The following lists events that happened during 1831 in Australia. The year of the Ripon Land Grant, which attracted many settlers to Australia.

Incumbents

Monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies: *

Governor of New South Wales The governor of New South Wales is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia, Governor-General of Australia at the national level, the governor ...

Ralph Darling General Sir Ralph Darling, GCH (1772 – 2 April 1858) was a British Army officer who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1825 to 1831. His period of governorship was unpopular, with Darling being broadly regarded as a tyrant. He introd ...

(to 23 October). *

- Major-General Sir Richard Bourke (from 23 October). *

Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania The governor of Tasmania is the representative in the Australian state of Tasmania of the monarch, currently King Charles III. The incumbent governor is Barbara Baker, who was appointed in June 2021. The official residence of the governor is Gov ...

- Colonel George Arthur * Lieutenant-Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony - Captain James Stirling

Events

* 4 March - James Stirling commissioned as Lieutenant-Governor of Western Australia, rectifying the absence of a legal instrument providing the authority detailed in Stirling's Instructions of 30 December 1828. * 14 March - The '' Surprise'', the first

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...

built in Australia, was launched in Sydney. * 18 April - The

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

daily newspaper and Australia's oldest newspaper ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'' is first published. * 5 August – Edward Broughton, an English

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...

turned

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

and

bushranger Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...

is hanged after he escaped from Sarah Island in

Macquarie Harbour Macquarie Harbour is a shallow fjord in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia. It is approximately , and has an average depth of , with deeper places up to . It is navigable by shallow-draft vessels. The main channel is kept clear by th ...

with four other convicts and later confessed to murdering three of his companions and resorting to

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...

. * The Ripon Land Regulation Act provides

land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

Arts and literature

* Australia's first novel, ''Quintus Servinton: A Tale founded upon Incidents of Real Occurrence'' was written and published in Tasmania . It was written by the convicted English forger

Henry Savery Henry Savery (4 August 1791 – 6 February 1842) was a Convictism in Australia, convict transported to Port Arthur, Tasmania, and Australia's first novelist. It is generally agreed that his writing is more important for its historical value than ...

and published anonymously.

Births

* Lewis Bernays *

James Boucaut Sir James Penn Boucaut (;) (29 October 1831 – 1 February 1916) was a South Australian politician and Australian judge. He was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly on four occasions: from 1861 to 1862 for City of Adelaide, fro ...

William John Clarke Sir William John Clarke, 1st Baronet (31 March 1831 – 15 May 1897), was an Australian businessman and philanthropist in the Colony of Victoria. He was raised to the baronetage in 1882, the first Victorian to be granted a hereditary honour. ...

* William Bede Dalley * John Darling *

Alfred Felton Alfred Felton (8 November 1831 – 8 January 1904) was an Australian entrepreneur, art collector and philanthropist. Biography Alfred Felton was born at Maldon, Essex, England, the fifth child of six sons and three daughters of William Felton, ...

* Walter Russell Hall * Laurence Halloran *

Robert Herbert Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert, (12 June 1831 – 6 May 1905), was the first Premiers of Queensland, Premier of Queensland, Australia. At 28 years and 181 days of age, he was the youngest person ever to become premier of an Australian state ...

* Adelaide Ironside * Martin Howy Irving * Patrick Jennings * George Kerferd * Duncan McIntyre * Thomas Petrie * Frederick Pottinger * Henry Gyles Turner

Deaths

* 5 August – Edward Broughton,

and

(b.

1803 Events January–March * January 1 – The first edition of Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière's ''Almanach des gourmands'', the first guide to restaurant cooking, is published in Paris. * January 4 – William Symingt ...

), hanged * 22 December – Charles Fraser, botanist (b.

1788 Events January–March * January 1 – The first edition of ''The Times'', previously ''The Daily Universal Register'', is published in London. * January 2 – Georgia ratifies the United States Constitution, and becomes the fourth U.S ...

) *

Collet Barker Collet Barker (31 December 1784 – 30 April 1831) was a British military officer and explorer. He was commandant at two British outposts for the Colony of New South Wales. Fort Wellington on the Cobourg Peninsula, Northern Territory and a p ...

* John Hayes {{DEFAULTSORT:1831 in Australia

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Years of the 19th century in Australia