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← 1901 1900 1899 1902 in Australia → 1903 1904 1905
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
See also:	Other events of 1902 Timeline of Australian history

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 3.74 millimetres (0.15 in). Over half the continent was absolutely rainless and less than 3 percent outside Tasmania had more than 10 millimetres (0.39 in).
• 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 with only 314.46 millimetres (12.38 in) (though by area-averaged mean decile it was only eleventh driest).

Unknown dates

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

Arts and 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

References

1. Sorted rainfall over Australia for all months
2. April 1902 rainfall totals
3. Australian Bureau of Meteorology National Climate Centre; Annual Climate Summary 2000, p. 1
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

v t e Years in Australia (1788–present)
18th century	1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800
19th century	1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900
20th century	1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
21st century	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Timeline of Australian history

• 1902 in Australia
• 1902 by country
• Years of the 20th century in Australia