1902 in Australia explained

The following lists events that happened during 1902 in Australia.

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

Incumbents

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

State premiers

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

State governors

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

Events

• 7 February – The Waterside Workers Federation is formed.
• April – Averaged over Australia, the driest month on record with only 3.74mm.^[1] Over half the continent was absolutely rainless and less than 3 percent outside Tasmania had more than 10mm.^[2]
• 31 May – The Second Boer War, in which Australia is involved, ends.
• 12 June – The Commonwealth Franchise Act granted most Australian women the right to vote and stand in federal elections.
• 31 July – A coal gas explosion kills 96 in the Mount Kembla mining disaster
• 1 August – New Idea magazine is first published.
• 3 November – Postmaster-General James Drake opens a submarine telegraph cable from Southport, Queensland to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, completing a British Empire communications line.
• 18 December – The mayors of Sydney and Melbourne are conferred the title of Lord Mayor
• 26 December – Brisbane is declared a city.
• 26 December – Ada Evans becomes the first female law graduate in Australia.
• As a culmination of the Federation Drought, this was by raw totals the driest calendar year averaged over Australia since 1890^[3] with only 314.46mm^[4] (though by area-averaged mean decile it was only eleventh driest).^[5]

Unknown dates

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

Arts and literature

See main article: 1902 in Australian literature.

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

Sport

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

Births

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

Deaths

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

See also

• 1902
• 1900–1909

Notes and References

1. http://www.bom.gov.au/web01/ncc/www/cli_chg/timeseries/rain/allmonths/aus/latestsort.txt Sorted rainfall over Australia for all months
2. http://www.bom.gov.au/web03/ncc/www/awap/rainfall/totals/month/colour/history/nat/1902040119020430.gif April 1902 rainfall totals
3. [Bureau of Meteorology|Australian Bureau of Meteorology]
4. Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Sorted annual rainfall over Australia
5. Smith, Ian; "An assessment of recent trends in Australian rainfall"; in Australian Meteorological Magazine; issue 53 (2004); pp. 163-173