Timeline: 1831 – 1840
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1831 |
March 7 |
Control of the King Georges Sound settlement is transferred from NSW to WA. |
March 15 |
The Colonial Office recalls Gov Ralph Darling. |
March 29 |
Capt Collet Barker and garrison is relieved of command of the King Georges Sound settlement; its convict station is closed down. |
March 29 |
The first streamer built in Australia, Surprise, launched in Sydney. It begins regular service between Sydney and Parramatta on 1st July. |
April 1 |
Artist John Glover arrives in Launceston, Tas. |
April 13 |
Capt Collet Barker arrives at Gulf St. Vincent in Isabella. Barker climbs Mt. Lofty, sees the site of Port Adelaide (19th April), but Barker is killed at Lake Alexandrina 11 days later. |
April 30 |
James Hardy Vaux, the only person to be transported three times to Australia, arrives for the third time. |
April |
Serious floods destroy farms on the Hawkesbury and Hunter Rivers. |
May 28 |
The Agricultural Society formed in Perth. |
May 31 |
Surveyor Robert Hoddle‘s plan for the town of Berrima, NSW, approved. |
June 13 |
The British built steamer, Sophia Jane, becomes the first steamship to operate in Australian waters, when it begins its Sydney to Newcastle service. |
June 25 |
A regular coach service between Hobart and Launceston commences. |
July 5 |
Orator and politician William Bede Dalley born. |
July 21 |
First Fleeter officer Henry Hacking dies, age 81. |
August 1 |
NSW Free Land Grants discontinued, sale by auction – minimum 5 shillings an acre – discontinued in Tas & WA in June 1831. |
October 13 |
Stirling Castle arrives in Sydney. On board are a large number of skilled Presbyterian workmen, two ministers, and three schoolmasters to build and staff Rev John Dunmore Lang‘s Australian College. |
October 22 |
Col Patrick Lindesay replaces Ralph Darling, and administers the colony of NSW to 2nd December. |
October 22 |
Ralph Darling boards the Hoogley bound for England. William Charles Wentworth holds a huge farewell celebration at his house in Vaucluse. |
November 8 |
Public benefactor and merchant Alfred Felton born. |
November 15 |
Australian College opens in a hired hall. |
November 17 |
Artist Adelaide Eliza Scott Ironside born. |
November 24 |
Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell commernces his first expedition, which takes him north through the Hunter Valley to the Narrabri and Moree areas. |
December 3 |
Major-Gen Sir Richard Bourke arrives at Port Jackson aboard the Margaret and is takes up the governorship (3rd December 1831 to 5th December 1837). |
In this year |
Ross Bridge at Ross, Tas, erected. |
In this year |
The Round House at Fremantle, WA, constructed. |
1832 |
January 7 |
George Augustus Robinson arrives in Hobart with Aborigines from Oyster Bay and Big River tribes – the last of the Aborigines from settled districts – to be resettled in the Bass Strait islands. |
January |
Prime Minister Charles, Earl Grey (1764-1845) and Lord Goderich set this price from the recommendations of the National Colonisation Society of 1830 on the advice of the founders of South Australia. |
February 7 |
WA Legislative Council and Executive Council’s first meeting. |
February 13 |
King’s School, Parramatta, NSW, opens. |
February 20 |
First Fleeter and Surgeon-General of NSW, John White, dies age 75? |
March 7 |
The first issue of the Government Gazette published in Sydney as part of the Sydney Gazette. |
March |
The Hunter River, NSW, floods; seven settlers drown. |
April 6 |
Soldier Thomas Brennan executed by firing squad at Dawes Battery, Sydney, for "discharging his piece at a sergeant". |
June |
A party of Aborigines led by Yagan kill a settler on the Canning River, WA. Yagan is later captured, but reprieved. |
August 5 |
Transort Lady Harewood arrives in Sydney; on board are a large number of vine cuttings imported by James Busby from France, Spain and Portugal. |
August 12 |
WA’s Lieut-Gov Captain James Stirling leaves for England to try and solve WA’s problems. |
August 18 |
Savings Bank of New South Wales commences trading as a public concern by act of parliament. |
August |
Settler John Macarthur formally declared insane. |
September |
Tasmanian Aborigine Trugannini saves George Augustus Robinson from persuing hostile Aborigines by ferrying him across a river on a log. |
October 31 |
A proposed Charter of a Colony at Spencer Gulf by The South Australian Land Co. published in The Spectator. |
December 14 |
The Presbyterian Church is officially formed in Sydney. |
In this year |
Cascade Brewery is established in Hobart by Peter Degraves. |
In this year |
Charles Macfaull plants the first grape vines in Western Australia – at Hamilton Hill near Fremantle. |
In this year |
Construction of Camden Park, the home of John Macarthur, begins; it is designed by John Verge. |
1833 |
January 5 |
Charles Macfaull launches the Perth Gazette and West Australian Journal, forerunner to The West Australian. |
January 23 |
Bathurst, NSW, gazetted as a town. |
February 4 |
The monopoly of the Anglican Church ends with the abolition of the Church and School Corporation. |
February 5 |
On its journey from Ireland to NSW, the Hibernia catches fire off the coast of America; 153 people are burnt to death. |
March 27 |
Goulburn, NSW, gazetted as a town. |
April 17 |
First race meeting held at Randwick Racecourse, NSW. |
April 21 |
George Busby leaves Sydney to become Government Resident in New Zealand. |
May 1 |
Two white settlers are killed on the Canning River, WA, by Aborigines Yagan and Midgegoroo; the pair are proclaimed outlaws. |
May 7 |
First Fleeter officer Watkin Tench dies, age 74? |
June |
The Henty Brothers explore the Port Lincoln area of South Australia. |
June 28 |
Australia’s oldest bridge on the mainland, Lennox Bridge, Lapstone Hill, NSW, completed. |
July |
Colinial surgeon William Redfern dies, age 59? |
August 28 |
Legislation passed in NSW providing for trial by jury in criminal cases. |
August 30 |
Amphitrite, bound for NSW with 106 female convicts and 12 children on board, is driven ashore off France; only 3 persons survive. |
September 13 |
Sir Richard Spencer arrives at Albany, WA, to take up the position of Government Resident at King George Sound. |
October 5 |
Sydney’s Theatre Royal opens. |
October 19 |
Poet Adam Lindsay Gordon born. |
October 23 |
Township of Muscle Brook (Muswellbrook), NSW, proclaimed. |
November 1 |
Convict John Graham returns to Moreton Bay after living with Aborigines since his escape six years earlier. |
November 27 |
Robert Gouger forms The South Australian Association (first draft of the Assoc. dated 22nd June 1833). |
November 30 |
Brig Ann Jamieson explodes at King’s Wharf, Sydney Cove; eight people are killed. |
November |
The penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour, Van Diemen’s Land, closed down. |
December 12 |
Robert Gouger and George Grote (1794-1871) set up a subscription to obtain a colonial library. |
December 17 |
First professional theatrical performance held in Hobart at the Freemasons Tavern. The performance was of the farce, The Married Bachelor. |
In this year |
Robert Campbell‘s House, Duntroon (now part of Royal Military College), completed. |
In this year |
Construction begins on Hartley Courthouse, NSW, designed by Mortimer Lewis. |
In this year |
Dr George Bennett establishes that kangaroos conceive in the womb and not in the pouch as first suspected. |
1834 |
Janury 5 |
Explorer William John Wills of Burke and Wills fame born in Totnes, Devonshire, England. |
January 10 |
John Lhotsky leaves Sydney to explore the Monaro District, NSW, and the Australian Alps. |
January 13 |
Convicted being evacuated from Macquarie Harbour, Tas, seize the brig Frederick and sail to Chile in it. |
January 14 |
Convict servants Sarah McGregor and Mary Maloney kill their tyrannical employer in the Illawarra district. Their death sentences are later commuted to three year’s imprisonment following public sympathy. |
January 15 |
Nine convicts are shot dead in an insurrection on Norfolk Island. |
February 8 |
Lieut-Gov George Arthur separates the boys from the men at the Port Arthur convict settlement. He names the new establishment Point Puer. |
February 21 |
Draft (by Robert Gouger) & The SA Assoc. Proposed Georgian Charter Colony (i.e. a republic) to Colonial Secretary, Edward Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby – turned down. |
March 21 |
Modified Draft (by Robert Gouger) – Act To Authorise His Majesty to Frame Laws & to Appoint Officers for South Australia (basis of The Foundation Act of SA) |
April 11 |
Pioneer farmer John Macarthur dies, age 66. |
April |
First land sale in Albany, WA. |
June 19 |
Lieut-Gov James Stirling returns to WA. |
June 30 |
Historic Public Meeting at Exeter Hall to explain the new colony of South Australia. |
August 1 |
A passenger coach service commences between Sydney and Bathurst, NSW. |
August 15 |
Foundation Act for the Province of SA receives Royal Assent – second Australian ‘settled colony’ constituted by Parliament. |
August 17 |
Five of the ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs‘ – James Loveless, Thomas and John Standfield, James Hammett and James Brine – arrive in Sydney after being sentenced to seven years transportation for conspiring to raise wages "by administering unlawful oaths". |
September 7 |
Robert Wardell shot dead by one of three runaway convicts he encountered on his land near Cooks River, NSW. |
September 22 |
Thirteen convicts who took part in an insurrection on Norfolk Island on 15th January are executed. |
October 12 |
Sir George William Dibbs, Premier of NSW, born. |
October 28 |
The Battle of Pinjarra, in which an armed party of police, soldiers and civiliand led by Lieut-Gov James Stirling clash with a band of Aborigines near Pinjarra, WA; at least 14 Aborigines are killed, the police superintendent dies from spear wounds. |
November 1 |
Commercial Banking Company of Sydney opens for business. |
November 19 |
24 year old Edward Henty from Tasmania arrives at Portland Bay aboard Thistle. Using a plough he had made himself, he turns the first sod, and establishes the first white settlement in Victoria. He brought with him a number of fruit trees from John Pascoe Fawkner ‘s nursery in Launceston and plants them in Portland where they soon bear fruit. |
November 28 |
Wollongong, NSW, gazetted as a townsite after having been laid out by Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell in July. |
December 11 |
Aboriginal trackers used for the first time in WA, to find a boy lost in the bush near Fremantle. |
December |
The first consignment of wool – 3,440 kg, exported from WA to Britain. |
In this year |
The following buildings were completed: St John’s Church, New Town, Tas (John Lee Archer); Theatre Royal, Hobart, Tas (Peter Degraves); Lindesay House, Sydney (Edward Hallen); Lansdowne Bridge, NSW (David Lennox); Thorsby Park, Moss Vale, NSW. |
1835 |
January 1 |
John Dunmore Lang‘s Colonist newspaper commences publication in Sydney, NSW. |
January |
Most of the remaining Tasmanian Aborigines surrender to George Augustus Robinson and are transferred to Flinders Island. |
February 8 |
The Board of Commissioners for South Australia appointed; Col. Robert Torrens as chairman. |
March 9 |
Sir Thomas Mitchell leaves Sydney for an exploratory trip down the Bogan and Darling Rivers. |
April 12 |
Convict ship George III wrecked in D’Entrecasteaux Channel, Van Diemen’s Land; 133 lives lost. |
April 17 |
Artist Conrad Martens arrives in Sydney. |
May 14 |
Convict ship Neva wrecked off King Island; 225 lives lost, 22 survive. |
May 17 |
Sir Thomas McIlwraith, Premier of Qld, born. |
May 28 |
Capt John Hindmarsh appointed first Governor of SA (enacted 28th December 1836). |
May 29 |
John Batman, accompanied by three white assistants and six Aborigines, having sailed from Launceston for Port Phillip, determines the site of a settlement that grows into the City of Melbourne. |
May 29 |
Australian Patriotic Association formed in Sydney to obtain representative government for NSW. William Charles Wentworth is a key player. |
May |
George Wyndham produces the first wine from his Dalwood Estate in the Hunter River, NSW. |
June 6 |
John Batman makes a treaty with the Port Phillip Aborigines in which he acquires 242,800 acres of land around the site of the City of Melbourne. |
June 17 |
Poet, novelist, critic and schoolteacher James Brunton Stephens born at Bo’ness near Edinburgh, Scotland. |
July 20 |
Explorer Ernest Giles born in Bristol, England. |
July 27 |
John Pascoe Fawkner‘s vessel, the Enterprise sails from George Town, Van Diemen’s Land, conveying Peter Hunter, as master and Fawkner’s expedition, organised by him for the purpose of occupying land either at Western Port or Port Phillip. The party comprised John Pascoe Fawkner, publican; William Jackson, carpenter; Robert Hay Marr, carpenter; John H. Lancey, master mariner; and George Evans, plasterer. Fawkner took with his as employees, James Gilbert, blacksmith; his wife, Mary; and Charles Wise, farm hand and George Evans took his servant, Evan Evans. |
August 8 |
Enterprise with John Lancey as John Pascoe Fawkner‘s representative, reaches Western Port. The party spends a week examining the country around Western Port. The Enterprise then sails for Port Phillip Bay, and anchors off the encampment of John Batman‘s party at Indented Head on the 16th August. The next three days are spent in examining the land on the east coast of Port Phillip Bay. |
August 20 |
Enterprise reaches the mouth of the Yarra River and on 29th August anchors a little to the west of Spencer Street. The off-loading of her cargo completed, the Enterprise sails for Launceston on 5th September. |
August 26 |
Gov Richard Bourke declares John Batman‘s treaty invalid and the settlers at Port Phillip trespassers. Upon hearing of it, Batman and his fellow settlers ignore the declaration. |
September 13 |
John Bede Polding, first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church of Australia, arrives in Sydney. |
October 5 |
Tooth’s Kent Brewery established in Sydney by John Tooth and Charles Newnham. |
October 16 |
John Pascoe Fawkner and family, with cattle, arrive at the Yarra River camp aboard the Enterprise. Faulkner subsequently opens a store and a hotel. |
October 28 |
Regulations issued for the ‘bounty system’ of emmigration settlers introducing labourers to be paid a per-capita bounty equal to the cost of the passage. |
November 9 |
John Batman and his party land at the site of Williamstown, Vic, with 500 sheep and 20 cattle. |
November 26 |
Foundation stone laid for the first Baptist Church in Australia, in Bathurst Street, Sydney. The church opens on 23rd September 1836. |
December 14 |
Bank of Australasia opens in Sydney. |
In that year |
Buildings completed – Parliament House, Hobart, Tas (John Lee Archer); Berrima Courthouse, Berrima, NSW (Mortimer Lewis); Elizabeth Bay House, Sydney (John Verge). |
‘The Bandit of the Rhine’ by E.H. Thomas is published, becoming the first Australian play published as a book. |
Thr book ‘The History of the Island of Van Diemen’s Land’, by Henry Melville, is published. |
1836 |
January 12 |
Naturalist Charles Darwin arrives in Sydney aboard HMS Beagle. |
January 14 |
Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, William Saumarez Smith, born. |
January 22 |
The South Australian Company constituted. |
February 19 |
South Australia Day. SA Foundation Act of 1834 enacted (financial conditions met). Province erected and established by "Letters Patent" issued by King William IV. |
February 24 |
Australian Gas Light Co. issues its first prospectus. |
March 10 |
The Tolpuddle Martyrs are all granted pardons. News of them reaches Sydney in June. |
March 16 |
Australia’s first railway is brought into commission. It is a convict powered wodden-railed tramway between Port Arthur and Norfolk Bay, Tas. |
March 19 |
Bibliophile David Scott Mitchell born. |
April 13 |
Gov Richard Bourke sends opposing petitions to the Colonial Office from ‘ exclusives’ and ’emancipists’. |
May 21 |
The brig Stirling Castle is wrecked on Swains Reefs; Capt James Fraser, his wife Eliza, and crew take to the boats and eventually reach Great Sandy (now Fraser) Island. |
May 27 |
Sir Thomas Mitchell‘s party ambushes about 180 Aborigines on the Murray River near present day Euston, killing eight and wounding many others. |
June 1 |
The first meeting of the settlers at Port Phillip requests a resident magistrate. |
June 28 |
The Sydney Observatory makes the first recording of a snow fall in Sydney. |
June 29 |
St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, consecrated by Bishop John Bede Polding. |
June |
The first meeting of the Australian Museum committee is held. |
July 17 |
First settlers to South Australia arrive at Kangaroo Island on the Duke of York. |
July 31 |
Sir Thomas Mitchell reaches the Glenelg River, and then follows it to the sea. |
August 17 |
Mrs Eliza Fraser, alomng with two ships boys and the second mate of the Stirling Castle are rescued from Fraser Island by John Graham. |
August 20 |
Col William Light, the Surveyor-General, arrives at Kangaroo Island in the Rapid. |
August 27 |
Artist William Charles Piguenit born. |
August 29 |
Sir Thomas Mitchell arrives at Portland Bay and finds the Henty Brothers have settled there. |
September 9 |
Captain William Lonsdale arrives at Port Phillip on HMS Rattlesnake as the first administrator and the police magistrate of Port Phillip. He was sent by Gov Richard Bourke after George Stewart’s inspection; Port Phillip is declared open for settlement by Bourke. |
October 3 |
Col William Light lands at the mouth of the Patawalonga Creek – finds fresh water supply in the nearby lagoons. |
November 8 |
Robert Gouger, Colonial Secretary & Chief Magistrate arrives at Holdfast Bay on the Africaine with John Brown, the Emigration Officer. Erects his tent, and starts to build his hut on 19th November near the ‘Old Gum Tree’. |
November 18 |
John Pascoe Fawkner commences cultivation on the south side of the Yarra River, Vic, opposite the Settlement. Constable James Dwyer conducts a census of the new settlement. Population 224 made up of 186 males and 38 females – comprising 210 Protestants and 14 Roman Catholics. Melbourne consists of three to four wattle and daub huts, a few turf huts and about 12-15 tents some being tarpaulins put across a spar which was supported at each end by a forked stick stuck in the ground. |
November 24 |
Col William Light decides the general location of the capital city of South Australia. Holdfast Bay settlement is re-named Glenelg on 31st December. |
November |
Sealers discover what became known as The Mahogany Ship in The Hummocks – a ridge of sand dunes in the Warrnambool-Port Fairy district. Thought to be an ancient wreck of unknown origin, believed to be Portuguese, it reportedly seen on numerous occasions by various people until its location becomes lost after sand dunes cover it in the 1880s. |
December 28 |
South Australia’s own laws commence. Governor John Hindmarsh and Resident Commissioner Fisher arrive in the Buffalo – Oaths issued by Robert Gouger, Council Constituted, Government Inaugurated, Officers officially appointed; Governor’s Commission read – 1st Proclamation. |
In this year |
Buildings completed – Lennox Bridge, Parramatta (David Lennox); Darlinghurst Courthouse, Sydney (Mortimer Lewis); Old Courthouse, Perth (Henry William Reveley) |
In this year |
First Fleet officer William Dawes dies on the Caribbean island of Antiga, age 74? |
1837 |
January 2 |
Edward Deas Thompson succeeds Alexander Macleay as Colonial Secretary of NSW. |
January 5 |
Sir John Franklin arrives in Hobart, Tas, to take up his appointment as Governor of Tasmania. |
January 11 – March 10 |
Col William Light surveys the city of Adelaide and lays out the Park Lands and racecourse. |
February 10 |
Col William Light‘s choice of the capital site of South Australia confirmed by a public meeting of landholders held at Holdfast Bay historic landing site. |
March 1 |
Gov Richard Bourke visits the Port Phillip settlement, and approves the grid of streets Robert Hoddle (1794-1881) and his team of surveyors marked out, which he names Melbourne. |
March 2 |
Charles Bonney becomes the first person to overland stock when he leaves C.H. Ebden’s station on the Murray River for the Goulburn River with 9,000 sheep. |
March 4 |
March 6 |
Royal Victorian Theatre, Hobart, opens. |
March 15 |
Pioneer and road builder William Cox dies, age 72. |
March 27 |
The first Land Sales are held in Adelaide. |
April 3 |
HMS Beagle, commissioned to do a detailed survey of the Australian coastline, leaves England. The vessel sails under Capt Robert FitzRoy with John Clements Wickham as second in command and John Lort Stokes as mate and assistant surveyor. |
April 21 |
Sir John William Jeffcott arrives in Adelaide to become the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. |
April |
Fremantle Whaling Company begins operations in WA. |
May 9 |
Bushranger Ben Hall is born at Breeza on the Wallace Plains, NSW, a son of ex-convicts Ben and Elizabeth (nee Somers) Hall. |
May 13 |
South Australia’s First Grand & Petit Jury sworn in. SA becomes the first colony to adopt the full rights and privileges of the British Constitutional system of ‘trial by jury’. First case brought against white men stealing from Aborigines. |
June 20 |
Queen Victoria (aged 18 yrs) succeeds to the throne on the death of King William IV. News of her coronation does not reach the colonies until October of that year. |
June 1 |
Gov Richard Bourke authorises the first land sales conducted in Melbourne by Robert Hoddle on the south west corner of Collins & William Streets. One hundred city lots of half acre each, average price half acre lots – £35. All the land is sold with blocks ranging in price from £5 to £95. The blocks are numbered 2,4,12-14 and the boundaries are: No. 2-Flinders Street, William Street, Collins Street & King Street. No. 4-Flinders Street, Elizabeth Street, Collins Street and Queen Street. Nos. 12-14 Collins Street, Swanston Street, Bourke Street & William Street. Each block with a lane in the middle from west to east was subdivided into 20 allotments of 1 rood 36 perches. |
June 1 |
Bank of Western Australia opens for business in Perth. |
March 27 |
The first land sales are held in Adelaide. |
June |
Busby’s Bore is completed and begins providing Sydney’s water supply. |
June |
Busselton, WA, declared a townsite, Blocks of land go on sale. |
July 3 |
Gov Richard Bourke‘s resignation is accepted by the Colonial Office. |
August 21 |
SA Governor John Hindmarsh suspends Robert Gouger as Colonial Secretary following a street fight between Gouger and Treasurer Osmond Gilles. |
September 5 |
Township of Scone, NSW, surveyed. |
September 5 |
Pioneer farmer and Australia’s first colonial land grantee, James Ruse dies, age 77? |
September 26 |
Colonial architect Francis Greenway is buried, age 59. |
October 2 |
Pioneer theatrical producer Barnett Levey dies, age 39. |
October 8 |
News of the death of King William IV and the accession to the throne of Queen Victoria (aged 18 yrs) reaches the colonies. |
October 27 |
The first police station and gaol in Melbourne erected in Bourke Street. |
November 1 |
The second sale of Melbourne town allotments of 1 rood 36 perches is conducted by Robert Hoddle. The boundaries of the blocks which are numbered 3,5,19-21 are: No. 3 Flinders Street, Queen Street, Collins Street & Market Street. No. 5-Flinders Street, Swanston Street, Collins Street & Elizabeth Street. Nos. 19-21 Bourke Street, Swanston Street, Lonsdale Street & William Street, except the present sites of Elizabeth Street, the Post Office and the adjoining building and of the Law Courts which were reserved. |
November 14 |
The Port Phillip Auxiliary Temperance Society is organised, with John Gardiner as President and George Langhorne as Secretary. 740 immigrants arrived by sea. 1,050 letters and 1,355 newspapers passed through the Post Office, the revenue being £33.10.10. |
November 15 |
HMS Beagle arrives in Fremantle prior to the commencement of a 5 1/2 year survey of the northern coast of Australia by John Clements Wickham. |
December 2 |
Lieut George Grey and a small party arrive at Hanover Bay, WA, to begin an exploratory journey. |
December 6 |
Richard Bourke leaves Sydney to return to England; Lieut-Colo Kenneth Snodgrass administers colony of NSW, 6th December 1837 to 23rd February 1838. |
December 30 |
An overland mail service begins between Melbourne and Sydney, using coach and packhorse. |
In this year |
Buildings completed – Government House, Sydney (Edward Blore); St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, foundation stone re-laid and work commenced (Edmund Blacket); Semicurcular Quay, Sydney Cove; Treasury Building, Hobart (John Lee Archer) |
1838 |
January 1 |
The Melbourne Advertiser & Port Phillip Gazette first published by John Pascoe Fawkner. As he did not obtain the required licence the newspaper was suppressed after 17 issues, the first 9 of which were hand written. |
January 1 |
First horse race meeting held in Adelaide. |
January 4 |
HMS Beagle under Commander John Clements Wickham, sets sail for the north from Fremantle to begin surveying the northern shores of Australia. On board is explorer John Lort Stokes. It is the Beagle’s first of four expeditions around the Australian coast. |
January 12 |
Mudgee, NSW, gazetted as a village. |
January 31 |
NSW appoints George Augustus Robinson as Protector of Aborigines with the headquarters in Melbourne. (SA Protector secured under the Foundation Act by the influence of the Quakers – appointed 1837) |
February 24 |
Sir George Gipps, appointed Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of NSW and Van Diemen’s Land and their dependencies (24th February 1838 to 11th July 1846). Arriving with him from England is his aide-de-camp, George Augustus Frederick Elphinstone Dalrymple who would later make a name for himself as an explorer. |
February 26 |
Fitzroy River, WA, discovered by the crew of HMS Beagle and bsaned after the ship’s captain, Robert FitzRoy. |
March 6 |
First horse race meeting held in Melbourne. |
March 25 |
The site of Geelong determined by Robert Hoddle. The town site is proclaimed on 26th October and the first land sales held in February 1839. |
March 30 |
Moreton Bay’s first free settlers – a party of Lutheran missionaries – establish a mission at Nundah. |
April |
Introduction of first overland mail from Melbourne to Sydney, carried on horseback. James Conway Bourke, a convict, employed by Joseph Hawdon (one of the first overlanders), receives £1,200 per year for the contract between Melbourne and Yass – it is a fortnightly post where mailmen ride alone and meet at Yass to swap mail. |
April 11 |
Aborigines attack a party of men and cattle belonging to George and William Faithfull near present day Benalla, Vic; at least eight whites are killed. |
May 12 |
Colonial clergyman Rev. Samuel Marsden, dies at Windsor, NSW, age 73. |
June 9 |
Station hands at Henry Dangar’s Myall Creek station near present day Inverell, NSW, kill 28 Aborigines. |
June 22 |
Col William Light resigns as Surveyor-General of South Australia, after being refused aditional staff and being ordered to use an inexact method of survey. |
July 12 |
Edward John Eyre arrives in Adelaide with a herd of cattle overlanded from Sydney by way of the Port Phillip district. |
July 14 |
Governor of SA John Hindmarsh leaves Adelaide after being recalled. |
August 3 |
A British select committee into transportation criticizes the practice and recommends its abolition. |
August 28 |
Explorer Charles Sturt arrives in Adelaide overland with 300 cattle from NSW. |
September 18 |
Ornithologist John Gould and his family, with field assistant John Gilbert, arrive in Hobart. |
September 18 |
Tasmanian clergyman and pioneer, Robert Knopwood, dies age 75. |
October 10 |
Township of Gundagai, NSW, surveyed and gazetted (closer to the river than the prsent day town). Land sales begin 2nd December. |
October 12 |
Governor elect George Gawler arrives in South Australia; sworn in 17th October. |
October 25 |
Yarra River, Vic, floods following heavy spring rain. |
October 26 |
Capt Gordon Bremer in HMS Alligator, together with Lieut Owen Stanley in the Britomart, arrives at Port Essington, NT, to establish a new settlement there (named Victoria). |
November 1 |
A pre-paid stamped letter sheet – the first in the world – is introduced by the Postmaster-General, James Raymond, for use in the Sydney delivery area. |
November 15 |
The Melbourne Cricket Club is founded. The first cricket match is played between the MCC and a military team on the Old Mint site in William Street, Melbourne. However, this area proves unsuitable and in January 1839 the club establishes its second ground at the foot of Batman’s Hill, now Southrn Cross Railway Station. |
November 18 |
200 Germans led by Pastor Kavel (escaping from religious persecution in their own country), arrive in South Australia as the first ‘naturalised British subjects’ (by petition) immigrants to land in SA. |
November 29 |
Seven men involved in the Myall Creek massacre, previously tried and acquitted on a technicality, are charged again and found guilty. They are sentenced to death and hanged, 18th December. |
November |
Retailer David Jones opens his first retail store in George Street, Sydney. |
December 10 |
Colonial artist Augustus Earle dies, age 45. |
December 31 |
John Reynell plants South Australia’s first vineyard – Reynella farm south of Adelaide. He plants South Australia’s first vineyard in 1841. |
In this year |
The first commercial vineyard in Victoria is planted by William Ryrie at Yarra Glen. |
NSW and WA are greatly affected by drought. |
Royal Botanical Gardens of Sydney are opened to the public. |
1839 |
January 1 |
Assignment of convicts for service in towns ends. |
January 3 |
John Hutt replaces James Stirling as Governor of WA. Stirling leaves for England the next day. |
January 13 |
Black Friday, in which disastrous bush fires ravage Victoria from the Grampian Ranges to Gippsland, taking 71 lives. The entire township of Noojee is destroyed. |
January 15 |
The first US Consul in Sydney, J.H. Williams, takes up office. |
January 17 |
NSW minimum price of Crown Land increased from 5 shillings to 12 shillings minimum an acre. |
February 4 |
Charles Joseph La Trobe appointed in Britain as Superintendent of Port Phillip by the British Government at a salary of £800 per year. He arrives in the colony to take up the post on 30th September. |
February 16 |
The township of Kiama, NSW, proclaimed. |
February 17 |
Lieut George Grey embarks on his second Australian expedition to the north of Western Australia, sailing by whaleboat to Shark Bay from Fremantle. |
March 14 |
Tattersalls founder George Adams born. |
March 19 |
Port Lincoln, SA, is established. |
April 3 |
Charles Sturt replaces Col William Light as Surveyor-General of SA. |
April 6 |
French corvettes Astrolabe and Zelee, commanded by Commodore J.S.C. Dumont d’Urville, arrive at Port Essington, NT. |
April 13 |
Albury, NSW, gazetted as a settlement. |
April 18 |
Poet Henry Kendall born. |
April 23 |
Jacques Felix Emmanuel Hamelin, who captained the Naturaliste under Nicholas Baudin in 1801-2, dies in Paris, age 71. |
April 28 |
A meeting of Roman Catholics is held in Melbourne to support a petition to the Vicar Apostolic of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land, the Right Reverend John Bede Polding, asking that a priest be sent to Melbourne. |
May 6 |
Melbourne pioneer settler John Batman dies, age 38. |
June 15 |
NSW extends its boundaries to "include such portions of New Zealand as the Crown might acquire". |
June 18 |
Explorer Edward John Eyre leaves Adelaide to explore the northern regions of SA. |
June 20 |
Robert William Newland and party settle Victor Harbour, SA. |
June 27 |
Botanist and explorer Allan Cunningham dies, age 47. |
August 1 |
Edward John Eyre explores Eyre Peninsula, SA. |
September 9 |
John Lort Stokes explores and names Port Darwin, NT. |
September 20 |
Military juries are abolished in NSW. |
October 2 |
Charles Joseph La Trobe (1801-1875) arrives, appointed first Superintendent of the Port Phillip district (30th September 1839 – 15 July 1851). |
October 6 |
Col William Light dies in his cottage at Thebarton, SA, from tuberculosis, aged 53. |
October 27 |
The first shipload of assisted immigrants – mainly Scots – arrive at Port Phillip aboard the David Clark. |
November 24 |
A cyclone hits Port Essington, NT; HMS Pelorus wreckes, 12 lives lost. |
November 28 |
SA Agricultural Society formed. |
November 29 |
Two US frigattes on a scientific expedition led by Capt Charles Wilkes enter Port Jackson at night and anchor at Sydney Cove, causing near panic when discovered the next morning. The incident leads to the construction of Fort Denison and numerous other harbour fortifications. |
December 23 |
A School for Aboriginal children opens in Adelaide. |
December 31 |
The estimated population of Port Phillip district is 5,822 comprising 4,014 males and 1,718 females. |
December |
As South Australia weathers a severe drought, the Yarra and Saltwater Rivers in Victoria are in flood. |
In this year |
Buildings constructed – St James Church (old cathedral), Melbourne (Robert Russell), completed 1851, moved to present site 1913; Government House, Adelaide (G.S. Kingston); All Saints Church, Upper Swan, WA; Berrima Gaol completed. |
1840 |
January 2 |
The Port Phillip Bank commences business in the auction mart on the south-west corner of Collins and Williams Streets, Melbourne. John Gardiner is the managing director. |
January 3 |
First edition of Port Phillip Herald published by George Cavanagh. It was printed at the Port Phillip Herald Office in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, by Joseph Thompson. |
January 11 |
Angus McMillan (1810-1865) and his party set out from Tambo River, Vic, to explore previously unknown areas of what is now known as Gippsland. They discover the Gippsland lake system including its major tributary rivers. |
January 14 |
The SA Land Commissioners are dissolved by Lord John Russell, Secretary of State For The Colonies, and replaced by three Land & Emigration Commissioners, whose powers are extended over the sale of the waste lands of the Crown throughout the British Colonies and for applying the proceeds to emigration. Col Robert Richard Torrens continues as Chairman. |
January 29 |
Pioneer and merchant Simeon Lord dies, age 69? |
February 2 |
Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki and James MacArthur begin an exploratory journey from south eastern New South Wales to Port Phillip. |
February 15 |
Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki climbs and names Australia’s highest mountain. He named the peak Kosciusko (using that spelling) because he thought the peak resembled the tomb of the Polish Patriot, Tadevush Kastsyushka (Thaddeus Kosciusko) (12th February 1746 – 15th October 1817) |
February 26 |
HMS Buffalo arrives at Port Jackson with 58 French-Canadian political exiles (others disembarked at Hobart) to be interned near present day Concord, NSW. |
March 2 |
The first cattle are overlanded from New England, NSW, to the Darling Downs, Qld, by Patrick Leslie. |
March 3 – 5 |
First race meeting at Flemington, Melbourne, is held. The racing was conducted under the rules of the Jockey Club. |
March 6 |
Alexander Maconochie becomes superintendent at Norfolk Island. |
March 18 |
The Australind Colony floated to create Australind south of Perth, WA. |
May 5 |
A public meeting is held in Melbourne to petition for separation from NSW. |
May 12 |
Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki and party arrive at Western Port, then Melbourne 16 days later. |
May 21 |
Capt William Hobson, Deputy Governor of New Zealand under NSW Governor George Gipps, proclaims soverignty over New Zealand. |
May 22 |
NSW transportation to be abolished from 1st August 1840. Three days later, Charles Buller presents a petition to the House of Commons from NSW not to abolish transportation for five years. At the same time, Sir William Molesworth presents a petition signed by inhabitants of London praying for the total abolition of transportation and that the funds derived from the sales of waste lands in NSW and Tasmania should promote extensive emigration to those colonies. |
June 20 |
First land sales held at Jervis Bay, NSW. |
July 1 |
Assignment of convict labour to private employees abolished in NSW. Bounty system of assisted immigration is suspended. |
July |
Angus McMillan, Lieutenant Ross, R.N., and some of his former party, explore parts of Gippsland, Vic, previously not seen by whites. |
August 14 |
Explorer Edward John Eyre discovers Lake Eyre, thinking it to be part of Lake Torrens. |
August 19 |
Adelaide is incorporated as Australia’s first Municipality. |
Sptember 28 |
A mass meeting of workers in Sydney protests against ammendments to the Members and Servants Act which made conspiring to increase wages or improve conditions illegal. |
October 1 |
Sydney Herald begins daily publication. |
October 15 |
The first sale of land at Portland, Vic., is held. |
October 31 |
Adelaide municipal elections held (Australia’s first) – first use of ‘proportional representation’ to elect members. |
November 18 |
Eden, the last convict transport to unload at Port Jackson, arrives with 267 male convicts. |
November 21 |
John Pascoe Fawkner establishes the Geelong Advertiser newspaper with James Harrison. |
November |
Queen Victoria signs a royal charter for New Zealand to become a Crown colony separate from New South Wales. Capt William Hobson is sworn in as Governor and Commander in Chief of New Zealand on 3rd May 1841. |
December 2 |
The first recorded robbery of a Port Phillip mail coach takes place. It is to be the first of many. |
December 23 |
Bushranger Edward Davis (Teddy The Jewboy) and five of his gang are captured and sentenced to death. They are hanged 16th March 1841). |
December 30 |
Explorer Edward John Eyre and his party leave Fowlers Bay, SA, for their epic walk to Albany, WA. |
In this year |
Buildings constructed – Holy Trinity Church (Garrison Church), Millers Point, Sydney; Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney; Causeway over the Swan River, Perth. |
In this year |
Ornithologist John Gould publishes ‘The Birds of Australia’. |
In this year |
Meteorological records begin in Sydney, Port Macquarie and Melbourne. |