1852 in Australia

← 1851 1850 1849 1852 in Australia → 1853 1854 1855
Decades:	1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s
See also:	Other events of 1852 Timeline of Australian history

The following lists events that happened during 1852 in Australia.

Incumbents

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

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

Events

• 10 February – the Supreme Court of Victoria sits for the first time in Melbourne. ^[1]
• 1–2 April – The Nelson robbery takes place in Hobsons Bay. ^[2]
• 25 June – The Murrumbidgee River flooded Gundagai, New South Wales killing 89 of the population of 250. The town was moved to higher ground. The flooding continued but no deaths occurred. ^[3]
• 4 July – Anti-Chinese riots occur in Victoria, Australia.
• 11 October – The University of Sydney was inaugurated, Australia's first university.

Births

Thomas Price

• 19 January – Thomas Price, 24th Premier of South Australia (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1909) ^[4]
• 28 January – Louis Brennan, mechanical engineer and inventor (born in Ireland) (d. 1932) ^[5]
• 8 February – Sir Malcolm McEacharn, Victorian politician and shipping magnate (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1910) ^[6]
• 26 March – Alexander Sutherland, educator, writer and philosopher (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1902)
• 14 April – Sir John Quick, Victorian politician and lawyer (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1932)
• 20 July – Sir William Rooke Creswell, 1st Naval Officer Commanding the Commonwealth Naval Forces (born in Gibraltar) (d. 1933)
• 12 August – Algernon Keith-Falconer, 9th Earl of Kintore, 12th Governor of South Australia (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1930)
• 19 August – Edward Rennie, scientist (d. 1927)
• 4 September – Edmund Banfield, author and naturalist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1923)
• 18 September – Clement Wragge, meteorologist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1922)
• 20 November – Henry Hoyle, New South Wales politician and rugby league administrator (d. 1926)
• 26 November – Arthur Groom, Victorian politician and land agent (d. 1922)
• 27 December – John Ferguson, minister (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1925)

Deaths

• 21 May – James Mudie, officer, landowner and author (born and died in the United Kingdom) (b. 1779)
• 29 June – Jeffery Hart Bent, judge (born in the United Kingdom and died in Guyana) (b. 1781)
• 16 October – George Evans, surveyor and explorer (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1780)
• Unknown – Johann Menge, explorer and geologist (born in Hesse-Cassel) (b. 1788)

References

1. "The Argus". 11 February 1852. p. 2. Retrieved 20 December 2025.
2. "THE NELSON ROBBERY". Williamstown Advertiser. 24 September 1927. p. 2. Retrieved 20 December 2025.
3. "THE FLOOD AT GUNDAGAI". Sydney Morning Herald. 5 July 1852. p. 2. Retrieved 20 December 2025.
4. www.parliament.sa.gov.au https://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/Search/Member?type=member&id=3942 . Retrieved 20 December 2025.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
5. Sandow, Mary, "Louis Brennan (1852–1932)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 20 December 2025
6. "Jones, Sir Eric Malcolm (1907–1986)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 7 February 2018, doi:10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.40175 , retrieved 20 December 2025