24 January – Ten launches Richmond Hill, a Grundy Organisation production, created by Reg Watson. Billed as a sister-soap to Neighbours, it airs on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 19:30-20:30.
January – Five months after Countdown's demise, Molly Meldrum returns to television and joins Nine's Hey Hey It's Saturday as part of the weekly Molly's Melodrama segment.
18 January – A Current Affair launches on the Nine Network after a ten-year absence, hosted by Jana Wendt.
24 January – Network Ten unveils new logo, the "X" logo.
26 March – In Neighbours, Daphne Clarke becomes the first character in history[citation needed] to die to do so after being in a coma in a car crash four months earlier.
28 March – The ABC's current affairs program Four Corners presents a television special called Wither the ABC? which was a debate over the future direction of the national broadcaster. Hosted by Andrew Olle there will be interviews with ABC managing director David Hill, Gareth Evans, Max Walsh, Terry Hayes, Peter Luck and Ted Thomas.
25 April – The 10:30 pm timeslot becomes an unlikely battle ground as Graham Kennedy returns to the Nine Network after a 13 years absence to co-host Graham Kennedy's News Show (re-titled Graham Kennedy's Coast to Coast when the show returns for 1989) up against Seven Network's Newsworld with Clive Robertson and Network Ten's Late Night Australia with Don Lane.
29 April – QSTV (now Seven Central) starts broadcasting to remote Eastern Australia via satellite.
20 May – Perth's third commercial television station NEW-10 opens, giving Perth the same number of stations as the eastern states.
June – After six months of middling ratings, Ten Network cancels struggling soap opera, Richmond Hill, with production ending later in the year. Coincidentally, the new serial had just been purchased by the ITV network for broadcast in the United Kingdom.
17 July – In Neighbours, this was Charlene Robinson's final episode. Kylie Minogue leaves the show to focus on her recently launched recording career.
10 September – Brisbane's TVQ-0 becomes TVQ-10. On the same day, Toowoomba's DDQ-10 became DDQ-0.
3 October – Long running Australian soap opera Home and Away starts airing on Network 2 (originally RTÉ2) in Ireland.
5 October – Ten Network's soap opera, Richmond Hill, launches on the ITV network in Britain. Originally intended to air early evening across the country, its cancellation in Australia leads to it airing in a graveyard mid-afternoon slot and it makes no impact whatsoever.
24-25 October – In Neighbours, Mrs. Mangel marries Englishman John Worthington, immigrate to the UK and lived happily ever after.
31 October – The British long running science fiction series Doctor Who returns to the ABC with the very first serial of Season 24Time and the Rani, which marked the first episode to star Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. Because the show is no longer airing at an early evening timeslot, it now airs as part of the hit weekday afternoon magazine series The Afternoon Show at 5:30 pm. The show will also end on 23 November with the last part of Remembrance of the Daleks to celebrate the series' 25th anniversary.
November – Australian soap opera Home and Away airs on television in Canada for the first time on the country's already newly launched cable television channel YTV.
4 November – In Neighbours, Bronwyn Davies (Rachel Friend) and Henry Ramsay (Craig McLachlan) get together.
This is a list of programs which made their premiere on an Australian television network that had previously premiered on another Australian television network. The networks involved in the switch of allegiances are predominantly both free-to-air networks or both subscription television networks. Programs that have their free-to-air/subscription television premiere, after previously premiering on the opposite platform (free-to air to subscription/subscription to free-to air) are not included. In some cases, programs may still air on the original television network. This occurs predominantly with programs shared between subscription television networks.
Durrell in Russia (ABC TV)
Dinosaur! (Seven Network)
Spirit Bay (ABC TV)
A Pot of Gold (SBS TV)
The Inspector's Kids (SBS TV)
Thomas and Senior (SBS TV)
Bill and Bunny (ABC TV)
Erebus: The Aftermath (ABC TV)
Tass is Authorized to Announce (SBS TV)
Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea (ABC TV)
The Disappearance of John Avlakiotis (SBS TV)
Tales from the Lower Town (SBS TV)
Joy and Shadows (SBS TV)
The Japan Project (SBS TV)
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Quo Vadis? (ABC TV)
Race for the Bomb (ABC TV)
Fox Tales (ABC TV)
It Ain't Half Hot Mum
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Zoom the White Dolphin
Who Will Comfort Toffle?
Murder She Wrote