Governors

• Governor of New South Wales
  Governors of New South Wales
  The Governor of New South Wales is the state viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who is equally shared with 15 other sovereign nations in a form of personal union, as well as with the eleven other jurisdictions of Australia, and resides predominantly in her...
  
   - Sir William Dennison
  William Dennison
  William Dennison or Denison may refer to:*William Dennison , 18th-century Master of University College, Oxford*William Dennison, Jr. , American politician, Governor of Ohio and U.S...
  
  , John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar
  John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar
  John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar, Bt, GCB, GCMG, PC was the second Governor General of Canada, in office from 1869 to 1872.-Biography:...
  
  
• Governor of Queensland
  Governors of Queensland
  The Governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the Queen of Australia. The Governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the Governor-General of Australia at the national level....
  
   - Sir George Bowen
  George Ferguson Bowen
  Sir George Ferguson Bowen GCMG was a British colonial administrator whose appointments included postings to the Ionian Islands, Queensland , New Zealand, Victoria , Mauritius and Hong Kong....
  
  
• Governor of South Australia
  Governors of South Australia
  The Governor of South Australia is the representative in the Australian state of South Australia of Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. The Governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the Governor-General of Australia at the national level.In...
  
   - Sir Richard G. MacDonnell
  Richard Graves MacDonnell
  Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell KCMG CB was an Anglo-Irish lawyer, judge and colonial governor...
  
  
• Governor of Tasmania
  Governors of Tasmania
  The Governor of Tasmania is the representative in the Australian state of Tasmania of Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. The Governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as the Governor-General of Australia does at the national level.In accordance with the...
  
   - Sir Henry Young
  Henry Young
  Sir Henry Edward Fox Young, KCMG was the fifth Governor of South Australia, serving in that role from 2 August 1848 until 20 December 1854. He was then the first Governor of Tasmania, from 1855 until 1861.-Early life:...
  
  
• Governor of Victoria
  Governors of Victoria
  The Governor of Victoria is the representative in the Australian state of Victoria of its monarch, Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. The Governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the Governor-General of Australia at the national level...
  
   - Sir Henry Barkly
  Henry Barkly
  Sir Henry Barkly, GCMG, KCB, FRS, FRGS was a British politician, colonial governor and patron of the sciences.-Early life and education:...
  
  

Premiers

• Premier of New South Wales
  Premiers of New South Wales
  The Premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster system, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislature...
  
   - John Robertson, then Charles Cowper
  Charles Cowper
  Sir Charles Cowper, KCMG was an Australian politician and the Premier of New South Wales on five different occasions from 1856 to 1870....
  
  
• Premier of Queensland
  Premiers of Queensland
  Before the 1890s, there was no developed party system in Queensland. Political affiliation labels before that time indicate a general tendency only. Before the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, political parties were more akin to parliamentary factions, and were fluid, informal and...
  
   - Robert Herbert
  Robert Herbert
  Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert, GCB , was the first Premier of Queensland, Australia.-Early years:Born in Brighton, England, Herbert was the only son of the Hon. Algernon Herbert, a younger son of the first Earl of Carnarvon. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford...
  
  
• Premier of South Australia
  Premiers of South Australia
  Before the 1890s when there was no formal party system in South Australia, MPs tended to have historical liberal or conservative beliefs. The liberals dominated government from 1893 to 1905 with Labor support, with the conservatives mostly in opposition. Labor took government with the support of...
  
   - Thomas Reynolds, then George Waterhouse
• Premier of Tasmania
  Premiers of Tasmania
  The Premier of Tasmania is the head of the executive government in the Australian state of Tasmania. By convention, the party or political grouping which has majority support in the House of Assembly will nominate its leader to be Premier. The nominated politician is then invited by the Governor of...
  
   - William Weston, then Thomas Chapman
• Premier of Victoria
  Premiers of Victoria
  The Premier of Victoria is the leader of the government in the Australian state of Victoria. The Premier is appointed by the Governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Legislative Assembly....
  
   - Richard Heales
  Richard Heales
  Richard Heales , Victorian colonial politician, was the 4th Premier of Victoria.Heales was born in London, the son of an ironmonger. He was apprenticed as a coachbuilder and migrated to Victoria with his father in 1842. He worked for some years as a labourer before establishing himself as a...
  
  , then John O'Shanassy
  John O'Shanassy
  Sir John O'Shanassy, KCMG , Australian colonial politician, was the 2nd Premier of Victoria. O'Shanassy was born near Thurles in County Tipperary, Ireland, the son of a surveyor, and came to the Port Phillip District in 1839...
  
  

Events

• 13 May - The Great Comet of 1861
  C/1861 J1
  The Great Comet of 1861 formally designated C/1861 J1 and 1861 II, is a long-period comet that was visible to the naked eye for approximately 3 months...
  
   is discovered by John Tebbutt
  John Tebbutt
  John Tebbutt was an Australian astronomer, credited with discovering the "Great Comet of 1861" .-Early life:...
  
   of Windsor, New South Wales
  Windsor, New South Wales
  Windsor is a town in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Windsor is located in the local government area of the City of Hawkesbury. It sits on the Hawkesbury River, on the north-western outskirts of the Sydney metropolitan area. At the 2006 census, Windsor had a population of...
  
  .
• 6 July - Robert Palin
  Robert Palin
  Robert Thomas Palin was a convict transported to Western Australia. His execution in 1861 was the only time in the convict era of Western Australia that Ordinance 17 Victoria Number 7 was used to secure the capital punishment of a convict for a crime not normally punishable by death.Born around...
  
   is hanged in Western Australia
  Western Australia
  Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
  
   following the use of Ordinance 17 Victoria Number 7
  Ordinance 17 Victoria Number 7
  Ordinance 17 Victoria Number 7, entitled Ordinance for the Suppression of Violent Crimes Committed by Convicts Illegally at Large, was an ordinance that permitted capital punishment for escaped convicts who committed violent crimes while on the run in Western Australia. It was given royal assent...
  
   to secure the capital punishment
  Capital punishment
  Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
  
   of a convict for a crime not normally punishable by death.
• 8 July - The Geelong College
  The Geelong College
  The Geelong College is an independent, co-educational, day and boarding school, located in Newtown, an inner-western suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia....
  
   is established by Reverend Alexander James Campbell in Newtown, Victoria
  Newtown, Victoria
  Newtown is an inner western suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is a primarily residential area occupying one of the highest points of urban Geelong, has always been a desirable place of residence and it is the location of many of Geelong's oldest and most valuable properties.The locality of...
  
  .
• October - Robertson land acts
  Robertson Land Acts
  The Crown Lands Acts 1861 were introduced by the New South Wales Premier, John Robertson, in 1861 to reform land holdings and in particular to break the squatters' domination of land tenure...
  
   passed by Parliament of New South Wales
  Parliament of New South Wales
  The Parliament of New South Wales, located in Parliament House on Macquarie Street, Sydney, is the main legislative body in the Australian state of New South Wales . It is a bicameral parliament elected by the people of the state in general elections. The parliament shares law making powers with...
  
  .

Sport

• 7 November - The first Melbourne Cup
  Melbourne Cup
  The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
  
   is won by Archer
  Archer (horse)
  Archer was an Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who won the first and the second Melbourne Cups in 1861 and 1862. He won both Cups easily, and is one of only five horses to win the Melbourne Cup twice or more; he is one of only four horses to win two successive Cups.-Breeding:Archer was sired by...
  
  . (List of Melbourne Cup winners).

Births

• 2 August - Edith Cowan
  Edith Cowan
  Edith Dircksey Cowan , MBE was an Australian politician, social campaigner and the first woman elected to an Australian parliament....
  
  , the first Australian woman elected as a representative in an Australian parliament.

Deaths

• 28 June - Estimated death of William John Wills
  William John Wills
  William John Wills was an English surveyor who also trained for a while as a surgeon. He achieved fame as the second-in-command of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from the settled...
  
   (b. 1834) and Robert O'Hara Burke
  Robert O'Hara Burke
  Robert O'Hara Burke was an Irish soldier and police officer, who achieved fame as an Australian explorer. He was the leader of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from the settled...
  
  (b. 1821), explorers.