1844 in Australia explained

The following lists events that happened during 1844 in Australia.

Incumbents

Monarch - Victoria

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies

Events

1 January – Australia's first ringing peal rang from the bells of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
6 April – John Gavin is the first European settler to be legally executed in Western Australia. Gavin, a fifteen-year-old apprentice, was found guilty of the murder of his employer's son, George Pollard.^[1]
12 September – The Royal Society of Tasmania was formed. It was the first branch of the Society established outside Britain.
Undated – Port Augusta War^[2]
Undated – An unknown number of Indigenous Australians are murdered by Angus McMillan's men at Maffra as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.

Exploration and settlement

August – Charles Sturt explores the Stony Desert, fails to establish existence of an inland sea.^[3]
1 October – Ludwig Leichhardt leads expedition starting from Jimbour on the Darling Downs to Port Essington, Northern Territory, arriving in December 1845.^[3]

Births

24 January – Alexander Paterson, Queensland politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1908)
31 January – James McColl, Victorian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1929)
7 February – Joseph Brown, Victorian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1925)
8 February – John McGarvie Smith, metallurgist, bacteriologist and benefactor (d. 1918)
26 February – Thomas Glassey, 1st Queensland Opposition Leader (born in Ireland) (d. 1936)
17 March – Sir Henry Briggs, Western Australian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1919)
6 April
- Francis Bertie Boyce, clergyman and social reformer (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1931)
- Sir William Lyne, 13th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1913)
9 May – Thomas Macdonald-Paterson, Queensland politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1906)
11 May – Watkin Wynne, journalist, councillor and newspaper owner (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1921)
16 May – Sir John Madden, 4th Chief Justice of Victoria (born in Ireland) (d. 1918)
26 August – J. C. Williamson, actor (born in the United States) (d. 1913)
30 August – William Tietkens, explorer and naturalist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1933)
2 September – James Macfarlane, Tasmanian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1914)
26 September – Charles Strong, preacher and minister (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1942)
29 September – Edward Pulsford, New South Wales politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1919)
14 October – Sir John See, 14th Premier of New South Wales (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1907)
15 October – John Gavan Duffy, Victorian politician (born in Ireland) (d. 1917)
13 November – Andrew Harper, biblical scholar and teacher (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1936)
21 November – Ada Cambridge, writer and poet (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1926)
5 December – Sir Charles Mackellar, New South Wales politician and surgeon (d. 1926)
Unknown – William Sawers, New South Wales politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1916)

Deaths

29 June – Sir John Jamison, New South Wales politician, physician and pastoralist (born in Ireland) (b. 1776)
14 September – Prosper de Mestre, businessman and merchant (born in France) (b. 1789)
27 September – Sir James Dowling, 2nd Chief Justice of New South Wales (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1787)

Notes and References

News: Quarter Sessions . . 6 April 1844 . 23 February 2013 . 3 . National Library of Australia .
Web site: cnet . Australian Frontier Conflicts – Timeline . 2022-08-05 . Australian Frontier Conflicts . en-AU.
Book: Angus . Cameron . The Australian Almanac: 800 Pages Crammed with Australian and World Facts: Politics, the Arts, Geography, History and Much More . Part One: Facts and Figures: An Australian Historical Chronology . . 1985 . 12 . . 0-207-15108-3 .