grand final. It was the first finals series for the Wests Tigers and, to date, the only premiership win for the merged club. 2 October – With heavy rain cancelling the second race at Imola, Troy Corser secures his second Superbike World Championship. 9 October – Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly win the Super Cheap Auto Bathurst 1000 for the Holden Racing Team. It was Skaife's fifth win, and Kelly's first. It was also a seventh consecutive win for Holden, extending the longest winning streak in the races history. 16 October – Valentino Rossi wins his fifth consecutive Australian motorcycle Grand Prix on his Yamaha at Phillip Island. 1 November – Makybe Diva wins the Melbourne Cup horse racing event for a historic 3rd time in a row and is immediately retired. 13 November – French rallyist François Duval and co-driver Stéphane Prévot take victory for in their Citroën Xsara at the season ending Rally Australia. 16 November – The Socceroos qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1974, by defeating Uruguay in a penalty shootout at Telstra Stadium. Deaths 8 January – Campbell McComas, comedian, writer and actor (b. 1952) 11 January – Miriam Hyde, composer and pianist (b. 1913) 24 January – June Bronhill, opera singer (b. 1929) 16 March – Bob Bellear, lawyer and District Court judge; first Indigenous judge (b. 1944) 25 March – Davis McCaughey, 23rd Governor of Victoria (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1914) 26 March – Paul Hester, drummer (b. 1959) 15 April – Bill Longley, speedway racer (b. 1911) 23 April Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, 31st Premier of Queensland (born in New Zealand) (b. 1911) Al Grassby, New South Wales politician (b. 1926) 29 April – Sara Henderson, pastoralist and author (b. 1936) 1 May – René Rivkin, entrepreneur and stockbroker (born in China) (b. 1944) 25 May – Graham Kennedy, entertainer and television personality (b. 1934) 16 June – Ross Stretton, ballet dancer and artistic director (b. 1952) 25 June – Sir Harry Gibbs, 8th Chief Justice of Australia (b. 1917) 3 July – W. Rubuntja, artist and activist (b. 1923) 15 July – Sir Ronald Wilson, High Court justice (b. 1922) 17 July – Joe Vialls, conspiracy theorist (b. 1944) 18 July – Amy Gillett, track cyclist and rower (b. 1976) 28 August – George Szekeres, mathematician (born in Austria-Hungary) (b. 1911) 29 August –