1918 in Australia

Incumbents

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

  State premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – William Holman
• Premier of Queensland – T. J. Ryan
• Premier of South Australia – Archibald Peake
• Premier of Tasmania – Walter Lee
• Premier of Victoria – John Bowser, then Harry Lawson
• Premier of Western Australia – Sir Henry Lefroy

  State governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Walter Edward Davidson
• Governor of Queensland – Hamilton Goold-Adams
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Henry Galway
• Governor of Tasmania – Francis Newdegate
• Governor of Victoria – Sir Arthur Stanley
• Governor of Western Australia – William Ellison-Macartney

  Events

• 8 January – Billy Hughes resigns as Prime Minister of Australia as promised following the defeat of the 1917 plebiscite on conscription. He is immediately sworn in again by the Governor-General as there are no alternative candidates.
• 21 January – Thirty people are killed when the Mackay cyclone strikes the town of Mackay in Queensland.
• 2 February – The Brighton tornado, the strongest storms ever recorded in Melbourne, strike the suburb of Brighton, killing two people.
• 10 March – The 1918 Innisfail cyclone made landfall in the area around Innisfail
• 21 March – John Bowser resigns as Premier of Victoria after his railway estimates bill is defeated in parliament. Harry Lawson forms a composite ministry of Liberal factions, including Bowser as Chief Secretary and Minister for Public Health.
• 3 August – Australia House, Australia's high commission to the United Kingdom, opens in London.
• 22 September – The Prime Minister Billy Hughes makes the first direct radio telephone call between England and Australia, calling Sydney from London.
• 6 October – Australia's first electric train service begins, between Newmarket and Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.
• 26 October – A by-election is held in the Division of Swan following the death of the sitting member, Sir John Forrest. The youngest ever MP, Edwin Corboy, is elected to parliament.
• 17 December – The Darwin Rebellion takes place, with 1,000 demonstrators demanding the resignation of the Administrator of the Northern Territory, John A. Gilruth.

  World War I events

• 1 January – The Australian Corps is formed from the five AIF divisions on the Western Front.
• 21 March – The Australian Corps commences fighting to stop the German offensive Operation Michael, the German advance near Amiens.
• 25 April – Australian forces recapture Villers-Bretonneux from the German army helping to stop Operation Georgette.
• 31 May – John Monash takes command of the Australia Corps.
• 4 July – John Monash leads an attack on Hamel, regarded as one of the most prepared battles of the entire war.
• 8 August – The Battle of Amiens begins with British, Australian and Canadian troops participating in a successful offensive – General Erich Ludendorff described it as "the black day of the German Army".
• 12 August – King George V knights John Monash on the battlefield, the first British commander to be knighted in that way for 200 years.
• 18 September – Forces led by John Monash attack the Hindenburg Line in the Battle of the Hindenburg Line capturing 4,300 German troops.
• 1 October – Australian troops capture Damascus.
• 5 October – The last Australian operation in the Battle of the Hindenburg Line taking the village of Montbrehain with the line cleared by 10 October.
• 11 November – Germany signs an Armistice to end World War I.
• 10 December – Royal Australian Navy ships sail to the Black Sea to assist the White Army in the Russian Civil War.

  Arts and literature

• May Gibbs publishes Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.
• Norman Lindsay publishes The Magic Pudding.

  Sport

• 3 August – The South Sydney Rabbitohs win the New South Wales Rugby Football League season 1918.
• 7 September – The South Melbourne Swans defeat the Collingwood Magpies 9.8 to 7.15, becoming premiers of the 1918 VFL season.
• 12 November – Night Watch wins the Melbourne Cup.

  Births

• 16 January – Clem Jones, Lord Mayor of Brisbane
• 26 January – Amy Witting, novelist
• 8 February – Charles Birch, geneticist
• 5 March – John Billings, doctor who developed the Billings Method
• 18 March – David Zeidler, chemist and industrialist
• 19 March – Jim Brown, NSW politician
• 11 April – Francis Hassett, Australian Army general
• 18 April – Harry Firth, race car driver
• 21 April – Francis James, publisher
• 26 July – Richard Arthur Blackburn, Chief Justice of the ACT
• 24 August – Sandy Pearson, soldier
• 4 September – John Carrick, politician
• 5 September – Bob Katter, Sr., Country Party politician
• 14 October – Thelma Coyne Long, tennis player
• 14 October – Doug Ring, cricketer
• 15 December – Pauline Neura Reilly, ornithologist

  Deaths

• 23 February – Alexander Bolton, politician
• 14 July – James White, sculptor
• 12 September – Sir George Reid, Premier of NSW and Prime Minister
• 10 October – Henry Dobson, Premier of Tasmania
• 12 October – Mary Hannay Foott, poet
• 7 December – Frank Wilson, Premier of Western Australia