1917 in Australia

Incumbents

• Monarch – George V
• Governor-General – The Right Hon. Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson
• Prime Minister – Billy Hughes
• Chief Justice – Samuel Griffith

  State premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – William Holman
• Premier of South Australia – Crawford Vaughan, then Archibald Peake
• Premier of Queensland – T. J. Ryan
• Premier of Tasmania – Walter Lee
• Premier of Western Australia – Frank Wilson, then Henry Lefroy
• Premier of Victoria – Sir Alexander Peacock, then John Bowser

  State governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Sir Gerald Strickland
• Governor of South Australia – Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry Galway
• Governor of Queensland – Major Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir William Ellison-Macartney, then Sir Francis Newdegate
• Governor of Western Australia – Major General Sir Harry Barron, then Sir William Ellison-Macartney
• Governor of Victoria – Sir Arthur Stanley

  Events

• 20 March – Lieutenant Frank Hubert McNamara becomes the first Australian airman to receive the Victoria Cross.
• 5 May – A federal election is held. The incumbent Nationalist government led by Billy Hughes is returned to power.
• 5 May – Queenslanders reject a referendum to abolish the state's Legislative Council.
• 2 August – The General Strike of 1917 begins, a massive industrial action involving over 100,000 workers in support of railway workers in Sydney.
• 17 October – The two-halves of the Trans-Australian Railway meet.
• 15 November – A general election is held in Victoria. The Commonwealth Liberal Party led by John Bowser defeats the incumbent Labour government led by Sir Alexander Peacock.
• 29 November – The "Egg Throwing Incident" takes place in the town of Warwick, Queensland. A man throws an egg at Prime Minister Billy Hughes, and the refusal of Queensland Police Service to arrest him leads to the forming of the Commonwealth Police Force.
• 12 December – The Royal Australian Navy battlecruiser HMAS Australia is damaged in a collision with the British cruiser HMS Repulse.
• 20 December – The second plebiscite on the issue of military conscription was held; it was defeated.
• Daniel Mannix becomes a Catholic archbishop of Melbourne. He publicly supports Sinn Féin.

  Arts and literature

• Foundation of Australian Entertainment Industry Association, the peak body for Australia's live entertainment and performing arts industry.

  Film

• 19 March – Our Friends, the Hayseeds released in Sydney. The film made by Beaumont Smith was Australia's first substantial film comedy.

  Sport

• The Melbourne Cup is won by Westcourt
• The 1917 NSWRFL Premiership is won by Balmain
• The Sheffield Shield is not contested due to the war

  Births

• 17 February – Harry Gibbs, Chief Justice of the High Court
• 11 March – Nancy Cato, writer
• 14 March – John McCallum, actor
• 21 March – Frank Hardy, novelist
• 25 March – Barbara Jefferis, author
• 22 April – Sidney Nolan, artist
• 30 April – Mervyn Wood, Olympic rower
• 3 May – James Penberthy, composer
• 7 May – Lenox Hewitt, public servant
• 15 May – Ron Saggers, cricketer
• 25 May – James Plimsoll, Governor of Tasmania from 1982–1987
• 2 June – Peggy Antonio, female Test cricketer
• 14 July – Pat Moran, statistician
• 17 July – Jack Beale, politician and first Environment Minister
• 19 August – Laurie Aarons, leader of the Australian Communist Party
• 20 August – Dudley Erwin, politician
• 7 September – John Cornforth, Australian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 12 September – Charles Jones, politician
• 19 September – Paterson Clarence Hughes, RAF pilot
• 30 September – Kim Beazley Sr., Federal politician
• 2 October – Phil Ridings, cricketer
• 5 October – Kenneth Jacobs, Chief Justice of the High Court
• 17 October – Sumner Locke Elliott, novelist
• 20 October – D'Arcy Niland, novelist
• 21 November – Tom Reynolds, VFL footballer
• 22 November – Jon Cleary, novelist
• 8 December – Ian Johnson, cricketer
• 12 December – Xavier Connor, jurist
• 25 December – Tim Walker, NSW politician
• 31 December – Pat Hills, NSW politician

  Deaths

• 31 March – Joseph Cullen, NSW and WA politician
• 5 April – E. H. Coombe, South Australian politician
• 6 May – Thomas Joseph Carr, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne
• 24 May – Les Darcy, boxer
• 15 August – John Haynes, NSW politician
• 26 August – William Lane, journalist and labour movement pioneer
• 17 September – Edward Petherick, book collector
• 31 October – Tibby Cotter, cricketer
• 10 November – Harry Trott, cricketer
• 20 December – Frederick McCubbin, painter