1940 in Australia

1940 in Australia
Monarch	George VI
Governor-General	Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie
Prime Minister	Robert Menzies
Population	7,039,490
Elections	Federal, VIC

Incumbents

February 28 – The Australian 7th Division is formed.
March 16 – A state election is held in Victoria. The Country Party lead by Albert Dunstan is returned to government.
June 14 – The Volunteer Defence Corps is formed, a militia force based on the British Home Guard.
July 6 – The Story Bridge is opened in Brisbane.
July 19 – The Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney takes part in the sinking of the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni
August 1 – The first of sixty Bathurst class corvettes, HMAS Bathurst, is launched in Sydney.
August 13 – An RAAF Lockheed Hudson crashes near Canberra, killing three members of Cabinet and the Chief of the General Staff.
September 3 – The heavy cruiser HMAS Australia takes part in Operation Menace off Dakar.
September 6 – The British prison ship HMT Dunera docks in Sydney, carrying refugees and prisoners of war considered a danger to British security, for internment in Hay and Tatura.
October 26 – Double-decker buses replace the last cable trams in Melbourne.

Max Meldrum wins the Archibald Prize with his portrait of Dr J Forbes McKenzie

Forty Thousand Horsemen, directed by Charles Chauvel and starring Chips Rafferty, is released

February 3 – John Henry Michell, mathematician
March 8 – Michael Kelly (b. 1850), Catholic Archbishop of Sydney (1911–1940)
April 16 – Herbert James Carter (b. 1858), entomologist
June 22 – Monty Noble (b. 1873), cricketer
June 23 – Hugh Denis Macrossan (b. 1881), Queensland politician and judge
July 6 – Michael O'Connor (b. 1865), WA politician
July 22 – Sir George Fuller (b. 1861), Premier of New South Wales (1921)
July 30 – Arthur Merric Boyd (b. 1862), painter
July 30 – Archibald Watson (b. 1849), surgeon and professor of anatomy
August 13 – Geoffrey Street (b. 1894), politician
August 13 – Henry Gullett (b. 1878), politician
August 13 – James Fairbairn (b. 1897), politician
August 13 – Sir Brudenell White (b. 1876), Chief of the General Staff
September 9 – Percy Abbott (b. 1869), politician
September 11 – Issy Smith (b. 1890), soldier and Victoria Cross recipient
September 22 – Robert Blackwood
October 2 – Albert Green, politician
October 14 – Helen de Guerry Simpson (b. 1897), novelist
October 25 – Thomas Waddell (b. 1854), Premier of New South Wales (1904)
October 31 – Frank Anstey (b. 1865), politician
November 2 – Colin Rankin (b. 1869), soldier, politician, cane farmer and company director
November 3 – James Fowler, politician
November 23 – Stanley Argyle (b. 1867), Premier of Victoria (1932–1935)