1885 in Australia

Incumbents

Governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Lord Augustus Loftus, then Lord Carrington
• Governor of Queensland – Sir Anthony Musgrave
• Governor of South Australia – Sir William Cleaver Francis Robinson, GCMG
• Governor of Tasmania – Major Sir George Strahan
• Governor of Victoria – Sir Henry Loch

Premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – Alexander Stuart, then George Dibbs, then John Robertson
• Premier of Queensland – Samuel Griffith
• Premier of South Australia – John Colton, then John Downer
• Premier of Tasmania – Adye Douglas
• Premier of Victoria – James Service

Events

• 3 March – The New South Wales Contingent, consisting of an infantry battalion and an artillery battalion, leaves Sydney to fight in the Sudan Campaign.
• 28 March – HMQS Gayundah arrives in Brisbane.
• 1 April – The Cabinet of South Australia meets to discuss the "Russian scare"—the fear that South Australia would come under attack from Russian warships should hostilities between Russia and Britain over Afghanistan result in war.
• 10 August – BHP, later to become the world's largest mining company, is registered as a company in Victoria.
• 4–7 October – Third Intercolonial Trades Union Congress held in Sydney.
• The Geographical Society of Australasia sent an expedition to the Fly River region of Papua New Guinea, naming and exploring the Strickland River.

Science and technology

• 24 March – Hugh Victor McKay patents stripper-harvester.

Arts and literature

• Tom Roberts paintings:
• *Winter morning after rain, Gardiner's Creek
• *''The Artists Camp''

Sport

• 20 February – The Richmond Football Club is formed.
• 3 November – Sheet Anchor wins the Melbourne Cup.
• 17 October – Caulfield Cup when 16 of the 44 horses competing fell, resulting in the death of 25-year-old jockey Donald Nicolson.

Births

• 8 January – John Curtin, Australian Prime Minister
• 26 January – Michael Considine, Australian politician
• 29 January – Arthur Halloway, rugby league footballer and coach
• 20 March – Vernon Ransford, cricketer
• 1 July – Dorothea Mackellar, poet
• 12 August – Keith Murdoch, journalist and newspaper publisher
• 15 August – Beaumont Smith, film director and producer
• 18 August
• * Bede Fanning, public servant
• * Nettie Palmer, poet and literary critic
• 28 August – Vance Palmer, novelist, essayist and critic
• 22 September – Ben Chifley, Australian Prime Minister
• 8 October - Oliver Woodward, metallurgist, mine manager and soldier
• 10 October - William John Yuill, agricultural writer, dairy industry leader and public servant
• 15 October – Frank Hurley, photographer and adventurer
• 7 November – Frank Cheadle, rugby league footballer and World War I soldier.

Deaths

• 28 January – Edward Davy, scientist