1796 in Australia

← 1795 1794 1793 1796 in Australia → 1797 1798 1799
Decades:	1780s 1790s 1800s 1810s
See also:	Other events of 1796 Timeline of Australian history

The following lists events that happened during 1796 in Australia.

• Monarch - George III
• Governor of New South Wales – John Hunter
• Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island – Philip Gidley King
• Inspector of Public Works – John Macarthur/Richard Atkins

• 16 January – Australia's first theatre opens in Sydney. Edward Young's The Revenge and the comedy The Hotel are the first works performed.
• 23 January – The distillation of spirits is prohibited.
• 5 February – Soldiers from the New South Wales Corps wreck a house belonging to millwright John Baughan.
• 10 February – Magistrate William Balmain challenges Macarthur over the house-wrecking incident.
• 29 February – Macarthur resigns as Inspector of the Public Works and is replaced by Richard Atkins.
• June – George Bass makes an unsuccessful attempt to cross the Blue Mountains. Coal is discovered near Port Stephens.
• 14 September – Governor Hunter complains to the Colonial Secretary of Macarthur's behaviour.
• 15 September – Macarthur complains to Colonial Secretary of Hunter's governing.
• 9 November – As Sydney grows, Hunter disbands the convict night watch. He divides Sydney into four districts responsible for their own watchmen and orders houses to be numbered.

• 20 March – Edward Gibbon Wakefield
• date unknown
  • Henry Vincent, first superintendent of Rottnest Island Aboriginal Prison (d. 1869)

• Barker, Anthony (1996). What Happened When. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-86373-986-3.
• National Library of Australia. "The World Upside Down: Australia 1788 – 1830". Archived from the original on 20 March 2007. Retrieved 9 February 2007.