Queensland electoral system changed to reintroduce first past the post (plurality) voting.
Atherton Tableland occupied by 100,000 Australian and American troops for jungle-training and a holding base. A Catalina airbase operates from Trinity Inlet.
Large fuel tanks placed in Edge Hill for military purposes.
US B24 Liberator bomber crashed into a mountain on Hinchinbrook Island, killing all 12 people on board.
Military authorities interned the German Lutheran missionaries and Guugu Yimithirr people from Hope Vale were evacuated. They eventually arrived in Woorabinda Aboriginal Reserve west of Rockhampton. More than 28 deaths were recorded from disease after the evacuation, and during the years of exile more than a quarter of the population died.
American servicemen allegedly drink the Day Dawn Hotel in Ingham dry while celebrating victory in the Battle of the Coral Sea in the incident that is supposed to have inspired the poem 'A Pub With No Beer', later adapted and made famous by Slim Dusty.
Catholic secondary school opens in Innisfail.
Faced with the threat of Japanese invasion the 'Old Site' mission at Lockhart River was abandoned by the non-Indigenous staff with the local people returned to large campsites on their country principally along the coast for about six months after all firearms had been confiscated.
A large American bomber base was set up at Iron Range, with three airstrips operating. US bombers would fly to Papua New Guinea and be met by their fighter escorts based at Bamaga and Horn Island further north. Thousands of US and Australian troops passed through Iron Range as part of their jungle training. Portland Roads 40 km north of Lockhart River, was the supply port for the war effort with a large jetty.
May
4–8 Battle of the Coral Sea.