1841 in Australia

Updated on Jan 30, 2024

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Decades: 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s See also: Other events of 1841 Timeline of Australian history

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

Governor of New South Wales - Sir George Gipps

Governor of South Australia - Lieutenant Colonel George Gawler to 15 May then Sir George Grey

Governor of Tasmania - Captain Sir John Franklin

Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony - John Hutt.

Events

3 May - New Zealand was proclaimed a colony independent from New South Wales.

7 June - Darlinghurst Gaol took in its first prisoners.

1 July - The convict assignment system was abolished in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land and was replaced by the probation gang system.

1 September - Port Phillip Savings Bank was established.

23 October - Caroline Chisholm established the Female Immigrants Home to help unemployed new arrivals to Australia.

Exploration and settlement

February - The first economic minerals discovered in Australia were silver and lead at Glen Osmond, now a suburb of Adelaide in South Australia.

7 April - Edward John Eyre becomes the first European to cross the Nullarbor Plain. He arrived in Western Australia with Wylie, an indigenous Australian who accompanied him. Eyre left Fowlers Bay, South Australia on 25 February and reached Albany, Western Australia on 7 July.

Science and technology

13 April - the first photograph was taken in Australia by a visiting naval captain, Captain Augustin Lucas

24 May - Gas lighting used for the first time in Sydney.

William Bland published a paper on the first scarlet fever epidemic in Australia; probably Australia's earliest contribution to clinical medicine.

Arts and literature

The first Australian book for children was published in Sydney, A mother's offering to her children, by a 'lady long resident in New South Wales'. Although published anonymously, the author is Charlotte Barton.