Prime Minister of Australia Timeline of Events

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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 political office in Australia...

Timeline of Events

1901

1.1.1901

The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton is appointed the first Prime Minister.

1905

7.6.1905

Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the second time.

1909

6.2.1909

Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.

1914

9.17.1914

Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.

1916

11.13.1916

Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription.

1964

10.17.1964

Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies opens the artificial Lake Burley Griffin in the middle of the capital Canberra.

1967

12.17.1967

Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria and was presumed drowned.

12.19.1967

Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt is officially presumed dead.

1975

11.11.1975

Australian constitutional crisis of 1975: Australian Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismisses the government of Gough Whitlam, appoints Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister and announces a general election to be held in early December.

2007

11.24.2007

Australians elect the centre-left Australian Labor Party at a federal election; the outgoing prime minister, John Howard, becomes the first since 1929 to lose his own seat.