1788 in Australia

Leaders

• Monarch – George III
• Governor of New South Wales – Captain Arthur Phillip
• Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island – Philip Gidley King
• Commanding officer of the colony's marine presence – Major Robert Ross

Events

• 18 January – Captain Arthur Phillip arrives in Botany Bay with the lead ship of the First Fleet,.
• 19 January – Alexander, Friendship and Scarborough, convict transports of First Fleet arrive Botany Bay.
• 20 January – Final ships of First Fleet, the convict transports Charlotte, Lady Penrhyn and Prince of Wales with the supply transports Borrowdale, and escorted by arrive in Botany Bay.
• 24 January – The La Perouse expedition in the Astrolabe and Boussole arrive at Botany Bay.
• 26 January – After Botany Bay was decided unsuitable for settlement, the First Fleet sails to Port Jackson and lands at Sydney Cove to establish a settlement.
• 6 February – The first female convicts disembark at Port Jackson.
• 9 February – The Colony of New South Wales is formally proclaimed, with Phillip sworn in as Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief.
• 14 February – HMS Supply leaves Sydney Cove to establish a settlement on Norfolk Island.
• 18 February – Lord Howe Island is discovered by Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball on.
• 27 February – A convict, Thomas Barrett, receives the first death sentence in the colony.
• 6 March – Lieutenant Philip Gidley King establishes a settlement on Norfolk Island with a party of fifteen convicts and seven men.
• 10 March – The La Perouse expedition leaves Botany Bay for New Caledonia, disappeared at sea.
• 15 April – Phillip explores northwards to Manly, and sights the Blue Mountains.
• 23 April – Governor Phillip explores the area now known as Parramatta, west of Sydney.
• 5 May – Charlotte, Lady Penrhyn and Scarborough set sail for China.
• 29 May – Two convicts are killed by Aboriginals at Rushcutters Bay; Phillip leads a punitive attack on the Aborigines on 31 May.
• 5 June – All the settlement's cattle brought from Cape Town escape; they are not recaptured until November 1795.
• 14 July – Borrowdale, Alexander, Friendship and Prince of Wales set sail to return to England.
• 21 July – First sitting of the Court of Civil Jurisdiction.
• September – Sydney's first road, from the Governor's House to Dawes Point, is completed.
• 2 October – Captain John Hunter takes to the Cape of Good Hope to pick up supplies.
• 2 November – A second settlement is established at Rose Hill, which will later become Parramatta.
• 19 November – Fishburn and Golden Grove set sail for England.

Births

• 4 January – Johann Menge, South Australian explorer and geologist
• 16 January – Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur, New South Wales politician and businessman
• 17 April – Charles Hervey Bagot, South Australian pastoralist, mine owner and parliamentarian
• 22 May – William Broughton, bishop
• 2 August – Charles Hardwicke, Tasmanian explorer
• 24 August – Osmond Gilles, South Australian colonial treasurer
• 24 October – John Burdett Wittenoom, Swan River Colony clergyman date unknown
• * Charles Fraser, botanist
• * Frederick Goulburn, first Colonial Secretary of New South Wales
• * John Ovens, explorer
• * Thomas Pamphlett, convict and castaway
• * Henry Willey Reveley, Swan River Colony civil engineer
• * Edward Buckley Wynyard, New South Wales politician

Deaths

• 17 February – Louis Receveur, astronomer-priest, member of the French La Perouse expedition
• 27 February – Thomas Barrett, convict and the first person executed under British law in Australia
• 5 June – Ruth Bowyer, convict