1854 in Australia

Decades:	1830s; 1840s; 1850s; 1860s; 1870s;
See also:	Other events of 1854; ; Timeline of Australian history;

The following lists events that happened during 1854 in Australia.

Incumbents[]

Governors[]

Governors of the Australian colonies:

Governor of New South Wales – Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
Governor of South Australia – Sir Henry Young (term ended 20 December)
Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land – Sir William Denison
Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria – Charles La Trobe (until 5 May), then Sir Charles Hotham (from 22 June)
Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – Captain Charles Fitzgerald

Events[]

This was a year of intense political agitation by miners on the Victorian goldfields.

3 March – The first telegraph line in the southern hemisphere begins operating in Victoria.^[1]
4 July – Anti-Chinese riots occur in Victoria.
5 July – The Mercury was first published in Hobart.
17 October – The Melbourne daily newspaper The Age was first published.
29 November – The Eureka Flag was flown for the first time during the Eureka Stockade rebellion in Ballarat.
3 December – battle suppressing the rebellion at Eureka Stockade

Exploration and settlement[]

4 January – Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang discovers the McDonald Islands.
12 September – Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria Charles Hotham opens Flinders Street station, the first city railway station in Australia.

Sport[]

30 September – The first game of cricket is played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Births[]

12 February – Edward Wittenoom, Western Australian politician (d. 1936)
24 March – Sir Henry Lefroy, 11th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1930)
12 April – William Maloney, Victorian politician and doctor (d. 1940)
20 May – George Prendergast, 28th Premier of Victoria (d. 1937)
25 June – Andrew Lang Petrie, Queensland politician (d. 1928)
5 August – William Aitcheson Haswell, zoologist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1925)
18 October – Billy Murdoch, cricketer (d. 1911)
Unknown, possibly December – Ned Kelly, bushranger (d. 1880)

Deaths[]

7 October – James Scobie, gold miner (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1826)
Unknown – Jackey Jackey (b. 1833)

References[]

^ McGowan, Samuel Walker (1829–1887), Australian Dictionary of Biography.

[1] McGowan, Samuel Walker (1829–1887), Australian Dictionary of Biography.

[1]

v t Years in Australia (1788–present)
18th century	1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800
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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 1854 in Oceania
Sovereign states	Australia New Zealand
Associated states of New Zealand