1875 in Australia

Template:Year in region The following lists events that happened during 1875 in Australia.

Incumbents

• Monarch - Victoria

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales – Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead
• Governor of Queensland – Sir William Cairns
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Anthony Musgrave
• Governor of Tasmania – Frederick Weld
• Governor of Victoria – Sir George Bowen
• Governor of Western Australia – The Hon. Sir Frederick Weld GCMG, then Sir William Robinson GCMG.

Premiers

Premiers of the Australian colonies:

• Premier of New South Wales – Henry Parkes until 8 February, then John Robertson
• Premier of Queensland – Arthur Macalister
• Premier of South Australia – Arthur Blyth until 8 June, then James Boucaut
• Premier of Tasmania – Alfred Kennerley
• Premier of Victoria –
  • until 7 August – George Kerferd
  • 7 August - 20 October – Graham Berry
  • starting 20 October – James McCulloch

Events

• 11 January – William Robinson arrives in Western Australia to become Governor of the colony.
• 13 January – Frederick Weld becomes Governor of Tasmania.
• 23 January – William Cairns becomes Governor of Queensland.
• 9 February – John Robertson becomes Premier of New South Wales, replacing Henry Parkes.
• 24 February – The SS Gothenburg strikes Old Reef off Ayr, Queensland and sinks with the loss of 102 lives.
• 24 May – J. V. Mulligan and party discover the Barron River in Queensland, they left Cooktown on 17 April
• 6 May – Ernest Giles and party leave South Australia for an overland expedition to Perth, they arrive on 10 November.
• 3 June – Premier of South Australia Arthur Blyth resigns and is replaced by James Boucaut.
• 7 August – Graham Berry becomes Premier of Victoria.
• 20 October – James McCulloch becomes Premier of Victoria for the fourth time.
• 24 December – 59 die when a cyclone destroys the pearling fleet in the Exmouth Gulf of Western Australia.
• Undated -
  • Between 80 and 100 Arrernte (formerly known as Aranda) men, women and children are killed by a raiding party of 50 to 60 Matuntara warriors in the massacre of Running Waters.
  • The 1875–1876 Australia scarlet fever epidemic begins in Victoria.

Arts and literature

• New South Government establishes an art gallery in Sydney; it later becomes the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Sport

• Polo played for the first time in Australia at Albert Park in Victoria
• Soccer played for the first time in Australia at Goodna in New South Wales.
• Wollomai wins the Melbourne Cup; the cup was held on the first Tuesday in November for this first time this year

Births

• 20 March – Benjamin Fuller, theatrical entrepreneur (died 1952)
• 29 April – Margaret Preston, painter and printmaker (died 1963)
• 22 July – Leslie James Wrigley, academic, school inspector, principal, and teacher (died 1933)
• 3 December – Max Meldrum, painter (died 1955)

Deaths

• 28 January – James Hurtle Fisher, South Australian pioneer (born 1790)
• 25 February – Thomas Reynolds, premier of South Australia (born 1818)
• 25 February – James Stokes Millner, medical practitioner (born 1830)
• 10 September – Silas Gill, Methodist preacher
• 20 October – Charles Cowper, premier of New South Wales (born 1807)
• 9 November – William Hovell, explorer (born 1786)
• 2 December – Charles La Trobe, lieutenant-governor of Victoria (born 1801)

Unknown date

• Henry Willey Reveley, Swan River Colony civil engineer (born 1788)