1804 in Australia
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{{Use Australian English|date=January 2012}}
{{Year in Australia|1804}}
The following lists events that happened during 1804 in Australia.
Incumbents
- Monarch - George III
= Governors=
Events
- 4 March – The Castle Hill convict rebellion, also known as the Battle of Vinegar Hill, takes place: 200 convicts, mostly Irish, rebel. Fifty-one convicts are punished, and nine hanged.Whitaker, Anne-Maree: [http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/castle_hill_convict_rebellion_1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion 1804], Dictionary of Sydney.
- 3 May – An Aboriginal food hunting party is attacked by settlers and soldiers at Risdon Cove. Eyewitness estimates of the death toll from the massacre vary from three or four to fifty.Darby, Andrew: [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/03/1083436539543.html Debate exposes 200-year-old massacre], The Age, 4 May 2004.
- 16 September – A government-owned brewery is opened at Parramatta as a means of controlling the consumption of spirits.[http://www.australianbeers.com/history/history3.htm Late in the eighteenth century], Australian Beers.
- 4 November – In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, Matthew Flinders recommends that the newly discovered country, New Holland, be renamed "Australia" or "Terra Australis" (from the Latin "australis" meaning "of the south").[http://www.nla.gov.au/worldtreasures/html/theme-exploration-5-flinders.html Flinders' letter to Sir Joseph Banks 1804], National Library of Australia, 4 November 1804.
Exploration and settlement
- 15 February – Lieutenant-Governor David Collins lands at Risdon Cove in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Unhappy with the area as a site for a settlement, Collins sends his surveyor, George Prideaux Harris, and harbour master William Collins in search of an alternative site. Harris and Collins recommend Sullivan's Cove.Newman, Terry: [http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/php/Bowen.htm Bowen Refuses to Bow Out] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110305175222/http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/php/Bowen.htm |date=5 March 2011 }}, Parliamentary History Project (Parliament of Tasmania), December 2003.
- 24 March – The settlement at the Hunter River, also known as the Coal River, is officially named Newcastle.[http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/archives/coalriver/pdf/1804sept24.pdf Settlement at Coal Harbour and Hunter’s River to be named Newcastle], Limits of Settlement and Governorship, &c., University of Newcastle, 24 September 1804.
- 8 May – Lieutenant-Governor Collins establishes the settlement at Sullivan's Cove on the Derwent River.[http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/0D3893BEE905CA98CA256C3200241894?opendocument 1803–1850s, British outpost], Tasmanian Year Book 2005, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 21 November 2006.
- 15 June – The name "Hobart Town", after the Colonial Secretary Lord Hobart, is adopted as the name for the new colony at Sullivan's Cove.
- 5 November – Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson arrives at Outer Cove, leading the Buffalo, the Lady Nelson and two schooners, under instructions from London to form a settlement in the north of Van Diemen's Land.
Births
- 5 October – Robert Campbell, politician (died 1859)
Deaths
- 21 March – James Bloodsworth (born 1759), convict and bricklayer
- 27 December – George Barrington (born 1755), convict and police officer
References
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{{Years in Australia}}
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