1940 in Australia

Incumbents

• Monarch – George VI
• Governor-General – Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Baron Gowrie
• Prime Minister – Robert Menzies
• Chief Justice – Sir John Latham

  State Governors

• Governor of New South Wales – John Loder, 2nd Baron Wakehurst
• Governor of Queensland – Sir Leslie Orme Wilson
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Malcolm Barclay-Harvey
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir Ernest Clark
• Governor of Victoria – Sir Winston Dugan
• Governor of Western Australia – none appointed

  Events

• 28 February – The Australian 7th Division is formed.
• 16 March – A state election is held in Victoria. The Country Party led by Albert Dunstan is returned to government.
• 14 June – The Volunteer Defence Corps is formed, a militia force based on the British Home Guard.
• 6 July – The Story Bridge is opened in Brisbane.
• 19 July – The Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney takes part in the sinking of the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni
• 1 August – The first of sixty Bathurst class corvettes, HMAS Bathurst, is launched in Sydney.
• 13 August – An RAAF Lockheed Hudson crashes near Canberra, killing three members of Cabinet and the Chief of the General Staff.
• 3 September – The heavy cruiser HMAS Australia takes part in Operation Menace off Dakar.
• 6 September – 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.
• 21 September – The 1940 federal election results in a hung parliament, with Prime Minister Robert Menzies remaining in office at the head of a minority government.
• 16 October – Country Party leader Archie Cameron resigns and is succeeded by Arthur Fadden as acting leader.
• 26 October – Double-decker buses replace the last cable trams in Melbourne.

  Arts and literature

• Max Meldrum wins the Archibald Prize with his portrait of Dr J Forbes McKenzie
• The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead is published.
• The Magic Basket a musical play for children by Alfred Wheeler is published

  Film

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

  Sport

• Old Rowley wins the Melbourne Cup
• Beaulivre wins the Caulfield Cup
• Beau Vite wins the Cox Plate
• New South Wales wins the Sheffield Shield

  Births

• 5 January – Athol Guy, musician
• 19 January – Paul Calvert, Liberal Senator for Tasmania
• 17 February – Marilyn Jones, ballet dancer
• 22 February – Neil Brown, politician
• 27 February – Bill Hunter, actor
• 1 March – Robin Gray, Premier of Tasmania
• 8 March – Don Barker, actor
• 19 March – Andrew Taylor, poet
• 20 March – Paul Neville, politician
• 12 April – Jack Hibberd, playwright
• 16 April – Marion Halligan, writer
• 24 April – Trevor Kent, actor
• 26 April – Ian Geoghegan, race car driver
• 15 June – Ken Fletcher, tennis player
• 23 June – Diana Trask, country music singer
• 25 June – Judy Amoore, athlete
• 29 June – Ken Done, artist
• 3 August – Judith Troeth, Liberal Senator for Victoria
• 16 August – Bruce Beresford, film director
• 18 August – Jan Owen, poet
• 31 August – Jack Thompson, actor
• 9 September – Hugh Morgan, businessman
• 13 September – Kerry Stokes, chairman of the Seven Network
• 15 September – Allan Andrews, NSW politician
• 21 September – John Pochee, jazz musician
• 3 October – Diana Warnock, radio broadcaster and politician
• 4 October – Ian Kiernan, environmentalist, 1994 Australian of the Year
• 5 October – Bob Cowper, cricketer
• 15 October – Peter C. Doherty, medical researcher, Nobel Prize recipient
• 19 October – Ian Causley, politician
• 21 October – Peter Arnison, Governor of Queensland
• 1 November – John Bell, actor and theatre director
• 4 November – John Sanderson, Governor of Western Australia
• 12 November – John Dowd, NSW politician
• 7 December – Robin Miller, aviator and nurse
• 19 December – Jane Mathews, judge

  Deaths

• 3 February – John Henry Michell, mathematician
• 8 March – Michael Kelly, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney
• 16 April – Herbert James Carter, entomologist
• 22 June – Monty Noble, cricketer
• 23 June – Hugh Denis Macrossan, Queensland politician and judge
• 6 July – Michael O'Connor, WA politician
• 22 July – Sir George Fuller, Premier of New South Wales
• 30 July – Arthur Merric Boyd, painter
• 30 July – Archibald Watson, surgeon and professor of anatomy
• 13 August – Geoffrey Street, politician
• 13 August – Henry Gullett, politician
• 13 August – James Fairbairn, politician
• 13 August – Sir Brudenell White, Chief of the General Staff
• 9 September – Percy Abbott, politician
• 11 September – Issy Smith, soldier and Victoria Cross recipient
• 22 September – Robert Blackwood
• 2 October – Albert Green, politician
• 14 October – Helen de Guerry Simpson, novelist
• 25 October – Thomas Waddell, Premier of New South Wales
• 31 October – Frank Anstey, politician
• 2 November – Colin Rankin, soldier, politician, cane farmer and company director
• 3 November – James Fowler, politician
• 23 November – Stanley Argyle, Premier of Victoria
• 11 December – Belle Golding, feminist, suffragist and labor activist