Governors

• Governor of New South Wales
  Governors of New South Wales
  The Governor of New South Wales is the state viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who is equally shared with 15 other sovereign nations in a form of personal union, as well as with the eleven other jurisdictions of Australia, and resides predominantly in her...
  
   – 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...
  
  
• Lieutenant-Governor of Southern Van Diemen's Land
  Governors of Tasmania
  The Governor of Tasmania is the representative in the Australian state of Tasmania of Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. The Governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as the Governor-General of Australia does at the national level.In accordance with the...
  
   – 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:...
  
  
• Lieutenant-Governor of Northern Van Diemen's Land
  Governors of Tasmania
  The Governor of Tasmania is the representative in the Australian state of Tasmania of Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. The Governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as the Governor-General of Australia does at the national level.In accordance with the...
  
   – William Paterson
  William Paterson (explorer)
  Colonel William Paterson, FRS was a Scottish soldier, explorer, Lieutenant governor and botanist best known for leading early settlement in Tasmania. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Paterson when citing a botanical name.-Early years:A native of Montrose, Scotland, Paterson was...
  
  

Events

• 4 March – The Castle Hill convict rebellion
  Castle Hill convict rebellion
  The Castle Hill Rebellion of 4 March 1804, also called the Second Battle of Vinegar Hill, was a large-scale rebellion by Irish convicts against British colonial authority in Australia...
  
  , also known as the Battle of Vinegar Hill, takes place: 200 convicts, mostly Irish, rebel. Fifty-one convicts are punished, and nine hanged.
• 3 May – An Aboriginal food hunting party is attacked by settlers and soldiers at Risdon Cove
  Risdon Cove
  Risdon Cove was the site of the first British settlement in Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, the smallest Australian state. Risdon Cove, which was named after William Bellamy Risdon, second officer of the ship Duke of Clarence. Risdon served under Lt...
  
  . Eyewitness estimates of the death toll from the massacre vary from three or four to fifty.
• 16 September – A government-owned brewery
  Brewery
  A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....
  
   is opened at Parramatta
  Parramatta, New South Wales
  Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Parramatta...
  
   as a means of controlling the consumption of spirits
  Distilled beverage
  A distilled beverage, liquor, or spirit is an alcoholic beverage containing ethanol that is produced by distilling ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit, or vegetables...
  
  .
• 4 November – In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks
  Joseph Banks
  Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
  
  , 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...
  
   recommends that the newly discovered country, New Holland
  New Holland (Australia)
  New Holland is a historic name for the island continent of Australia. The name was first applied to Australia in 1644 by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman as Nova Hollandia, naming it after the Dutch province of Holland, and remained in use for 180 years....
  
  , be renamed "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...
  
  " or "Terra Australis" (from the Latin "australis" meaning "of the south").

Exploration and settlement

• 15 February – Lieutenant-Governor 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:...
  
   lands at Risdon Cove
  Risdon Cove
  Risdon Cove was the site of the first British settlement in Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, the smallest Australian state. Risdon Cove, which was named after William Bellamy Risdon, second officer of the ship Duke of Clarence. Risdon served under Lt...
  
   in Van Diemen's Land
  Van Diemen's Land
  Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...
  
   (Tasmania
  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...
  
  ). Unhappy with the area as a site for a settlement, Collins sends his surveyor, George Prideaux Harris
  George Prideaux Robert Harris
  George Prideaux Robert Harris was a deputy surveyor and naturalist in Tasmania, Australia from 1803. He described many of the marsupials native to the Island, including the Tasmanian Devil and the Thylacine. He also described some plant species....
  
  , and harbour master William Collins in search of an alternative site. Harris and Collins recommend Sullivan's Cove.
• 24 March – The settlement at the Hunter River
  Hunter River
  The Hunter River is a major river in New South Wales, Australia. The Hunter River rises in the Liverpool Range and flows generally south and then east, reaching the Pacific Ocean at Newcastle, the second largest city in New South Wales and a major port....
  
  , also known as the Coal River, is officially named Newcastle
  Newcastle, New South Wales
  The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
  
  .
• 8 May – Lieutenant-Governor Collins establishes the settlement at Sullivan's Cove on the Derwent River
  Derwent River (Tasmania)
  The Derwent is a river in Tasmania, Australia. It was named after the River Derwent, Cumbria by British Commodore John Hayes who explored it in 1793. The name is Brythonic Celtic for "valley thick with oaks"....
  
  .
• 15 June – The name "Hobart Town
  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...
  
  ", after the Colonial Secretary Lord Hobart
  Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire
  Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire PC , styled Lord Hobart from 1793 to 1804, was a British Tory politician of the late 18th and early 19th century.-Background:...
  
  , is adopted as the name for the new colony at Sullivan's Cove.
• 5 November – Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson
  William Paterson (explorer)
  Colonel William Paterson, FRS was a Scottish soldier, explorer, Lieutenant governor and botanist best known for leading early settlement in Tasmania. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Paterson when citing a botanical name.-Early years:A native of Montrose, Scotland, Paterson was...
  
   arrives at Outer Cove
  George Town, Tasmania
  George Town is one of the larger towns in north-east Tasmania, on the eastern bank of the mouth of the Tamar River. At the 2006 census, George Town had a population of 4,266. It is the regional centre of the George Town Council Local Government Area....
  
  , leading the Buffalo, the Lady Nelson
  Lady Nelson
  The Royal Navy purchased Lady Nelson in 1799. She spent her career exploring the coast of Australia in the early years of the 19th century. She was the first known vessel to sail eastward through Bass Strait, the first to sail along the South coast of Victoria, as well as the first to enter Port...
  
  and two schooners, under instructions from London to form a settlement in the north of Van Diemen's Land.

Births

• 5 October – Robert Campbell
  Robert Campbell (Australian politician)
  Robert Campbell was an early opponent of penal transportation and an Australian politician, elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly....
  
  , politician (d. 1859)

Deaths

• 21 March – James Bloodsworth
  James Bloodsworth
  James Bloodsworth was a convict sentenced for the theft of one game cock and two hens at Esher, Surrey. James was a master bricklayer and builder responsible for the construction of most of the colony's buildings between 1788 and 1800...
  
   (b. 1759), convict and bricklayer
• 27 December – George Barrington
  George Barrington
  George Barrington , an Irish-born pickpocket, popular London socialite, Australian pioneer , and author. His escapades, arrests, and trials, were widely chronicled in the London press of his day...
  
  (b. 1755), convict and police officer