1804 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1804 in Australia.

← 1803 1802 1801 1804 in Australia → 1805 1806 1807
Decades:	1780s 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s
See also:	Other events of 1804 Timeline of Australian history

Incumbents

• Monarch - George III

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales – Captain Philip King
• Lieutenant-Governor of Southern Van Diemen's Land – David Collins
• Lieutenant-Governor of Northern Van Diemen's Land – William Paterson

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.[1]
• 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.[2]
• 16 September – A government-owned brewery is opened at Parramatta as a means of controlling the consumption of spirits.[3]
• 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").[4]

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.[5]
• 24 March – The settlement at the Hunter River, also known as the Coal River, is officially named Newcastle.[6]
• 8 May – Lieutenant-Governor Collins establishes the settlement at Sullivan's Cove on the Derwent River.[7]
• 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.[7]
• 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.[7]

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

1. Whitaker, Anne-Maree: Castle Hill convict rebellion 1804, Dictionary of Sydney.
2. Darby, Andrew: Debate exposes 200-year-old massacre, The Age, 4 May 2004.
3. Late in the eighteenth century, Australian Beers.
4. Flinders' letter to Sir Joseph Banks 1804, National Library of Australia, 4 November 1804.
5. Newman, Terry: Bowen Refuses to Bow Out, Parliamentary History Project (Parliament of Tasmania), December 2003.
6. Settlement at Coal Harbour and Hunter’s River to be named Newcastle, Limits of Settlement and Governorship, &c., University of Newcastle, 24 September 1804.
7. 1803–1850s, British outpost, Tasmanian Year Book 2005, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 21 November 2006.