1946 in Australian literature

• James Aldridge – Of Many Men
• Dora Birtles – The Overlanders : A Novel
• Capel Boake – The Twig is Bent
• Martin Boyd – Lucinda Brayford
• Errol Flynn – Showdown
• Miles Franklin – My Career Goes Bung
• Catherine Gaskin – This Other Eden
• Michael Innes
  • From London Far
  • What Happened at Hazlewood
• Katharine Susannah Prichard – The Roaring Nineties
• Christina Stead – Letty Fox: Her Luck
• Kylie Tennant – Lost Haven
• Arthur Upfield – The Devil's Steps

• Jon Cleary – These Small Glories
• Alan Marshall
  • "The Grey Kangaroo"
  • Tell Us About the Turkey, Jo : Short Stories
• Vance Palmer – '"The Foal"
• Douglas Stewart – "The Three Jolly Foxes"
• Dal Stivens – The Courtship of Uncle Henry : A Collection of Tales and Stories

• Leslie Rees – The Story of Karrawingi the Emu

• Rosemary Dobson – "In My End is My Beginning"
• Dorothy Hewett – "Clancy and Dooley and Don Mcleod"
• James Macauley – Under Aldebaran
• George Mackaness – Poets of Australia: An Anthology of Australian Verse (compiled)
• J. S. Manifold
  • Selected Verse
  • "The Bunyip and the Whistling Kettle"
• John Shaw Neilson – "To the Red Lory"
• Will H. Ogilvie – From Sunset to Dawn
• Elizabeth Riddell – "The Letter"
• Douglas Stewart – The Dosser in Springtime
• Judith Wright
  • "The Killer"
  • The Moving Image : Poems
  • "Woman to Child"
  • "Woman to Man"

• Dymphna Cusack – Eternal Now : A Play in Three Acts
• Sumner Locke Elliott – The Invisible Circus : A Play in Three Acts
• Louis Esson – The Southern Cross and Other Plays
• Nevil Shute – Vinland the Good

• Alec H. Chisholm – The Making of the Sentimental Bloke : A Sketch of the Remarkable Career of C.J. Dennis

Note: these awards were presented in the year in question.

A list, ordered by date of birth (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of births in 1946 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of death.

• 4 February – Jean Bedford, novelist
• 26 February – Gabrielle Lord, novelist
• 5 March – Mem Fox, writer for children
• 10 March – Peter Temple, novelist (died 2018)
• 14 May – Raimond Gaita, author
• 29 June – Sally Morrison, novelist and biographer
• 1 July – Stephen Matthews, author
• 1 August – Michael Sharkey, poet
• 25 August – Shelton Lea, poet (died 2005)
• 5 September – Lily Brett, poet and novelist
• 17 October – Drusilla Modjeska, biographer and novelist

Unknown date

• Peter Robb, novelist
• Rod Usher, poet and novelist

A list, ordered by date of death (and, if the date is either unspecified or repeated, ordered alphabetically by surname) of deaths in 1946 of Australian literary figures, authors of written works or literature-related individuals follows, including year of birth.

• 23 February – Mary Eliza Fullerton, novelist (born 1868)[3]
• 20 March – Henry Handel Richardson, novelist (born 1870)[4]
• 18 November — Walter J. Turner, poet and playwright (born 1889)[5]

• 1946 in Australia
• 1946 in literature
• 1946 in poetry
• List of years in Australian literature
• List of years in literature