page_title: Timeline of Melbourne history
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of Melbourne history / 19th century
context_page_description: This is a timeline of major events in the history of the city of Melbourne, Australia.
context_section_description: 1800 – James Grant explores the south-east of Australia
  1801 – John Murray sails into Port Phillip in the Lady Nelson
  1803 – Charles Robbins and Charles Grimes explore the entirety of Port Phillip and discover the Yarra River in the Cumberland
  1803 – David Collins sent from Sydney to establish a settlement for the British Government. Unaware of previous discoveries, Collins settles near present-day Sullivan Bay on the Mornington Peninsula. This settlement is abandoned five months later.
  1834 – Henty family establish first long-term European settlement in Victoria at Portland
  1835 – John Batman 'buys' the 2,430 km² that Melbourne would be founded on from the local Aboriginal nation, the Wurundjeri. The Batman Deed is now widely recognised to be more of a treaty than a sale.
  1835 – Melbourne is founded by John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner
  1836 – William Lonsdale built the first government block, declaring Melbourne the capital of the Port Phillip district
  1837 – 28 March – Hoddle Grid of streets for the central business district is surveyed by Robert Hoddle
  1837 – 10 April - Melbourne named by Governor General Richard Bourke
  1837 – 1 June – First inner-city land sale
  1838 – Melbourne is declared a legal port and administrative centre, opening the way for vastly increased immigration
  1838 – Melbourne Cricket Club is founded
  1838 – Second inner-city land sale
  1839 – Third inner-city land sale.  Quarrying of bluestone began out of the Melbourne Corporation Quarry at Clifton Hill.
  1840 – First petition for the separation of Port Phillip District from New South Wales drafted by Henry Fyshe Gisborne and presented to Governor George Gipps.
  1841 – First seaport and market are opened
  1842 – Melbourne Municipal Corporation Act was passed in Sydney.  Melbourne City Council is formed.
  1845 – First Princes Bridge constructed connecting both sides of the Yarra
  1846 – The Melbourne Botanic Gardens is founded
  1847 – Melbourne declared a city by Queen Victoria on 25 June.
  1847 – Melbourne Building Act was passed in 1847 based on Sydney act of 1833.
  1848 – Melbourne Hospital founded (from 1935 the hospital is called The Royal Melbourne Hospital)
  1851 – Beginning of the Victorian gold rush with discovery of gold at Buninyong
  1851 – Victoria becomes a colony, separate from New South Wales
  1851 – First state Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe inaugurated
  1852 – City's first gas works is opened
  1853 – The University of Melbourne is founded
  1854 – The Melbourne Terminus (first Flinders Street station building) is completed
  1854 – First steam railway journey in Australia from Melbourne Terminus (on the current site of Flinders Street station) to Sandridge (later Port Melbourne)
  1854 – Melbourne Exhibition held in conjunction with Exposition Universelle (1855)
  1854 – The State Library of Victoria is founded
  1854 – First telegraph service, to Williamstown
  1854 – The first Town Hall is completed
  1855 – First state Governor Sir Charles Hotham inaugurated
  1855 – The Melbourne Museum is founded
  1856 – Stonemasons win the eight-hour day
  1857 – First reservoir water supply (at Yan Yean Reservoir) tapped outside city limits
  1857 – Queen Victoria Market is founded
  1857 – Victoria's first country railway from Geelong to Melbourne is built
  1857 – City streets first lit by gas lighting
  1858 – 7 August – a game of football played between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College
  1858 –  First inter-city telegraph services, to Adelaide and Sydney
  1859 – 14 May – Melbourne Football Club, Australia's oldest football club, is founded
  1859 – Spencer Street station (then Batman's Hill Station) and Princes Bridge railway station completed
  1859 – Construction of the General Post Office begins
  1859 – First Melbourne Trades Hall building opened.
  1860 – Burke & Wills expedition departed from Royal Park.
  1861 – National Gallery of Victoria is founded
  1861 – First Melbourne Cup
  1861 – Victorian Exhibition held
  1861 – Melbourne's population reaches 125,000
  1862 – Melbourne Zoo founded
  1863 – Batman's Hill levelled
  1865 – Melbourne overtakes Sydney to become Australia'
caption: A map dating to the 1880s shows the well-established suburbs of Melbourne
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