1855 in Australia

Decades:	1830s ; 1840s ; 1850s ; 1860s ; 1870s ;
See also:	Other events of 1855 ; Timeline of Australian history ;

Last updated October 18, 2023

The following lists events that happened during 1855 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 Richard MacDonnell (from 8 June)
Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land – Henry Young (from 8 January)
Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria (Governor of Victoria from 22 May) – Sir Charles Hotham (until 10 November)
Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – Captain Charles Fitzgerald, then Sir Arthur Kennedy.

Events

5 January – The War of Southern Queensland ends with the hanging of Dundalli.
12 June – the Victorian parliament passed the Chinese Restriction Act in an effort to restrict Chinese immigration.^[1] These restrictions, including a £10 poll tax on Chinese and a limit to Chinese passengers per tonnage of shipping.
8 September – Queen Victoria signs an Order in Council to change the name of Van Diemen's Land to Tasmania.
26 September – Sydney to Parramatta railway opened^[2]

Arts and literature

Births

30 January – George Edwards, New South Wales politician (d. 1911)
16 February – Henry Saunders, Western Australian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1919)
28 May – Sir William Portus Cullen, New South Wales politician and 7th Chief Justice of New South Wales (d. 1935)
18 June – George Lewis Becke, trader and writer (d. 1913)
6 August – Sir Isaac Isaacs, 9th Governor-General of Australia and 3rd Chief Justice of Australia (d. 1948)
13 August – William Astley, short story writer (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1911)
25 August – Paddy Glynn, South Australian politician (born in Ireland) (d. 1931)
28 October – Francis James Gillen, anthropologist and ethnologist (d. 1912)
22 November – Pharez Phillips, Victorian politician (d. 1914)

Deaths

5 January – Dundalli, Aboriginal lawman, murderer and resistance fighter (c. 1820)
23 January – John Burdett Wittenoom, clergyman (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1788)
19 March – Thomas Bock, artist (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1790)
3 April – John Bateman, merchant and whaler (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1789)
31 December – Sir Charles Hotham, 1st Governor of Victoria (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1806)

Related Research Articles

The following lists events that happened during 1947 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1810 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1856 in Australia.

1851 in Australia was a watershed year. It saw the start of the Australian gold rushes with significant gold discoveries in both New South Wales in February and Victoria in July. As a result of the Gold Rushes, the European population of Victoria increased from 97,489 in 1851 to 538,628 in 1861 and the population of NSW increased from 197,265 in 1851 to 350,860 in 1861. Victoria became a self-governing colony. Sentiment in the eastern Australian colonies moved decisively against penal transportation leading to the end of transportation to Tasmania in 1853. Melbourne's major suburb/satellite city in the Dandenong Ranges, Belgrave was first settled, making it the oldest town in the Dandenong Ranges.

The following lists events that happened during 1852 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1869 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1911 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1841 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1830 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1842 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1844 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1845 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1846 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1847 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1848 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1854 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1850 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1857 in Australia.

The following lists events that happened during 1865 in Australia.

References

↑ "Brief History of the Chinese in Australia". Asian Studies Program. La Trobe University. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
↑ "Opening of the Sydney and Parramatta Railway". Freeman's Journal . Vol. VI, no. 275. New South Wales, Australia. 29 September 1855. p. 10. Retrieved 2 February 2023– via National Library of Australia.

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[bhcia-1] "Brief History of the Chinese in Australia". Asian Studies Program. La Trobe University. Retrieved 25 September 2013.

[2] "Opening of the Sydney and Parramatta Railway". Freeman's Journal . Vol. VI, no. 275. New South Wales, Australia. 29 September 1855. p. 10. Retrieved 2 February 2023– via National Library of Australia.

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Timeline of Australian history

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