Events

• 11 January - William Robinson
  William Robinson
  William Robinson, or Will Robinson or Bill Robinson or other nicknames, may refer to:-Historical:* William Robinson , Quaker martyr* William Benjamin Robinson , Canadian fur trader and political figure...
  
   arrives in Western Australia to become Governor
  Governor of Western Australia
  The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
  
   of the colony.
• 13 January - Frederick Weld
  Frederick Weld
  Sir Frederick Aloysius Weld, GCMG , was a New Zealand politician and a governor of various British colonies. He was the sixth Premier of New Zealand, and later served as Governor of Western Australia, Governor of Tasmania, and Governor of the Straits Settlements.-Early life:Weld was born near...
  
   becomes Governor of Tasmania.
• 23 January - William Cairns
  William Cairns
  Sir William Wellington Cairns, KCMG was a British colonial administrator, born in County Down, Ireland. He served in various senior colonial civil service posts in the British Empire before being appointed Governor of Queensland in January 1875. He held the post for two years before becoming...
  
   becomes Governor of Queensland.
• 9 February - John Robertson becomes Premier of New South Wales, replacing Henry Parkes
  Henry Parkes
  Sir Henry Parkes, GCMG was an Australian statesman, the "Father of Federation." As the earliest advocate of a Federal Council of the colonies of Australia, a precursor to the Federation of Australia, he was the most prominent of the Australian Founding Fathers.Parkes was described during his...
  
  .
• 24 February - The SS Gothenburg
  SS Gothenburg
  The SS Gothenburg was a steamship that operated along the British and then later the Australian and New Zealand coastlines. In February 1875, she left Darwin, Australia en route to Adelaide when she encountered a cyclone-strength storm off the north Queensland coast. The ship was wrecked on the...
  
  strikes Old Reef off Ayr, Queensland
  Ayr, Queensland
  Ayr is a town in Queensland, Australia near the delta of the Burdekin River, named after the Scottish town of Ayr by the settlers from the United Kingdom...
  
   and sinks with the loss of 102 lives.
• 24 May - J. V. Mulligan and party discover the Barron River
  Barron River (Queensland)
  The Barron River is located on the Atherton Tableland inland from Cairns in Northern Queensland, Australia. With its headwater at Lake Tinaroo, it is more than 165 km long and has a catchment area of approximately 2138 km².-History:...
  
   in Queensland, they left Cooktown on 17 April
• 6 May - Ernest Giles
  Ernest Giles
  William Ernest Powell Giles , best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer who led three major expeditions in central Australia.- Early life :...
  
   and party leave South Australia for an overland expedition to Perth
  Perth, Western Australia
  Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
  
  , they arrive on 10 November.
• 3 June - Premier of South Australia Arthur Blyth
  Arthur Blyth
  Sir Arthur Blyth KCMG was premier of South Australia three times; 1864–1865, 1871–1872 and 1873-1875....
  
   resigns and is replaced by James Boucaut
  James Boucaut
  Sir James Penn Boucaut KCMG was an Australian judge and politician, Premier of South Australia three times: 1866–1867, 1875–1876 and 1877–1878.-Early life:...
  
  .
• 7 August - Graham Berry
  Graham Berry
  Sir Graham Berry KCMG , Australian colonial politician, was the 11th Premier of Victoria. He was one of the most Radical and colourful figures in the politics of colonial Victoria, and made the most determined efforts to break the power of the Victorian Legislative Council, the stronghold of the...
  
   becomes Premier of Victoria.
• 20 October - James McCulloch
  James McCulloch
  James McCulloch is also the name of the cashier of the Baltimore branch of the Second National Bank of the United States. This James McCulloch was not involved in the McCulloch vs. Maryland U.S. Supreme Court case....
  
   becomes Premier of Victoria for the fourth time.
• 24 December - 59 die when a cyclone destroys the pearling fleet in the Exmouth Gulf
  Exmouth Gulf
  Exmouth Gulf is a gulf in the north west of Western Australia. It lies between North West Cape and the main coastline of Western Australia. It is considered to be part of the region of the North West Shelf and in the Canning Basin area.-Environment:...
  
   of Western Australia.

Arts and literature

• New South Government establishes an art gallery in Sydney; it later becomes the Art Gallery of New South Wales
  Art Gallery of New South Wales
  The Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
  
  .

Sport

• Polo
  Polo
  Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
  
   played for the first time in Australia at Albert Park in Victoria
• Wollomai wins the 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...
  
  ; the cup was held on the first Tuesday in November for this first time this year

Births

• 20 March - Benjamin Fuller
• 29 April - Margaret Preston
  Margaret Preston
  Margaret Preston was a well-known Australian artist. She was highly influential during the 1920s to 1940s for her modernist works as a painter and printmaker and for introducing Aboriginal motifs into contemporary art.-Early life:...
  
  
• 3 December - Max Meldrum
  Max Meldrum
  Duncan Max Meldrum was a Scottish born Australian painter. He is known as the founder of Australian Tonalism, a representational style of painting, as well as his portrait work, for which he won the Archibald Prize in 1939 and 1940.-Early Life and Training:Meldrum was born in Edinburgh, Scotland,...
  
  

Deaths

• 28 January - James Hurtle Fisher
  James Hurtle Fisher
  Sir James Hurtle Fisher was a lawyer and prominent South Australian pioneer. He was the first Resident Commissioner of South Australia, the first Mayor of Adelaide and the first resident South Australian to be knighted....
  
  
• 25 February - Thomas Reynolds
• 25 February - James Stokes Millner
• 20 October - 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....
  
  
• 9 November - William Hovell
  William Hovell
  William Hilton Hovell was an English explorer of Australia.-Early life:Hovell was born in Yarmouth, Norfolk, England and went to sea as a boy, becoming a Royal Navy captain before settling in New South Wales, arriving in October 1813 aboard the Earl Spencer with his wife Esther née Arndell...
  
  
• 2 December - C. J. La Trobe