1848 in Australia

← 1847 1846 1845 1848 in Australia → 1849 1850 1851
Decades:	1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s
See also:	Other events of 1848 Timeline of Australian history

The following lists events that happened during 1848 in Australia.

Incumbents

• Monarch - Victoria

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales – Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
• Governor of South Australia – Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Holt Robe (to 2 August) then Sir Henry Fox Young
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir William Denison
• Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Irwin (acting), then Captain Charles Fitzgerald.

Events

• Letters patent of
  St Peters, Eastern Hill church.^[1]
• 13 February – The first non-British ship carrying immigrants to arrive in
  Forty-Eighters
  .
• 3 April – Explorer
  Darling Downs. On that date he wrote a letter from MacPherson's Station, Cogoon.^[2] Leichhardt had set off for Swan River.^[3]
• 11 March – The Savings Bank of South Australia opens with a single employee, trading from a room provided rent-free.
• 29 August – The
  Victoria
  is lit for the first time.
• September – Between 9 and 11 Indigenous Australians are killed in the Avenue Range Station massacre.

Births

• 4 February – Sir John Winthrop Hackett, Western Australian politician and newspaper proprietor (born in Ireland) (d. 1916
  )
• 17 February – Louisa Lawson, writer, poet and feminist (d. 1920
  )
• 24 February – Andrew Inglis Clark, Tasmanian politician and judge (d. 1907
  )
• 18 May – Sir John Henniker Heaton, postal reformer, journalist, and politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1914
  )
• 27 May – David Charleston, South Australian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1934
  )
• 3 June – Alexander Leeper, educationist (born in Ireland) (d. 1934
  )
• 8 September – Sir Edward Charles Stirling, South Australian politician and anthropologist (d. 1919
  )
• 15 October – Sir Langdon Bonython, South Australian politician and journalist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1939
  )
• 18 October – Gregor McGregor, South Australian politician and trade union leader (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1914
  )
• 3 December – William Shiels, 16th Premier of Victoria (born in Ireland) (d. 1904
  )
• 6 December – Sir Edward Hutton, 1st General Officer Commanding Australian Military Forces (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1923
  )
• 10 December – Frederick William Piesse, Tasmanian politician (d. 1902
  )
• 16 December – Walter Madden, Victorian politician (born in Ireland) (d. 1925
  )
• Unknown – John Mather, artist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1916)

Deaths

• 2 May – Frederick Garling, attorney and solicitor (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1775
  )
• 25 May – Sir Maurice Charles O'Connell, New South Wales politician and military commander (born in Ireland) (b. 1768
  )
• Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land (born in the West Indies and died in the United Kingdom) (b. 1775
  )
• 18 July – Alexander Macleay, New South Wales politician and entomologist (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1767
  )
• 12 November – John Cadman, convict and publican (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1758
  )