Incumbents

• Monarch
  Monarchy in Australia
  The Monarchy of Australia is a form of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign of Australia. The monarchy is a constitutional one modelled on the Westminster style of parliamentary government, incorporating features unique to the Constitution of Australia.The present monarch is...
  
   – King Edward VII
  Edward VII of the United Kingdom
  Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
  
  
• Governor-General
  Governor-General of Australia
  The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative in Australia at federal/national level of the Australian monarch . He or she exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth...
  
   – Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson
  Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson
  Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, GCMG, PC , the second Governor-General of Australia, was born at Chapel House, Twickenham, in Surrey, England. Named after his father's late friend Arthur Hallam, he was the elder son of Alfred Tennyson, the most popular and prominent poet of late Victorian...
  
   (until 21 January), then Henry Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote
  Henry Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote
  Henry Stafford Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote GCMG, GCIE, CB, PC , known as Sir Henry Northcote, Bt, between 1887 and 1900, was a Conservative politician and colonial administrator...
  
  
• Prime Minister
  Prime Minister of Australia
  The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
  
   – Alfred Deakin
  Alfred Deakin
  Alfred Deakin , Australian politician, was a leader of the movement for Australian federation and later the second Prime Minister of Australia. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Deakin was a major contributor to the establishment of liberal reforms in the colony of Victoria, including the...
  
   (until 27 April), Chris Watson
  Chris Watson
  John Christian Watson , commonly known as Chris Watson, Australian politician, was the third Prime Minister of Australia...
  
   (until 18 August), then George Reid
  George Reid (Australian politician)
  Sir George Houstoun Reid, GCB, GCMG, KC was an Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales and the fourth Prime Minister of Australia....
  
  

State premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – John See
  John See
  Sir John See, KCMG was a member of the New South Wales Legislature from 26 November 1880 to 15 June 1901, and was then Premier of New South Wales from 1901 to 1904....
  
   (until 14 June), Thomas Waddell
  Thomas Waddell
  Thomas Waddell , an Australian politician, was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1887 to 1917, was briefly the Premier of New South Wales during 1904, and was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1917 to 1934.-Early life:He was born in County Monaghan,...
  
   (until 29 August), then Joseph Carruthers
  Joseph Carruthers
  Sir Joseph Hector McNeil Carruthers KCMG was an Australian politician and Premier of New South Wales.According to Percival Serle, few premiers of New South Wales succeeded in doing so much distinguished work...
  
  
• Premier of South Australia – John Jenkins
  John Jenkins (Australian politician)
  John Greeley Jenkins was an American-Australian politician and Premier of South Australia.Jenkins was the fourth son of Evan Jenkins and Mary Davis of South Wales, was born in Pennsylvania. He was educated at the Wyoming Seminary, Pa., and after working on his father's farm, became in 1872 a...
  
  
• Premier of Queensland – Arthur Morgan
  Arthur Morgan (Queensland politician)
  Sir Arthur Morgan was the Premier of Queensland, Australia from 1903 to 1906.Morgan was born in Warwick, Queensland, the fourth son of James Morgan and his wife Kate, née Barton...
  
  
• Premier of Tasmania – William Propsting
  William Propsting
  William Bispham Propsting, CMG was an Australian politician and member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, who served as Premier of Tasmania from 9 April 1903 to 11 July 1904.-Early life:...
  
   (until 12 July), then John Evans
  John Evans (Australian politician)
  Sir John William Evans, CMG was an Australian politician, a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly and Premier of Tasmania from 11 July 1904 to 19 June 1909.-Early life and nautical career:...
  
  
• Premier of Western Australia
  Premier of Western Australia
  The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. The Premier has similar functions in Western Australia to those performed by the Prime Minister of Australia at the national level, subject to the different Constitutions...
  
   – Walter James
  Walter James
  Sir Walter Hartwell James KCMG KC was the fifth Premier of Western Australia and an ardent supporter of the federation movement....
  
   (until 10 August), then Henry Daglish
  Henry Daglish
  Henry Daglish was the sixth Premier of Western Australia and the state's first Labor Premier.Henry Daglish was born in Ballarat West, Victoria on 18 November 1866. He was educated in Geelong, and attended Melbourne University...
  
  
• Premier of Victoria – William Irvine
  William Irvine (Australian politician)
  Sir William Hill Irvine GCMG , Australian politician and judge, was the 21st Premier of Victoria. Irvine was born in Newry in County Down, Ireland, into a Scottish-Presbyterian family...
  
   (until 16 February), then Sir Thomas Bent
  Thomas Bent
  Sir Thomas Bent KCMG , Australian politician, was the 22nd Premier of Victoria. He was one of the most colourful and corrupt politicians in Victorian history....
  
  

State governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Sir Harry Rawson
  Harry Rawson
  Admiral Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson, GCB, GCMG RN , is chiefly remembered for overseeing the British Benin Expedition of 1897 that burned and looted the city of the Kingdom of Benin, now in Nigeria...
  
  
• Governor of South Australia – Sir George Ruthven Le Hunte
  George Le Hunte
  Sir George Ruthven Le Hunte KCMG was Governor of South Australia from 1 July 1903 until 18 February 1909, soon after federation of Australia....
  
  
• Governor of Queensland – Sir Herbert Chermside
  Herbert Chermside
  Lieutenant-General Sir Herbert Charles Chermside GCMG, CB was a British soldier who served as Governor of Queensland in Australia from 1902 to 1904.-Early life and education:...
  
   (until 10 October)
• Governor of Tasmania – Captain Sir Arthur Havelock
  Arthur Havelock
  Sir Arthur Elibank Havelock, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE was a career British colonial governor, serving as Governor of Sierra Leone from 1880, of Natal, of Madras, of Ceylon from 1890 to 1895, and of Tasmania from 1901 to 1904....
  
   (until 16 April), then Sir Gerald Strickland
  Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland
  Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland, 6th Count of Catena, GCMG was a Maltese and British politician and peer, who served as Prime Minister of Malta, Governor of the Leeward Islands, Governor of Tasmania, Governor of Western Australia and Governor of New South Wales.-Early...
  
   (from 28 October)
• Governor of Western Australia
  Governor of Western Australia
  The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
  
   – Admiral Sir Frederick Bedford
  Frederick Bedford
  Admiral Sir Frederick George Denham Bedford GCB, GCVO was Governor of Western Austria from 24 March 1903 to 22 April 1909.-Naval career:Bedford joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14, and later served in the Crimean War....
  
  
• Governor of Victoria – Major General Sir Reginald Talbot
  Reginald Talbot
  Major-General Sir Reginald Arthur James Talbot, KCB was a British military officer, Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons, and Governor of Victoria in Australia.-Early life:...
  
   (from 25 April)

Events

• 6 January – The Tasmanian government
  Government of Tasmania
  The form of the Government of Tasmania is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1856, although it has been amended many times since then...
  
   replaces the state's Central Board of Health with a Public Health Department.
• 13 January – The flag of South Australia
  Flag of South Australia
  The current state flag of South Australia, was officially adopted by the government of South Australia in 1904.The flag is based on the defaced British Blue Ensign with the state badge located in the fly. The badge is a gold disc featuring a Piping Shrike with its wings outstretched...
  
   is officially gazetted as the current design.
• 23 January – A by-election
  By-election
  A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
  
   is held for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
  New South Wales Legislative Assembly
  The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...
  
   seat of Ryde
  Electoral district of Ryde
  Ryde is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It includes the suburbs and localities of Denistone, Denistone East, Denistone West, Macquarie Park, Marsfield, Meadowbank, Melrose Park, Ryde, North Ryde, West Ryde; and part of Eastwood.It is...
  
  . It is won by Edward Terry
  Edward Terry (Australian politician)
  Edward Terry was an Australian politician.Born at Box Hill near Rouse Hill to landowner John Terry and Eleanor Rouse, he would marry Isabel Benson, with whom he had thirteen children. He owned the Eastwood Estate from around 1863 and built a racecourse at Eastwood...
  
   for the Liberal Reform Party
  Liberal Reform Party (Australia)
  The Liberal Reform Party was an Australian political party, active in New South Wales state politics between 1901 and 1916. The question of tariff policy which, had created and divided the Free Trade Party and Protectionist Party in New South Wales in the 1890s, became a federal issue at the time...
  
  .
• 29 February – Women's suffrage
  Women's suffrage
  Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
  
   is granted in Tasmania
  Tasmania
  Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
  
  .
• 1 June – A general election is held in Victoria
  Victoria (Australia)
  Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
  
  . Incumbent premier Sir Thomas Bent
  Thomas Bent
  Sir Thomas Bent KCMG , Australian politician, was the 22nd Premier of Victoria. He was one of the most colourful and corrupt politicians in Victorian history....
  
   is returned with an increased majority.
• 20 June – The P&O ship SS Australia is wrecked at the entrance to Port Phillip
  Port Phillip
  Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...
  
  . There is no loss of life.
• 12 November – John Drayton is imprisoned
  Imprisonment of John Drayton
  The imprisonment of John Drayton in 1904 was the first and, until 1995, only, time that an Australian parliament punished somebody under parliamentary privilege provisions....
  
   under parliamentary privilege provisions in Western Australia.
• 1 December – Ipswich, Queensland
  Ipswich, Queensland
  Ipswich is a city in South-East Queensland, Australia. Situated along the Bremer River Valley approximately 40 kilometres away from the state's capital Brisbane. The suburb by the same name forms the city's Central Business District and administrative centre...
  
   is proclaimed as a city.

Arts and literature

• 12 January – Melbourne businessmann Alfred Felton
  Alfred Felton
  Alfred Felton was an Australian entrepreneur, art collector and philanthropist.-Biography:Alfred Felton was born at Maldon, Essex, England, the fifth child of six sons and three daughters of William Felton, a currier, and his wife Hannah...
  
   leaves a large bequest to the Art Gallery of Victoria
  National Gallery of Victoria
  The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
  
  .
• Hans Heysen
  Hans Heysen
  Sir Hans Heysen, OBE was a well-known German Australian artist. He was particularly recognized for his watercolours of the Australian bush. He won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting a record nine times.-Biography:...
  
   wins the Wynne Prize
  Wynne Prize
  The Wynne Prize is an Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture art prize. One of Australia's longest running art prizes, it was established in 1897 from the bequest of Richard Wynne...
  
   with Mystic Morn
• The Austral Hall
  Austral Hall
  The Austral Society was founded in 1903 because of the influence of The Toowoomba poet George Essex Evans to promote Australian Arts and Culture.The Society purchased part of the closed Toowoomba Gaol grounds and let a tender to roof part of the goal yard in September 1904...
  
   Toowoomba was officially opened on 5 November 1904 by Sir Hugh Nelson
  Hugh Nelson
  Sir Hugh Muir Nelson, KCMG was Premier of Queensland from 1893 to 1898.Nelson was born at Kilmarnock, Scotland. His father, Dr William Lambie Nelson, was elected to the first Queensland parliament in 1860 but was unseated because he was a minister of religion...
  
  , Lieutenant Governor of Queensland for The Austral Society
  Austral Society
  The Austral Society was founded in 1903 due to the influence of The Toowoomba poet George Essex Evans to promote Australian Arts and Culture. The Society ceased in 1911....
  
  .

Sport

• September – The Australasian Lawn Tennis Association
  Tennis Australia
  Tennis Australia is the governing body for the sport of Tennis in Australia. The organisation exists to promote tennis and conduct domestic and international tournaments on behalf of Australia, including the Australian Open and the Davis Cup for the Australian Davis Cup Team...
  
   is formed in Sydney.
• 1 November – Acrasia wins the Melbourne Cup
  Melbourne Cup
  The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
  
  .
• New South Wales wins the Sheffield Shield
  Pura Cup
  The Sheffield Shield is the domestic cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Prior to the Shield being established, a number of intercolonial matches were played. The Shield, donated by Lord Sheffield, was first contested during...
  
  .
• Two Australians, Corrie Gardner and Leslie McPherson, compete in athletics at the 1904 Summer Olympics
  1904 Summer Olympics
  The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States from 1 July 1904, to November 23, 1904, at what is now known as Francis Field on the campus of Washington University...
  
  . They do not return with any medals

Births

• 7 April – Roland Wilson, economist
• 8 April – John Antill
  John Antill
  John Henry Antill, CMG, OBE was an Australian composer best known for his ballet Corroboree.-Biography:Antill was born in Sydney in 1904, and was educated and trained in music at Trinity Grammar School, Sydney and St Andrew's Cathedral School. Upon leaving school in 1920 he became apprenticed to...
  
  , musician and composer (d. 1986)
• 29 May – Hubert Opperman
  Hubert Opperman
  Sir Hubert Ferdinand Opperman, OBE , referred to as Oppy by Australian and French crowds, was an Australian cyclist and politician, whose endurance cycling feats in the 1920s and 1930s earned him international acclaim....
  
  , cyclist and politician (d. 1996)

Deaths

• 8 January – Alfred Felton
  Alfred Felton
  Alfred Felton was an Australian entrepreneur, art collector and philanthropist.-Biography:Alfred Felton was born at Maldon, Essex, England, the fifth child of six sons and three daughters of William Felton, a currier, and his wife Hannah...
  
   (b. 1831), entrepreneur and philanthropist
• 25 January – Graham Berry
  Graham Berry
  Sir Graham Berry KCMG , Australian colonial politician, was the 11th Premier of Victoria. He was one of the most Radical and colourful figures in the politics of colonial Victoria, and made the most determined efforts to break the power of the Victorian Legislative Council, the stronghold of the...
  
   (b. 1822), Premier of Victoria
• 2 February – Edward Braddon
  Edward Braddon
  Sir Edward Nicholas Coventry Braddon, KCMG , Australian politician, was the Premier of Tasmania from 1894 to 1899, and was a Member of the First Australian Parliament in the House of Representatives...
  
   (b. 1829), Premier of Tasmania
• 5 August – George Dibbs
  George Dibbs
  Sir George Richard Dibbs KCMG was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales on three occasions.-Early years:Dibbs was born in Sydney, son of Captain John Dibbs, who disappeared in the same year...
  
   (b. 1834), Premier of New South Wales
• 17 December – William Shiels
  William Shiels
  William Shiels , Australian colonial politician, was the 16th Premier of Victoria.-Biography:Shiels was born in County Londonderry, Ireland of a Presbyterian family and arrived in Melbourne as a child in 1853...
  
  (b. 1848), Premier of Victoria