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Edmund Barton
Edmond Barton was the 1st Prime Minister of Australia. Edmund Barton led the Australian representation at the coronation in Westminster Abbey. In 1903 Edmond Barton resigned to become one of the three judges who founded Australia's High Court. -
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Australian Prime Ministers Timeline
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Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin was the 2nd Prime Minister of Australia. Alfred Deakin was prime minister from 1903-1904, 1905-1908 and 1909-1910. The 1903 federal election was the first where women had the same rights as men to stand for parliament and to vote. -
John Chris Watson
John Chris Watson was the 3rd prime minister of Australia. John Chris Watson was the first Labour Prime Minister of Australia. -
George Reid
George Reid was the 4th Prime minister of Australia. Leader of the Opposition from 1901, George Reid became Australia’s fourth Prime Minister in three years. Britain decided to continue the public celebration of Queen Victoria’s birthday after the end of her 64-year reign in 1901. Following this lead, George Reid made Empire Day a national event in Australia. It remained a public holiday until 1958. -
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher was the 5th Prime minister of Australia. Andrew Fisher was Prime minister from 1908-1909, 1910-1913 and 1914-1915. The government offered 5000 pounds for the invention of a military flying machine. -
Joseph Cook
Joseph Cook was the 6th Prime minister of Australia. An Australian force occupied Rabaul and, on 17 September, the German governor surrendered New Guinea. The area remained under Australian military control until 1921. Britain declared war on Germany and automatically the British Dominions, including Australia, were also at war. -
William Morres Hughes
William Morres Hughes was the 7th Prime minister of Australia. The government established a Commonwealth Shipping Line with the purchase of fifteen seagoing steamers from Britain. Australia’s first airline, Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service began regular passenger services with two war surplus biplanes. -
Stanley Melbourne Bruce
Stanley Melbourne was the 8th Prime minister of Australia. The government agreed to form a Loan Council to coordinate States’ borrowing. The Royal Australian Air Force purchased its first Australian plane, the Warrigal 1. -
James Scullin
James Scullin was the 9th Prime minister of Australia. Joseph Lyons formed the United Australia Party. It was a merger of the Nationalist Party and other groups, after Lyons left the Labor Party. The Labor government filled two vacancies on the High Court. Thirty-six-year-old Herbert Vere Evatt became the youngest Justice of the High Court. Edward Aloysius McTiernan went on to become the oldest. -
Joseph Lyons
Joseph Lyons was the 10th Prime minister of Australia. The Australian Broadcasting Commission was established to set up and operate national broadcasting stations. Australia agreed to take 15,000 Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe after the German occupation of Austria and Czechoslovakia. -
Earle Page
Earle Page was the 11th Prime minister in Australia. Earle Page became the eleventh Prime Minister following the death of Joseph Lyons. His term lasted nineteen days. -
Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies was the twelveth Prime minister of Ausralia. He made the choice to give the Aboriginals the right to vote. He resigned on 26 January 1966. -
Arthur Fadden
Arthur Fadden was the 13th Prime minister of Australia. Arthur Fadden succeeded Robert Menzies as Prime Minister. -
John Curtin
John Curtin was the 14th Prime ministers of Australia. Forty years after women candidates first stood for parliament, Dame Enid Lyons and Dorothy Tangney became the first women to win seats in parliament. A Department of Post-War Reconstruction was established. Dr HC Coombs was appointed Director-General in January 1943. -
Francis Forde
Francis Forde was the 15th Prime minister of Australia. On the death of John Curtin, deputy Prime Minister Frank Forde was sworn in until the federal parliamentary Labor Party elected a new leader. -
Ben Chifley
Ben Chifley was the 16th Prime minister of Australia. The Commonwealth Investigation Service was formed. It combined the wartime Security Service and the Investigation Branch. Prime Minister Ben Chifley planted a eucalypt at the entrance of the National Botanic Gardens during a visit by international foresters. -
Harold Holt
Harold Holt was the 17th Prime minister of Australia. After a record 16-year term, Sir Robert Menzies resigned and Harold Holt was sworn in. Australia’s first satellite was launched from the Woomera rocket range, carrying research instruments from the Weapons Research Establishment. -
John McEwen
John McEwen was the 18th Prime minister of Australia. John McEwen was sworn in as Prime Minister two days after Harold Holt disappeared in the ocean off Portsea, Victoria. -
John Gorton
John Gorton was the 19th Prime minister of Australia. Prime Minister John Gorton announced that a withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam would commence the following year. After decades of campaigning, women workers were granted equal pay rates with men doing comparable work. -
William McMahon
William McMahon was the 20th Prime minister of Australia. Senator Neville Bonner became the first Aboriginal parliamentarian. He was nominated by the Queensland Liberal Party for a vacant Senate seat. Indigenous people were included in the national census for the first time in 1971. Prime Minister William McMahon announced the final withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam. -
Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam was the 21st Prime minister of Australia. One of the early reforms of the new Whitlam government was upgrading the Office of Aboriginal Affairs to ministerial level. Papua New Guinea became independent, ending remaining Australian responsibilities in the self-governing country. -
Malcolm Fraser
Malcom Fraser was the 22nd Prime minister of Australia. The Australia-Japan Treaty of Friendship was signed, confirming the important trade relations between the two nations. Enactment of Australia’s first Freedom of Information Act. -
Robert Hawke
Robert Hawke was the 23rd Prime minister of Australia. 'Advance Australia Fair’ was proclaimed Australia’s national anthem. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission began work. It was the result of a merger between the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Aboriginal Development Commission. -
Paul Keating
Paul Keating was the 24th Prime minister of Australia. The first browser program went on sale and transformed the Internet paths to a global network. Australia’s first official Wattle Day. The date, 1 September, was proclaimed as an annual celebration of the golden wattle. -
John Howard
John Howard was the 25th Prime minister of Australia. A gunman killed 35 people at Port Arthur, Tasmania. Twelve days later, Prime Minister John Howard announced a scheme for uniform gun laws throughout Australia. A goods and services tax was introduced as part of the government’s tax reform program aimed at redressing the effects of declining revenue from income tax. -
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd was the 26th Prime minister of Australia. Australia signed the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions passed by the United Nations in 1997. Crowds around Australia watched broadcasts from the House of Representatives when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd led a parliamentary apology for the effect of past government policies on Indigenous people. -
Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard is the 27th Prime minister of Australia. Julia Gillard was the 1st ever female to be Prime minister. Further controversy over Australia's refugee policies follows the wreck, off Christmas Island, of a boat laden with refugee families.
