1851 in Australia

← 1850 1849 1848 1851 in Australia → 1852 1853 1854
Decades:	1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s
See also:	Other events of 1851 Timeline of Australian history

1851 in Australia was a watershed year. It saw the start of the

• Monarch - Victoria

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales — Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
• Governor of South Australia — Sir Henry Fox Young
• Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania — Sir William Denison
• Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria — Charles La Trobe
  ; (office first formed in 1851)
• Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony — Captain Charles Fitzgerald.

Events

January–March

• 13 January —
  Governor-General of all Her Majesty's Australian possessions".^[3] This position was a forerunner of the Governor-General of Australia
  .
• 6 February – The
  Wimmera and Dandenong
  districts. Approximately 12 people died, one million sheep and thousands of cattle were lost.
• 11 February —
  Victoria
  in the first inter-colonial cricket match.
• 12 February — Edward Hargraves finds gold near Bathurst, starting the first of many Australian gold rushes.
• 28 February – Formation of an
  Anti-Transportation League
  from anti-transportation organisations in Victoria and Tasmania.

April – June

• 7 April —
  William Tom and John Lister
  .
• 10 April – The NSW Association for Preventing the Renewal of Transportation sends a petition to Queen Victoria.
• 28 May – The arrival of two convict ships, the Lady Kenneway with 249 male prisoners and Blackfriars with 260 female prisoners, further turns Tasmanian sentiment against transportation.
• 14 June – Gold found on the
  Turon River, New South Wales
  which proves to be the richest NSW goldfield.

July – September

• 1 July – Victoria becomes a separate colony
• 2 July – the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce elects their first chairman, William Westgarth, and deputy chairman, J.B.Were.
• 5 July —
  Victorian Gold Rush
  .
• 7 July – News of the discovery of
  Victoria is published in the Geelong Advertiser
  .
• 10 July – A public meeting in Hobart, one of the largest ever held in Tasmania, calls for the end of transportation.
• 14 July – Sir William Denison, Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania writes to Earl Grey supporting a continuation of transportation.
• 15 July — Charles La Trobe appointed as first Lieutenant Governor of Victoria.
• 22 July – Northern NSW landholders write to Earl Grey calling for Northern NSW to become a separate colony with transportation of labour. They complain of a shortage of labour due to men going to the goldfields.
• 29 July – 1500 people attend a public meeting to oppose transportation organised by the Australasian League
• 2 August —
  Ballarat, Victoria, leading to the Victorian gold rush
  .
• 4 August – The Governor of Western Australia complains of receiving too many convicts as 300
  ticket-of-leave
  men arrive unexpectedly.

• 31 October – The New South Wales Legislative Council votes unanimously against transportation 'in any form what-so-ever, to any part of Her Majesty's Australian possessions'.
• 4 December – Charles LaTrobe forwards a Victorian Legislative Council motion passed unanimously opposing further transportation.
• 15 December – Between 14,000 and 20,000 gold miners attend an
  Miners Flag
  or 'Diggers Banner' was flown for the first time at this meeting.

Births

• 27 January – Julian Ashton, artist and teacher (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1942
  )
• 26 March – Rosa Campbell Praed, novelist (d. 1935
  )
• 10 April – Maggie Moore, actress (born in the United States) (d. 1926
  )
• 8 May – James Cuthbertson, poet and schoolteacher (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1910
  )
• 28 June – Bruce Smith, New South Wales politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1937
  )
• 30 June – H. B. Higgins, Victorian politician, lawyer, and High Court justice (d. 1929
  )
• 3 July – Charles Bannerman, cricketer (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1930
  )
• 8 July – John Murray, 23rd Premier of Victoria (d. 1916
  )
• 1 August – Sir Joseph Verco, physician and conchologist (d. 1933
  )
• Richard O'Connor, New South Wales politician and inaugural High Court justice (d. 1912
  )
• 8 August – Sir George Turner, 18th Premier of Victoria (d. 1916
  )
• 3 November – Norman Cameron, Tasmanian politician (d. 1931
  )
• 28 December – Sir Robert Philp, 15th Premier of Queensland (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1922
  )
• Unknown – George Darrell, playwright (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1921)
• Unknown – John Ford Paterson, artist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1912)

Deaths

• 25 February – James Ebenezer Bicheno, author and colonial official (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1785
  )
• 8 June – John Piper, military officer, public servant and landowner (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1773
  )
• 26 August – Andrew Bent, newspaper proprietor (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1790
  )