Portal:Australia/Anniversaries/May/May 23
- 1889 – Louisa Lawson founded the Dawn Club, which became the hub of the women's suffrage movement in Sydney.
- 1892 – Frederick Deeming hanged at Melbourne Gaol having been unsuccessfully defended by the lawyer Alfred Deakin. Deeming was accused of committing a series of crimes on three continents—theft, perjury, fraud, bigamy and murder; he used at least 20 aliases.
- 1912 – Walter Burley Griffin's design for Canberra selected as the winner.
- 1944 – Birth of John Newcombe, Australian tennis player.
- 1994 – Police arrest Belanglo State Forest serial killer Ivan Milat at his New South Wales home. Milat is later sentenced to life imprisonment.