1874 in Australia

Decades:	1850s ; 1860s ; 1870s ; 1880s ; 1890s ;
See also:	Other events of 1874 ; Timeline of Australian history ;

Last updated October 04, 2025

The following lists events that happened during 1874 in Australia.

Incumbents

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

Premiers

Premiers of the Australian colonies:

Premier of New South Wales – Sir Henry Parkes
Premier of Queensland – Arthur Hunter Palmer until 7 January, then Arthur Macalister
Premier of South Australia – John Hart until 10 November, then Arthur Blyth
Premier of Tasmania – Alfred Kennerley
Premier of Victoria – Charles Gavan Duffy until 31 July, then George Kerferd

Events

8 January – Arthur Macalister becomes Premier of Queensland for the third time.
10 March – Ernest Giles is the first European to explore and later names (12 March) the Petermann Ranges.
1 April – John Forrest leads an expedition from Geraldton, Western Australia across the Gibson Desert to the Peake telegraph station in South Australia.
15 June – Brisbane's first Victoria Bridge opens; it is lost in the 1893 Brisbane flood.
31 July – George Kerferd becomes Premier of Victoria.
28 September – Victorian Humane Society established; it later becomes the Royal Humane Society of Australasia.
6 November – University of Adelaide established by act of the South Australian Parliament; it opened in 1876.

Arts and literature

Marcus Clarke's For the Term of his Natural Life is published in book form

Sport

Southern Rugby Union is established; renamed New South Wales Rugby Union in 1892
Haricot wins the Melbourne Cup

Births

2 March – Gregan McMahon, actor and theatre director (d. 1941)
3 March – Ada Crossley, singer (d. 1929
17 September – Walter Murdoch, essayist (d. 1970)
23 September – Ethel Ambrose, medical missionary (d. 1934 in Poona)
17 October – Sir Lionel Lindsay, painter (d. 1961)

Deaths

1 February – Alexander Harris, soldier, teacher and author (b. 1805)
6 April – Michael Fenton, first Speaker of the Tasmanian House of Assembly (b. 1789)
17 May – Sir Roger Therry, jurist (b. 1800)
date unknown
- Robert Menli Lyon, Aboriginal advocate (b. 1789)

References

Barker, Anthony (1996). What Happened When. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-86373-986-3.

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v t e Years in Australia (1788–present)
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21st century	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Timeline of Australian history

v t e 1874 in Oceania
Sovereign states	Australia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Indonesia Kiribati Marshall Islands Nauru New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu
Associated states of New Zealand	Cook Islands Niue