20 January – Authorities evacuate the Royal National Park south of Sydney as two fires burn out of control, with smoke visible across the city.[2]
26 January – Tens of thousands of protesters march in Sydney and Melbourne in "Invasion Day" rallies.[3]
31 January – The ABC publishes information from hundreds of classified Cabinet documents which were found in two second-hand filing cabinets purchased at a sale of ex-government furniture.[4]
6 February – News Corp reveals that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is expecting a baby with a former staffer, following the break-up of his marriage.[6]
5 March - The Australian Border Force conducts an early morning raid on a family home in Biloela, Queensland and forcibly removes a Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seeker family and takes them into immigration detention in Melbourne before being transferring them to Christmas Island. The family's plight garners ongoing media attention and prompts supporters to launch the Home to Bilo campaign.[13][14]
10 March – A state of disaster is declared in Queensland, after flooding between Cairns and Townsville, with some catchment areas receiving over 700mm in four days.[15][16]
14 March – Peter Dutton calls to treat White South African farmers as refugees, stating that "they need help from a civilised country".[17][18][19][20] and was met with "regret" by the South African foreign ministry.[21] The Australian High Commissioner was subsequently summoned by the South African foreign ministry, which expressed its offence at Dutton's statements, and demanded a "full retraction".[22][23]
22 May – The Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, is found guilty by Newcastle Local Court of covering up child sexual abuse cases which occurred in the 1970s.[38]
4 June – Woolworths Supermarkets announces it will reduce the level of plastic packaging in its stores, in particular, eliminating straws and plastic wrapping on fresh produce.[43]
28 July – A "Super Saturday" of an unprecedented five simultaneous federal by-elections takes place. They are held in the divisions of Braddon, Fremantle, Longman, Mayo, and Perth, with no change to numbers in the House of Representatives.[48]
August
5 August – Outgoing race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane slams the 'resurgence of far-right politics' in Australia.[49][50]
14 August – Senator Fraser Anning delivers his maiden speech to the Senate in what is described as "the most inflammatory maiden speech to an Australian Parliament since One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's in 1996."[54] In it, he calls for a plebiscite to reinstate White Australia policy, especially with regard to Muslims.[55]
21 August – Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declares a leadership spill in the Liberal Party, following pressure from conservatives in the party. Turnbull is challenged by Peter Dutton, but wins the vote by 48 to 35 votes.[56]
9 September – Western Australia Police find five bodies in a house in the Perth suburb of Bedford, the result of a suspected mass killing.[62]
15 September – The Queensland Government announces a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest of a person responsible for the contamination of strawberries using needles and pins, following several cases of contamination across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The contamination later expanded to affect strawberries grown in Western Australia.[63]
27 September – Following the dismissal of Michelle Guthrie, ABC Board chairman Justin Milne resigns amid reports he had tried to influence ABC management to sack two senior journalists.[66]
October
15 October – it was revealed the NSW National Party and the Young Nationals had been infiltrated by a significant number of neo-Nazis with a number of members being investigated for alleged links to neo-Nazism. Party leader Michael McCormack denounced these attempts stating that "The Nationals will not tolerate extremism or the politics of hate. People found to engage with such radicalism are not welcome in our party.[67]
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson proposes an "It's OK to be white" motion in the Australian Senate intended to acknowledge the "deplorable rise of anti-white racism and attacks on Western civilization".[68] It was supported by most senators from the governing Liberal-National Coalition, but was defeated 31–28 by opponents who called it a racist slogan from the white supremacist movement.[69][70] The following day, the motion was "recommitted", and this time rejected unanimously by senators in attendance, with its initial supporters in the Liberal-National Coalition saying they had voted for it due to an administrative error (One Nation did not attend the recommital vote).[71]
Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence returns to Australia after spending 13 years in prison, following her arrest in Indonesia in 2005.[74]
A retrial finds David Eastman, who had spent 19 years in jail, not guilty of the Canberra 1989 murder of Assistant Australian Federal Police Commissioner Colin Winchester.[75]
27 to 29 November – Residents of several towns in Central Queensland are urged to evacuate as the region is hit by bushfires, with two homes destroyed.[77][78]
28 November – Two people die during storms that hit Sydney and the Illawarra region, delivering a month's worth of rain in a few hours.[79]
December
15 December – Australia officially recognizes West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The move is seen as controversial and bizarre by some as only partially recognizing Jerusalem is deemed unlikely to please either the Israelis or Palestinians entirely.[80]
24 December – Thousands of residents of an apartment block in Sydney Olympic Park are forced to evacuate following structural concerns and fears the 36-storey building could collapse.[81]
Tennis: Australian Dylan Alcott wins the Wheelchair Quad Singles title at the Australian Open, his fifth Grand Slam Singles title and fourth consecutive Australian Open Singles title.[91]
Cricket: On day 3 of the third Test against South Africa, Australian cricketer Cameron Bancroft is charged with ball-tampering, after cameras detect him scuffing the ball. Bancroft and team captain Steve Smith admit the plan was devised by the team's leadership group. Smith and vice-captain David Warner are subsequently stood down from their roles for the remainder of the Test and thereafter banned by the Cricket Australia for 12 months, while Bancroft received a 9-month ban, from international and domestic cricket.[101][102]
28 December – Yacht racing: Wild Oats XI wins its ninth line honours in the 2018 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. A protest lodged by the race committee, following a claim that the yacht's AIS was switched off, is dismissed by an international jury.[118]
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Ramsay, Alix. "Federer makes it 20 majors". Australian Open. Tennis Australia. Archived from the original on 28 January 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
Jolly, Laura (4 February 2018). "Superb Sixers go back-to-back". Cricket.com.au. Cricket Australia. Archived from the original on 4 February 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2018.