Australian Events

Posted in 1973

  • When the Whitlam government announced the end of the use of racial criteria in selection of migrants, both sides of politics are fully committed to a non-discriminatory immigration policy. Up to 1970 British migrants constituted almost half of the total arrivals.
  • Voting age is lowered from 21 to 18.
  • Sydney Opera HouseThe Sydney Opera House is opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
  • People's Republic of China is recognised: Mr Whitlam is the first Austalian Prime Minister to make an official visit to Red China.
  • Australia opposes French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
  • "Green Bans" are imposed by the Builders' Labourers Federation on an area in The Rocks to prevent the demolition of some of Sydney's oldest buildings.
  • Sydney Opera HousePatrick White is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature". Born 1912 in London to Australian parents, the family settled in Sydney when Patrick was six months old. He worked for 2 years as a jackeroo in NSW before attending King's College, Cambridge.

 † Nobel e-Museum