2008 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 2008 in Australia.

← 2007 2006 2005 2008 in Australia → 2009 2010 2011
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	Other events of 2008 Timeline of Australian history

Incumbents

Michael Jeffery

Quentin Bryce

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Michael Jeffery (until 5 September), then Quentin Bryce
• Prime Minister – Kevin Rudd
  • Deputy Prime Minister – Julia Gillard
  • Opposition Leader – Brendan Nelson (until 16 September), then Malcolm Turnbull
• Chief Justice – Murray Gleeson (until 29 August), then Robert French

State and territory leaders

• Premier of New South Wales – Morris Iemma (until 5 September), then Nathan Rees
  • Opposition Leader – Barry O'Farrell
• Premier of Queensland – Anna Bligh
  • Opposition Leader – Jeff Seeney (until 29 January), then Lawrence Springborg
• Premier of South Australia – Mike Rann
  • Opposition Leader – Martin Hamilton-Smith
• Premier of Tasmania – Paul Lennon (until 26 May), then David Bartlett
  • Opposition Leader – Will Hodgman
• Premier of Victoria – John Brumby
  • Opposition Leader – Ted Baillieu
• Premier of Western Australia – Alan Carpenter (until 23 September), then Colin Barnett
  • Opposition Leader – Paul Omodei (until 17 January), then Troy Buswell (until 4 August), then Colin Barnett (until 23 September), then Eric Ripper
• Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory – Jon Stanhope
  • Opposition Leader – Zed Seselja
• Chief Minister of the Northern Territory – Paul Henderson
  • Opposition Leader – Jodeen Carney (until 29 January), then Terry Mills
• Chief Minister of Norfolk Island – Andre Nobbs

Governors and administrators

• Governor of New South Wales – Marie Bashir
• Governor of Queensland – Quentin Bryce (until 29 July), then Penelope Wensley
• Governor of South Australia – Kevin Scarce
• Governor of Tasmania – William Cox (until 2 April), then Peter Underwood
• Governor of Victoria – David de Kretser
• Governor of Western Australia – Ken Michael
• Administrator of the Australian Indian Ocean Territories – Neil Lucas (until 22 February)
• Administrator of Norfolk Island – Owen Walsh
• Administrator of the Northern Territory – Tom Pauling

Events

Entire year

• Year of the Scout.^[1]
• Year of Physical Activity.^[2]
• Eurovision 2008
  .

January

• 1 January onwards – Torrential rain causes widespread flooding and damage to parts of South East Queensland and the North Coast of New South Wales.
• 11 January – An Airbus A319 lands at the new Wilkins Runway in the Australian Antarctic Territory, becoming the first passenger flight from Australia to Antarctica.^[3]
• 15 January – An Australian Sea Shepherd Conservation Society activist, Benjamin Potts, and his British colleague, Giles Lane, are detained on board the Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru No. 2 after boarding the ship which was inside the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary near Antarctica.^[4]
• 15 January –
  capsicum spray to subdue unruly Greek spectators at the 2008 Australian Open, during a match between Konstantinos Economidis and Fernando González.^[5]
• 17 January – An explosion in a wine processing shed at Drayton's Winery in the
  Hunter Valley kills two men including winery owner Trevor Drayton, and injures one.^[6]
• 23 January – After 128 years, the final edition of The Bulletin is published. Its demise was announced on 20 January.^[7]

February

• 8 February – A controversial plan to deepen Melbourne's shipping channels by dredging Port Phillip Bay begins.^[8]
• 12 February - Federal Parliament was opened with a Welcome to Country, the first time in its history that this has occurred.^[9]
• 13 February – An apology containing the word "sorry" is made by Kevin Rudd to
  stolen generation as the first order of business of the new Parliament.^[10]
• 22 February – Parliament descends into chaos with opposition frontbenchers ejected, question time suspended and speakers unable to control the house. A cardboard cut-out of the Prime Minister is bought into the parliament by opposition members angry about sitting time on a Friday.^[11]

March

• 12 March – Adelaide experiences a national record heat wave for an Australian capital city, recording over ten straight days of temperatures over 35 degrees Celsius.^[12]
• 14 March – Former New South Wales government minister Milton Orkopoulos is found guilty of 28 charges of child sex offences and the supply of drugs.^[13]
• 16 March – The South Australian heat wave continues with Adelaide experiencing its 14th straight day of temperatures above 35 degrees.
• 16 March – The Finding Sydney Foundation announces it has located the wrecks of the Australian light cruiser
  HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, which both sunk after a battle in 1941.^[14]
• 26 March – At the
  Murray-Darling Basin, after 15 months of negotiations.^[15]
• 27 March – The Opes Prime stockbroking firm collapses, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission announces it is conducting an investigation into the firm's activities.^[16]
• 28 March –
  Australia Limited closes its Clovelly Park manufacturing facility, ending more than 40 years of manufacturing at the site.^[17]
• 30 March – The extension of
  Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania and South Australia causes a "mini-Y2K problem" as computer systems, mobile phones and even the "time man" incorrectly adjust the time back one hour.^[18]
• 30 March – The gag order applied to David Hicks by the Guantanamo military commission is lifted, allowing him to discuss his detainment at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.^[19]

April

• 18 April – Nick D'Arcy has his Beijing ticket terminated following an incident at a nightclub involving former swimmer Simon Cowley.
• 19 April – The Australia 2020 Summit begins in Canberra.
• 30 April – The
  taxi drivers, after dozens of taxis blockade the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets following the stabbing of a driver the previous day.^[20]

• 1 May – Five people are killed when a
  Sydney Harbour.^[21]
• 17 May – Fugitive gangster Tony Mokbel arrives in Australia following his extradition from Greece.^[22]
• 22 May
  • Revolutionary Australian forum television programme
    Q&A broadcasts its first episode.^[23]
  • Colin Campbell Ross, hanged in 1922 for the Gun Alley Murder, is granted an official pardon.^[24]
• 26 May – Paul Lennon announces his resignation as Premier of Tasmania. His deputy, David Bartlett, is sworn in as the new Premier later in the day.^[25]
• 26 May – Camden Council in Sydney votes unanimously to reject a proposal to build a 1,200 student Islamic school in the area.^[26]

June

• 1 June – Australia ends its combat operations in Iraq, withdrawing approximately 550 troops from the region.^[27]
• 3 June – A gas explosion at a plant on Varanus Island in Western Australia severely disrupts gas supplies to the state.^[28]
• 8 June – It is revealed that New South Wales Education Minister
  Gosford, New South Wales.^[29]
• 28 June – A by-election is held in the federal seat of Gippsland following the resignation of the sitting MP, Peter McGauran. Darren Chester wins the by-election, retaining the seat for the National Party.

July

• 1 July – 36 State Senators elected in the 2007 election take their seats in the Australian Senate. For the first time in 31 years, the Australian Democrats have no Senators in the parliament.^[30]
• 11 July – The Apple iPhone is officially released in Australia.^[31]
• 13 July – Pope Benedict XVI arrives for his first papal visit to Australia, ahead of World Youth Day 2008.^[32]
• 15 to 20 July –
  Sydney
  .
• 26 July – The Queensland divisions of the Liberal Party and the National Party merge to form the Liberal National Party.
• 29 July –
  mandatory detention of asylum seekers.^[33]

• 8 August – The
  ecstasy drugs bust, seizing A$440 million worth of the drug.^[34]
• 9 August – A general election is held in the Northern Territory with the Australian Labor Party retaining government.

September

• 5 September – Morris Iemma retires as Premier of New South Wales, and his replacement is Nathan Rees.
• 5 September – Quentin Bryce is sworn in as the first female Governor-General of Australia.
• 6 September – A general election is held in Western Australia.
• 6 September – By-elections are held in the federal electorates of Mayo and Lyne, following the resignation of MPs Alexander Downer and Mark Vaile respectively. The Liberal Party retains Mayo, but the National Party loses Lyne to an independent candidate, Rob Oakeshott.
• 14 September – The National Party agrees to support the Liberal Party to form a minority government in Western Australia. Premier Alan Carpenter announces he will resign following Labor's defeat in the 2008 WA election – the first defeat of a state Labor government in Australia in over thirteen years.^[35]
• 16 September – Malcolm Turnbull becomes Leader of the Opposition when he defeats Brendan Nelson in a ballot for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Australia.^[36]
• 23 September – Colin Barnett is sworn in as Premier of Western Australia.
• 30 September – Professor Ross Garnaut releases his final report in the Garnaut Climate Change Review.

October

• 10 October – Prime Minister
  G-20 was. Although the White House and the Prime Minister deny this exchange took place, the Opposition uses the event to question Mr Rudd's discretion.^[37]
• 18 October – A general election is held in the Australian Capital Territory.
• 20 October – Qantas commercially flies the Airbus A380 for the first time.

November

• 16 November –
  Microburst.^[38]

• 15 December – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announces that Australia will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent of 2000 levels by the year 2020, with an option to reduce by 15 per cent if other developing countries take similar action. The announcement is criticised by the Australian Greens and environmental groups as not going far enough.^[39]

Arts and literature

• 7 March – Del Kathryn Barton wins the 2008 Archibald Prize for You are what is most beautiful about me, a self portrait with Kell and Arella, a self-portrait with her children.^[40]
• 13 March – Australian author Sonya Hartnett wins the 2008 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for young adult literature.^[41]
• 23 May –
  New South Wales Police seize a number of photographs depicting naked children by artist Bill Henson which were to be exhibited the previous day.^[42]
• 19 June – Steven Carroll's novel The Time We Have Taken wins the Miles Franklin Award^[43]
• 12 September –
  Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction, and Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers by Philip Jones wins the Non-Fiction award.^[44]
• 19 September – First-time novelist Andrew Croome wins the
  Petrov affair, Document Z.^[45]
• 15 October – Indian-Australian journalist
  Man Booker Prize for his debut novel, The White Tiger.^[46]

• Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for The Lost Dog
  .
• Michelle de Kretser's novel The Lost Dog wins the Christina Stead Prize for fiction.
• Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
  .

Science and technology

• 5 August – Google Street View images of Australian city streets are added to Google Maps and Google Earth software.^[47]

Film

• 26 February –
  Academy Award for Documentary Feature for the film Taxi to the Dark Side.^[48]
• 26 November – Baz Luhrmann's epic film Australia, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, makes its debut.

Television

• 5 January – Fox Sports commentator, Clinton Grybas, dies at 32 as a result of falling whilst sleepwalking.
• 14 January – Nine Network revamps its logo and on-air graphics as a part of a new network re-launch, and after a two-year absence, returns the famous "Nine Balls" logo, except instead of balls, they use discs.
• 7 February – Veteran television presenter Ray Martin quits the Nine Network after 30 years with the network.^[49]
• 8 February – At 12:00 PM
  ABC1.^[50]
• 8 February – Former
  Australia's Funniest Home Videos
  .
• 12 February – The
  Victoria, following concerns that the series, which depicts Melbourne's gangland wars, could prejudice an ongoing murder trial.^[51]
• 14 March –
  A Current Affair broadcasts its 5000th episode and celebrates its 20th
  anniversary.
• 17 March – The
  Nine HD
  .
• 3 April – Kate Ritchie (Sally Fletcher), one of the original cast members of Home and Away, leaves the series after 20 years.
• 7 April – The Nine Network makes the first episodes of the new series Canal Road available for download over the Internet, ahead of its television broadcast on 16 April.^[52]
• 27 April – Jack Chambers wins the first series of So You Think You Can Dance Australia.^[53]
• 4 May – The 2008 Logie Awards are held. Kate Ritchie (formerly of Home and Away) wins the Gold Logie for the second year in a row.^[54]
• 7 May – SBS TV reveals its new logo.
• 26 May – Game show
  Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune, a revival of the Wheel of Fortune format, premieres on the Nine Network
  .
• 2 June – The Seven Network apologises after airing an episode of the hospital drama All Saints in which it is suggested that a child born of an incestuous relationship is likely to result in the child having Down's syndrome.^[55]
• 27 June –
  Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune is cancelled on the Nine Network
  after a month.
• 7 July – Seven Network starts broadcasting its watermark on all news and current affairs programs.
• 21 July – The final episode of
  Network Ten the week prior, goes to air. The winner of the final series is 52-year-old grandmother Terri Munro.^[56]
• 25 July – The Nine Network's
  Nightline news program is broadcast for the last time after 16 years
  on air.
• 26 July –
  ABC1's Gardening Australia before retiring from Australian Landscapes.^[57]
• 28 July – TV journalist, This Is Your Life host and also a former host of A Current Affair, Mike Munro announces he is leaving the Nine Network after 22 years, due to budget cuts.
• 3 August – The Nine Network's Sunday program is broadcast for the last time after 27 years on air.
• 28 August –
  Australia's Funniest Home Videos is revived on the Nine Network. The program made headlines in 1992 when then-CEO Kerry Packer
  ordered it to be taken off-air in the middle of one episode.