1855 in Australia
The following lists events that happened during 1855 in Australia.
Incumbents
Governors
Governors of the Australian colonies:- Governor of New South Wales – Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
- Governor of South Australia – Sir Richard MacDonnell
- Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land – Henry Young
- Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria – Sir Charles Hotham
- Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – Captain Charles Fitzgerald, then Sir Arthur Kennedy.
Events
- 5 January – The War of Southern Queensland ends with the hanging of Dundalli.
- 12 June – the Victorian parliament passed the Chinese Restriction Act in an effort to restrict Chinese immigration. These restrictions, including a £10 poll tax on Chinese and a limit to Chinese passengers per tonnage of shipping.
- 8 September – Queen Victoria signs an Order in Council to change the name of Van Diemen's Land to Tasmania.
- 26 September – Sydney to Parramatta railway opened
Births
- 30 January – George Edwards, New South Wales politician
- 16 February – Henry Saunders, Western Australian politician
- 28 May – Sir William Portus Cullen, New South Wales politician and 7th Chief Justice of New South Wales
- 18 June – George Lewis Becke, trader and writer
- 6 August – Sir Isaac Isaacs, 9th Governor-General of Australia and 3rd Chief Justice of Australia
- 13 August – William Astley, short story writer
- 25 August – Paddy Glynn, South Australian politician
- 28 October – Francis James Gillen, anthropologist and ethnologist
- 22 November – Pharez Phillips, Victorian politician
Deaths
- 5 January – Dundalli, Aboriginal lawman, murderer and resistance fighter
- 23 January – John Burdett Wittenoom, clergyman
- 19 March – Thomas Bock, artist
- 3 April – John Bateman, merchant and whaler
- 31 December – Sir Charles Hotham, 1st Governor of Victoria