1986 in Australia

See also:

Incumbents

February 2 - Nurse Anita Cobby is abducted, robbed, raped and murdered by John Travers, Michael Murdoch, and Lesile, Gary and Micheal Murphy at Prospect in Sydney. (All 5 men sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, June 1987)
February 8 - Elections in Western Australia & Tasmania see the re-election of the ALP in WA & the Liberal Party in Tasmania.
March 27 - Russell Street Bombing takes place at the headquarters of the Victorian Police in Melbourne. A police constable is killed.
July 4 - After 10 years in power, Neville Wran resigns as Premier of New South Wales & is replaced by Barrie Unsworth.
July 7 - Barlow & Chambers are executed at Malaysia's Pudu Prison for drug trafficking. Prime Minister Hawke condemns the move as 'barbaric'.
August 6 - A low pressure system moving from South Australia and redeveloping off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimetres of rain in a day on Sydney.
November 1 - Joh Bjelke-Petersen wins his final election as Premier of Queensland with his party, the National Party gaining 38.6% of the vote.

January 5 - SBS ceases VHF transmissions on Channel 0 in Sydney & Melbourne.
January 20 - Neighbours makes its debut on Network Ten & comes to dominate the 7pm weeknight timeslot
April - The Movie Show begins on SBS
December - The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, owners of HSV-7 & ADS-7 are sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Limited for $1.8 billion. As News Limited owned ATV-10 at this time, HSV-7 is sold to Fairfax (already owners of ATN-7 & BTQ-7) in February 1987 for $320 million.
Christopher Skase's Qintex company sells TVQ-0 to Darling Downs Television, owners of DDQ-10 in Toowoomba.
AUSSAT satellites are launched, bringing television to remote areas for the first time.