January – Australian Music's Awards ceremony Countdown Awards rebrands the name to Countdown Music and Video Awards. As a result, Countdown returns for 1983 with a revamp, and gone were the screaming-louded studio audience, the iconic jingle and in their place – a quiet studio [citation needed]
24 January – Australian soap opera from
Crawford Productions, Carson's Law, premieres on
Network Ten starting off as a 90-minute movie length episode with another two-hour episode in the same timeslot the following night before settling into its twice-weekly 60-minute format the following week.
6 February - Seven Network's soap opera, Sons and Daughters, premieres on UK television, on the ITV network. All fourteen ITV regions air the entire series at their own pace during daytime, until 1994.
March – British children's animated series Danger Mouse airs on
ABC in Victoria and some other states of Australia for the first time.
30 April – Four Corners program aired exposing allegations that NSW Premier
Neville Wran had tried to influence the magistry over the dropping of fraud charges against
Kevin Humphreys, charged with misappropriation of funds from the
Balmain Leagues Club. Humphreys is forced to resign his position as
President of the
NSWRL, while Wran has to face the Street Royal Commission over the allegations and was later exonerated.
19 May – Australian drama series Patrol Boat returns for a brand new series on
ABC.
1 July – The Australian Broadcasting Commission changes its name to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
11 August – The
ABC airs the final episode of the Australian drama series Patrol Boat.
26 September – After Australia's
America's Cup win, Prime Minister
Bob Hawke goes on the Today show and declared a national public holiday for that day, stating that "Any boss who sacks a worker for not turning up today is a bum."
14 October – Channel 0/28 commences transmission in
Canberra,
Goulburn and
Cooma on the UHF band, and changes its name to
Network 0/28.
29 October –
Seven Network and various regional stations broadcast a selection of movies and TV programs in 3D in a 2-hour experiment.
27 November – The last ever episode of The Don Lane Show goes to air on the
Nine Network. In the last episode before immigrating back to
America,
Don Lane celebrated his 50th Birthday Party.
Debuts
24 January – Carson's Law (Network Ten) (1983–1984)