Clara and Hyde Dunn arrived in Sydney, Australia. [AB445] SBR158 says this was 18 Apr 1919.
• They are thought to be the first Bahá'í pioneers to have arrived at their post after the release of the Tablets of the Divine Plan. [G. Hassel]
• Within three years they had visited 225 towns. [Keynote address by Dr. Vahid Saberi at the Heroes Teaching Conference 6-7 April, 2019]
• By the time Hyde passed away in Sydney in 1941 the Bahá'í Teachings had been taken to every State; Local Spiritual Assemblies had been established in Auckland, Sydney and Adelaide; the National Spiritual Assembly had been established in 1934 and the Yerrinbool Bahá'í School had been inaugurated in 1938. [Spiritual conquerors of this wide, brown land by Graham Hassall]
• In 2020 the Australian community commemorated the centenary this event.
• A 26-page booklet called A Vision of Unity was published.
• See Outpost of a World Religion: The Bahá'í Faith in Australia 1920-1947 by Graham Hassall in SBBH14 p201 and in Journal of Religious History, 16:3, pages 315-338 1991-06.

Oswald Whitaker, a Sydney optometrist, and Euphemia Eleanor `Effie' Baker, a photographer, become Bahá'ís, the first Australians to accept the Faith. [BW14:320; SBR160-1, BW2p129]
• In the 1930s Effie Baker travelled to Persia to take photographs of historical sites. [BW14:320]
• See SETPE1p105-107 for her contribution while serving in Haifa.
• For Effie Baker's obituary see BW14:320-1.

The first National Convention of the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand was held in Sydney, with nine delegates in attendance. [SBR165]
• The first Regional Spiritual Assembly of Australia and New Zealand was elected with its seat in Sydney. [GPB333,SBR165] iiiii
• Those elected were: Percy Almond, Ethel Blundell, Hilda Brooks, Robert Brown, Hyde Dunn, Silver Jackman, Charlotte Moffitt, Margaret Stevenson, and Oswald Whitaker. [A Vision of Unity p10-11]

The Yerrinbool Bahá'í School (originally known as 'Bolton Place') was officially opened in Australia. [Yerrinbool Bahá'í School 1938 - 1988: An Account of the First Fifty Years by Graham Hassall; Yerrinbool Bahá'í School and the Australian Bahá'í Community by Fazel Naghdy]
• Bahaipedia.

John Henry Hyde Dunn, passed away in Sydney. [BW9:595; SBR166]
• Shortly after his passing Shoghi Effendi appointed him to the rank of Hand of the Cause of God. (26 April, 1952) [MoCxxii]
• For the story of his life see SBR153–68.
• For his obituary see BW9:593–7.
• For a biography see The Bahá'í Encyclopedia Project
• Photo of his grave. [BW9p72]
• See Bahá'í Chronicles.

The homefront goals were:
  - To establish two new Spiritual Assemblies in Australia
  - To establish nineteen groups in Australasia

Shoghi Effendi called for the convocation of a series of Intercontinental Conferences to be held successively in Kampala, Uganda (Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Central and East Africa); Sydney, Australia (National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia); Chicago, United States (National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States of America,; Frankfurt, Germany (National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Germany and: Austria); and Djakarta, Indonesia (Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of South-East Asia). [BW13:311–12; MBW125]

The five-fold purpose of the International Conferences was:

1. offering humble thanksgiving to the Divine Author of our Faith, Who has graciously enabled His followers, during a period of deepening anxiety and amidst the confusion and uncertainties of a critical phase in the fortunes of mankind,
2. to prosecute uninterruptedly the Ten-Year Plan formulated for the execution of the Grand Design conceived by 'Abdu'l-Bahá,
3. of reviewing and celebrating the series of signal victories won so rapidly in the course of each of the campaigns of this world-encircling Crusade,
4. of deliberating on ways and means that will insure its triumphant consummation,
5. and of lending simultaneously a powerful impetus, the world over, to the vital process of individual conversion -the preeminent purpose underlying the Plan in all its ramifications - and to the construction and completion of the three Mother Temples to be built in the European, the African, and Australian continents. [CBN No 94 Nov 1957 p1]

The second Intercontinental Conference was held at the mid-point of the Crusade convenes in Sydney, Australia. [BW13:319]
• Hand of the Cause Charles Mason Remey, who had been designated by the Guardian as his representative and who was the architect of the Mother Temple of Australasia, attended, accompanied by four other Hands of the Cause. [BW13:317]
• For the message of the Custodians to the conference see MC72–5.
• For a report of the conference see BW13:319–21.

Clara Dunn, Hand of the Cause of God, passed away in Sydney. (b.12 May 1869) [BW13:859; MoC245]
• For her obituary see BW13:859–62.
• For cable from the Hands see MoC245.
• See also SBR153–75.
• Shoghi Effendi had appointed her among the second contingent on the 29th of February, 1952. She was one of only eight women appointed. [MoCxxiii]
• For a biography see The Bahá'í Encyclopedia Project.
• Remembering Clara Dunn by Melanie Lotfali.

Fred Murray, early Indigenous believer and member of the Minen tribe (Mirning Yirkala) to become a Bahá'í, enrolled. In 1963 he attended the World Congress in London. [BW14:369]
• See the article A Tribute to Fred Murray by June Perkins.

The House of Worship in Sydney, the Mother Temple of the Antipodes, was dedicated by Hand of the Cause Rúhíyyih Khánum in a service for Bahá'ís only. [BW13:729; MoC15]
• For details of the service and pictures see BW13:726–32.

  See also Dedication of the Bahá'í House of Worship in Sydney, by Peter J. Khan (2001).

The House of Worship in Sydney, the Mother Temple of the Antipodes, was officially opened by Hand of the Cause Rúhíyyih Khánum in two public services, each attended by 900 people. [BW13:732]
• For message of the Custodians to the dedication service see MoC309–12.
• For cable of the Custodians to the Bahá'ís of the world see MoC313.

  Specifics
  

  Location:Sydney, Australia (Ingleside on the MonaVale Road).
  Foundation Stone: 26 Jan 1958 (Clara Dunn and Hand of the Cause Charles Mason Remey, who had been designated by the Guardian as his representative, while attending the 2nd International Conference 21-24 March, 1958. A small bag of earth from the inner Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh and a piece of plaster from the room of the Báb in Máh-Kú was deposited under the floor.)
  Construction Period: 1957-1961
  Site Dedication:16 September 1961 (Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum brought a gift from the Guardian- a green silk carpet from the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh.)
  Architect C.M. Remey
  Seating: 500
  Dimensions: 124ft at the base and 130ft high
  Cost: Original budget was 120,000 Pounds Sterling
  Dependencies:
  References: BW13:319-322, BW13p720-732 CEBF241

The rescue of six Tongan boys from the uninhabited island of 'Ata by Peter Warner and his crew on his yacht the Just David. The boys, all students at St Andrew's College, had stolen a 25 foot whaling boat and, on their first night at sea, had lost the sails and the rudder in a storm. They lost the little food they had carried as well. They were adrift for 8 days without water before reaching the island in June 1965. By the time Warner arrived, the boys had set up a commune with a food garden, hollowed-out trees to store rainwater, a gymnasium, badminton court, chicken enclosures. and a permanent fire. [Wikipedia]
• This documentary was made in 1966 shortly after the rescue.
• Here is Peter Warner's own story of the rescue.
• A documentary has been made of the experience. Here is the trailer.
• In 1974 Peter Warner was once more in the right spot at the right time, when he rescued a shipwrecked sailing crew on Middleton Reef in the Tasman Sea, with the help of Sione Filipe Totau, one of the Tongans he had rescued earlier.
• Mr Warner lived in Tonga for thirty years where he became a Bahá'í and help found Ocean of Light International School. His time there was documented in his autobiography called Ocean of Light: 30 Years in Tonga and the Pacific. In the 1990s he moved to the Northern Rivers of NSW, and become a noted macadamia farmer and tree manager near Lismore, before settling in Ballina. This period of his life was covered in his autobiography Twilight of the Dawn.
• He died on the 13th of April 2021 at the age of 90 after his boat capsized during an attempted crossing of the Ballina Bar in rough conditions. [The Echo]

Six Intercontinental Conferences were held simultaneously in Panama City, Wilmette, Sydney, Kampala, Frankfurt and New Delhi to celebrate the centenary of the proclamation of Bahá'u'lláh to the kings and rulers of the world in September/October of 1867. [BW 14:221]
• For the message of the Universal House of Justice to the conferences see BW14:221–2.
• For descriptions of each conference see BW14:223–58.
• See CG68-69 for a brief description of the Intercontinental Conference in Kampala.
• The six Hands of the Cause representing the Universal House of Justice at the conferences travelled to Adrianople to visit the House of Bahá'u'lláh before dispersing to the conferences. [BW14:236, 458; VV2]

The passing of Euphemia (Effie) Eleanor Baker (b.25 March 1880 at Goldsborough, Victoria) in Waverley, New South Wales.
• For Effie Baker's obituary see BW14:320-1.
• She became a Bahá'í in 1922 after attending a lecture by Clara and Hyde Dunn in Melbourne. She was the first woman to converted to the Faith in Australia.
• She served in Haifa from 1925 to 1936. See SETPE1p105-107 for her contribution during that period.
• In the 1930s Effie Baker travelled to Persia to take photographs of historical sites. Many of these photographs were included in The Dawnbreakers. [BW14:320]
• Hear The Life of Effie Baker written and read by Sonjel Vreeland.
• She was buried in the Bahá'í Cemetery in Mona Vale. [Australian Dictionary of Biography]

The first National Youth Conference of Australia opened at Bolton Place summer School. [BW15:329]
• For picture see BW15:328.

A Bahá'í International Conference to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf was held in Canberra, Australia, attended by some 2,400 Bahá'ís, twice as many as were expected, from 45 countries. [BW18:100; VV61]
This conference was originally scheduled to be held in Manila, in the Philippines. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated March 1981]
• For the message of the Universal House of Justice see BW18:159–60.
• For a pictorial report see BW18:147–50.

The Second World Congress was held in New York City to commemorate the centenary of the passing of Bahá'u'lláh and the completion of the Six Year Plan. It was attended by some 28,000 Bahá'ís from some 180 countries. [BBD240; VV136-141; BW92-93p95-102, 136]
• Nine auxiliary conferences were held in Buenos Aires, Sydney, New Delhi, Nairobi, Panama City, Bucharest, Moscow, Apia and Singapore. [BINS283:3-4]
• For pictures see [BINS283:9-10], [BW92-3p100] and [VV136-141]
• "New York will become a blessed spot from which the call to steadfastness in the Covenant and Testament of God will go forth to every part of the world." - 'Abdu'l-Bahá [AWH77-8 90-1 105-6]
• On the 25th of November a concert was held in Carnegie Hall as a birthday tribute to Dizzy Gillespie called "Celebrating the Bahá'í Vision of World Peace". [VV141]
• On the 26th of November Bahá'ís around the world were linked together by a live satellite broadcast serving the second Bahá'í World Congress, the nine auxiliary conferences and the Bahá'í World Centre and it was received by those with access to satellite dish antennas. [BINS283:1–5, 8; BINS286:10; BINS287:4]
• For the message of the Universal House of Justice read on the satellite link see BW92–3:37–4.
• For accounts of personal experiences by some of the attendees see In the Eyes of His Beloved Servants: The Second Bahá'í World Congress and Holy Year by J. Michael Kafes.
• The film, 'Abdu'l-Bahá: Mission to America, made by Elizabeth Martin, was prepared for the World Congress program and also used in the Theme Pavilion. [HNWE45]

The passing of Gloria Faizi (b. Gloria Alá'í on 12 March, 1921 in Tehran) in Brisbane, Australia. The Universal House of Justice said they remembered with appreciation "her many contributions to the progress of the Bahá'í communities, including her pioneering in Bahrain with her illustrious husband, her work at the Bahá'í World Centre, and her devoted travels far and wide as a teacher of the Cause."
• Gloria Faizi was born into the Ala'i family, distinguished for its service to the Faith. She met the head of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, when she accompanied her father to the Holy Land as a child. When she was 17, she married Abu'l-Qásim Faizi, and together they assisted Baha'i communities in a remote rural area of Iran before settling in Bahrain in the mid-1940s. Their two children, Naysan and May, were born during their 15 years there. [BWNW318, BW04-05p287]
• Some of her publications were:
  • The Bahá'i Faith, An Introduction (1971) Lebanon
  • Fire on the Mountain Top (1973) London
  • Flowers of One Garden (1977) Poona, India
  • Stories about 'Abdu'l-Bahá
  • Bahá'u'lláh: The Promised One (2002)
  • Stories About Bahá'í Funds (1993)

See also: Bahá'í Centres of Learning in Australia.

The annual number of seminars for undergraduate students offered by the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity rose from 21 at the start of the Plan to 39. More than 4,000 youth in more than 60 countries were served.
• The seminar for university graduates and for young professionals, first offered in North America in 2008, was extended to Australia, Europe, Latin America and south and Southeast Asia over the duration of the Plan. As of this date more than 700 individuals had taken part. [The Five Year Plan 2011-2016: Summary of Achievements and Learning pg113] iiiii

The passing of former member of the International Teaching Centre, Joy Stevenson (b. 1919) in Queanbeyan, Australia. She made a distinctive contribution to the advancement of Bahá'í communities in Australasia as a Counsellor and an Auxiliary Board member and as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia. [BWNS1103]
• Bahaipedia.

The release of Creating an Inclusive Narrative, a publication of the Australian Bahá'í community. Hundreds of discussion were held all across the country to consider the future of their country. The results of the meetings were reported in this document.

The Bahá'ís of Australia embarked on the two year project to facilitate discussion on social cohesion and related questions with hundreds of participants—including officials, organizations of civil society, journalists, and numerous social actors—across all states and territories.

The project began in 2017 and by 2018 the Office of External Affairs had become more engaged. With the encouragement of different social actors and government departments, the idea for Creating an Inclusive Narrative began to take shape. Australia is a country of over 80 ethnic and racial groups in more than 417 localities and the process had to involve diverse voices from different realities throughout the country—east and west, rural and urban, and from the grassroots to the national level. In order for this to scale, many people were involved as facilitators. It was important that facilitators were residents of the areas in which gatherings were taking place ensuring their familiarity with local issues and concerns. This approach meant that facilitators and participants could continue their discussions in between the monthly gatherings, resulting in growing enthusiasm and interest among participants to continue the process. The project eventually sustained monthly gatherings concurrently across several states, resulting in a total of 50 roundtables. [BWNS1504; BWNS1470; BWNS1498]

• The document is available in PDF format