b. 1930)[982]
  • 26 June –
  • 27 June - Kym Allen Parsons, (b. c.1951) convicted armed robber[389]

July

Kevan Gosper
Robin Warren
  • 1 July – Clyde Laidlaw, Australian rules footballer (b. 1933)[987]
  • 3 July – Geoff Robinson, rugby league player (b. 1957)[988]
  • 10 July –
  • 13 July – Ron E Sparks, radio presenter and voice over artist (b. 1952) (death announced on this date)[992]
  • 14 July – Roderick Carnegie, businessman (b. 1932)[993]
  • 15 July – Kevin Manning, Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1933)[994]
  • 17 July –
    • David Morrow, sports commentator (b. 1953) (death announced on this date)[995]
    • Jim O'Sullivan, police commissioner (b. 1939)[996]
  • 19 July – Kevan Gosper, athlete, sports administrator and businessman (b. 1933) (death announced on this date)[997]
  • 23 July – Robin Warren, pathologist and Nobel Laureate (b. 1937)[998]
  • 24 July – Ray Lawler, playwright (b. 1921)[999]
  • 25 July – Inga Peulich, politician (b. 1956)[1000]
  • 26 July –

August

  • 3 August – Terry Snow, businessman and philanthropist (b. 1943)[1004]
  • 6 August – Jane Hansen, journalist and author[1005][1006]
  • 7 August – Jack Karlson, petty criminal and succulent Chinese meal consumer (b. 1942)[1007][1008]

See also

  • icon2020s portal
  • flagAustralia portal
  • iconAustralian roads portal
  • flagNew South Wales portal
  • flagQueensland portal
  • flagSouth Australia portal
  • flagWestern Australia portal
  • Current events portal
Wikinews has related news:
  • Category:Australia

Country overviews

References

Template:Reflist

Notes

Template:Notelist

Template:Commons category

  • Online calendar

Template:Year in Oceania Template:Years in Australia