Governors of the Australian colonies:
Governor of New South Wales – Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead
Governor of Queensland – George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby
Governor of South Australia – Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet, then Anthony Musgrave
Governor of Tasmania – Charles Du Cane
Governor of Victoria – John Manners-Sutton, 3rd Viscount Canterbury, then George Bowen
Premiers of the Australian colonies:
Premier of New South Wales – Henry Parkes
Premier of Queensland – Arthur Hunter Palmer
Premier of South Australia – Henry Ayers, until 22 July then Arthur Blyth
Premier of Tasmania – Frederick Innes, until 4 August then Alfred Kennerley
Premier of Victoria – James Francis
9 December – More than 1,000 striking gold miners attack police and Chinese workers brought in to Clunes, Victoria to break the strike.
30 December – Elizabeth Woolcock is hanged at the Adelaide Gaol, the only woman to be executed in South Australia.
Exploration and settlement
19 July – Surveyor William Gosse renames "Ayers Rock" after the Premier of South Australia Henry Ayers even though it has been known for thousands of years as Uluru.
3 September – The town of Cooktown, Queensland is founded after gold is discovered at the Palmer River, sparking a gold rush.
28 January – Monty Noble, cricketer (d. 1840)
21 August – Fred Leist, artist (d. 1845)
28 January – John Hart, 10th Premier of South Australia (b. 1809)
19 April – Hamilton Hume, explorer (b. 1797)
30 May – Thomas Gilbert, South Australian pioneer (b. 1789)
22 June – Terence Aubrey Murray, NSW politician (b. 1810)
12 November – David Lennox, bridge-builder (b. 1788)
11 December – John West, clergyman, writer and editor of The Sydney Morning Herald (b. 1809)
24 December – Madame Rens, New South Wales settler and merchant (b. 1789)
