Australian Events

Posted in 1948

  • PM Chifley inspects the first Australian manufactured car, the HoldenDr Herbert Evatt, the Australian Minister for External Affairs, is elected President of the United Nations General Assembly.
  • Australians become citizens of their own country, rather than subjects of the Crown of another country, the United Kingdom.
  • Prime Minister Chifley's Commonwealth Bank Nationalization Act to nationalise the private banks is challenged and declared unconstitutional by the High Court in 1948 and by the Privy Council in 1949.
  • Mass-production of the first Australian designed and manufactured car, the Holden, is launched by GMH at its Fishermans Bend plant. The Holden will cost £760. The car makers will over time employ thousands of workers in Australia.The first Holden
  • Master batsman Don Bradman retires from cricket with a Test average of 99.94.
  • Ruth Park writes Harp in the South.