1803 in Australia

Decades:	1780s; 1790s; 1800s; 1810s; 1820s;
See also:	Other events of 1803; ; Timeline of Australian history;

The following lists events that happened during 1803 in Australia.

Incumbents[]

Monarch - George III

Governors[]

Governors of the Australian colonies:

Governor of New South Wales – Captain Philip King

Events[]

14 January – Lieut-Col David Collins commissioned in England to found a new settlement on Bass Strait, 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's first newspaper.
19 April - Governor King proclaims toleration for Catholics and allows Fr James Dixon to say mass for Irish convicts.^[1]^[2]
14 May - Illegal Masonic meeting held in Sydney and all participants arrested.^[2]
27 December – Convict William Buckley escapes from Sullivan Bay, Victoria. He lives with the Wautharong Aboriginal people for 32 years.
26 June – John Macarthur writes the 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 HMS Cumberland
2 February – Charles Grimes discovered the Yarra River.
9 June – Investigator arrives in Port Jackson after circumnavigating Australia. On the voyage Matthew Flinders 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 – David Collins, on HMS Calcutta and Ocean, establishes the short-lived settlement at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip

Births[]

1 January – Daniel Egan, politician (died 1870)

Deaths[]

26 August – Joseph Luker, police officer

References[]

^ Proclamation, Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 24 Apr 1803
^ ^a ^b Franklin, James (2021). "Sydney 1803: When Catholics were tolerated and Freemasons banned" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 107 (2): 135–155. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[1] Proclamation, Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 24 Apr 1803

[Fra-2] Franklin, James (2021). "Sydney 1803: When Catholics were tolerated and Freemasons banned" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 107 (2): 135–155. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

[1]

[2]

v t Years in Australia (1788–present)
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21st century	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Timeline of Australian history

v t 1803 in Oceania
Sovereign states	Australia New Zealand
Associated states of New Zealand