This is really great stuff.  The CC-licensed news clips include:

• the “Tampa affair” (2001);
• the “Waterfront dispute“, a significant event in Australian industrial relations history (1998);
• the release of Lindy Chamberlain from prison (1986);
• the floating of the Australian currency (1983); and
• the introduction of World Series Cricket (1977).

Intriguingly, the CC licensed clips also include a 1974 interview with the late sci-fi writer and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke, in which he predicts what we now know of as the internet.

All clips are available via Wikimedia Commons and the ABC Open Archives.

For more detail, see the Creative Commons Australia blog post.