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Timeline: 1861 – 1870

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1861

1861

January 1

John McDouall Stuart sets out from Chambers Creek, SA, to try to cross the continent from south to north. He returns on 23rd September having reached as far as Bonney Creek.

January 10

Charles Cowper becomes Premier of NSW for the third time.

January

Anti-Chinese riots at Lambing Flat gold diggings, NSW.

February 11

Burke and Wills, with King and Gray, reach the tidal waters of the Flinders River at the Gulf of Carpentaria; they begin their return journey 2 days later.

March 10

Artist Sir John Campbell Longstaff born.

March 22

Sir John Young (later Lord Lisgar) appointed Captain-General, Governor-General-in-Chief and Vice-Admiral of NSW and its dependencies (22nd March 1861 to 7th January 1868).

April 21

Burke and Wills‘ famous ‘DIG’ tree is carved with its famous notation by the explorers. Gray having died 17th April, they decide to make for Mt Hopeless.

April

Lambing Flat and Burrangong renamed Young; the town laid out and named after Sir John Young, Governor of NSW.

May 13

Moreton Bay Courier becomes a daily newspaper.

May 13

Astronomer John Tebbutt discovers the great comet of 1861 (Tebbutt’s Comet).

May 19

Opera singer Dame Nellie Melba born Helen Porter Mitchell at Richmond, Melbourne.

May 25

Francis Thomas (Frank) Gregory the Pilbara region of WA and discovers and names the Ashburton, Fortescue, De Grey and Oakover Rivers and the Hamersley Ranges.

May 29

George Woodroffe Goyder appointed Surveyor-General of SA, a position he holds until the end of 1893.

June 25

Supreme Court established in WA.

june 30

More attacks on the Chinese tent town at Lambing Flat gold diggings (Young), NSW. Five white leaders arrested the next day.

July 4

Alfred Howitt leads a relief expedition to assist Burke and Wills, only to find that they have perished (15th September).

July 8

Geelong College, Vic, founded.

July 9

Colonial architect John Verge dies, age 79.

July 14

Miners attack a police camp at Lambing Flat gold diggings (Young), NSW, in an attempt to free those arrested. Order is restored when the military arrive 31st.

July

Gold is found ay Forbes, NSW. A gold rush begins in September.

August 2

Thomas Daniel Chapman becomes Premier of Tasmania.

August 13

Cootamundra, NSW, gazetted as a town.

August 16

The South Australian Government appoints John McKinley to head up their expedition to find Burke and Wills.

August 17

NSW coalminers refuse to accept a 20% pay cut and walk out. They are then locked out until a settlement is reached 14th October.

August

The Queensland Government sends William Landsborough on a relief expedition in search of Burke and Wills.

September 3

First bridge across the Murray River at Albury, NSW, opens.

September 6

Journalist and social reformer William Lane born.

September 15

Alfred William Howitt, leading an expedition to rescue Burke and Wills, finds King alive and the remains of Wills (18th) and Burke (21st).

September 21

Alfred William Howitt marks a tree with the date and initials of explorer Robert O’Hara Burke, which indicates his grave. The tree is found by John McKinley’s expedition on 6th December 1861. The tree remains today at Innamincka.

September

Frederick Walker heads a private relief expedition in search of explorers Burke and Wills. Camel tracks attributed to the Burke and Wills party are found on 1st December near the Flinders River.

October 8

George Marsden Waterhouse becomes Premier of SA.

October 17

Aborigines massacre 19 whites at Cullin-La-Ringo Station, near Springsure, Qld.

October 18

New South Wales’ Robertson Land Act passed, providing for free selection before survey – effective from 1st January 1862.

October 26

John McDouall Stuart‘s third transcontinental expedition sets out from Adelaide. Stuart is ill and does not leave to join the party until 5th December.

November 5

The Racehorse Archer, ridden by J. Cutts, wins the inaugural Melbourne Cup.

November 6

Sydney and Brisbane are linked by telegraph.

November 14

John O’Shanassy becomes Premier of Victoria for the third time.

November 27

An act restricting Chinese immigration becomes law in New South Wales.

December 6

Explorer William Landsborough discovers the Barkly Tableland, NT.

December 10

Western boundary of SA extended to coincide with eastern boundary of WA i.e. 129th meridian.

December 23

Sydney’s first horse-drawn tram runs along Pitt Street from Circular Quay to the Railway Station at Redfern.

Decemver 29

Administrator Sir John Hubert Murray born.

In this year

Pearling begins at Nickol Bay, WA.

Brisbane Turf Cub formed.


1862

January 1

Having accepted a challenge by the Melbourne Cricket Club for an English cricket team to tour Australia, H.H. Stephenson’s XI plays a Melbourne and Districts XVIII before a crowd of more than 25,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

January 1

Bendigo Independent is first published.

February 21

More, NSW, gazetted as a town.

February 28

J.S. Hampton becomes Governor of WA.

February

The Royal Park site was given to the Melbourne Zoo by the city of Melbourne.

March 1

Legislation is passed in NSW to bring all police forces under the control of one central administration.

March 4

Sir Dominick Daly becomes governor of SA.

April 4

George Dill, general manager of the Melbourne Argus, charged with contempt of parliament and held in custody for a month.

April 5

John McDouall Stuart reaches Newcastle Waters – his terminus – on his first intercontinental expedition.

April 8

John McKinlay discovers the Diamantina River. His party reach the Gulf of Carpentaria on 19th May, before heading east.

April 11

The railway between Geelong and Ballarat, Vic, opens.

May 1

The Main Western railway line between Rooty Hill and St Marys, NSW, opens. St Marys – Kingswood opens 7th July.

May 16

Co-founder of the colony of South Australia, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, dies age 66.

May 18

Moorabbin, now a south eastern suburb of Melbourne, is created as a Road District.

June 15

Bushranger Frank Gardiner and his gang rob the gold escort from Forbes at Eugowra Rocks, NSW. They steal 2,600 ounces of gold and nearly £4,000 in cash.

June 16

Col Thomas Browne becomes Governor of Tasmania.

June 23

The western boundary of Queensland changed from Longitude 141 degrees to 138 degrees.

June

Cobb & Co. begin coach services in NSW from headquarts in Bathurst.

July 24

Explorer John McDouall Stuart‘s party reaches Chambers Bay having crossed the continent. This expedition opens a practical overland trade route to the north coast and to Asia.

August 29

Australia’s 6th, 8th and 10th Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher, born in Crosshouse, Ayrshire, Scotland.

August

Mckinlay’s party reach Port denisonafter crossing north Qld.

September 3

roma, Qld, gazetted as a town.

september 25

Prime Minister William Morris Hughes born.

October 20

The railway link between Melbourne and Bendigo, via Castlemaine, Vic, is completed.

October

Town of Kackay, Qld, founded.

November 4

Archer (J. Cutts) wins the Melbourne Cup for the second time in a row.

December 4

state aid to religion abolished in NSW.

December 26

Gold found at Walhalla, Vic.

in this year

Surar first made in Qld by John Buhot from cane grow in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens.


1863

January 1

NSW’s first Agent-General in London, Edward Hamilton, appointed.

January 18

Sydney to Parramatta railway extended to Penrith.

January 20

James Whyte replaces T.D. Champman as Premier of Tasmania.

January 21

Public funeral for explorers Burke and Wills in Melbourne.

January 29

Whaling pioneer and businessman Archibald Mosman dies, age 63.

February 6

Rewards of £500 each offered for the capture of bushrangers John Gilbert and Frank Gardiner.

February

maclaey River, NSW, floods, killing ten people.

March 23

Settlement at Somerset, on the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula, established by John Jardine.

March 26

Henry Manns, one of the Eugowra gold escort robbers, executed at Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney, NSW.

March 23

Intercolinial conference held in Melbourne to consider uniform tariffs.

April

Walter Padbury pioneers a settlement on the de Grey River, WA.

May 7

Main North railway line between Branxton and Singleton, NSW, opens.

June 11

First demonstration of the electric light in Sydney.

June 12

Sculptor Sir Edgard Bertram Mackennal born.

June 22

Adelaide’s streets first lit by gas.

June 27

James McCulloch becomes Premier of Victoria.

June

Melbourne Observatory established in the Domain park with R.L.J. Ellery as Director.

July 1

Main South railway line between North Menangle and Picton, NSW, opens.

July 6

Northern Territory, then part of New South Wales, is annexed to South Australia.

July 15

Sir Henry Ayers forms his first ministry as Premier and Chief Secretary of South Australia. In March 1863 he had been selected as one of the three South Australian representatives at the inter-colonial conference, and on 4th July 1863 he became minister without portfolio in the first Dutton cabinet. This ministry resigned 11 days later. Ayers Rock, now known as Uluru, was named in his honour.

July 16

Newington College opens in Sydney.

August 26

Bushranger John O’Meally shoots dead John Barnes, a merchant of Cootamundra, near Wallendbeen Station. A reward of £200 is offered for his capture.

August

New Zealand government offers free grants of land to volunteers from Australia to fight in the second Taranaki War. By the end of the year, 1,475 volunteers military settlers have taken up the offer.

September 4

Historian and writer Arthur Wilberforce Jose born.

September 11

Bushranger Fred Ward, a prisoner on Cockatoo Island Prison, Sydney, files through his chains, swims to Balmain and with his accomplice Mary Anne Bugg, moves to the Hunter Valley where Ward becomes the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt.¨

September 11

Sir Charles Darling becomes Governor of Victoria.

September 27

Bushrangers John Gilbert, Ben Hall, John Vane, John O’Meally and Mickey Burke hold up Robinson’s Hotel at Canowindra, providing food, drink and entertainment for the town’s residents and travellers. They return in October and November.

September

Capt Louis Hope, "father" of the Qld sugar industry, first manufactures sugar from his 8 hectares of sugarcane at Ormiston, near Brisbane.

October 16

Author, welfare worker and anthropologist Daisy Bates born in Tipperary, Ireland.

October 16

James Martin forms a ministry in the NSW Government after the fall of the Cowper-Robertson government.

October 25

Bushrangers Gilbert, Ben Hall, Vane, O’Meally and Burke hold Gold Commissioner Henry Keightley to ransom in his home outside Rockley. Burke is killed in the gun-battle before Keightley surrenders. Keightley and the other captives are released after Keightley’s wife raises a ransom of £500.

November 3

Banker, ridden by H. Chifley, wins the Melbourne Cup.

November 8

St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat, Vic, opens.

In this year

Serious flooding affects large sections of southern Qld throughout most of the year; floods occur in Vic during October-December; the Derwent, Tas, floods in December.

Buildings constructed – St Stephen’s Cathedral, Brisbane, commences (Benjamin Backhouse); Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart (W.H. Hunter); Adelaide Town Hall commenced (E.W. Wright).


1864

January 13

G.E. Dalrymple leads an expedition by sea from Bowen to establish the port of Caldwell, Qld.

January 15

Musician Isaac Nathan dies, age 73?

February 17

Poet A.B. (Banjo) Paterson born.

February 25

Work begins on Quensland’s first railway line, from Ipswich to toowoomba.

March 1

The first sale of land in the Northern Territory takes place in Adelaide and London.

March 4

Daniel Mannix, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, born.

March 3

bushranger Frank Gardiner is arrested near Rockhampton, Qld. He is convicted on 8th July and sentenced to 32 years imprisonment.

March 28

William Lonsdale, pioneer administrator of the Port Phillip colony, dies age 64.

April 11

A fire in the centre of Brisbane destroys 14 shops in Queen Street.

April 22

Phillip William Nay, black-and-white artist, born.

April 29

Boyle Travers Finniss, South Australia’s Government Resident for the Northern territory, sails to the Northern Territory to establish a settlement at Escape Cliffs, NT on Adam Bay, NT.

May 14

Explorer Frank Lascelles Jardine heads an expedition inland from Bowen after completing a cattle drive from Rockhamption.

May 25

John Joseph Therry, pioneer Church of England priest, dies, age 73?

June 24

Bushranger Daniel (Mad Dog) Morgan kills Sgt McGinnerty on the Tumbarumba Road, NSW.

June

The Public Works Department takes over Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour, and expands the dockyard around the foreshores.

July 28

Adam Gordon Lindsay makes his famous leap on horseback over the fence at the edge of Blue Lake, Mt Gambier, SA.

August 4

Arthur Blyth forms a government in SA.

August 21

The settlement at Somerset, at Port Albany on Cape York, is officially founded.

September 19

The railway line between Bendigo and Echuca is completed, bringing the railway line from Melbourne to the NSW border for the first time.

September 29

Artist Charles Rupert Bunny born.

October 11

Frank and Alexander Jardine set out from Carpentaria Downs station, near Rockhampton, Qld, to overland 250 head of cattle and 42 horses to Somerset.

October 16

The Stock Exchange of Melbourne formed.

October 22

Rookwood Cemetery railway line between Homebush and No. 1 Mortuary Station, Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney, NSW, opens.

October 23

John Hart replaces Sir Henry Ayers as Premier of South Australia.

November 1

Lantern, ridden by S. Davis, wins the Melbourne Cup.

November 16

Bushranger Ben Hall‘s gang holds up travellers and Gundagai-Yass mail at Jugiong. Police Sergeant Edmund Parry is shot dead by Gilbert.

December 1

A great fire sweeps through the centre of Brisbane, wiping out a large business section of Queen Street.

In this year

Buildings constructed – Hobart Town Hall (W.H. hunter)

Vitorian Racing Club formed.


1865

January 4

Brisbane and Rockhampton linked by telegraph.

January 11

Charleville, Qld, gazetted as a town.

January 24

SS Star of Australia leaves Sydney for Rockhampton and is never heard of again. 17 lives are lost.

January 25

A confederate cruiser, Shenandosh arrives in Melbourne for repairs; US Consul demands its seizure as a pirate, but after being slipped at Williamstown it is allowed to leave on 18th February.

January 26

Bushrangers Ben Hall, John Gilbert and John Dunn raid the township of Collector, NSW; Const Samuel Nelson is shot dead by Dunn.

February 3

Charles Cowper again becomes Premier of NSW following the defeat of the Martin government.

March 12

Artist Emanuel Phillips Fox born.

March 22

Francis Stacker Dutton becomes Premier of SA for a second time.

April 8

felons’ apprehension Act passed in NSW, allowing bushrangers to be proclaimed outlaws and shot on sight.

April 8

Bushranger Daniel (Mad Dan) Morgan shot dead by station hand, John Quinlan, at Peechelba Station, near Wangaratta, Vic.

April 16

Film producer and director harry Chauvel born.

April 21

Charles Summer’s Burke and Wills memorial (bronze casting) unveiled in Melbourne.

April 21

thirty dissatisfied settlers at escape Cliffs leave on a supply ship for Singapore; six others later sail in a small boat to Champion Bay and proceed to Adealide to make a report of the settlement’s ailing conditions.

April 22

Sir James Stirling, WA’s first Governor, dies age 74.

May 5

Bushranger Ben Hall shot dead by police at Billabong Creek, NSW, age 28.

May 13

Bushranger John Gilbert shot dead by Police Constable John Bright at Binalong; John Dunn escapes capture, but is wounded.

May 18

Exploer Angus McMillan born.

June 11

St Paul’s Church of England, Ballarat, Vic, opens.

June 27

Army commaner and engineer John Monash born.

June 29

St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, destroyed by fire.

June

A wooden bridge over the Brisbane River at Brisbane is completed. The central section sollapses in November 1867.

July 31

The first section of railway line in Queensland is opened to traffic from Ipswich to Bigges Camp, a distance of 35km. Bigges Camp (now known as Grandchester), marked the end of the first stretch of line on the 1067mm gauge Southern and Western Railway.

August 7

Protectionists and Free Traders hold separate large meetings in Melbourne following the rejection by the Vic government of the Appropriation Bill because of the protective tariff bill attached to it.

August 16

Writer Mary Gilmore born.

August 28

Alfred George Stephens, editor and publisher, born.

September 8

General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church formed in NSW by uion of various synods.

September 20

Henry Ayers replaces Francis Stacker Dutton as Premier of SA.

October 23

Colonial Naval Defence Act provides for the maintenance by the separate colonies of their own naval forces.

November 5

B.T. Finniss recalled from Escape Cliffs, NT, and replaced by J.T. Manton.

November 8

Torboy, ridden by E. Cavanagh, wins the Melbourne Cup.

November 29

Brisbane’s business houses are first lit by gas.

December 6

Surveyor-General G.W. Goyder completes his survey to delineate the limits of safe agriculture in SA (Goyder’s Line).

December 11

Elections held in Vic following the Legislative Council’s refusal to pass the Appropriation Bill; McCulloch government returned.

December 24

Bushranger John Dunn is captured by police following a gun battle with three police on Tonamba Station near Coonamble, NSW. Badly wounded, Dunn is taken to Dubbo Gaol, NSW.

December

Bank of Adelaide opens for business.

December

Colonial Naval Defence Act provides the maintenance by the separate colonies of their own naval forces.

December

Stamp duties on legal documents imposed in NSW.

December

Scottish immigrant William Arnott opens a bakery and confectionery in Newcastle, initiating the Arnott’s biscuits business.

In this year

buildings constructed – Parliament House, Brisbane (Charles Tiffin); Stow Memorial Congregation Church, Adealide; Fernberg, Brisbane (purchased as Government House in 1910).

First race meeting held at Eagle Farm, Brisbane.


1866

January 11

SS London, en route to Melbourne from Britain, sinks in the Bay of Biscay; 244 passengers and crew drown, including actor GV Brooke.

January 14

Bushranger John Dunn escapes briefly from Dubbo Gaol, NSW.

January 22

James Martin (Premier) and Henry Parkes form a coalition in NSW.

January 26

Colonial Office rebukes Gov Darling of Victoria for permitting financial snd constitutional irregularities by the McCulloch government.

February 1

Arthur Macalister becomes Premier of Qld on the resignation of R.G.W. Herbert.

February 3

Australian sovereigns become legal tender in Britain.

February 16

Bushranger John Dunn is tried and found guilty of killing Police Constable Nelson. He is hanged in Darlinghurst Gaol on 19th March 1866.

February 26

Gov Darling recalled from Melbourne for not keeping himself impartial in personal conflicts.

March 20

Hugh George, prublisher of the Melbourne Argus, called before the bar of Victoria’s parliament and detained for three weeks because his newspaper accesed McCulloch of lying.

March 22

A new Tariff Bill passed by the Vic Legislative Assembly, but is rejected by the Legislative Council (9th); McCulloch reigns; Recalled 13th April; bill passes through both houses of parliament 17th April, becoming Australia’s first protective tariffs laws.

March 26

Author Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake born.

March 28

J.P. Bouvaut becomes Premier of SA.

March

Free Selection of land begins in the Inverell district, NSW.

April 9

Constable Miles O’Grady is shot dead at Nerrigundah, NSW, in a confrontation with a group led by bushranger Thomas Clarke.

April 11

Port Bernard Patrick O’Dowd born.

June 5

Explorer John McDouall Stuart dies, age 50.

June 20

Adelaide Town Hall opens.

June

Gold discovered at Crocodile Creek, near Rockhampton.

July 3

Brisbane’s water supply from Enoggera Creek reservoir becomes operational.

July 8

Ballarat & District Orphan Asylum opened

July 10

Qld’s railway construction halts temporarily after the failure of the Agra and Masterman Bank, the finance provider for the railway projects.

July 12

SS Cawarra wrecked on Oyster Bank, Nswcastle, NSW, during a gale; 60 of the 61 people on board drown.

July 18

emigrant ship Netherby wrecked off King Island, Bass Strait; all 450 on board saved.

July 20

Macalister resigns as Premier of Qld when Gov Bowen refuses to sanction the introduction of convertible government notes (greenbacks); Herbert forms a temporary government and authorises the issue of Treasury Bonds to sustain public works.

August 7

Macalister resumes the premiership of Qld on the easing of the bank crisis.

September 8

Unemployed workers in Brisbane attempt to storm the government stores, stone police; ringleaders arrested in what became known as the "Bread or Blood" riots.

September 11

Out-of-work navvies march on Parliament House, Brisbane. The ‘Bread or blood’ riots ensue as a result of financial crisis.

October 24

intercontinental Exhibition of Australasis opens in Melbougne (to 23rd February 1867).

October 24

John Martin and Otto Peters open a store in Adelaide that would later become John Martin’s Ltd.

November 7

Bushranger John Clarke Snr dies in Goulburn Gaol while awaiting trial for murder.

November 7

The Barb, ridden by W. Davis, wins the Melbourne Cup.

November 24

Sir Richard Dry becomes Premier of Tas.

December 7

Gold Commissioner J.G. Grenfell killed by bushrangers near Narromine, NSW.

December 22

Henry Parkes’s Public Schools Act of NSW assents to: dual system abolished and Council of Education established to maintain state schools; government aid to Church schools greatly reduced.

December

Mary McKillop and Father Julian Tenison-Woods found the Sisters of St joseph and the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus at Penola, SA.

In this year

Buildings constructed – General Post Office, Sydney (James Barnet), clock tower added 1886.

Systematic recording of tides begins at Fort Denison, NSW.

Codes and rules adopted for Australian Rules Football (drafted by Henry Harrison).


1867

January 11

Northern Territory’s Escape Cliffs settlement abandoned; its inhabitants return to Adelaide.

January 11

Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson, first Premier of NSW, dies, age 54.

February 10q

Sir Robert Randolph Garran, barrister and public servant, born.

March 2

Townsvile and Bowen, Qld, hit by a cyclone; major property damage sustained.

March 4

An Intercolonial Conference is held in Melbourne to decide to adopt a common postal service. Henry Parkes makes a speech advocating federation and calling for a Federal Council to be formed.

March 18

Sculptor Charles Web Gilbert born.

April 8

Artist Sir Arthur Streeton born.

April 9

Labour Prime Minister John Christian Watson born.

April 15

Artist Adelaide Eliza Scott born.

April 27

Bushrangers John and Thomas Clarke of Areluen, wanted for the murder of four special constables, are captured in the Jindera Ranges; they are executed 25th June.

May

Bushranger Captain Thunderbolt raids Bonshaw, NSW.

June 10

The first issue of the Ballarat Courier published.

June 17

Poet Henry Lawson is born on the Grenfell goldfields in New South Wales.

June 21

Historian Sir Ernest Scott born.

June 23

The Nepean River, NSW, floods to an estimated height of about 13.4 metres in the river, and 27.47 metres on land. It has a devastating effect on the riverside communities; six die.

June 25

Bushranger brothers John and Thomas Clarke are hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney.

July 29

Samuel Bennett’s Evening News begins publication in Sydney.

July

Gold discovered at Cape River, north Qld.

July

Judge Banjamin Boothby of the Supreme Court of SA is removed from office after having declared the Constitution Act and all laws enacted under its provisions to be invalid.

August 15

Robert Mackenzie replaces Arthur Macalister as Premier of Qld.

October 16

James Nash reports his discovery of gold on the Mary River, Qld; s rush follows, leading to the founding of Gympie, first named Nashville.

October 29

The streets of Newcastle, NSW, are first lit by gas.

October 30

Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, arrives at Glenelg, SA, in HMS Galatea to begin a tour of the Australian colonies; it is the first ever royal tour of Australia.

November 5

Tim Whiffler, ridden by J. Driscoll, wins the Melbourne Cup.

November 6

Two constables in charge of a gold escort from Rockhampton to the Clermont goldfield are murdered and robbed; gold commissioner Thomas Griffin is convicted of their murder and hanged, 1st June 1868.

November 26

Author Roderic Joseph Quinn born.

November 27

A crowd of Irish Catholics storm the Orange Lodge building in Melbourne during the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit; shots are fired and a youth is fatally wounded.

December 28

Qld’s Consitution Act assented to.

In this year

Buildings constructed – Collins Street Independent (Uniting) Church, Melbourne (Joseph Reed); Melbourne Town Hall (Red and Barnes), Prince Alfred clock-tower added 1869-71, portico 1887; General Post Office, Adelaide (E.W. Wright); Perth Town Hall (R.R. Jewell and James Manning)

First organised open-field greyhound course meeting in Australia held at Naracoorte, SA.


1868

January 8

The 4th Earl of Belmore, Sir Somerset Richard Lowry-Corry, appointed Governor, Commander-in-Chief and Vice-Admiral of NSW (8th January 1868 to 22nd February 1872).

January 10

The last convict ship, Hougomount, arrives in Fremantle WA, with 279 convicts.

January 10

George Woodroffe Goyder, Surveyor General of SA, sent to the Northern Territory to found a new settlement.

January 21

Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, arrives in Sydney for a visit to NSW.

February 11

NSW Baptist Union holds its first meeting.

February 28

The Crown Land Alienation Act in Queensland opens up closer land settlement.

March 13

Prince Alfred is shot in an assassination attempt at a garden party at Clontarf Beach, Sydney, NSW

March 18

The Treason Felony Act is passed in NSW

March 31

Irishman H.J. O’Farrell is convicted of an assassination attempt on Prince Alfred.

April 6

Prince Alfred, fully recovered, leaves for Portsmouth. Donates £200 to Sydney.

April 16

The railway reaches Dalby, Qld

April 18

Bushranger Captain Thunderbolt (Frederick Wordsworth Ward) and an accomplice rob four German musicians returning home from the Tenterfield Races. £121 was stolen. Earlier in the day the pair had held up a mail coach but left empty handed.

April 21

H.J. O’Farrell is executed at Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney, NSW.

May 1

The railway over the Blue Mountains west of Sydney reaches Mt Victoria, NSW.

May 22

Australia’s first clothing manufacturing company, the Woollen & Cloth Manufacturing Co., established in Geelong, Vic

May 28

Australia’s first cricket team, comprised solely of Aborigines, is a hit in its first match in England at Kensington Oval. England won, but the Australian team charmed the locals with an exhibition of spear and boomerang throwing. They used hunting shields for cricket bats.

June 18

An earthquake hits NSW. The quake is centred around the Hunter Valley town of Maitland. Minor damage to buildings only.

June 18

First rowing race held between Scotch College (originally known as the Melbourne Academy) and Church of England Grammar School on Yarra River, Melbourne, Vic

August 16

A tidal wave hits the coast of NSW, peaking at 1.6 metres. Vessels in Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong and Adelaide harbours are affected; some driven ashore, other break moorings.

October

Gold discovered at Ravenswood, Qld, by Messrs. Jessopp and Buchanan.

November 3

Glencoe, ridden by C. Stanley, wins The Melbourne Cup.

November 5

The transit of Mercury across the sun’s path is observed.

November 15

A man from southern NSW reports sighting a legendary bunyip near Yass, NSW.

November 19

The first four Christian Brothers to Australia arrive in Melbourne from Ireland to a set up school to teach Catholic children.

December 1

Sir George Frederic Verdon, Victoria’s first Agent-General in London, takes up his appointment.

December 1

St Andrews Cathedral, Sydney, opens 49 years after the foundation stone was laid.

December 8

Archbishop John Bede Polding lays the foundation stone of the current St Marys Cathedral, Sydney, NSW

December 28

Mrs. Maria Ann Smith of Ryde NSW discovers a new specimen of apple in her orchard. It grew from a number of gin cases of Tasmanian apples tipped out near a creek that runs through her property. The apple becomes known as the Granny Smith, named in her honour.


1869

January 10

The clipper Thermopylae arrives in Melbourne from London on her maiden voyage, breaking the record between the two cities, making the voyage in the fastest time yet of 64 days.

January 29

A hurricane completely destroys a farming property at Wagga Wagga, NSW.

February 5

John Forrest leaves Perth to explore inland and search for the remains of explorer Ludwig Leichhardt.

February 6

Welcome Stranger gold nugget found at Moliagil, Vic. by John Deeson and Richard Oates. The nugget weighed 2,284 ounces.

February 9

Beef and mutton exported from Australia is put on show in London at a dinner party for 2,000 guests.

February 14

A Day of Humiliation, set aside across NSW to pray for rain to break a drought, turns into a celebration with the arrival of a downpour of rain.

February 28

Convict Fenian John Boyle O’Reilly escaps from custody near Bunbury, WA, while working as part of a road gang. O’Reilly had originally been sentenced to death for his part in the revolution in Ireland.

March 3

The last full-blooded male Tasmanian Aborigine, William Lanney, or King Billy, dies of choleraic diarrhoea, age 34. His death sparks a scramble for his remains and his body is mutilated in the morgue prior to burial.

March 5

NSW Government declares St Patricks, St Andrews and St George Days are no longer public holidays.

March 25

The Melbourne Omnibus Company established.

April 24

Northern Territory expedition ship Moonia, with SA Surveyor-General George Woodroffe Goyder on board, arrives in Port Darwin, ready to commence surveying the town site.

May 2

A submarine telegraph cable between Victoria and Low Heads, Tasmania, completed, linking Tasmania with the mainland by telegraph.

May 3

An inter-colonial conference held in Sydney to discuss commercial relationships between the colonies.

May 5

Andrew George Scott, alias Captain Moonlight, holds up a bank in Mt Egerton, Vic.

May 5

The first NSW Royal Agricultural Show opened in heavy rain by Gov. of NSW, the Earl of Belmore, at Cleveland Paddocks and Cleveland Public School in Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

May 28

The Great Southern Railway opens between Sydney and Goulburn, NSW.

June 16

Explorer Charles Sturt dies, age 74.

June 21

A privately built telegraph line between Perth and Fremantle, WA, opened.

June 23

Prince Alfred Wesleyan College opens in Adelaide, SA.

July 19

Sir Henry Jones, industrialist and founder of IXL Jams, born.

August 3

A large kill of whales in Two Fold Bay, NSW, is witnessed by locals.

August 20

National Mutual Life Assurance opens in Melbourne, Vic.

August 31

Sugar is extracted from beetroot grown at Campbells River near Bathurst, NSW, exhibited by J.F. Clements.

September 1

The Weekly Times launched by The Melbourne Herald.

September 4

John Pascoe Fawkner, pioneer founder of the town of Melbourne, dies, age 56.

September 15

Poet Henry Kendall‘s ‘Leaves From Australian Forests‘ is first published.

October 19

The Zig Zag Railway in the Blue Mountains, NSW, opens.

November 18

The Suez Canal, Egypt, opens, cutting the travel time from Europe to Australia to around 30 days compared to an average of 50 via the Cape of Good Hope.

December 14

Copper is discovered at Cobar, NSW, by C. Campbell, T. Hartman and and G. Gibb, surveyors for water bores.

December 29

The Public Library, Museum and National Gallery of Victoria incorporated by act of Victorian Parliament.

December

Mary McKillip and several other Sisters travel to Brisbane to establish the Order of the Sisters of St Joseph in Queensland


1870

January 1

The abolition of school fees in Queensland is announced by Governor Charles Mitford Lilley.

January 10

The Victorian Academy of Arts founded.

January 12

An alligator is sighted in the Hawkesbury River near Windsor, NSW.

January 24

Pioneer pastoralist Archibald Windeyer dies, age 85.

January 30

The TownsvilleBowen region of Qld devastated by a cyclone.

March

Bananas first planted in Queensland.

March 18

Author and journalist Marcus Andrew Hilsop Clarke‘s ‘For The Term Of His Natural Life‘ first published as a serial in the Australian Journal.

April 15

Gold found at Red Hill near Gulgong, NSW, creating a rush of around 1,000 diggers.

May 2

16 year old Ned Kelly arrested under suspicion of being an accomplice to Harry Power (Henry Johnston). Discharged through lack of witnesses. This is Kelly’s second brush with the law; the first was a year earlier when Kelly was arrested for assaulting a Chinaman. He was kept in the Benalla lockup for 10 days and then reluctantly released by Police when the magistrate, Alfred Wyatt, dismissed the charge.

May 12

Floods hit NSW districts of Goulburn, Maitland, Penrith, Yass, Cooma and Penrith.

May 26

Bushranger Fred Ward, alias Captain Thunderbolt, shot dead near Uralla, NSW, though some doubt now exists as to whether or not it was Thunderbolt.

June 1

Representative government granted to WA.

June 24

Poet Adam Lindsay Gordon dies, age 36.

June 25

The Harlech Castle sinks between Melbourne and Newcastle with 23 lives lost.

July 5

A large fire destroys 30 properties and claims one life in Bourke Street, Melbourne, Vic.

July 12

Explorer John Forrest flies a Union Jack and erects a copper plate on the flagstaff, marking his visit to Eucla on the Nullabor Plain.

July 18

A conference between the states, called to bring agreement over tariffs on trade between colonies, fails to reach a resolution and breaks up. Agreement is reached between all states but Victoria which continues to protect its local industries by imposing tariffs on imported goods.

August 9

Melbourne Town Hall opens.

August 24

British troops pull out of NSW totally. The Royal Artillery and two companies of the 18th Regiment leave aboard the Silver Eagle.

August 28

A five month expedition from Perth to Adelaide led by John Forrest arrives in Adelaide, SA.

August 31

An intercolonial exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of the landing of Lieut. James Cook at Botany Bay, NSW, opens at Prince Alfred Park, Sydney.

September 15

Overland telegraph line between Port Adelaide and Darwin commences with the planting of the first pole at Port Darwin.

October 24

A travelling post office on the Sydney to Goulburn railway line opens.

October 27

Ballarat School of Mines opens.

December 5

WA’s first Legislative Assembly meets.

December

John Thomas Toohey and James Mathew Toohey, the sons of an Irish migrant, buy themselves a brwery in Sydney. Their small enterprise grows into the brewing business Toohey’s.

December 10

NSW Member of Parliament for Kiama, Henry Parkes, resigns for the second time in as many years because of insolvency.

December 20

Victoria becomes the first state to allow women to own personal property (wages and dividends etc.) independent of their husbands. It follows the passing of an Act of Parliament in Britain earlier in the year.

December 22

Victorian politicians vote in favour of receiving payment for their roles as members of the Legislative Assembly. The remuneration was determined at £300 a year.

December 25

Cosmetics manufacturer Helena Rubinstein born in Cracow, Poland. She emigrates to Australia in 1902 and opens a modest shop in Melbourne where she dispenses her "Creme Valaze".



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