Incumbents

• 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...
  
   – Patrick Jenning
  Patrick Jennings (Australian politician)
  Sir Patrick Alfred Jennings KCMG was an Irish-Australian politician and Premier of New South Wales.-Early life:...
  
   (until 19 January), then 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...
  
  
• 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...
  
   – John Downer
  John Downer
  Sir John William Downer, KCMG was the Premier of South Australia from 16 June 1885 until 11 June 1887 and again from 1892 to 1893. He was the first of three Australian politicians from the Downer family dynasty.-Early life:...
  
   (until 11 June), then Thomas Playford II
  Thomas Playford II
  Thomas Playford served as Premier of South Australia from 11 June 1887 to 26 June 1889 and 8 August 1890 to 20 June 1892, as well as serving as the Australian Federal Minister for Defence from 1905 to 1907....
  
  
• 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...
  
   – Samuel Griffith
  Samuel Griffith
  Sir Samuel Walker Griffith GCMG QC, was an Australian politician, Premier of Queensland, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia and a principal author of the Constitution of Australia.-Early life:...
  
  
• 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...
  
   – James Agnew
  James Agnew
  Sir James Willson Agnew, KCMG was an Irish-born Australian politician, who was Premier of Tasmania from 1886 to 1887.-Early life:...
  
   (until 29 March), then Philip Fysh
  Philip Fysh
  Sir Philip Oakley Fysh, KCMG was an Australian politician, Premier of Tasmania and a member of the first federal ministry....
  
  
• 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....
  
   – Duncan Gillies
  Duncan Gillies
  Duncan Gillies , Australian colonial politician, was the 14th Premier of Victoria.Gillies was born at Overnewton near Glasgow, Scotland, where his father had a market garden. He was sent to the high school until he was about 14, when he entered an office in Glasgow...
  
  
• Governor of the Crown Colony of Western Australia
  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;...
  
   – Sir Frederick Broome
  Frederick Broome
  Sir Frederick Napier Broome KCMG was a colonial administrator in the British Empire.He was born in Canada, but was living in England in 1865, when he married Mary Anne Barker...
  
  

Events

• 1 January – Clement Wragge is appointed Government Meteorologist for Queensland
• 21 January – Brisbane
  Brisbane
  Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
  
   receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any Australian capital city.
• 23 March – 81 miners are killed during a coal gas
  Coal gas
  Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal containing a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen...
  
   explosion at Bulli, New South Wales
  Bulli, New South Wales
  Bulli is a northern suburb of Wollongong situated on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Bulli is derived from an Aboriginal word signifying "double or two mountains"....
  
  
• 22 April – A cyclone hits a pearling fleet off Eighty Mile Beach, 120 men drown.
• 22 June – The Fremantle
  Fremantle
  Freemantle is a suburb of Southampton in England.Fremantle or Freemantle may also refer to:- Places :* Fremantle, the port city to the capital Perth, Western Australia...
  
   Town Hall
  Fremantle Town Hall
  Fremantle Town Hall is a town hall located in the portside city of Fremantle, Western Australia and situated on the corner of High, William and Adelaide Streets. The opening coincided with the celebration of Victoria's Jubilee and occurred on 22 June 1887....
  
   is opened.
• 19 October – The Sydney-bound steamer SS Cheviot
  SS Cheviot
  The SS Cheviot was an iron screw steamer which was wrecked near Point Nepean in Victoria, Australia in 1887, with the loss of 35 lives.-The ship:...
  
   is wrecked near Point Nepean, Victoria
  Victoria (Australia)
  Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
  
  , claiming 35 lives.

Science and technology

• Construction of Goulburn Weir
  Goulburn Weir
  Goulburn Weir is a weir built between 1887 and early 1891 across the Goulburn River near Nagambie, Victoria, Australia. It was the first major diversion structure built for irrigation development in Australia. The weir also forms Lake Nagambie where rowing regattas and waterskiing tournaments are...
  
   commenced, one of Australia's earliest irrigation schemes
  Irrigation in Australia
  Irrigation in Australia is a widespread practice to supplement low rainfall levels in Australia with water from other sources to assist in the production of crops or pasture. As the driest inhabited continent, irrigation is required in many areas for production of crops for domestic and export use...
  
  .

Births

• 2 February – Pat Sullivan
  Pat Sullivan
  Patrick Sullivan may refer to:* Pat Sullivan , Australian film producer and animator* Pat Sullivan , American football coach and former player...
  
  , film director (d. 1933)
• 16 April – Henry Gordon Bennett, soldier (d. 1962)