1840 in Australia
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The following lists events that happened during 1840 in Australia.
Incumbents
Governors
Governors of the Australian colonies:
- Governor of New South Wales – Sir George Gipps
- Governor of South Australia – Lieutenant Colonel George Gawler
- Governor of Tasmania – Captain Sir John Franklin
- Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – John Hutt
Events
- 3 January – The Melbourne newspaper The Herald is founded by George Cavenagh as The Port Phillip Herald.
- 13 January – The Battle of Yering occurs between Indigenous Australians of the Wurundjeri nation and the Border Police.
- March – Between 40 and 60 Jardwadjali Aboriginal people are killed in the Fighting Hills massacre. The Whyte brothers William, George, Pringle and James Whyte, cousin John Whyte and three convict employees, Benjamin Wardle, Daniel Turner and William Gillespie were responsible.
- April – Up to 60 Jardwadjali Aboriginal people are killed in the Fighting Waterholes massacre. The Whyte brothers William, George, Pringle and James Whyte and their employees were responsible.
- May – British Government agrees to cease sending convicts to New South Wales, some 80,000 convicts had been sent since 1788.[1] Convicts still sent to Van Diemen's Land and Port Phillip District colonies.[2]
- 30 June – survivors of the Coorong.
- 25 August – Two Ngarrindjeri men are hanged on the Coorong in front of their tribe after being convicted in a drumhead court-martial of the murders of all 26 crew and passengers of the Maria shipwreck, Major Thomas O'Halloran, South Australian Police Commissioner, presiding and passing sentence.[3]
- 2 November – Construction of The Causeway across the Swan River in Perth begins.
- Undated – Sydney City Council and Adelaide City Council are incorporated. A ratepayer required £1,000 worth of property to stand for election.[2]
- Undated – An unknown number of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.
Births
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- 8 December – William Guilfoyle, landscape gardener and botanist (d. 1912)
- Unknown – Tommy Windich, explorer (d. 1876)
Deaths
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References
- ISSN 1038-054X.
- ^ ISBN 0-207-15108-3.
- Southern Australian. pp. 2–3. Retrieved 23 February 2013 – via National Library of Australia.