1872: The first telegram from overseas was received in Morse code at the General Post Office Building in Adelaide. The Overland Telegraph Line opened on September 15, 1870, and was completed on August 22, 1872. This made it take three months for a letter to travel from Australia to England, while a telegram could be delivered in just seven hours.


1894: Australian serial killer, Martha Needle, hanged in Melbourne jail. She was known for poisoning her husband, three children and future brother-in-law. On May 15, 1894, she was found guilty of murdering her fiance's brother, Louis Junken. Although Needle received a large insurance payment, her exact motive for murdering her family was unknown. She repeatedly claimed her innocence, but was eventually hanged.


1917: Australia's first transcontinental passenger service, the Great Western Express, departed from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie. The journey to Kalgoorlie took 42 hours and 48 minutes. The railway broke ground in Port Augusta in September 1912. During construction, approximately 2.5 million hardwood ties and 140,000 tons of rails were used, and the project employed more than 3,400 workers. On October 17, 1917, track construction was completed.


2021: A supercell thunderstorm struck southeast Queensland and a tornado damaged buildings at Brisbane Airport, mainly the international terminal. The Bureau of Meteorology said storms were likely to hit inland areas of the state's southeast. This would be the first time in a decade that Australia had experienced two La Niñas in a row.


2023: Two children had died and two others were in critical condition after a fire broke out in a shed in Geelong in south-western Victoria. Preschoolers with severe burns had been flown to a Melbourne hospital. The four children had not yet been formally identified. The fire scene was horrific and the cause of the fire had yet to be determined, but it was not considered suspicious at that time.