1840 in Australia

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

The following lists events that happened during 1840 in Australia.

Incumbents

Monarch - Victoria

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

Governor of New South Wales – Sir George Gipps
Governor of South Australia – Lieutenant Colonel George Gawler
Governor of Tasmania – Captain Sir John Franklin
Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – John Hutt

Events

3 January – The Melbourne newspaper The Herald is founded by George Cavenagh as The Port Phillip Herald.
13 January – The Battle of Yering occurs between Indigenous Australians of the Wurundjeri nation and the Border Police.
March – Between 40 and 60 Jardwadjali Aboriginal people are killed in the Fighting Hills massacre. The Whyte brothers William, George, Pringle and James Whyte, cousin John Whyte and three convict employees, Benjamin Wardle, Daniel Turner and William Gillespie were responsible.
April – Up to 60 Jardwadjali Aboriginal people are killed in the Fighting Waterholes massacre. The Whyte brothers William, George, Pringle and James Whyte and their employees were responsible.
May – British Government agrees to cease sending convicts to New South Wales, some 80,000 convicts had been sent since 1788.^[1] Convicts still sent to Van Diemen's Land and Port Phillip District colonies.^[2]
30 June – survivors of the Maria shipwreck are massacred by Aboriginal Australians on the Coorong.
25 August – Two Ngarrindjeri men are hanged on the Coorong in front of their tribe after being convicted in a drumhead court-martial of the murders of all 26 crew and passengers of the Maria shipwreck, Major Thomas O'Halloran, South Australian Police Commissioner, presiding and passing sentence.^[3]
2 November – Construction of The Causeway across the Swan River in Perth begins.
Undated – Sydney City Council and Adelaide City Council are incorporated. A ratepayer required £1,000 worth of property to stand for election.^[2]
Undated – An unknown number of Indigenous Australians are murdered by Angus McMillan's men at Nuntin and at Boney Point as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.

Births

3 February – Allan McLean, 19th Premier of Victoria (d. 1911)
11 March – Ralph Tate, botanist and geologist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1901)
26 April – Paddy Hannan, prospector (born in Ireland) (d. 1925)
23 May – George Throssell, 2nd Premier of Western Australia (d. 1910)
4 November – William Giblin, 13th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1887)
8 December – William Guilfoyle, landscape gardener and botanist (d. 1912)
Unknown – Tommy Windich, explorer (d. 1876)

Deaths

28 January – Simeon Lord, merchant and magistrate (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1771)
17 November – Henry Fulton, chaplain and writer (born in Ireland) (b. 1761)
24 December – Thomas Moore, settler (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1762)

References

^ Munday, Rosemary, ed. (1991). "How Australia Began: Significant Dates in Australian History". The Bulletin Australian Almanac & Book of Facts 1992. Sydney: Australian Consolidated Press. p. 3. ISSN 1038-054X.
^ ^a ^b Cameron, Angus, ed. (1985). "Part One: Facts and Figures: An Australian Historical Chronology". The Australian Almanac: 800 Pages Crammed with Australian and World Facts: Politics, the Arts, Geography, History and Much More. North Ryde, New South Wales: Angus & Robertson. p. 11. ISBN 0-207-15108-3.
^ O'Halloran, Thomas (11 September 1840). "Late Shipwreck and Murders at Encounter Bay". Southern Australian. pp. 2–3. Retrieved 23 February 2013 – via National Library of Australia.

[Munday-1] Munday, Rosemary, ed. (1991). "How Australia Began: Significant Dates in Australian History". The Bulletin Australian Almanac & Book of Facts 1992. Sydney: Australian Consolidated Press. p. 3. ISSN 1038-054X.

[Cameron-2] Cameron, Angus, ed. (1985). "Part One: Facts and Figures: An Australian Historical Chronology". The Australian Almanac: 800 Pages Crammed with Australian and World Facts: Politics, the Arts, Geography, History and Much More. North Ryde, New South Wales: Angus & Robertson. p. 11. ISBN 0-207-15108-3.

[OHalloran-3] O'Halloran, Thomas (11 September 1840). "Late Shipwreck and Murders at Encounter Bay". Southern Australian. pp. 2–3. Retrieved 23 February 2013 – via National Library of Australia.

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[2]

[3]

v t e Years in Australia (1788–present)
18th century	1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800
19th century	1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900
20th century	1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
21st century	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Timeline of Australian history

v t e 1840 in Oceania
Sovereign states	Australia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Nauru New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu
Associated states of New Zealand	Cook Islands Niue