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LONDON: PRINTED BY PETTER, DUFF, AND CO.,

PLAYHOUSE YARD, BLACKFRIARS.

CHRONOLOGY OF REMARKABLE EVENTS

IN

THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA.

1770.-Captain Cook lands at Botany Bay: he afterwards explored the coast as far as Cape York, and took possession, under the name of New South Wales.

1788.-January 20th. Captain Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, anchored in Botany Bay with the first fleet of convicts. On the 26th of the same month removed to Port Jackson, and founded the future city of Sydney.

July. First brick store finished.

1793. Temporary church built.

1795.—September. Governor Hunter arrives. Origin of pastoral Australia. Cow pastures, with herd of sixty cattle, from three lost in 1788, discovered.

November. Government orders first printed by a lately-arrived prisoner.

1798.-Surgeon George Bass discovers Bass's Straits, and proves that Van Diemen's Land is an island.

1800.-Governor King supersedes Governor Hunter.

1802.-Foundation of first brick church. Flinders surveys South Australia, Port Lincoln, and Kangaroo Island.

1803.-The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (the first newspaper) published by authority. A colony planted in Van Diemen's Land.

1805.-First colonial ship built.

1806.-First great flood of the River Hawkesbury brings on a famine: 2lb. loaf sold for 5s. Governor Bligh arrived.

1808.-Governor Bligh deposed by an insurrection of the military and colonists.

1809.-Governor Macquarie arrived with the 73rd regiment.

1810.-A free school, a public market, and Sydney races established. St.

Phillip's (the first permanent church) consecrated. A road cut through the bush from the market at the end of George-street to the market wharf, where the boats from the Hawkesbury lay with provisions. Governor sets out on a tour.

1813. Messrs. Wentworth, Lawson, and Bloxland, on an exploring expedition, penetrated across the Blue Mountains, and discover the Bathurst district, the River Macquarie, &c., now a great gold district.

1817-January. Mr. Oxley, the surveyor-general, explores from Bathurst along the River Lachlan up to 34° S.

February. Mr. Barron Field, the first judge, arrived.

March. The Auxiliary Bible Society established. Mr. Oxley travels from the marshes of the Macquarie overland to Port Macquarie. 1818.-Foundation-stone of St. James's, the second church, laid. 1821.-Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane arrives.

1823.-Maneroo Plains, or Brisbane Downs, explored by Captain Currie. Moreton Bay and the River Brisbane explored by Mr. Oxley.

1824. The first chief justice arrives, first attorney-general, with the new charter of justice superseding courts martial. Penal settlement founded at Moreton Bay. Liberty of the press acknowledged, and first independent "Australian" newspaper established by W. C. Wentworth and Dr. Wardell. Messrs. Hovell and Hume explore overland to Port Phillip.

1825.-Cunningham discovers Pandora's Pass, allowing access to Liverpool Plains from the Hunter River district. First archdeacon arrives. First constitutional public meeting, with the sheriff in the chair, for the purpose of voting an address to retiring Governor Brisbane. Governor Darling arrives.

1826.-First thoroughbred foal property of Thomas Icely, Esq. In 1849 gold was found on Mr. Icely's estate at Coombing, forty miles from Bathurst. Sudds and Thompson tried.

1827.-Public meeting to petition the King and Houses of Parliament for trial

by jury in civil cases, and a house of assembly. Darling Downs discovered by Cunningham.

1828.-Mr. Justice Dowling arrives, who afterwards died in the discharge of his duty from overwork and want of rest.

1829.-Legislative Council established in accordance with charter granted in 1829. Their first act to establish trial by jury in civil cases. Swan River founded. Captain Sturt travels from Yass along the Murrumbidgee to the Murray, takes boat, and discovers South Australia and Lake Alexandrina.

1831.-First steam-boat launched. Sir Richard Bourke succeeds Governor Darling. The Australian College instituted. Sale at 5s. an acre by auction substituted for grant of land.

1832.-A savings bank established. First free emigrants imported at cost of land fund.

1833.-Public meeting to petition for a representative assembly. Foundation of Scots' church laid.

1834.-First regatta in Port Jackson, March 30th. John M'Arthur, the founder of the exports of Australia in merino wool, died at his seat at

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Camden. Great public meeting to petition against the appropriation of the land revenue.

1835.-March. Mr. Cunningham, colonial botanist, lost on an exploring expedition with Major (now Sir Thomas) Mitchell.

May. Political association formed, with instruction to correspond with
Henry Bulwer, M.P., since Sir Henry Bulwer, K.C.B.

September. First Roman Catholic bishop, Polding, arrives from
Liverpool.

November. A Baptist chapel founded by the Rev. John Saunders.
Port Phillip colonized from Van Diemen's Land.

1836.-June 2nd. The Right Rev. W. G. Broughton, Lord Bishop of Australia, the first Australian bishop, arrives from England, and is installed. The church act establishing the principle of state assistance to all forms of the Christian religion passed. The Irish system of national education proposed by the governor, but withdrawn. South Australian colony founded.

1837.-November. Sir Richard Bourke bestows the name of Melbourne on the town laid out on the River Yarra Yarra. Governor Bourke returns to England.

1838.-February. Sir George Gipps arrives. Samuel Terry, who arrived in the colony as a prisoner, dies worth half a million sterling.

June 6th. The sittings of the Legislative Council first open to the
public.

1839.-Price of land raised from 5s, to 12s. an acre.
1840.-The Hunter River Steam Navigation Company established.

October. Governor Gipps announces that transportation had ceased since August, 1839. Same month last convict-ship, the Eden, arrived. Price of land raised to a minimum of £1 an acre and up to £100. 1841.-Census taken in May: males 87,200; females 43,500. Gas first used to light Sydney. Insolvency universal. Sheriff shoots himself. Registrar of Supreme Court discovered to have embezzled the funds of intestates to a large amount.

1842.-July 16th. A stormy public meeting to petition for legislation by representation.

August 1st. The Sydney Morning Herald established on The Sydney
Herald enlarged. Bill for incorporating the city of Sydney passed,
In this year six hundred persons took the benefit of an insolvent act
passed in February.

1843.-January 1st. Despatches arrive containing the act passed by the British

Parliament establishing representative institutions in New South Wales. June 13th. W. C. Wentworth, Esq., and Dr. Bland returned at the head of the poll for Sydney.

August 1st. First meeting of the partly-elected Legislative Council. Sheep and cattle first boiled down for tallow in this year. 1844.-First peal of bells rung in St. Mary's Cathedral. Centenary Wesleyan Chapel opened. Governor Gipps's squatting regulations cause agitation for fixity of tenure. First exportation of horses to India.

Sir Thomas Mitchell, surveyor-general, elected representative for Port Phillip. Resigns his seat, on finding that the governor requires unqualified support. Robert Lowe, crown nominee, resigns for the

same reason.

1845.-Public meeting to petition the British Parliament for leave to import Australian grain into England on the same terms as Canadian: Petition refused.

1816. Census taken: males 114,700; females 74,800; including Port Phillip. Mrs. Chisholm leaves the colony is presented with a testimonial raised by subscription, as an expression of thanks for her active and zealous exertions on behalf of the emigrant population during the last seven years. Dr. Nicholson (now Sir Charles Nicholson) succeeds A. M'Clean, Esq., as speaker of the Legislative Council.

June 4th. Governor's Border Police Act rejected. Vote of censure on crown land question by a large majority of the Legislative Council. Governor Sir Charles Fitzroy succeeds Sir George Gipps.

October 22nd. At a public meeting to petition against transportation, seven thousand signatures were obtained in Sydney, and one thousand in Maitland, in a few hours.

1847.-Report of select committee, being the fifth, against the minimum price of land-against the coal monopoly of the Australian Agricultural Company.

1848.-Select committee on railway communication with the interior of New South Wales-on steam communication with England. Compromise concluded which gave fixity of tenure to squatters.

1819.-Agitation against transportation, renewed by Earl Grey, and for further representative institutions.

1850.-Earl Grey's proposed constitution rejected. Port Phillip erected into

a separate province as Victoria, representative institutions granted to the two other colonies by 13 and 14 Victoria, cap. 59—those of New South Wales enlarged.

1851.-Gold discovered. A select committee issue a remonstrance against the act of Parliament-declaration of rights.

1852.-Steam communication established. Exports exceed five millions sterling. Census gives 106,000 males; 81,000 females; without Port Phillip, which has a population of 80,000.

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