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Australian Events

Posted in 1908

  • Fisher Government, November 13 (see Australian Prime Ministers)
  • Canberra is declared Australia's national capital.
  • New Sydney to Melbourne phone line opens and is criticised for being too expensive - six shillings for three minutes.
  • Women in Victoria gain the right to vote in October, but the proclamation of the Adult Suffrage Act is delayed until after the December elections. Victorian women are not granted the right to stand for election to the Legislative Assembly until 1923.
  • "My Country", the poem about Australia written by Dorothea Mackellar when she was 19 years old, is first published by The Spectator newspaper in London.
  • The US Great White Fleet visits Australia on a worldwide goodwill mission by President Theodore Roosevelt. The fleet consists of sixteen white battleships, six destroyers, and several auxiliary ships.