3 February – Australia's first nationally televised
telethon screens on
Network Ten. It is a 26-hour effort to raise money for
Australia'sOlympic athletes.
20 June – An electricity strike across Victoria cause all of Melbourne's TV stations to broadcast just two hours of programming closing down at 8:00 p.m.
26 July – French-American-Canadian animated series Inspector Gadget debuts on
ABC at 5:30 p.m..
8 October -
Network Ten's long-running series, Prisoner, airs for the first time on British television under the title, "Prisoner: Cell Block H", on the ITV
Yorkshire Television region. TVS and Channel Television follows in 1986, and eventually, all fourteen ITV regions will air the series, with most commencing in 1987 (Thames, Central, TSW and STV) and 1988 (Granada, Border, Tyne Tees, Grampian, Anglia, HTV Wales and West, and UTV in 1989).
19 October – Long running Australian current affairs program Dateline premieres on
Network 0-28.
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.