The following lists events that happened during 1868 in Australia.

Incumbents

Monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies: * Governor of New South Wales –

Somerset Lowry-Corry, 4th Earl Belmore Somerset Richard Lowry-Corry, 4th Earl Belmore, (9 April 1835 – 6 April 1913), styled as Viscount Corry from 1841 to 1845, was an Irish nobleman and Conservative politician who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1868 to 1872. Backgrou ...

Governor of Queensland The governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the monarch of Australia. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governor performs constitutional and ceremonial func ...

– Sir George Bowen, then Colonel Sir Samuel Blackall * Governor of South Australia – Sir Dominick Daly until 19 February *

Governor of Tasmania The governor of Tasmania is the representative in the Australian state of Tasmania of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The incumbent governor is Barbara Baker, who was appointed in June 2021. The official residence of the ...

– Colonel Thomas Browne, then

Charles Du Cane Sir Charles Du Cane (5 December 1825 – 25 February 1889) was a British Conservative Party politician and colonial administrator who was a Member of Parliament between 1852 and 1854 and Governor of Tasmania from 1868 to 1874. Du Cane was born ...

Governor of Victoria The governor of Victoria is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the Australian state of Victoria. The governor is one of seven viceregal representatives in the country, analogous to the governors of the other states, and th ...

– Sir John Manners-Sutton *

Governor of Western Australia The governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of the monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. As with the other governors of the Australian states, the governor of Western Australia performs constitutiona ...

– Dr John Hampton, then Sir Benjamin Pine

Premiers

Premiers of the Australian colonies: *

Premier 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 Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislatu ...

– James Martin, until 27 October then John Robertson *

Premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

– Robert Mackenzie, until 25 November then

Charles Lilley Sir Charles Lilley (27 August 1827 – 20 August 1897) was a Premier and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland. He had a significant influence on the form and spirit of state education in colonial Queensland which lasted well into the ...

Premier of South Australia The premier of South Australia is the head of government in the state of South Australia, Australia. The Government of South Australia follows the Westminster system, with a Parliament of South Australia acting as the legislature. The premier is ...

–

Henry Ayers Sir Henry Ayers (now pron. "airs") (1 May 1821 – 11 June 1897) was the eighth Premier of South Australia, serving a record five times between 1863 and 1873. His lasting memorial is in the name Ayers Rock, also known as Uluru, which was en ...

, until 24 September then John Hart (2nd time), until 13 October then

(4th time), until 3 November then Henry Strangways *

Premier of Tasmania The premier of Tasmania is the head of the executive government in the Australian state of Tasmania. By convention, the leader of the party or political grouping which has majority support in the House of Assembly is invited by the governor of ...

–

Richard Dry Sir Richard Dry, KCMG (20 September 1815 – 1 August 1869) was an Australian politician, the son of United Irish convict, who was Premier of Tasmania from 24 November 1866 until 1 August 1869 when he died in office. Dry was the first Tasmani ...

Premier of Victoria The premier of Victoria is the head of 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 Victorian Legislative Assemb ...

–

James McCulloch Sir James McCulloch, (18 March 1819 – 31 January 1893), British colonial politician, was the fifth Premier of Victoria. Early life McCulloch was born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was the son of George McCulloch, a quarry master a ...

, until 6 May then

Charles Sladen Sir Charles Sladen, (28 August 1816 – 22 February 1884), Australian colonial politician, was the 6th Premier of Victoria. Sladen was born in England near Walmer, Kent, the second son of John Baker Sladen, deputy-lieutenant of the county. He ...

, until 11 July then

(2nd time)

Events

* 10 January – The last

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as " prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former conv ...

ship to Western Australia, the ''

Hougoumont Château d'Hougoumont (originally Goumont) is a walled manorial compound, situated at the bottom of an escarpment near the Nivelles road in the Braine-l'Alleud municipality, near Waterloo, Belgium. The site served as one of the advanced defens ...

'', arrives in Western Australia. This brought the end of penal transportation to Australia. * February–May – A series of atrocities in retaliation to the killing of a police officer, a police assistant, and a local workman result in the deaths of between 15 and 150

Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

around Flying Foam Passage on

Murujuga Murujuga, formerly known as Dampier Island and today usually known as the Burrup Peninsula, is in the Dampier Archipelago, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, containing the town of Dampier. The Dampier Rock Art Precinct, which covers ...

(Burrup Peninsula) in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. These atrocities are later referred to as the Flying Foam Massacre. * 5 March – The

Queensland Parliament The Parliament of Queensland is the legislature of Queensland, Australia. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the Monarch of Australia and the Legislative Assembly. It has been the only unicameral st ...

passes the ''Polynesian Labourers Act'' to regulate the employment of

Pacific Islanders Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oce ...

recruited through

blackbirding Blackbirding involves the coercion of people through deception or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in countries distant from their native land. The term has been most commonly applied to the large-scale taking of people in ...

. * 12 March –

Henry James O'Farrell Henry James O'Farrell (183321 April 1868) was the first person to attempt a political assassination in Australia. On 12 March 1868, he shot and wounded Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria. Biog ...

fires a revolver into the back of

Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh Alfred (Alfred Ernest Albert; 6 August 184430 July 1900) was the sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1 ...

(second son of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

) while the latter is picnicking in the beachfront suburb of Clontarf. It was Australia's first attempted political assassination. O'Farrell first claimed that he was acting under instruction from

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Fenians but later retracted the claims. He had problems with alcoholism and mental illness.

Economy

*The Geelong Woollen Company sets up the first woollen mill in Australia.

Sport

* May to October – The first Australian cricket team to tour overseas plays against several English teams, winning 14 matches, losing 14 and drawing 19. * 3 November – Glencoe wins the

Melbourne Cup The Melbourne Cup is a Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melb ...

Births

* 21 February – Ernest Roberts, South Australian politician (born in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

) (d.

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the ...

) *

19 June Events Pre-1600 * 325 – The original Nicene Creed is adopted at the First Council of Nicaea. * 1179 – The Battle of Kalvskinnet takes place outside Nidaros (now Trondheim), Norway. Earl Erling Skakke is killed, and the battle chan ...

–

Richard Crouch Richard Armstrong Crouch (19 June 1868 – 7 April 1949) was an Australian politician. His two periods as a member of the House of Representatives (1901–1910, 1929–1931) were separated by the First World War, during which he became an anti- ...

, Victorian politician (d. 1949) * 27 October –

William Gillies William Gillies (1865–1932) was a Scottish patriot and a socialist. He helped to form the Scots National League, which joined with other bodies to form the National Party of Scotland, which in turn evolved into the Scottish National Party (S ...

, 21st

(d.

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...

) *

14 November Events Pre-1600 1601–1900 * 1680 – German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope. *1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile. ...

–

Steele Rudd Steele Rudd was the pen name of Arthur Hoey Davis (14 November 1868 – 11 October 1935) an Australian author, best known for his short story collection '' On Our Selection''. In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, Rudd was named one of the ...

, author (d. 1935)

Deaths

21 April Events Pre-1600 *753 BC – Romulus founds Rome ( traditional date). *43 BC – Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Antony fails to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus is murdered s ...

–

, attempted assassin (born in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

) (b. 1833) * 10 June –

Charles Harpur Charles Harpur (23 January 1813 – 10 June 1868) was an Australian poet and playwright. He is regarded as "Australia's most important nineteenth-century poet." Life Early life on the Hawkesbury Harpur was born on 23 January 1813 at Windso ...

, poet (b.

1813 Events January–March * January 18–January 23 – War of 1812: The Battle of Frenchtown is fought in modern-day Monroe, Michigan between the United States and a British and Native American alliance. * January 24 – T ...

) * 21 July –

William Bland William Bland (5 November 1789 – 21 July 1868) was a transported convict, medical practitioner and surgeon, politician, farmer and inventor in the Colony of New South Wales, Australia. Early life Bland was born in London on 5 November 1789 ...

, New South Wales politician and medical practitioner (born in the

) (b.

1789 Events January–March * January – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes the pamphlet '' What Is the Third Estate?'' ('), influential on the French Revolution. * January 7 – The 1788-89 United States presidential electio ...

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1868 in Australia Australia Years of the 19th century in Australia