# 1902 in Australia

"none" is preferred when the title alone is adequate; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
The following lists events that happened during 1902 in Australia.
In 1902 women were finally allowed to vote and stand in federal elections.

## Incumbents

* Monarch – Edward VII
* Governor-General – John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun
* Prime Minister – Edmund Barton

### State premiers

* Premier of New South Wales – John See
* Premier of South Australia – John Jenkins
* Premier of Queensland – Robert Philp
* Premier of Tasmania – Elliott Lewis
* Premier of Western Australia – George Leake (until 1 July), then Walter James
* Premier of Victoria – Alexander Peacock (until 10 June), then William Irvine

### State governors

* Governor of New South Wales – Admiral Harry Rawson (from 27 May)
* Governor of South Australia – Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson (until 17 July)
* Governor of Queensland – Major General Sir Herbert Chermside (from 24 March)
* Governor of Tasmania – Captain Sir Arthur Havelock
* Governor of Western Australia – Sir Arthur Lawley (until 14 August)
* Governor of Victoria – Sir George Clarke

## Events

* 7 February – The Waterside Workers Federation is formed.
* April – Averaged over Australia, the driest month on record with only 3.74 millimetres (0.15 in). Over half the continent was absolutely rainless and less than 3 percent outside Tasmania had more than 10 millimetres (0.39 in).
* 31 May – The Second Boer War, in which Australia is involved, ends.
* 12 June – The Commonwealth Franchise Act granted most Australian women the right to vote and stand in federal elections.
* 31 July – A coal gas explosion kills 96 in the Mount Kembla mining disaster
* 1 August – New Idea magazine is first published.
* 3 November – Postmaster-General James Drake opens a submarine telegraph cable from Southport, Queensland to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, completing a British Empire communications line.
* 18 December – The mayors of Sydney and Melbourne are conferred the title of Lord Mayor
* 26 December – Brisbane is declared a city.
* 26 December – Ada Evans becomes the first female law graduate in Australia.
* As a culmination of the Federation Drought, this was by raw totals the driest calendar year averaged over Australia since 1890 with only 314.46 millimetres (12.38 in) (though by area-averaged mean decile it was only eleventh driest).

### Unknown dates

* The world's first successful pyritic smelting takes place at Mount Lyell, Tasmania

## Arts and literature

* 17 September – Opera singer Nellie Melba arrives in Brisbane for her first Australian tour after 16 years in Europe.
* James White wins the Wynne Prize with his bronze sculpture In Defence of the Flat

## Sport

* 27 September – Collingwood wins the 1902 VFL grand final, defeating Essendon 9.6 (60) to 3.9 (27) at the first final to be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a record crowd of 35,000.
* 11 November – The Victory wins the Melbourne Cup
* New South Wales wins the Sheffield Shield

## Births

* 15 January – Dan Dempsey, rugby league footballer (d. 1960)
* 25 February – Vince Gair, politician (d. 1980)
* 2 May – Alan Marshall, writer (d. 1984)
* 22 May – Leslie Herron, Chief Justice of NSW (d. 1973)
* 12 July – Vic Armbruster, rugby league footballer (d. 1984)
* 17 July – Christina Stead, writer (d. 1983)
* 28 July – Albert Namatjira, painter (d. 1959)

## Deaths

* 27 February – Breaker Morant, convicted military officer, bush poet and drover (born in the United Kingdom and died in South Africa) (b. 1864)
* 6 March – Frederick William Piesse, Tasmanian politician (b. 1848)
* 24 June – George Leake, 3rd Premier of Western Australia (b. 1856)