1855 in Australia

Incumbents

• Monarch - Victoria

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales – Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Richard MacDonnell (from 8 June)
• Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land – Henry Young (from 8 January)
• Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria (Governor of Victoria from 22 May) – Sir Charles Hotham (until 10 November)
• Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – Captain Charles Fitzgerald, then Sir Arthur Kennedy.

Events

• 5 January – The War of Southern Queensland ends with the hanging of Dundalli.
• 12 June – the Victorian parliament passed the Chinese Restriction Act in an effort to restrict Chinese immigration. These restrictions, including a £10 poll tax on Chinese and a limit to Chinese passengers per tonnage of shipping.
• 8 September – Queen Victoria signs an Order in Council to change the name of Van Diemen's Land to Tasmania.
• 26 September – Sydney to Parramatta railway opened

Exploration and settlement

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Science and technology

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Arts and literature

Main article: 1855 in Australian literature

Sport

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Births

• 30 January – George Edwards, New South Wales politician (d. 1911)
• 16 February – Henry Saunders, Western Australian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1919)
• 28 May – Sir William Portus Cullen, New South Wales politician and 7th Chief Justice of New South Wales (d. 1935)
• 18 June – George Lewis Becke, trader and writer (d. 1913)
• 6 August – Sir Isaac Isaacs, 9th Governor-General of Australia and 3rd Chief Justice of Australia (d. 1948)
• 13 August – William Astley, short story writer (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1911)
• 25 August – Paddy Glynn, South Australian politician (born in Ireland) (d. 1931)
• 28 October – Francis James Gillen, anthropologist and ethnologist (d. 1912)
• 22 November – Pharez Phillips, Victorian politician (d. 1914)

Deaths

• 5 January – Dundalli, Aboriginal lawman, murderer and resistance fighter (c. 1820)
• 23 January – John Burdett Wittenoom, clergyman (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1788)
• 19 March – Thomas Bock, artist (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1790)
• 3 April – John Bateman, merchant and whaler (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1789)
• 31 December – Sir Charles Hotham, 1st Governor of Victoria (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1806)

References

References

1. "Brief History of the Chinese in Australia". La Trobe University.
2. (29 September 1855). "Opening of the Sydney and Parramatta Railway". [[The Freeman's Journal (Sydney).