1874 in Australia

Incumbents

Governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead
• Governor of Queensland – George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby
• Governor of South Australia – Sir Anthony Musgrave
• Governor of Tasmania – Charles Du Cane
• Governor of Victoria – Sir George Bowen
• Governor of Western Australia - The Hon. Sir Frederick Weld GCMG.

Premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – Sir Henry Parkes
• Premier of Queensland – Arthur Hunter Palmer until 7 January, then Arthur Macalister
• Premier of South Australia – John Hart until 10 November, then Arthur Blyth
• Premier of Tasmania – Alfred Kennerley
• Premier of Victoria – Charles Gavan Duffy until 31 July, then George Kerferd

Events

• 8 January – Arthur Macalister becomes Premier of Queensland for the third time.
• 10 March – Ernest Giles is the first European to explore and later names the Petermann Ranges.
• 1 April – John Forrest leads an expedition from Geraldton, Western Australia across the Gibson Desert to the Peake telegraph station in South Australia.
• 15 June – Brisbane's first Victoria Bridge opens; it is lost in the 1893 Brisbane flood.
• 31 July – George Kerferd becomes Premier of Victoria.
• 28 September – Victorian Humane Society established; it later becomes the Royal Humane Society of Australasia.
• 6 November – University of Adelaide established by act of the South Australian Parliament; it opened in 1876.

Arts and literature

• Marcus Clarke's For the Term of his Natural Life is published in book form

Sport

• Southern Rugby Union is established; renamed New South Wales Rugby Union in 1892
• Haricot wins the Melbourne Cup

Births

• 2 March – Gregan McMahon, actor and theatre director
• 3 March – Ada Crossley, singer
• 23 September – Ethel Ambrose, medical missionary
• 17 October – Sir Lionel Lindsay, painter

Deaths

• 1 February - Alexander Harris, soldier, teacher and author
• 6 April - Michael Fenton, first Speaker of the Tasmanian House of Assembly
• 17 May - Sir Roger Therry, jurist date unknown
• * Robert Menli Lyon, Aboriginal advocate