16 January – Large parts of Victoria are hit with power outages, including Melbourne, Geelong and Bendigo, after bushfires knock out power transmission lines connecting the state to the national electricity grid.[6]
23 January – John Howard reshuffles his federal cabinet. Such changes include the sacking of the Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone.[7]
26 January – Organisers of the Big Day Out in Sydney plead with event-goers not to bring Australian flags with them, fearing outbreaks of racial violence. The plea is ignored, and the day passes without incident.[8]
5 February – The first inquest into the deaths of the Balibo Five begins.[10]
7 February – James Hardie announces it has approved long-term compensation arrangements for asbestos victims.[11]
11 February – Prime MinisterJohn Howard causes a diplomatic stir when he publicly criticises U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama for his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.[12]
6 March – The Australian government approves a proposed A$11.1 billion sale of the national airline Qantas to an international consortium after the Foreign Investment Review Board finds that the sale would not breach foreign ownership laws.
9 March – Shadow Attorney-General Kelvin Thomson resigns from the Opposition front bench after it is revealed that he wrote a positive character reference for Melbourne gangland figure and fugitive Tony Mokbel six years ago.
14 March – An electrical fault on a Northern Line train near the Sydney Harbour Bridge strands 4,000 passengers on Sydney's CityRail train system for nearly three hours, and causes substantial delays during the evening rush hour.
16 March – Senator Santo Santoro resigns as Minister for Ageing following a scandal involving his ownership of shares in a company related to his portfolio. He resigns from the Senate on 20 March.
18 March – More than 200,000 people walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to celebrate its 75th anniversary.
23 March – Three people are killed when three trucks and four cars are involved in a major collision and explosion in Melbourne's Burnley Tunnel.
23 March – The PlayStation 3 games console is released in Australia, exactly a year after the Australian release of Microsoft's Xbox 360.
10 April – Four elderly residents of the Broughton Hall nursing home in Melbourne die after a gastroenteritis outbreak at the home over the Easter weekend. A fifth resident dies in hospital on 16 April.
19 April – Prime Minister John Howard announces a report which states that unless significant rain falls in the Murray-Darling Basin within the next six to eight weeks, Australia will face a major agricultural crisis with no irrigation allocations available to farmers.
24 April – Two Australian soldiers are injured when a roadside bomb goes off in Iraq.
26 April – Former immigration minister Senator Amanda Vanstone announces her immediate resignation from the Australian Senate. It is announced later that day that Vanstone will take up the position of Australia's Ambassador to Italy in late June.
1 June – The Australian Government climate task force releases its report, recommending Australia implement an emissions trading scheme by 2012. Prime Minister John Howard declines to set a target for greenhouse gas reduction until after the 2007 election.[14]
5 June – Eleven people are killed, 12 seriously injured, 50 others wounded and 13 still missing after a V/Line train collides with a truck at a level crossing near Kerang, Victoria.[15]
6 June – Fugitive Tony Mokbel is recaptured in Greece after being missing since March 2006.[16]
8–10 June – Major storms strike New South Wales, killing at least nine people and causing major flooding. The coal freighter Pasha Bulker is forced to run aground on Nobby's Beach, a major Newcastle beach.
21 June – After the release of a report into child abuse and domestic violence in indigenous communities, the Prime Minister declares the situation a "national emergency" and announces a series of measures (most of which are controversial) to deal with the crisis.
25 June – John Laws announces his retirement from radio after a career spanning 54 years.[21]
2 July – The Pasha Bulker is refloated after 25 days aground.
2 July – Thai Airways International flight TG999 arrives in Melbourne from Bangkok, causing a health scare when one of the passengers is later diagnosed with polio.[22]
3 July – Wesfarmers announces a A$22 billion takeover of the Coles Group in the nation's largest ever corporate takeover.
30 July – John Brumby and Rob Hulls are elected unopposed as Premier and Deputy Premier of Victoria respectively, following the sudden resignation of Steve Bracks and John Thwaites.
27 August – The Australian Government releases a draft booklet of Australian facts and values from which 20 questions of a citizenship test will be drawn. Applicants for citizenship will be required to score 12 out of 20 (60%) in the test to be eligible.[31]
13 September – Anna Bligh is sworn in as Queensland's first female premier.
15 September – A three-year-old toddler, Qian Xun Xue (nicknamed "Pumpkin" by authorities), is found wandering alone at Melbourne's Southern Cross station. Police believe the child had arrived several days before from New Zealand, and that her father had fled to the United States.
4 October – The controversial GunnsBell Bay Pulp Mill is given the go-ahead by federal Environment and Water Resources Minister Malcolm Turnbull, with some conditions imposed on its development and with the Shadow minister for Environment and Water's backing.[32]
8–11 October – Severe thunderstorms have pounded South-East Queensland and Northern New South Wales, with hailstones the size of tennis balls and destructive winds being recorded in Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Lismore.[33]
6 November – An Australian children's toy known as Bindeez is recalled and a safety warning is issued after several children who had swallowed the beads were hospitalised suffering the symptoms of ingestion of gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid or GHB. The toys are also recalled in the United States and United Kingdom after several U.S. children suffer the same effects.[34]
9 November – The Assistant Commissioner of Victoria Police, Noel Ashby, resigns, after a long service.
9 February – The Australian Football League signs a five-year broadcasting contract with the Seven Network, Network Ten and pay TV provider Foxtel, in a controversial deal that will see half of the AFL matches played each week broadcast on Foxtel instead of free-to-air television.
12 February – Jodi Power, a family friend of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, made allegations in a paid interview on Channel Seven's Today Tonight that Corby's sister Mercedes had previously asked Power to transport drugs to Bali and that Mercedes had confessed to smuggling compressed cannabis concealed inside her body into Indonesia. Mercedes is interviewed by Channel Nine's rival program A Current Affair on 14 February.
1 April – When it was announced on Weekend Sunrise, The Seven Network pays $3 million for the broadcast rights to the fourth series of Kath & Kim, a popular sitcom which had previously aired until their final appearance on the ABC in 2005/06 as Da Kath & Kim Code.
16 April – Australia's Leader of the Opposition Kevin Rudd and Minister for Workplace Relations Joe Hockey discontinue their weekly appearances on Seven's breakfast news program Sunrise after four years. The decision follows possibly politically damaging accusations that Sunrise had requested that Rudd appear at a dawn service for ANZAC Day in Long Tan, Vietnam, with the service held an hour early to accommodate the time difference for live television.[38]
1 June – The very last ever episode of Bert's Family Feud goes to air on the Nine Network after an 18-month run. The show was axed due to the strong competition prize win of rival Seven Network game show Deal or No Deal.
23 July – Top-rating soap opera Neighbours makes a super international revamp over to continue its long-run on the Network Ten.
19 August – Fourth series premiere of Kath & Kim at 7:30 pm, now on the Seven Network, attracts an audience of 2.521 million nationally,[39] making it the most watched television programme so far in 2007[40] and the highest rating ever for a first episode in the history of Australian television.[39]
15 October – Seven HD is introduced, becoming the first HD-only channel operated by a Melbourne-based commercial television network.
21 October – The Nine Network includes the "worm" audience reaction graph in their broadcast of the election debate between John Howard and Kevin Rudd, despite agreements to the contrary. The National Press Club cut Nine's transmission feed, and the ABC cut their backup feed. Nine continued to transmit by adding the worm to the Sky News broadcast.[41]
2 November – Network Ten's news anchorperson Charmaine Dragun is found dead near Sydney, apparently due to a suicide.
1 March – Jockey Chris Munce is sentenced to 30 months imprisonment in Hong Kong for taking bribes in exchange for racing tips. His lawyers are appealing.
20 March – West Coast Eagles midfielder Ben Cousins is suspended indefinitely by his club after missing two days of training in a row. He later attends a four-week rehabilitation clinic in the United States.
31 March – Retired swimmer Ian Thorpe is accused in French sports newspaper L'Equipe of having tested positive for abnormal levels of testosterone in May 2006. FINA demands an investigation into the allegations, which Thorpe denies. Thorpe is eventually found to have no case to answer
23 August – A horse is diagnosed with horse flu (equine influenza) in a quarantine station at Eastern Creek. Further horses are diagnosed at the quarantine centre, Centennial Park and outside New South Wales over the next few days, resulting in the cancellation of race meetings Australia-wide and suspension of horse transportation for 72 hours on 25 August.[46]
23 September – Motorcycle racer Casey Stoner gains an unbeatable lead in the MotoGP world championships when he finished third in a race in Tokyo.[48]
29 September – The Geelong Football Club (24.19.163) defeat Port Adelaide (6.8.44) to win the 111th VFL/AFL premiership. It is the first premiership since 1963 for the Cats, the first premiership won by a Victorian team since 2000 and the largest ever winning margin in VFL/AFL grand final history.
^Daniel Ziffer (20 August 2007). "Foxy morons blitz ratings". Melbourne: The Age. Archived from the original on 6 March 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2007.
