1804 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1804 in Australia.

← 1803 1802 1801 1804 in Australia → 1805 1806 1807
Decades:	1780s 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s
See also:	Other events of 1804 Timeline of Australian history

Incumbents

• Monarch - George III

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales – Captain Philip King
• Lieutenant-Governor of Southern Van Diemen's Land – David Collins
• Lieutenant-Governor of Northern Van Diemen's Land – William Paterson

Events

• 4 March – The Castle Hill convict rebellion, also known as the Battle of Vinegar Hill, takes place: 200 convicts, mostly Irish, rebel. Fifty-one convicts are punished, and nine hanged.^[1]
• 3 May – An Aboriginal food hunting party is attacked by settlers and soldiers at Risdon Cove. Eyewitness estimates of the death toll from the massacre vary from three or four to fifty.^[2]
• 16 September – A government-owned brewery is opened at Parramatta as a means of controlling the consumption of spirits.^[3]
• 4 November – In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, Matthew Flinders recommends that the newly discovered country, New Holland, be renamed "Australia" or "Terra Australis" (from the Latin "australis" meaning "of the south").^[4]

Exploration and settlement

• 15 February – Lieutenant-Governor David Collins lands at Risdon Cove in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Unhappy with the area as a site for a settlement, Collins sends his surveyor, George Prideaux Harris, and harbour master William Collins in search of an alternative site. Harris and Collins recommend Sullivan's Cove.^[5]
• 24 March – The settlement at the Hunter River, also known as the Coal River, is officially named Newcastle.^[6]
• 8 May – Lieutenant-Governor Collins establishes the settlement at Sullivan's Cove on the Derwent River.^[7]
• 15 June – The name "Hobart Town", after the Colonial Secretary Lord Hobart, is adopted as the name for the new colony at Sullivan's Cove.^[7]
• 5 November – Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson arrives at Outer Cove, leading the Buffalo, the Lady Nelson and two schooners, under instructions from London to form a settlement in the north of Van Diemen's Land.^[7]

Births

• 5 October – Robert Campbell, politician (died 1859)

Deaths

• 21 March – James Bloodsworth (born 1759), convict and bricklayer
• 27 December – George Barrington (born 1755), convict and police officer