21 April – Private Jacob Kovco becomes the first casualty of Australia's involvement in the Iraq campaign. The reason given initially was that his gun had accidentally discharged while cleaning his gun, although this was later retracted. It was later stated that he had accidentally shot himself while skylarking with his pistol.
25 April – A small earthquake causes a rock fall in a goldmine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania. Eleven miners come out, but three are left inside. One of them is found dead on 28 April. The other two are freed on 9 May.
26 April – The body of Bosnian civilian contractor Juso Sinanovic is taken to Australia instead of the body of Private Kovco. Private Kovco's body later arrived in Australia on 29 April.
12 June - Australia's national football team, the Socceroos, play their first FIFA World Cup match in 32 years against Japan. The match ended in a historic 3–1 victory to Australia, courtesy of late comeback goals by Tim Cahill and John Aloisi. The match is considered one of Australia's finest sporting achievements, and was responsible for the emergence of the Australia-Japan football rivalry.[1]
9 July – Revelations are published in News Limited newspapers that, in 1994, John Howard made a secret deal with Peter Costello to hand over the leadership of the Liberal Party to him after having served two terms in office as Prime Minister.
17 July - Australia's largest recorded inundation caused by a tsunami hits the Western Australian coast at Steep Point.[2]
29 July – In the face of a worsening water supply crisis, a referendum is held in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia's second largest inland city, on the issue of using water recycled from the city's sewerage as a source of drinking water. The acrimonious campaign and emotional debate were watched closely nationwide as most other Australian cities raise water restrictions in the face of record low dam and river levels.
18 October – Linda Lavarch resigns as Queensland's Attorney-General to seek treatment for depression, after it is revealed she refused a deal to return Jayant Patel (dubbed "Dr Death" by the media) to Australia to face criminal charges.
25 October – Comments that SheikhTaj El-Din Hilaly made about women who dressed immodestly being responsible for rape are made public in The Australian. The sheik is forced to retract such comments on 26 October.
11 November – Belinda Emmett, a TV personality and wife of Rove McManus, dies, after a battle with breast cancer.
22 November – Sydney is covered in smoke after raging fires in the Blue Mountains.
25 November – Steve Bracks is re-elected Victorian premier at the state election.
29 November – One SAS soldier and the helicopter captain are dead and eight more rescued when a Blackhawk helicopter hits the deck of HMAS Kanimbla and crashes into waters off the coast of Fiji.
30 November – Greg Page, the founding member and lead singer of Australia's famous children's band The Wiggles, announced his retirement due to orthostatic intolerance. He handed his yellow skivvy to Sam Moran.
18 December – 16-year-old girl Stacey Mitchell is murdered by lesbian couple Jessica Stasinowsky and Valerie Parashumti. She was bludgeoned with a concrete block and strangled with a chain, with her corpse found in a wheelie bin.[3]
Investigation into AWB Limited's role in the Oil-for-Food Programme, sometimes referred to as Wheatgate or Oil for wheat. The official inquiry states that AWB directors did know about the kickback payments as early as 2001 and that government ministers did not know about the kickbacks, although this was not in their brief.
Ten Canoes, the first full-length feature film made entirely in an Australian Aboriginal language, wins a special jury prize at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Happy Feet becomes the country's biggest earning film
2 January – The Seven and Ten Networks outbid Channel Nine and win the rights to broadcast the AFL from 2007 to 2011 for a record $780 million. Also around this time, Seven announce that they have won the rights to broadcast the V8 Supercars from 2007 to 2014.
30 January – Channel Nine launches a new logo, dropping the famous dots and replacing it with a stand-alone nine in a blue box.
February 2006 – Wheel of Fortune returns and starts in 2006. Larry Emdur & Laura Csortan will definitely host WOF in a partnership instead of one. On the very first episode in 2006, the car was won! The final edition of the version was screened on 28 July.
9 February – It is announced that Eddie McGuire will become Channel Nine's new CEO.
13 February – Network Ten's motto, Seriously... becomes Seriously Ten (this was Network Ten's 2001 motto), and has its new look Ten Watermark on the bottom right of the TV screens
20 February – Television Sydney formally launches after three months of testing, giving Sydney community television for the first time in almost two years.
21 May – Brant Webb & Todd Russell speak to A Current Affair's new host Tracy Grimshaw about their time underground in Beaconsfield in a 2-hour special called The Great Escape. They are paid a reported $2.6 million by Channel Nine for the right to talk to them.
4 June – After 12 years & a record-breaking 510 episodes, the last episode of the Seven Network show Blue Heelers goes to air.
14 September – Today Tonight host Naomi Robson is deported from Indonesia after doing a story on a West Papuan boy called Wa Wa who, supposedly, was going to be eaten by cannibals. This sparks a war of words between Seven & Nine, who ran the original story on Wa Wa in May on 60 Minutes. Naomi presents her final edition of Today Tonight on 1 December.
16 September – Television in Australia turns 50. The next day, this is commemorated with a live TV special from Star City, Sydney on the Seven Network.
2 February – First day of the Australian Track & Field Championships for the 2005–2006 season, which are held at the Sydney Olympic Park in Homebush Bay. The relays were conducted at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 19 February 2006.
5 March – Australians Troy Corser and eventual World Champion Troy Bayliss win the two races making up the Australian Superbike Grand Prix at Phillip Island.
30 April – St Kilda players & umpires fail to hear the final siren. St Kilda scores behind after siren has gone, resulting in the match being a draw. This is later overturned on an appeal to the AFL commission & Fremantle is awarded the four points.
9 June-9 July – The Socceroos participate in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany for the first time since 1974. They are drawn in Group F along with Brazil, Croatia & Japan. They come second in their group & face off against Italy. They lose to them 1–0 as a result of a controversial penalty awarded in the dying seconds of the match.
2 July – Lee Troop wins the men's national marathon title, clocking 2:14:13 in Brisbane, while Jennifer Gillard claims the women's title in 2:41:06.
30 September – In a rematch of the previous year's AFL Grand Final, the West Coast Eagles (12.13.85) defeat the Sydney Swans (12.12.84) to take out the 110th VFL/AFL premiership. It is the first time since 1966 that the Grand Final has been decided by a margin of one point.
29 October – Mikko Hirvonen, and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen, driving a Ford Focus win the last Rally Australia to be held in Western Australia after 19 years of the rally.
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