# 1848 in Australia

"none" is preferred when the title alone is adequate; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
The following lists events that happened during 1848 in Australia.

## Incumbents

* Monarch - Victoria

### Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:
* Governor of New South Wales – Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
* Governor of South Australia – Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Holt Robe (to 2 August) then Sir Henry Fox Young
* Governor of Tasmania – Sir William Denison
* Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Irwin (acting), then Captain Charles Fitzgerald.

## Events

* Letters patent of Queen Victoria declaring Melbourne a city are read on the steps of St Peters, Eastern Hill church.
* 13 February – The first non-British ship carrying immigrants to arrive in Victoria was from Germany; the Goddefroy. Many of those on board were political refugees and known as Forty-Eighters.
* 3 April – Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt was last seen on the Darling Downs. On that date he wrote a letter from MacPherson's Station, Cogoon. Leichhardt had set off for Swan River.
* 11 March – The Savings Bank of South Australia opens with a single employee, trading from a room provided rent-free.
* 29 August – The Cape Otway lighthouse in Victoria is lit for the first time.
* September – Between 9 and 11 Indigenous Australians are killed in the Avenue Range Station massacre.

## Births

* 4 February – Sir John Winthrop Hackett, Western Australian politician and newspaper proprietor (born in Ireland) (d. 1916)
* 17 February – Louisa Lawson, writer, poet and feminist (d. 1920)
* 24 February – Andrew Inglis Clark, Tasmanian politician and judge (d. 1907)
* 18 May – Sir John Henniker Heaton, postal reformer, journalist, and politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1914)
* 27 May – David Charleston, South Australian politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1934)
* 3 June – Alexander Leeper, educationist (born in Ireland) (d. 1934)
* 8 September – Sir Edward Charles Stirling, South Australian politician and anthropologist (d. 1919)
* 15 October – Sir Langdon Bonython, South Australian politician and journalist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1939)
* 18 October – Gregor McGregor, South Australian politician and trade union leader (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1914)
* 3 December – William Shiels, 16th Premier of Victoria (born in Ireland) (d. 1904)
* 6 December – Sir Edward Hutton, 1st General Officer Commanding Australian Military Forces (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1923)
* 10 December – Frederick William Piesse, Tasmanian politician (d. 1902)
* 16 December – Walter Madden, Victorian politician (born in Ireland) (d. 1925)
* Unknown – John Mather, artist (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1916)

## Deaths

* 2 May – Frederick Garling, attorney and solicitor (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1775)
* 25 May – Sir Maurice Charles O'Connell, New South Wales politician and military commander (born in Ireland) (b. 1768)
* 4 June – William Sorell, 3rd Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land (born in the West Indies and died in the United Kingdom) (b. 1775)
* 18 July – Alexander Macleay, New South Wales politician and entomologist (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1767)
* 12 November – John Cadman, convict and publican (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1758)