1854 in Australia

← 1853 1852 1851 1854 in Australia → 1855 1856 1857
Decades:	1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s
See also:	Other events of 1854 Timeline of Australian history

The following lists events that happened during 1854 in Australia.

Incumbents

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales – Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Henry Young (term ended 20 December)
• Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land – Sir William Denison
• Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria – Charles La Trobe (until 5 May), then Sir Charles Hotham (from 22 June)
• Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – Captain Charles Fitzgerald

Events

This was a year of intense political agitation by miners on the Victorian goldfields.

• 3 March – The first telegraph line in the southern hemisphere begins operating in Victoria. ^[1]
• 4 July – Anti-Chinese riots occur in Victoria.
• 5 July – The Mercury was first published in Hobart.
• 17 October – The Melbourne daily newspaper The Age was first published. ^[2]
• 29 November – The Eureka Flag was flown for the first time during the Eureka Stockade rebellion in Ballarat.
• 3 December – battle suppressing the rebellion at Eureka Stockade

Exploration and settlement

• 4 January – Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang discovers the McDonald Islands.
• 12 September – Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria Charles Hotham opens Flinders Street station, the first city railway station in Australia.

Arts and literature

Main article: 1854 in Australian literature

Sport

• 30 September – The first game of cricket is played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Births

• 12 February – Edward Wittenoom, Western Australian politician (d. 1936)
• 24 March – Sir Henry Lefroy, 11th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1930)
• 12 April – William Maloney, Victorian politician and doctor (d. 1940)
• 20 May – George Prendergast, 28th Premier of Victoria (d. 1937)
• 25 June – Andrew Lang Petrie, Queensland politician (d. 1928)
• 5 August – William Aitcheson Haswell, zoologist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1925)
• 18 October – Billy Murdoch, cricketer (d. 1911)
• 30 November – James Wilkinson, Queensland politician (d. 1915)
• Unknown, possibly December – Ned Kelly, bushranger (d. 1880)

Deaths

• 7 October – James Scobie, gold miner (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1826)
• Unknown – Jackey Jackey (b. 1833)

References

1. McGowan, Samuel Walker (1829–1887), Australian Dictionary of Biography.
2. ""The Age, Vol. 1, No. 1"". The Age, 17 October 1854, p1. Retrieved 30 October 2024.