1898 in Australia

Incumbents

Premiers

• Premier of New South Wales - George Reid
• Premier of South Australia - Charles Kingston
• Premier of Queensland - Hugh Nelson, Thomas Joseph Byrnes then James Dickson
• Premier of Tasmania - Edward Braddon
• Premier of Western Australia - John Forrest
• Premier of Victoria - George Turner

  Governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Henry Brand, 2nd Viscount Hampden
• Governor of Queensland – Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Thomas Buxton, 3rd Baronet
• Governor of Tasmania – Jenico Preston, 14th Viscount Gormanston
• Governor of Victoria – Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey
• Governor of Western Australia – Gerard Smith

  Events

• 6 May - The paddle steamer Maitland sinks near Broken Bay, drowning 24 people.
• 3-4 June - A referendum is held in New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria to approve the draft Constitution of Australia. The constitution was accepted by the required majority in South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria, but not in New South Wales.
• 17 October - The Perth Zoo opens with two lions and a tiger.
• 26 December - Gatton murders - Three members of the same family are sexually molested and murdered near the town of Gatton, Queensland.
• The Queen Victoria Building in Sydney is completed

  Science and technology

Arts and literature

• W. Lister Lister wins the Wynne Prize for landscape painting or figure sculpture for his landscape The Last Gleam

  Sport

• The Grafter wins the Melbourne Cup
• Victoria wins the Sheffield Shield

  Births

• 12 February - Sali Herman, war artist
• 24 September - Howard Walter Florey, pharmacologist and Nobel Prize winner
• 9 December - Irene Greenwood, radio broadcaster, feminist and peace activist

  Deaths

• 20 March - Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer, Premier of Queensland
• 30 July - Mary Colton, philanthropist and suffragist
• 19 September - George Edward Grey, Governor of South Australia
• 27 September - Thomas Joseph Byrnes, Premier of Queensland
• 2 November - George Goyder, Surveyor-General of South Australia