1860 in Australia

← 1859 1858 1857 1860 in Australia → 1861 1862 1863
Decades:	1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s
See also:	Other events of 1860 Timeline of Australian history

The following lists events that happened during 1860 in Australia.

Incumbents

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales – Sir William Denison
• Governor of Queensland – Sir George Bowen
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Richard G. MacDonnell
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir Henry Young
• Governor of Victoria – Sir Henry Barkly
• Sir Arthur Kennedy
  .

Premiers

• John Robertson
• Premier of Queensland – Robert Herbert
• Premier of South Australia – Richard Hanson until 9 May then Thomas Reynolds
• Premier of Tasmania – Francis Smith until 1 November then William Weston
• Premier of Victoria – William Nicholson until 26 November then Richard Heales

Events

• 20 August – Burke and Wills expedition sets off from Royal Park, Melbourne at about 4pm watched by around 15,000 spectators.^[1]
• 12 November – The Victorian College for the Deaf is opened in a small house in Peel Street Windsor.^[2]
• 12 December – Initial riots on the Lambing Flat goldfields near present-day Young, New South Wales.

Arts and literature

Births

• 6 April – Henry Willis, New South Wales politician (d. 1950
  )
• 20 June – Jack Worrall, Australian rules footballer (Fitzroy), cricketer and journalist (d. 1937
  )
• 23 June – Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer, evolutionary biologist, anthropologist, and ethnologist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1929
  )
• 27 July – Carty Salmon, Victorian politician (d. 1917
  )
• 25 August – Charles McDonald, Queensland politician (d. 1925
  )
• 6 September – May Jordan McConnel, trade unionist and suffragist (d. 1929
  )
• 25 September – John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, 1st Governor-General of Australia (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1908
  )
• 7 November – Edward Millen, New South Wales politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1923
  )
• 18 November – Charles Kenningham, opera singer and actor (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1925
  )
• 7 December – Sir Joseph Cook, 6th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1947
  )
• Unknown – Thomas Kennedy, Victorian politician (d. 1929)

Deaths

• 31 March – Frederick Irwin, Acting Governor of Western Australia (born in Ireland and died in the United Kingdom) (b. 1794
  )
• 1 July – Robert Thomas, newspaper proprietor (born in the United Kingdom
  ) (b. 1781)