The following lists events that happened during 1875 in Australia.
Contents
Incumbents
Monarch - Victoria
Governors
Governors of the Australian colonies:
Governor of New South Wales – Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead
Governor of Queensland – Sir William Cairns
Governor of South Australia – Sir Anthony Musgrave
Governor of Tasmania – Frederick Weld
Governor of Victoria – Sir George Bowen
Governor of Western Australia – The Hon. Sir Frederick Weld GCMG, then Sir William Robinson GCMG.
Premiers
Premiers of the Australian colonies:
Premier of New South Wales – Henry Parkes until 8 February, then John Robertson
Premier of Queensland – Arthur Macalister
Premier of South Australia – Arthur Blyth until 8 June, then James Boucaut
Premier of Tasmania – Alfred Kennerley
Premier of Victoria –
until 7 August – George Kerferd
7 August - 20 October – Graham Berry
starting 20 October – James McCulloch
Events
11 January – William Robinson arrives in Western Australia to become Governor of the colony.
13 January – Frederick Weld becomes Governor of Tasmania.
23 January – William Cairns becomes Governor of Queensland.
9 February – John Robertson becomes Premier of New South Wales, replacing Henry Parkes.
24 February – The SS Gothenburg strikes Old Reef off Ayr, Queensland and sinks with the loss of 102 lives.
24 May – J. V. Mulligan and party discover the Barron River in Queensland, they left Cooktown on 17 April
6 May – Ernest Giles and party leave South Australia for an overland expedition to Perth, they arrive on 10 November.
3 June – Premier of South Australia Arthur Blyth resigns and is replaced by James Boucaut.
7 August – Graham Berry becomes Premier of Victoria.
20 October – James McCulloch becomes Premier of Victoria for the fourth time.
24 December – 59 die when a cyclone destroys the pearling fleet in the Exmouth Gulf of Western Australia.
Undated – Between 80 and 100 Arrernte (formerly known as Aranda) men, women and children are killed by a raiding party of 50 to 60 Matuntara warriors in the massacre of Running Waters.
Arts and literature
New South Government establishes an art gallery in Sydney; it later becomes the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Sport
Polo played for the first time in Australia at Albert Park in Victoria
Soccer played for the first time in Australia at Goodna in New South Wales.
Wollomai wins the Melbourne Cup; the cup was held on the first Tuesday in November for this first time this year
Births
20 March – Benjamin Fuller, theatrical entrepreneur (died 1952)
29 April – Margaret Preston, painter and printmaker (died 1963)
22 July – Leslie James Wrigley, academic, school inspector, principal, and teacher (died 1933)
3 December – Max Meldrum, painter (died 1955)
Deaths
28 January – James Hurtle Fisher, South Australian pioneer (born 1790)
25 February – Thomas Reynolds, premier of South Australia (born 1818)
25 February – James Stokes Millner, medical practitioner (born 1830)
10 September – Silas Gill, Methodist preacher
20 October – Charles Cowper, premier of New South Wales (born 1807)
9 November – William Hovell, explorer (born 1786)
2 December – Charles La Trobe, lieutenant-governor of Victoria (born 1801)
Unknown date
Henry Willey Reveley, Swan River Colony civil engineer (born 1788)