The following lists events that happened during 1791 in Australia.
Leaders
* Monarch -
George III
*
Governor of New South Wales
The governor of New South Wales is the viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governors of the ...
– Captain
Arthur Phillip
Admiral Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales.
Phillip was educated at Greenwich Hospital School from June 1751 unti ...
,
RN
*
Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island –
Philip Gidley King
* Commanding officer of the colony's
marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
presence – Major
Robert Ross
Events
* 22 February – The first land grant in Australia is made to ex-convict
James Ruse
James Ruse (9 August17595 September 1837) was a Cornish farmer who, at age 23, was convicted of burglary and was sentenced to seven years' transportation. He arrived at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, on the First Fleet with 18 months of h ...
.
* March –
Philip Gidley King returns to
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with ...
from Britain and resumes command from
Robert Ross.
* 3 May – 1st Lt.
Ralph Clark records in his diary that he has ordered three female convicts flogged. Catherine White faints after the first 15 lashes, Mary Teut after 22. When Mary Higgins has received 26 lashes, Lieutenant Clark "forgave her the remainder (he has ordered 50) because she was an old woman".
* 2 June – Rose Hill renamed
Parramatta.
* 1 August – The
Third Fleet begins to arrive with convicts and supplies; the first ship, brings 205 convicts.
* 18 August –
Richard Bowen enters and names
Jervis Bay aboard the
''Atlantic''.
* 28 September – The ships and arrive; ''Queen'' is coming from
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
, with the first contingent of Irish convicts.
* 29 September – The
West Coast of Australia is claimed by British Commander
George Vancouver
Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what a ...
when he sailed into
King George Sound, previously only the east coast had been claimed for the Crown.
* 16 October – , the last ship of the
Third Fleet arrives, with Captain
William Paterson of the
New South Wales Corps on board.
* 24 October – and set out on Australia's first whaling expedition.
* 1 November – A party of twenty-one convicts escape from Port Jackson and (with an obviously limited knowledge of Australian geography) attempt to walk to
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Some die in the wilderness, while others are recaptured.
* 5 December – Ross returns to Port Jackson from Norfolk Island. His marines, having been displaced by the newly arrived
New South Wales Corps, are frequently drunk and rowdy. On 17 December, Ross and most of the marines returned to England on .
Births
* January –
James Stirling
* 26 April –
John Lee Archer
John Lee Archer (26 April 1791 near Chatham, Kent, England – 4 December 1852 in Stanley, Tasmania, Australia) was the Civil Engineer and Colonial Architect in Van Diemen's Land, serving from 1827 to 1838. During his tenure, Archer was respon ...
* 13 July –
Allan Cunningham, botanist and explorer, best known for discovering the
Darling Downs is born in
Wimbledon, London.
* 4 August –
Henry Savery
Henry Savery (4 August 1791 – 6 February 1842) was a convict transported to Port Arthur, Tasmania, and Australia's first novelist. It is generally agreed that his writing is more important for its historical value than its literary merit.''Qui ...
* 13 December –
Phillip Parker King
*
George Gipps
Deaths
* 28 January –
Henry Dodd
References
*
*
{{Oceania topic, 1791 in, countries_only=yes
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
Years of the 18th century in Australia