Leaders

• Governor of New South Wales - John Hunter
  John Hunter (New South Wales)
  Vice-Admiral John Hunter, RN was a British naval officer, explorer, naturalist and colonial administrator who succeeded Arthur Phillip as the second governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1795 to 1800.-Overview:...
  
  
• Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island
  Administrative heads of Norfolk Island
  The Administrator of Norfolk Island acts as a representative both of the Crown and of the Australian Federal Government, as well as carrying out other duties according to the Norfolk Island Act 1979....
  
   - Philip Gidley King
  Philip Gidley King
  Captain Philip Gidley King RN was a British naval officer and colonial administrator. He is best known as the official founder of the first European settlement on Norfolk Island and as the third Governor of New South Wales.-Early years and establishment of Norfolk Island settlement:King was born...
  
  
• Inspector of Public Works - John Macarthur
  John Macarthur (wool pioneer)
  John Macarthur was a British army officer, entrepreneur, politician, architect and pioneer of settlement in Australia. Macarthur is recognised as the pioneer of the wool industry that was to boom in Australia in the early 19th century and become a trademark of the nation...
  
  /Richard Atkins

Events

• 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.
• 4 February - Soldiers from the New South Wales Corps
  New South Wales Corps
  The New South Wales Corps was formed in England in 1789 as a permanent regiment to relieve the marines who had accompanied the First Fleet to Australia. The regiment, led by Major Francis Grose, consisted of three companies...
  
   wreck a house belonging to 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
  George Bass
  George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.-Early years:He was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George Bass, and a local beauty named Sarah Nee Newman. His father died in 1777 when Bass was 6...
  
   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.
• First beer brewed in Australia by John Boston.