1850 in Australia
The following lists events that happened during 1850 in Australia.
Incumbents
Governors
Governors of the Australian colonies:- Governor of New South Wales – Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
- Governor of South Australia – Sir Henry Fox Young
- Governor of Tasmania – Sir William Denison
- Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – Captain Charles Fitzgerald.
Events
- 26 January – The Irish Exile, a weekly newspaper, starts publishing in Hobart by Patrick O'Donoghue: aimed mainly at fellow Irish prisoners and deportees.
- 5 August – Port Phillip established as a separate colony from New South Wales.
- 1 June – First convicts arrive in Western Australia, ticket-of-leave transportation suspended in New South Wales.
- 1 October – University of Sydney is founded as Australia's first university.
- Undated – The Port Phillip District Wars end
- Undated – Between 15-20 Indigenous Australians are killed in East Gippsland as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.
- Undated – 16 Indigenous Australians are poisoned to death in Murrindal as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.
- Between 15-20 Indigenous Australians are killed in Brodribb River as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.
Science and technology
Births
- 7 January
- * Joseph James Fletcher, biologist
- * Robert Richardson, journalist, poet and writer
- 29 January – Lawrence Hargrave, engineer, explorer, and inventor
- 1 February – Sir Matthew Davis, Victorian politician
- 13 February – Michael Kelly, 4th Archbishop of Sydney
- 17 February – Alf Morgans, 4th Premier of Western Australia
- 23 February – Octavius Beale, piano manufacturer and philanthropist
- 25 April – William Knox, Victorian politician and businessman
- 26 April – James Drake, Queensland politician
- 12 May – Sir Frederick Holder, 19th Premier of South Australia
- 23 August – Sir John Cockburn, 18th Premier of South Australia
- 7 September – James Stewart, Queensland politician
- 22 October – Charles Kingston, 20th Premier of South Australia
- 23 November – Henry Lowther Clarke, 1st Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne
- 3 December – Sir Richard Butler, 23rd Premier of South Australia
- 21 December – Sir William McMillan, New South Wales politician and businessman
- Unknown – Christie Palmerston, explorer and prospector
- Unknown – Mei Quong Tart, merchant
Deaths
- 22 January – William Westall, landscape artist
- 3 February – Samuel Stocks, jun., businessman in South Australia
- 9 February – Elizabeth Macarthur, pastoralist and merchant
- 16 June – William Lawson, New South Wales politician and explorer
- 3 September – Ikey Solomon, convict
- Unknown, possibly April – Yuranigh, guide and stockman