1954 In Australia
The following lists events that happened during 1954 in Australia. Incumbents *Monarch – Elizabeth II * Governor-General – Sir William Slim *Prime Minister – Robert Menzies * Chief Justice – Sir Owen Dixon State Premiers *Premier of New South Wales – Joseph Cahill *Premier of Queensland – Vince Gair State Governors * Governor of New South Wales – Sir John Northcott *Governor of Queensland – Sir John Lavarack * Governor of South Australia – Sir Robert George *Governor of Tasmania – Sir Ronald Cross, 1st Baronet *Governor of Western Australia – Sir Charles Gairdner Events * 3 February – Elizabeth II arrives in Sydney on her first visit as monarch * 13 February – Mawson Station in the Australian Antarctic Territory is established * During February, a cyclone hits the Gold Coast and northern New South Wales, killing 26 * 1 March - Adelaide and large parts of southern South Australia are shaken by a 5.6 magnitude earthquake, resulting in the inju ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime, and was head of state of 15 realms at the time of her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the longest verified reign of any female monarch in history. Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother). Her father acceded to the throne in 1936 upon the abdication of his brother Edward VIII, making the ten-year-old Princess Elizabeth the heir presumptive. She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Governor Of Queensland
The governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the monarch of Australia. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governor Governors of the Australian states, performs constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level. In particular the governor has the power to appoint and dismiss the premier of Queensland and all other ministers in the Cabinet government, cabinet, and issue writs for the election of the Parliament of Queensland, state parliament. The current governor of Queensland, former Chief Health Officer of Queensland Jeannette Young, was sworn in on 1 November 2021. The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland, currently Helen Bowskill, acts in the position of governor in the governor’s absence. As from June 2014, Queen Elizabeth II, upon the recommendation of then-Premier Campbell Newman, accorded all current, future and living former governors the title 'The Honourable' in pe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Petrov Affair
The Petrov Affair was a Cold War spy incident in Australia, concerning the defection of Vladimir Petrov, a KGB officer, from the Soviet embassy in Canberra in 1954. The defection led to a Royal Commission and the resulting controversy contributed to the Australian Labor Party split of 1955. Background Petrov, despite his relatively junior diplomatic status, was a colonel in (what became in 1954) the KGB, the Soviet secret police, and his wife was an officer at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). The Petrovs had been sent to the Canberra embassy in 1951 by the Soviet security chief, Lavrentiy Beria. After Joseph Stalin's death in March 1953, Beria had been arrested and shot by Stalin's successors, and Vladimir Petrov evidently feared that, if he returned to the Soviet Union, he would be purged as a "Beria man". Defection Petrov made contact with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and offered to provide evidence of Soviet espionage in exchange for p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vladimir Mikhaylovich Petrov (diplomat)
Vladimir Mikhaylovich Petrov (russian: Влади́мир Миха́йлович Петро́в; 15 February 1907 – 14 June 1991) was a member of the Soviet Union's clandestine services who became famous in 1954 for his defection to Australia. Biography Early life He was born Afanasy Mikhaylovich Shorokhov (russian: Афанасий Миха́йлович Шорохов), into a peasant family in the village of Larikha, in central Siberia. Petrov joined the Komsomol in 1923 and the Soviet Navy., changing his full name to Vladimir Mikhaylovich Proletarsky (russian: Влади́мир Миха́йлович Пролетарский). Intelligence career According to his recently released secret British MI5 file, Petrov stated during his post-defection interviewing that his intelligence career was as follows: * 1929–1933 cypher clerk Soviet Navy. * 1933–1938 NKVD Moscow dealing with overseas cypher communications. * 1939 NKVD cypher clerk attached to Soviet Army Western C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Adelaide, South Australia
Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The demonym ''Adelaidean'' is used to denote the city and the residents of Adelaide. The Native title in Australia#Traditional owner, Traditional Owners of the Adelaide region are the Kaurna people. The area of the city centre and surrounding parklands is called ' in the Kaurna language. Adelaide is situated on the Adelaide Plains north of the Fleurieu Peninsula, between the Gulf St Vincent in the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges in the east. Its metropolitan area extends from the coast to the Adelaide Hills, foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges, and stretches from Gawler in the north to Sellicks Beach in the south. Named in honour of Queen Adelaide, the city was founded ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gold Coast, Queensland
The Gold Coast is a coastal city in the state of Queensland, Australia, approximately south-southeast of the centre of the state capital Brisbane. With a population over 600,000, the Gold Coast is the sixth-largest city in Australia, the nation's largest regional city, and Queensland's second-largest city after Brisbane. The city's Central Business District is located roughly in the centre of the Gold Coast in the suburb of Southport, with the suburb holding more corporate office space than anywhere else in the city. The urban area of the Gold Coast is concentrated along the coast sprawling almost 60 kilometers, joining up with the Greater Brisbane Metropolitan Area to the north and to the state border with New South Wales to the south. Prior to European settlement the area was occupied by the Yugambeh people. The demonym for the Gold Coast is Gold Coaster. The Gold Coast is a major tourist destination with a sunny, subtropical climate and has become widely known for its ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Australian Antarctic Territory
The Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) is a part of East Antarctica claimed by Australia as an external territory. It is administered by the Australian Antarctic Division, an agency of the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. The territory's history dates to a claim on Enderby Land made by the United Kingdom in 1841, which was subsequently expanded and eventually transferred to Australia in 1933. It is the largest territory of Antarctica claimed by any nation by area. In 1961, the Antarctic Treaty came into force. Article 4 deals with territorial claims, and although it does not renounce or diminish any pre-existing claims to sovereignty, it also does not prejudice the position of Contracting Parties in their recognition or non-recognition of territorial sovereignty. As a result, only four other countries — New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, and Norway recognise Australia's claim to sovereignty in Antarctica. Area The AAT consists ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mawson Station
The Mawson Station, commonly called Mawson, is one of three permanent bases and research outposts in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Mawson lies in Holme Bay in Mac. Robertson Land, East Antarctica in the Australian Antarctic Territory, a territory claimed by Australia. Established in 1954, Mawson is Australia's oldest Antarctic station and the oldest continuously inhabited Antarctic station south of the Antarctic Circle. Mawson was named in honour of the Australian Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson. Mawson was listed on the Register of the National Estate in 2001 and listed on the Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004, reflecting the post-World War Two revival of Australia's scientific research and territorial interests in Antarctica. Purpose Mawson Station is a base for scientific research programs including an underground cosmic ray detector, various long-term meteorological aeronomy and geomagnetic studies, as well as ongoing cons ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Charles Gairdner
Lieutenant General Sir Charles Henry Gairdner, (20 March 1898 – 22 February 1983) was a senior British Army officer who later occupied two viceregal positions in Australia. Born in Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies, he was brought up in Ireland, and educated at Repton School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in England. Having served on active duty during the First World War, in which he sustained a serious wound to his right leg, Gairdner spent time at the Staff College, Camberley in the interwar period, and served as commanding officer of the 10th Royal Hussars, 6th Armoured Division and 8th Armoured Division during the Second World War. He retired from the army in 1949 and was appointed Governor of Western Australia in 1951, a position in which he served until 1963, when he assumed the role of Governor of Tasmania until 1968. Gairdner died in Nedlands, at the age of 84, and was awarded a state funeral.Boyce, P'Gairdner, Sir Charles Henry (1898–1983) ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Governor Of Western Australia
The governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of the monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. As with the other governors of the Australian states, the governor of Western Australia performs constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including: * presiding over the Executive Council of Western Australia, Executive Council; * proroguing and dissolving the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly and the Western Australian Legislative Council, Legislative Council; * issuing writs for List of Western Australian Legislative Assembly elections, elections; and * appointing Cabinet minister, Ministers, Judges, Magistrates and Justice of the Peace, Justices of the Peace. Furthermore, all bills passed by the Parliament of Western Australia require the governor's signature before they become acts and pass into law. However, since convention almost always requires the governor to act on the advice of the Premier of Weste ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sir Ronald Cross, 1st Baronet
Sir Ronald Hibbert Cross, 1st Baronet, (9 May 1896 – 3 June 1968) was a British politician and diplomat. He served as Governor of Tasmania 1951-58. Early life and education Cross was educated at Ludgrove Preparatory School and then Eton College. He served with the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry and as a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps in World War I. Career At the 1931 general election, Cross was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Rossendale. He served successively as government whip (1935), Junior Lord of the Treasury (1937), Vice-Chamberlain of the Household (1937–38) and Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (1938–39). He was sworn into the Privy Council in 1940. During the Second World War, Cross served as Minister of Economic Warfare (1939–40) and Minister of Shipping (1940–41). In 1941, he was removed as Minister of Shipping after his performance was criticized by the press. The same year, he was appointed British High Comm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Governor Of Tasmania
The governor of Tasmania is the representative in the Australian state of Tasmania of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The incumbent governor is Barbara Baker, who was appointed in June 2021. The official residence of the governor is Government House located at the Queens Domain in Hobart. As the sovereign predominantly lives outside Tasmania, the governor's primary task is to perform the sovereign's constitutional duties on their behalf. As with the other state governors, the governor performs similar constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as the governor-general of Australia does at the national level. The position has its origins in the positions of commandant and lieutenant-governor in the colonial administration of Van Diemen's Land. The territory was separated from the Colony of New South Wales in 1825 and the title "governor" was used from 1855, the same year in which it adopted its current name. In accordance with the convention ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |