1850 in Australia

Incumbents

• Monarch - Victoria

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales – Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Henry Fox Young
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir William Denison
• Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – Captain Charles Fitzgerald.

Events

• 26 January – The Irish Exile, a weekly newspaper, starts publishing in Hobart by Patrick O'Donoghue: aimed mainly at fellow Irish prisoners and deportees.
• 5 August – Port Phillip (later called Victoria) established as a separate colony from New South Wales.
• 1 June – First convicts arrive in Western Australia, ticket-of-leave transportation suspended in New South Wales.
• 1 October – University of Sydney is founded as Australia's first university.
• Undated – The Port Phillip District Wars end
• Undated – Between 15-20 Indigenous Australians are killed in East Gippsland as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.
• Undated – 16 Indigenous Australians are poisoned to death in Murrindal as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.
• Between 15-20 Indigenous Australians are killed in Brodribb River as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.

Exploration and settlement

--

Science and technology

• Bucolus fourneti - described by Étienne Mulsant

Arts and literature

--

Sport

--

Births

• 7 January
  • Joseph James Fletcher, biologist (born in New Zealand) (d. 1926)
  • Robert Richardson, journalist, poet and writer (d. 1901)
• 29 January – Lawrence Hargrave, engineer, explorer, and inventor (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1915)
• 1 February – Sir Matthew Davis, Victorian politician (d. 1912)
• 13 February – Michael Kelly, 4th Archbishop of Sydney (born in Ireland) (d. 1940)
• 17 February – Alf Morgans, 4th Premier of Western Australia (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1933)
• 23 February – Octavius Beale, piano manufacturer and philanthropist (born in Ireland) (d. 1930)
• 25 April – William Knox, Victorian politician and businessman (d. 1913)
• 26 April – James Drake, Queensland politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1941)
• 12 May – Sir Frederick Holder, 19th Premier of South Australia (d. 1909)
• 23 August – Sir John Cockburn, 18th Premier of South Australia (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1929)
• 7 September – James Stewart, Queensland politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1931)
• 22 October – Charles Kingston, 20th Premier of South Australia (d. 1908)
• 23 November – Henry Lowther Clarke, 1st Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1926)
• 3 December – Sir Richard Butler, 23rd Premier of South Australia (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1850)
• 21 December – Sir William McMillan, New South Wales politician and businessman (born in Ireland) (d. 1926)
• Unknown – Christie Palmerston, explorer and prospector (d. 1897)
• Unknown – Mei Quong Tart, merchant (born in China) (d. 1903)

Deaths

• 22 January – William Westall, landscape artist (born and died in the United Kingdom) (b. 1781)
• 3 February – Samuel Stocks, jun., businessman in South Australia (born in the United Kingdom c. 1812)
• 9 February – Elizabeth Macarthur, pastoralist and merchant (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1766)
• 16 June – William Lawson, New South Wales politician and explorer (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1774)
• 3 September – Ikey Solomon, convict (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1787)
• Unknown, possibly April – Yuranigh, guide and stockman (b. 1820)

References

References

1. (22 May 1850). "Old and Young Ireland Again". [[Launceston Examiner]].
2. (2 March 1850). "Important from Van Diemen's Land". [[South Australian Register]].
3. (1991). "The Bulletin Australian Almanac & Book of Facts 1992". Australian Consolidated Press.
4. (1985). "The Australian Almanac: 800 Pages Crammed with Australian and World Facts: Politics, the Arts, Geography, History and Much More". Angus & Robertson.