4 January – Chief justice of the Family Court of Australia, Alastair Nicholson calls for the law to recognise homosexual couples and their children as a family unit, stating that it was "unhelpful to attempt to set limits to what a family can be."[1]
23 January – The Tasmanian Conservation Foundation commences court proceedings to overturn 2 of the 11 woodchip licenses issued by the Federal Government.[6]
3 February – A 4-day blockade of Parliament House, Canberra by 300 trucks and 2,500 timber workers and supporters ends as Prime Minister Paul Keating partially backs down on his 27 January decision to freeze logging in 509 old-growth coupes.[9]
Federal Opposition Leader John Howard promises to woo "the battlers", traditional Labor voters hurt by Labor's policies, and "demonstrate that our policies are not antagonistic to them".[13]
Ian McLachlan resigns his shadow portfolio of Environment for having misled Parliament over the opening of secret Aboriginal women's documents relating to the proposed construction of a bridge to Hindmarsh Island, South Australia.[18]
The New South Wales Government announces seven new parks and reserves, adding 6,000 hectares to the New South Wales National Parks estate.[citation needed]
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr assumes the Arts and Ethnic Affairs portfolio and Deputy Premier Andrew Refshauge assumes Health and Aboriginal Affairs.[22]
May – The Australian Grand Prix is moved from Adelaide to Melbourne after the Premier of Victoria spends what is reported to be quite a large amount on securing the rights to the race from 1996 onwards. Protests ensue about what many saw as the turning of public parkland into a private racetrack.[26][27]
9 May – The Federal Budget is delivered.[29] The Budget's enormous turnaround in projected revenue, from a deficit of $12.9 billion to a small surplus, is received with scepticism by many commentators.[29]
30 May – Dorothy Davis disappears.[30] Believed murdered, her remains had not been located as of 4 August 2016[update], when the man convicted of her murder dies.[31]
7 June – Prime Minister Paul Keating announces to Parliament that Australia would have a referendum on the republic with a head of state elected by Parliament by a majority of at least two-thirds.[33]
25 July – The count in Mundingburra is complete following the Queensland state election.[40] Labor wins by 16 votes with the party claiming a one-seat victory (45 seats), the Nationals winning 29 seats, the Liberals winning 14 seats and 1 independent also winning a seat.[40]
7 August – A second West Australian Federal MP, Allan Rocher leaves the Liberal Party to sit as an Independent, following the bitter power struggle in the West Australian branch.[43]
16 August – New South Wales Premier Bob Carr concedes that his pre-election promise to lift the tolls on the M4 and M5 tollways in western Sydney would be abandoned as being impossibly expensive.[44]
25 August – Labor's National Executive bans ALP members from associating with the right-wing Australian League of Rights.[45] When maverick Kalgoorlie MP Graeme Campbell persists in his association and espousal of anti-immigration views embarrassing to the party, his pre-selection is later revoked causing him to resign.[46]
1 to 31 August – Sydney's official Observatory Hill weather station records its driest and only rainless month since records began in 1859.[48] At the close of the month the city had gone 46 days without measurable rain, twelve more than the previous record from 1970 and 1975.[49]
13 September – The Queensland Government abandons the controversial Eastern Tollway to link Brisbane with the Gold Coast, having lost 4 seats in the affected area.[51]
19 October – South Australian Democrat and former leader Senator John Coulter resigns due to ill health, warning Cheryl Kernot that the party risked losing votes by becoming too mainstream.[53] Coulter is replaced by former student activist and party worker Natasha Stott Despoja who is sworn in on November 30.[54]
20 October – Brenda Hodge, the last person to be sentenced to death in Australia before the full abolition of capital punishment, is paroled from prison after serving eleven years of a life sentence.[citation needed]
24 October – Anna Wood, a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Sydney, dies after taking ecstasy at a rave.[55] Her death sparks a media firestorm and a national debate over the use of illicit drugs.[56]
1 November – Federal Opposition Leader John Howard attempts to mend relations with the Asian community, telling Chinese business people in Melbourne how he values their commercial networks.[59]
3 November- After a six-month trial, David Harold Eastman is convicted by a jury of the assassination of Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester.[60] He is sentenced to life imprisonment and can only be released by approval of the ACT parliament, Federal Parliament and the Governor-General.[60]
14 November – Commissioner Marks delivers his final report, damning Carmen Lawrence's role in the Easton affair, the weight of her colleagues' evidence being against her version.[citation needed]
15 November – Legislation decriminalising owning or working in a brothel is passed by the New South Wales Legislative Council, thereby fulfilling the recommendations of the Wood police corruption inquiry.[61]
1 December – A new licence for a trial shipment of 200,000 tonnes of woodchips to Taiwan reignites plans for a "Son of Wesley Vale" pulp mill for northern Tasmania.[62]
10 December – Tasmanian Premier Ray Groom hands back to Tasmania's indigenous people 12 sacred and cultural sites totalling 3,800 hectares in an historic ceremony at Kidson Cove.[citation needed]
21 December – South Australian Royal Commissioner, Iris Stevens finds that Aboriginal women had "fabricated" beliefs on which they grounded opposition to the building of the Hindmarsh bridge.[68]
27 June – Kerry Stokes becomes chairman of the Seven Network after reaching 20% ownership of the company following the resignation of Ivan Deveson and Bob Campbell.[76]
July – Cheez TV begins on the Ten network. It later became a huge hit and eventually made Agro's Cartoon Connection end in 1997.[77]
1 January – Isabelle Autissier is rescued by a helicopter dispatched from HMAS Darwin, after having spent four days adrift due to severe damage her vessel sustained while competing in the 1994-95 BOC Challenge approximately 900 nautical miles south of Adelaide.[78]
2 March – First day of the Australian Track & Field Championships for the 1994–1995 season, which are held at the Sydney Athletic Field in Sydney.[79] The men's 10,000 metres events were conducted in conjunction with the Zatopek Meet at Melbourne, Victoria on 15 December 1994.
31 March – News Limited's Super League initiates lightning raids across the country to sign players on vastly inflated contracts.[82] The Kerry Packer backed ARL responds by signing 50 players onto equally inflated contracts on 3 April.[83]
16 July – Rod de Highden wins the men's national marathon title, clocking 2:13:58 in Brisbane, while Julie Rose claims the women's title in 2:38:44.[88]
24 September – The Canterbury Bulldogs (playing as the Sydney Bulldogs) defeat the minor premiers Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 17–4 to win the 88th NSWRL/ARL premiership.[89] The grand final marks Terry Lamb's final game and the final time the Winfield Cup is presented due to the pending ban on tobacco sponsorship.[89] The debuting North Queensland Cowboys finish in last position, claiming the wooden spoon.[89]
25 September – Opening arguments are heard in the ARL/SL case in the Federal Court, which will decide the future of rugby league in Australia.
3 October – International rugby league representative forward Ian Roberts became the first high-profile Australian sports person and first rugby footballer in the world to come out to the public as gay.[91][92][93]
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