1 January – The words of the Australian national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", are changed for the first time since 1984, amending the line "For we are young and free" to "For we are one and free".[1]
8 January – A three-day lockdown is imposed on the Greater Brisbane area to stop the spread of a UK COVID-19 variant after a hotel quarantine worker unknowingly contracted the virus and spread it out into the community.[3]
22 January − An ongoing plague of mice continued to cause problems and began to cause concerns for crops in areas of New South Wales and Queensland.[4]
By March the mice were stripping food and other items from the shelves of a supermarket in Gulargambone.[5]
In June 2021 the plague caused the complete evacuation of the Wellington Correctional Centre as dead mice and damage to infrastructure led to concern for the health and safety of inmates and staff.[6]
31 January – A snap five-day lockdown is imposed on the city of Perth and the Peel region, after a hotel quarantine worker tests positive for the virulent Variant of Concern 202012/01 of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.[10]
February
11 February – A tsunami warning is issued and later retracted after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake just off the coast of New Caledonia brought fears of a possible tsunami impacting Lord Howe Island.
18 February – Facebook blocks all Australian news websites from sharing news content on its social media platform, preventing any Facebook user from sharing news content from any Australian-based news websites, and preventing Australian users from accessing news content from overseas media outlets on Facebook.[12]
The Māori Women's All Stars defeat the Indigenous Women's All Stars 24–0 in the 2021 Women's All Stars match. Raecene McGregor is named Player of the Match.
22 February – The first doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are administered.[11]
15 March – Tens of thousands of people attend March 4 Justice rallies across Australia calling for an end to gender-based violence and workplace harassment.
20 March – Due to intense rainfall in the previous days, Cundletown and the Taree CBD are evacuated as the Manning River swells to a peak of 5.65 metres.
Intense rainfall also impacts Greater Sydney, New South Wales and Warragamba Dam in Western Sydney overflows for the first time since 2012. Evacuation orders are put in place for suburbs and localities located close to the Nepean and Hawksbury rivers.
28 March – The JobKeeper wage subsidy ends, with the government implementing targeted relief packages for industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic such as tourism.
29 March – Prime Minister Morrison reshuffled his cabinet:[14]
Jane Hume, moves from Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy to the new post of Minister for Women's Economic security
Amanda Stoker, Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General, will also be the Assistant Minister for Women, and Assistant Minister for Industrial Relations.[14]
11 July – Australia records its first death from the COVID-19 pandemic for 2021,[dubious – discuss] as Sydney records 77 cases of community transmission.[38]
7 August – The Armidale Regional Council local government area in northern New South Wales has a snap week-long lockdown imposed, after two positive cases of COVID-19 are detected in the region.
21 August – New South Wales records the highest daily COVID-19 case numbers in Australia thus far, recording 825 new cases of COVID-19.
25 August – New South Wales records 1,029 new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours becoming the first state in Australia to surpass the 1,000 daily case milestone.[44]
15 September – Australia cancels its Attack-class submarine submarine construction deal with France, representing $90b, in favour of the AUKUS security alliance with the United States and United Kingdom, which includes the acquisition of nuclear powered submarines.[45][46][47][48]
20 September – in Melbourne, there was a protest by hundreds of people against mandatory vaccination for construction workers outside the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) headquarters. The protest became violent, the union building was damaged, and riot police employed pepper spray and rubber bullets. Combined with an increase in transmission of COVID-19 in the industry, from 11.59pm that night all building and construction industry worksites in Ballarat, Geelong, Metropolitan Melbourne, Mitchell Shire and the Surf Coast were shut down for two weeks.[49]
21 September – in Melbourne, there was another protest with thousands of people marching against a wide range of pandemic response related issues, including the previous days' construction industry shut down. The "Victorian Workers Rally For Freedom" started near to the CFMEU headquarters at 10am, went through the CBD, past state Parliament, Flinders Street railway station, then onto and blocking the busy West Gate Freeway causing "chaos" in peak hour traffic. At least one media reporter was assaulted, and objects, including bottles and flares, were thrown at police. Riot police again used tear gas and rubber bullets and at least 62 arrests were made.[50] Union officials such as John Setka, CFMEU Victorian state secretary, and Sally McManus, Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) national secretary, asserted that the protests had been hijacked, McManus saying it was by "… far right groups and anti-vax groups, …". The construction shutdown has put about 300,000 out of work, and could cost the industry nearly AU$500 million per day.[51][52]
22 September – A 5.9 magnitude earthquake is reported, with the epicentre being around the Mansfield area in north-eastern Victoria. The quake's effects were felt as far away as Tasmania and Adelaide. Southern New South Wales experienced the quake as well.[53]
in Melbourne city there was yet another protest, with up to 1,000 people converging on the Shrine of Remembrance. After a stand-off for a few hours with police surrounding them, protesters were dispersed at about 5pm. Two police officers were injured by thrown bottles and more than 200 people were arrested. An estimated 300 fines were issued for not complying with stay-at-home directives.[50] One protester there was hospitalised by the next day with COVID-19.[54]
31 October – Pressed to answer a question on the broken submarine deal, French President Emmanuel Macron says he knows Scott Morrison has lied to him.[62]
3 December – A few months before the elections, Labor announces 43% cut to emissions by 2030 as climate policy goal
7 December – The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs announce that John Asiata's contract has been terminated effective immediately. It resulted from Asiata's refusals to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Asiata becomes the first NRL player to suffer this fate.[66]
16 December – A jumping castle and two zorbs were lifted into the air by a gust of a wind at Hillcrest primary school, located in the south-west Devonport, killing six children.[67][68]
19 December – A microburst forms in Sydney's Northern Beaches, killing one person and leaving two people critically injured. Power went down for more than 12,000 residents and has not been restored as of 20 December.
30 December – A fire broke out at the entrance of Old Parliament House, Canberra.[69] Police confirmed the fire had been started by protestors.[70] A spokesperson from Old Parliament House said the heritage doors, the portico and the building's facade all sustained substantial damage from the fire.[71] It was the second incident involving protestors and a fire at Old Parliament House after a fire, lit by protestors, scorched the front doors on 21 December 2021.[72]
^Maiden, Samantha (30 September 2021). "Big problem with PM's 'break-up text'". news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site. Archived from the original on 5 October 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
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Media related to 2021 in Australia at Wikimedia Commons
