Incumbents

• Monarch
  Monarchy in Australia
  The Monarchy of Australia is a form of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign of Australia. The monarchy is a constitutional one modelled on the Westminster style of parliamentary government, incorporating features unique to the Constitution of Australia.The present monarch is...
  
   – King George VI
  George VI of the United Kingdom
  George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
  
  
• Governor-General
  Governor-General of Australia
  The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative in Australia at federal/national level of the Australian monarch . He or she exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth...
  
   – Alexander Hore-Ruvthen, 1st Baron Gowrie
  Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie
  Brigadier General Alexander Gore Arkwright Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie VC, GCMG, CB, DSO & Bar, PC was a British soldier and colonial governor and the tenth Governor-General of Australia. Serving for 9 years and 7 days, he is the longest serving Governor-General in Australia's history...
  
  
• Prime Minister
  Prime Minister of Australia
  The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
  
   – Joseph Lyons
  Joseph Lyons
  Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
  
   (until 7 April), then Sir Earle Page
  Earle Page
  Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH was the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history, with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.-Early life:...
  
   (until 26 April), then Robert Menzies
  Robert Menzies
  Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
  
  

State Premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – Bertram Stevens (until 5 August) then Alexander Mair
  Alexander Mair
  Alexander Mair was an Australian politician and served as the Premier of New South Wales from 5 August 1939 to 16 May 1941. Born in Melbourne, working in various businesses, Mair moved to Albury, New South Wales and went on to be a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for fourteen...
  
  
• Premier of Queensland – William Forgan Smith
  William Forgan Smith
  William Forgan Smith , generally known as Forgan Smith, was Premier of the Australian state of Queensland from 1932 to 1942. He came to dominate politics in the state during the 1930s, and his populism, firm leadership, defence of states' rights and interest in state development make him something...
  
  
• Premier of South Australia – Thomas Playford IV
  Thomas Playford IV
  Sir Thomas Playford, GCMG was a South Australian politician. He served continuously as Premier of South Australia from 5 November 1938 to 10 March 1965, the longest term of any elected government leader in the history of Australia. His tenure as premier was marked by a period of population and...
  
  
• Premier of Tasmania – Albert Ogilvie
  Albert Ogilvie
  Albert George Ogilvie was an Australian politician and Premier of Tasmania from 22 June 1934 until his death on 10 June 1939....
  
   (until 10 June), then Edmund Dwyer-Gray
  Edmund Dwyer-Gray
  Sir Edmund John Chisholm Dwyer-Gray was an Irish-Australian politician, who was the 29th Premier of Tasmania from 11 June to 18 December 1939.-Early life:...
  
   (until 18 December), then Robert Cosgrove
  Robert Cosgrove
  Sir Robert Cosgrove KCMG was an Australian politician, trade unionist, and twice Premier of Tasmania from 18 December 1939 to 18 December 1947 and 25 February 1948 to 26 August 1958....
  
  
• Premier of Victoria – Albert Dunstan
  Albert Dunstan
  Sir Albert Arthur Dunstan, KCMG was an Australian politician. A member of the Country Party , Dunstan was the 33rd Premier of Victoria. His term as Premier was the second-longest in the state's history, behind Sir Henry Bolte...
  
  
• Premier of Western Australia
  Premier of Western Australia
  The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. The Premier has similar functions in Western Australia to those performed by the Prime Minister of Australia at the national level, subject to the different Constitutions...
  
   – John Willcock
  John Willcock
  John Collings Willcock was the 15th Premier of Western Australia.-Early life:John Willcock was born at Frogmoor , New South Wales on 9 August 1879. The son of miner Joseph Willcock, he was educated at Sydney High School before emigrating to Western Australia in 1897...
  
  

State Governors

• Governor of New South Wales – John Loder, 2nd Baron Wakehurst
• Governor of Queensland – Sir Leslie Orme Wilson
  Leslie Orme Wilson
  Sir Leslie Orme Wilson, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, DSO, PC was a British soldier, Conservative politician and Governor of Queensland.-Personal life:...
  
  
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Winston Dugan
  Winston Dugan, 1st Baron Dugan of Victoria
  Major-General Winston Joseph Dugan, 1st Baron Dugan of Victoria GCMG, CB, DSO, KStJ , known as Sir Winston Dugan between 1934 and 1949, was a British administrator and a career British Army officer...
  
   (until 23 February), then Sir Malcolm Barclay-Harvey
  Malcolm Barclay-Harvey
  Sir Charles Malcolm Barclay-Harvey, KCMG was a British politician and Governor of South Australia from 12 August 1939 until 26 April 1944....
  
   (from 12 August)
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir Ernest Clark
  Ernest Clark (governor)
  Sir Ernest Clark, GCMG, KCB, CBE was a British civil servant, who was Governor of Tasmania from 1933 to 1945.-Early life and education:...
  
  
• Governor of Victoria – William Vanneck, 5th Baron Huntingfield
  William Vanneck, 5th Baron Huntingfield
  William Charles Arcedeckne Vanneck, 5th Baron Huntingfield, KCMG was a British Conservative Party politician, Governor of Victoria and Administrator of Australia.-Early life:...
  
   (until 4 April), then Sir Winston Dugan
  Winston Dugan, 1st Baron Dugan of Victoria
  Major-General Winston Joseph Dugan, 1st Baron Dugan of Victoria GCMG, CB, DSO, KStJ , known as Sir Winston Dugan between 1934 and 1949, was a British administrator and a career British Army officer...
  
   (from 17 July)
• Governor of Western Australia
  Governor of Western Australia
  The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
  
   – none appointed

Events

• 13 January – The bushfires of Black Friday
  Black Friday (1939)
  The Black Friday fires of 13 January 1939, in Victoria, Australia, were considered one of the worst natural bushfires in the world, and certainly the single worst in Australian history as a measure of land affected...
  
   kill 70 people in Victoria.
• 27 March – The first CAC Wirraway
  CAC Wirraway
  The Wirraway was a training and general purpose military aircraft manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation between 1939 and 1946...
  
   training aircraft, A20-3, takes to the air at Fishermans Bend, Victoria.
• 7 April – Prime Minister Joseph Lyons
  Joseph Lyons
  Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
  
   dies of a sudden heart attack, the first Prime Minister to die in office. Sir Earle Page
  Earle Page
  Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH was the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history, with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.-Early life:...
  
  , the leader of the Country Party
  National Party of Australia
  The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
  
   is appointed caretaker Prime Minister until the United Australia Party
  United Australia Party
  The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...
  
   can elect a new leader.
• 26 April – Robert Menzies
  Robert Menzies
  Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
  
   is elected leader of the United Australia Party
  United Australia Party
  The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...
  
  , and is sworn in as Prime Minister.
• 10 June – Premier of Tasmania Albert Ogilvie
  Albert Ogilvie
  Albert George Ogilvie was an Australian politician and Premier of Tasmania from 22 June 1934 until his death on 10 June 1939....
  
   dies in office. Edmund Dwyer-Gray
  Edmund Dwyer-Gray
  Sir Edmund John Chisholm Dwyer-Gray was an Irish-Australian politician, who was the 29th Premier of Tasmania from 11 June to 18 December 1939.-Early life:...
  
   acts as Premier until he is officially elected as leader of the Labor Party
  Australian Labor Party
  The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
  
   in Tasmania
  Tasmania
  Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
  
   on 6 July.
• 3 September – World War II
  World War II
  World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
  
   begins. Australia declares war
  Declaration of war
  A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
  
   on Germany
  Germany
  Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
  
  , following the United Kingdom
  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
  
   and British Dominion
  Dominion
  A dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, beginning in the latter part of the 19th century. They have included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland,...
  
  s' declaration of same, after the German invasion of Poland
  Invasion of Poland (1939)
  The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
  
  .
• 15 September – Robert Menzies
  Robert Menzies
  Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
  
   announces a new War Cabinet
  First Menzies Ministry
  The First Menzies Ministry was the twenty-sixth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 26 April 1939 to 14 March 1940.United Australia Party*Rt Hon Robert Menzies, KC MP: Prime Minister, Treasurer...
  
  .
• 1 December – Australia agrees to take 15,000 Jewish refugees
  Jewish refugees
  In the course of history, Jewish populations have been expelled or ostracised by various local authorities and have sought asylum from antisemitism numerous times...
  
   fleeing Europe
  Europe
  Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
  
  , following the German occupation of Austria
  Austria
  Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
  
   and Czechoslovakia
  Czechoslovakia
  Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
  
  .
• 18 December – Edmund Dwyer-Gray
  Edmund Dwyer-Gray
  Sir Edmund John Chisholm Dwyer-Gray was an Irish-Australian politician, who was the 29th Premier of Tasmania from 11 June to 18 December 1939.-Early life:...
  
   steps aside as Premier of Tasmania, by prior arrangement with Robert Cosgrove
  Robert Cosgrove
  Sir Robert Cosgrove KCMG was an Australian politician, trade unionist, and twice Premier of Tasmania from 18 December 1939 to 18 December 1947 and 25 February 1948 to 26 August 1958....
  
   to assume the premiership.

Arts and literature

• Max Meldrum
  Max Meldrum
  Duncan Max Meldrum was a Scottish born Australian painter. He is known as the founder of Australian Tonalism, a representational style of painting, as well as his portrait work, for which he won the Archibald Prize in 1939 and 1940.-Early Life and Training:Meldrum was born in Edinburgh, Scotland,...
  
   wins the Archibald Prize
  Archibald Prize
  The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919...
  
   with his portrait of The Hon G J Bell, Speaker of the House of Representatives

Sport

• Rivette wins the Melbourne Cup
  Melbourne Cup
  The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
  
   and Caulfield Cup
  Caulfield Cup
  The Caulfield Cup, one of Australia's richest Thoroughbred horse races and the richest of its type in the world is held annually by the Melbourne Racing Club. The race is a handicap like the Melbourne Cup, which means that horses that compete in the Caulfield Cup are capable of running on the...
  
  
• Mosaic wins the Cox Plate
  Cox Plate
  The W.S. Cox Plate is an Australian Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne every October by the Moonee Valley Racing Club to honour W.S. Cox, the club's founder. For three-year-olds and over, the race is considered to be the Weight for Age championship of Australasia...
  
  
• South Australia wins the Sheffield Shield
  Pura Cup
  The Sheffield Shield is the domestic cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Prior to the Shield being established, a number of intercolonial matches were played. The Shield, donated by Lord Sheffield, was first contested during...
  
  
• The Balmain
  Balmain Tigers
  The Balmain Tigers are a rugby league football club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful in the history of the premiership, with eleven titles...
  
   club wins the 1939 NSWRFL premiership

Births

• 6 January – Murray Rose
  Murray Rose
  Iain Murray Rose AM was born on 6 January 1939 in Nairn, Scotland, but he moved to Australia with his family at an early age after World War II. He took up swimming as a boy and was an Olympic Games champion at age 17....
  
  , swimmer
• 29 January – Germaine Greer
  Germaine Greer
  Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
  
  , academic and feminist
• 13 February – Andrew Peacock
  Andrew Peacock
  Andrew Sharp Peacock AC, GCL , is a former Australian Liberal politician. He was a minister in the Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments, and was federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia 1983–1985 and 1989–1990...
  
  , politician
• 5 March – Tony Rundle
  Tony Rundle
  Anthony Maxwell Rundle AO was the Premier of the Australian State of Tasmania from 18 March 1996 to 14 September 1998. He succeeded Ray Groom and was succeeded himself by Jim Bacon. He is a Liberal who held the seat of Braddon between 1986 and 2002. A former journalist, he is married to...
  
  , Premier of Tasmania (1996–1998)
• 4 April – Alex George
  Alex George
  Alexander Segger George is a Western Australian botanist. He is the authority on the plant genera Banksia and Dryandra...
  
  , botanist
• 7 April – Brett Whiteley
  Brett Whiteley
  Brett Whiteley, AO was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald Prize...
  
   (d. 1992), artist
• 12 April – Johnny Raper
  Johnny Raper
  John Raper, MBE is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He was a lock forward for the Australia national team. He had a record 33 test caps between 1959 and 1968 and played in 6 World Cup games between 1960 to 1968...
  
  , Australian rugby league footballer
• 20 April – Elspeth Ballantyne
  Elspeth Ballantyne
  Elspeth Ballantyne is an Australian actress, born in Adelaide. Having started her career as a laboratory Technician, she then attended the prestigious drama school, the National Institute for Dramatic Arts...
  
  , actress
• 12 May – Reg Gasnier
  Reg Gasnier
  Reg Gasnier AM is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach, regarded as one of the 20th century's finest players. He played in the centres for the St. George Dragons from 1959 to 1967...
  
  , Australian rugby league footballer
• 12 July – Phillip Adams
  Phillip Adams
  Phillip Andrew Hedley Adams, AO is an Australian broadcaster, film producer, writer, social commentator, satirist and left-wing pundit. He currently hosts a radio program, Late Night Live, four nights a week on the ABC, and he also writes a weekly column for the News Limited-owned newspaper, The...
  
  , broadcaster and writer
• 26 July – John Howard
  John Howard
  John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
  
  , Prime Minister of Australia (1996–2007)
• 5 September – George Lazenby
  George Lazenby
  George Robert Lazenby is an Australian actor and former model, best known for portraying James Bond in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.-Early life:...
  
  , actor (James Bond
  James Bond
  James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
  
  )
• 8 October – Paul Hogan
  Paul Hogan
  Paul Hogan, AM is an Australian actor best known for his role as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee from the Crocodile Dundee film series, for which he won a Golden Globe award.-Early life and career:...
  
  , comedian and actor
• 9 October – John Pilger
  John Pilger
  John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
  
  , journalist and filmmaker
• 10 October – Clive James
  Clive James
  Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
  
  , writer and social commentator
• 25 November – Ian Smith
  Ian Smith (Australian politician)
  Ian Winton Smith is a former Victoria, Australia Liberal Party of Australia politician. He represented the Electoral district of Warrnambool in the State of Victoria as a MLA from 1967 until 1983. He resigned to unsuccessfully contest Liberal Party pre-selection for the Federal Division of Wannon...
  
  , politician
• 26 December – Fred Schepisi, film director

Deaths

• 14 February – James Webb
  James Webb (Australian Politician)
  James Eli Webb was an Australian politician.Webb represented the seat of Hurstville in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1932 to 1939 for the United Australia Party.-Notes:...
  
  , NSW politician
• 9 March – Edwin Greenslade Murphy
  Edwin Greenslade Murphy
  Edwin Greenslade Murphy, , was an Australian journalist and poet....
  
   (b. 1866), journalist and poet
• 7 April – Joseph Lyons
  Joseph Lyons
  Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
  
   (b. 1879), Prime Minister of Australia (1932–1939) and Premier of Tasmania (1923–1928)
• 25 April – Sir Charles Powers
  Charles Powers
  Sir Charles Powers KCMG , Australian politician and judge, was a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1913 to 1929....
  
   (b. 1853), High Court judge
• 10 June – Albert Ogilvie
  Albert Ogilvie
  Albert George Ogilvie was an Australian politician and Premier of Tasmania from 22 June 1934 until his death on 10 June 1939....
  
   (b. 1890), Premier of Tasmania (1934–1939)
• 6 August – James MacCallum Smith
  James MacCallum Smith
  James MacCallum Smith was an Australian politician, newspaper proprietor and stock breeder. He lobbied unsuccessfully for many years for the secession of Western Australia from the Federation of Australia....
  
   (b. 1868), WA politician
• 30 August – Edward Sydney Simpson
  Edward Sydney Simpson
  Edward Sydney Simpson was an Australian mineralogist and geochemist.Simpson was born in Woollahra, New South Wales to an Irish father and English mother. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School and the University of Sydney where he graduated B.E. with honours, in 1895 and D.Sc...
  
   (b. 1875), mineralogist and geochemist
• 3 October – Henry Augustus Ellis
  Henry Augustus Ellis
  Henry Augustus Ellis was an Irish Australian physician and federalist, important in the promotion of federation in Western Australia....
  
   (b. 1861), physician and federalist
• 22 October – Sir John Langdon Bonython
  John Langdon Bonython
  -Early life:Bonython was born in London in 1848, the second son of George Langdon Bonython and Annie MacBain. The family migrated to South Australia in July 1854. There, Bonython was educated at the Brougham School in North Adelaide...
  
   (b. 1848), politician and journalist
• 15 November – William Hill (b. 1866), politician
• 6 December – Sir Ernest Scott (b. 1867), historian