The following lists events that happened during 1803 in Australia.

Incumbents

Governors

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 Philip King

Events

* 14 January – Lieut-Col

David Collins David Collins may refer to: Persons * David Collins (Hampshire cricketer), 18th-century cricketer * David Collins (New Zealand cricketer) (1887–1967) * David Collins (Scottish footballer) (1912–?) * David Collins (Australian footballer) ( ...

commissioned in England to found a new settlement on

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...

, preferably at Port Phillip. * 5 March – George Howe publishes the first issue of the weekly '' The Sydney Gazette and The New South Wales Advertiser'',

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 ...

's first newspaper. * 19 April - Governor King proclaims toleration for Catholics and allows Fr James Dixon to say mass for Irish convicts. * 14 May - Illegal Masonic meeting held in Sydney and all participants arrested. * 25 November - William James Hobart Thorne is the first white child born in Victoria when he is born at Port Phillip, in what was then part of New South Wales but later became Victoria. He dies on 2 July 1872. * 27 December – Convict William Buckley escapes from Sullivan Bay, Victoria. He lives with the

Wautharong The Wathaurong nation, also called the Wathaurung, Wadawurrung and Wadda Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin a ...

Aboriginal people for 32 years. * 26 June –

John Macarthur John MacArthur or Macarthur may refer to: *J. Roderick MacArthur (1920–1984), American businessman *John MacArthur (American pastor) (born 1939), American evangelical minister, televangelist, and author * John Macarthur (priest), 20th-century pro ...

writes th
Statement of Improvement and Progression of Fine Woolled Sheep in New South Wales.

Exploration and settlement

* January–February – Acting Lieutenant Charles Robbins and NSW Surveyor General Charles Grimes survey Port Phillip in * 2 February – Charles Grimes discovered the Yarra River. * 9 June – arrives in Port Jackson after circumnavigating Australia. On the voyage

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

charted the coast and Robert Brown made an extensive collection of the flora of Australia. * 11 September – John Bowen with a party of forty-eight found the first settlement in Van Diemen's Land near the Derwent River. * 9 October –

, on and ''Ocean'', establishes the short-lived

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building *Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fina ...

at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip

Births

*1 January –

Daniel Egan Daniel Egan ( – 16 October 1870) was an Australian politician who served as Mayor of Sydney in 1853. He was also a member of the New South Wales Parliament. Egan was born in Windsor, New South Wales and was a foreman at the Government Docky ...

, politician (died 1870)

Deaths

* 26 August –

Joseph Luker Joseph Luker ( – 26 August 1803) (also spelt Lucar and Looker) was a British convict transported to the Colony of New South Wales on the 12-gun sailing ship ''Atlantic'' as part of the Third Fleet. After the completion of his sentence he joine ...

, police officer (born ) * 16 September –

Nicholas Baudin Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. Biography Early career Born a comm ...

, French explorer (born 1754) * 17 November – William Balmain,

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command ...

surgeon (born 1762)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1803 in Australia

Years of the 19th century in Australia