Governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Captain Philip 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...
  
  

Events

• 14 January – Lieut-Col David Collins
  David Collins (governor)
  Colonel David Collins was the first Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Van Diemens Land, founded in 1804, which in 1901 became the state of Tasmania in the Commonwealth of Australia.-Early life and military career:...
  
   commissioned in England to found a new settlement on Bass Strait
  Bass Strait
  Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland, specifically the state of Victoria.-Extent:The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bass Strait as follows:...
  
  , preferably at Port Phillip
  Port Phillip
  Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...
  
  .
• 5 March – George Howe
  George Howe
  George Howe was the first Australian editor, poet and early printer.Howe was the son of Thomas Howe, a government printer on Basseterre, Saint Christopher Island in the West Indies. When about 21 he went to London and worked as a printer in The Times office...
  
   publishes the first issue of the weekly Sydney Gazette and the New South Wales Advertiser, Australia
  Australia
  Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
  
  's first newspaper.
• 27 December – Convict William Buckley
  William Buckley (convict)
  William Buckley was an English convict who was transported to Australia, escaped, was given up for dead and lived in an Aboriginal community for many years....
  
   escapes from Sullivan Bay, Victoria
  Sullivan Bay, Victoria
  Sullivan Bay lies 60 km due south of Melbourne on Port Phillip, one kilometre east of Sorrento, Victoria. It was established as a short-lived convict settlement in 1803 by Lieutenant Colonel David Collins. The site was chosen because of its strategic location near the entrance of the Bay...
  
  . He lives with the Wautharong
  Wautharong
  Wathaurong, also called the Wada wurrung, are an Indigenous Australian tribe living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula. They are part of the Kulin alliance. The Wathaurong language was spoken by 25 clans south of the Werribee River and the Bellarine Peninsula to Streatham...
  
   Aboriginal people for 32 years.

Exploration and settlement

• 2 February – Surveyor general, Charles Grimes
  Charles Grimes
  Charles Grimes was an English-born surveyor who did some valuable work in colonial Australia. He served as surveyor-general of New South Wales and discovered the Yarra River in what is now the state of Victoria. He is perhaps best known for being the surveyor who mapped the route of the Hobart...
  
  , discovered the Yarra River
  Yarra River
  The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
  
  .
• 9 June – HMS Investigator arrives in Port Jackson after circumnavigating Australia. On the voyage Matthew Flinders
  Matthew Flinders
  Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
  
   charted the coast and Robert Brown
  Robert Brown (botanist)
  Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...
  
   made an extensive collection of the flora of Australia
  Flora of Australia
  The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 20,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens...
  
  .
• 11 September – John Bowen
  John Bowen (colonist)
  John Bowen was a naval officer and colonial administrator. Led the first settlement of Tasmania at Risdon Cove. He was the son of James Bowen, and was born at Ilfracombe, Devon, England.-Early career:...
  
   with a party of forty-eight found the first settlement
  Hobart
  Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
  
   in Van Diemen's Land
  Tasmania
  Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
  
   near the Derwent River.