1803 in Australia

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|

* 1802
* 1801
* 1800
*   *

|  | 1803

Australia |

* 1804
* 1805
* 1806
*   *

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Decades:|

* 1780s
* 1790s
* 1800s
* 1810s
* 1820s

See also:|

* Other events of 1803
*   * Timeline of Australian history

The following events happened in Australia in the year 1803.

## Incumbents

[edit]

* Monarch - George III

### Governors

[edit]

Governors of the Australian colonies:

* Governor of New South Wales – Captain Philip King

## Events

[edit]

* 14 January – Lieut-Col David Collins is commissioned in England to found a new settlement on Bass Strait, preferably at Port Phillip.
* 5 March – George Howe publishes the first issue of the weekly The Sydney Gazette and The New South Wales Advertiser, Australia's first newspaper.
* 19 April - Governor King proclaims toleration for Catholics and allows Fr James Dixon to say mass for Irish convicts.[1][2]
* 14 May - Illegal Masonic meeting held in Sydney and all participants arrested.[2]
* 25 November - William James Hobart Thorne is the first white child born in Victoria[3] when he is born at Port Phillip, in what was then part of New South Wales but later became Victoria.[4] He dies on 2 July 1872.
* 27 December – Convict William Buckley escapes from Sullivan Bay, Victoria. He lives with the Wautharong Aboriginal people for 32 years.
* 26 June – John Macarthur writes the Statement of Improvement and Progression of Fine Woolled Sheep in New South Wales.

## Exploration and settlement

[edit]

* January–February – Acting Lieutenant Charles Robbins and NSW Surveyor General Charles Grimes survey Port Phillip in HMS Cumberland
* 2 February – Charles Grimes discovered the Yarra River.
* 9 June – Investigator arrives in Port Jackson after circumnavigating Australia. On the voyage Matthew Flinders charted the coast and Robert Brown made an extensive collection of the flora of Australia.
* 11 September – John Bowen with a party of forty-eight found the first settlement in Van Diemen's Land near the Derwent River.
* 9 October – David Collins, on HMS Calcutta and Ocean, establishes the short-lived settlement at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip

## Births

[edit]

* 1 January – Daniel Egan, politician (died 1870)

## Deaths

[edit]

* 26 August – Joseph Luker, police officer (born c. 1765)
* 16 September – Nicholas Baudin, French explorer (born 1754)
* 17 November – William Balmain, First Fleet surgeon (born 1762)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Proclamation, Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 24 Apr 1803
2. ^ a b Franklin, James (2021). "Sydney 1803: When Catholics were tolerated and Freemasons banned" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 107 (2): 135–155. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
3. ^ "The Late Robert Thorne". The Mercury (Hobart). Vol. LIV, no. 6, 116. Tasmania, Australia. 27 September 1889. p. 2. Retrieved 2 November 2019 - via National Library of Australia.
4. ^ "Finding Settlements First Son". The Age. 16 November 2003. Retrieved 7 November 2019.

* 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
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* 1861
* 1862
* 1863
* 1864
* 1865
* 1866
* 1867
* 1868
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* 1870
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* 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
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* 1918
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* 1920
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* 2000

21st century|

* 2001
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* 2025

Timeline of Australian history

* v
* t
* e

1803 in Oceania

Sovereign states|

* Australia
* Federated States of Micronesia
* Fiji
* Indonesia
* Kiribati
* Marshall Islands
* Nauru
* New Zealand
* Palau
* Papua New Guinea
* Samoa
* Solomon Islands
* Timor-Leste
* Tonga
* Tuvalu
* Vanuatu

Associated states
of New Zealand|

* Cook Islands
* Niue

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