1844 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1844 in Australia.

← 1843 1842 1841 1844 in Australia → 1845 1846 1847
Decades:	1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s
See also:	Other events of 1844 Timeline of Australian history

Incumbents

• Monarch - Victoria

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales – Sir George Gipps
• Governor of South Australia – Sir George Grey
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir John Eardley-Wilmot
• Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – John Hutt.

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

Sir William Lyne

• 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)