January • 1 January – Six hikers who went missing in
Lamington National Park on 27 December 1976 are found safe and well. They had been attempting to locate the site of the
1937 Airlines of Australia Stinson crash which occurred on 18 February 1937. • 5 January – The
Connellan air disaster takes place which is Australia's only aircraft
suicide attack. Carried out by a disgruntled former employee of
Connellan Airways, the attack claims the lives of five people including the pilot. It was not until September 2024 that a suspect was arrested in Italy in relation to the murders. • 18 January – Australia experiences its worst
railway disaster at Granville, near Sydney, in which 83 people died.
February • 1 February – The
Federal Court of Australia began to exercise its jurisdiction. • 6 February –
Silver Jubilee of
Elizabeth II's accession as
Queen of Australia. • 7 February – 418 refugees of the
Vietnam War arrive in Melbourne. The refugees, from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, left refugee camps around Bangkok for the largest airlift of war victims from Thailand. • 27 February –
ABBA arrive in Australia for their live concert tour around the country starting at the
Sydney Showground.
March • 8 March: • The Federal Government holds a reception in Canberra for Queen
Elizabeth II and
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as they begin the Silver Jubilee tour of Australia. • The
TAB announces the first-ever legal betting on
VFL football, which came into operation on 2 April. • 9 March — Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Brisbane as part of her
Silver Jubilee goodwill tour. • 13 March – ABBA In Australia tour concludes. • 15 March: • The former Australian consul to Timor Jim Dunn prepares to testify to the
United States Congress on Indonesian atrocities. The Indonesian Foreign Minister
Adam Malik responds by threatening that his Government would allow "demonstrations and other mass actions" against the Australian Embassy to continue if further agitation against alleged Indonesian atrocities were allowed. • Foreign Minister
Andrew Peacock presents a 24-page speech to Federal Parliament in which he outlines a new direction in foreign policies based on Australia's richness in a world of want. He says population and resources would be central future policies, as well as making attacks on Soviet Union military expansion. • 31 March – The
Conciliation and Arbitration Commission’s wage decision is handed down. The Commission indicates it would hold an inquiry into various aspects of wage fixation.
May • 15 May – The
Australian Democrats is launched by former Liberal MP
Don Chipp at
Melbourne Town Hall. • 21 May – The
1977 Australian referendum is held. Questions on
Senate casual vacancies,
referendums and
retirement of judges are passed. A question on
simultaneous elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate fails. A
plebiscite to decide Australia's national song is won by "
Advance Australia Fair". • 24 May: • United States president
Jimmy Carter gives the Australian Government his personal assurance that US agencies (in particular the
Central Intelligence Agency) were not engaged in improper activities in Australia, an issue that had resurfaced in the espionage trial of Christopher Boyce in the United States. Fraser included this information in a statement to the House of Representatives on 24 May. The paper noted that despite the growth of mining, manufacturing still employed more than 1.3 million people in 1975, of whom 0.5 million had been born overseas. • 22 June: • The
Uniting Church in Australia is formed following the union of the majority of
Presbyterian,
Methodist and
Congregational Union churches in Australia. • Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser meets with United States president
Jimmy Carter in Washington. Fraser is impressed by Carter 'as a decisive man' who would be 'setting American objectives in the great humanitarian issues'. • 15 July – Anti-drugs campaigner
Donald Mackay disappears near
Griffith, New South Wales. He is presumed to have been murdered.
August • 7 August – At the
Association of South-East Asian Nations meeting in Kuala Lumpur, prime minister
Malcolm Fraser offers ASEAN leaders a package of increased bilateral aid of $250 million, as well as an extra $10 million for joint development projects, but claimed Australia could do nothing in its present economic circumstances to reduce trade barriers against their countries' products. • 9 August – A board of inquiry into Housing Commission land deals is appointed by the Victorian Government with the power to investigate Cabinet decisions and to call Ministers to give evidence. • 11 August – A 24-hour strike by postal staff at Melbourne's two biggest parcel centres stops more than 25,000 parcels being handled. • 15 August – Cabinet decided that Australia would negotiate bilateral safeguards agreements with purchasers covering both present and future use of the uranium. Australia would seek an understanding with other exporters on the application and enforcement of safeguards, but this would not constitute a commercial cartel to control price or quantity. • 16 August – Federal Treasurer
Philip Lynch presents the
1977–78 budget, with a predicted deficit of $2.21 billion. It reduces personal income tax scales from seven to three (32 per cent, 46 per cent and 60 per cent) and also provides personal tax cuts to operate from 1 February 1978. • 21 August – Mail services returns to normal following the end of a national postal dispute. • 23 August – Cabinet makes its final decisions on
uranium mining in Australia, endorsing the main findings of the
Fox inquiry unless there were 'compelling reasons' for departing from them. It was agreed that mining could proceed, subject to environmental controls and a stringent nuclear safeguards regime.
September • 4 September – The
Queensland Government bans
street marches and demonstrations. • 6 September: • Victoria experiences a statewide 24-hour stoppage of train, tram and tramway bus services due to a strike by 20,000 public transport workers – the third strike in a month. • Federal Attorney-General
Bob Ellicott quits the
Fraser ministry after a row with Cabinet over the conspiracy case against former Labor Ministers. Senator
Peter Durack is appointed in his place. The referendum proposal is not favoured by the
Australian Labor Party, most of whose parliamentary leaders are inclined to support mining. • 17 September – The
1977 South Australian state election is held. The incumbent
Australian Labor Party led by
Don Dunstan is returned to power.
October • 8 October – The
Tasman Bridge in
Hobart re-opens after repair to the damage sustained in the
Tasman Bridge disaster when the bridge was struck by the bulk ore carrier
MV Lake Illawarra on 5 January 1975. • 19 October: • An employee of
Air India’s Melbourne office is stabbed by a man who left a threatening letter, allegedly from the
Ananda Marga-affiliated Universal Proutist Revolutionary Federation. • Cabinet decides to review the management of explosives by Commonwealth agencies and to provide 203 more Commonwealth police for diplomatic security work, while foreign missions in Australia are urged to upgrade their security. • 27 October – Prime Minister
Malcolm Fraser announces that the
1977 Australian federal election will be held on 10 December.
November • 12 November – The
1977 Queensland state election is held, with the
Liberal-
National coalition led by
Joh Bjelke-Petersen gaining their fourth successive victory. • 18 November –
Phillip Lynch resigns as the
federal treasurer and is succeeded by
John Howard. • 30 November – The
High Court of Australia rules in the case of
Cridland v Federal Commissioner of Taxation that a group of university students avoiding tax by claiming to be farmers were acting legally under provisions of the
Income Tax Assessment Act 1936.
December • 1 December –
Bill Neilson resigns as
Premier of Tasmania to become Australia's
agent-general in London and is succeeded by
Doug Lowe. • 8 December –
Sir Zelman Cowen replaced
Sir John Kerr as
Governor-General of Australia. • 10 December – The
1977 Australian federal election is held.
Malcolm Fraser's
Liberal/
National Country coalition government is re-elected with a slightly reduced majority, defeating the
Labor Party led by former
Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. • 22 December –
Bill Hayden and
Lionel Bowen replace
Gough Whitlam and
Tom Uren in the ALP leadership. ==Arts and literature==