See also: 1802 in Australia, other events of 1803, 1804 in Australia and the Timeline of Australian history.

Incumbents

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales- Captain Philip King

Events

• January 14 - Lieut-Col David Collins commissioned in England to found a new settlement on Bass Strait, preferably at Port Phillip.
• March 5 - George Howe publishes the first issue of the weekly Sydney Gazette and the New South Wales Advertiser, Australia's first newspaper.
• December 27 - Convict William Buckley escapes from Sullivan Bay, Victoria. He lives with the Wautharong Aboriginal people for 32 years.

Exploration and Settlement

• February 2 - Surveyor general, Charles Grimes, discovered the Yarra River.
• June 9 - HMS Investigator arrives in Port Jackson after circumnavigating Australia. On the voyage Matthew Flinders charted the coast and Robert Brown made an extensive collection of the flora of Australia.
• September 11 - John Bowen with a party of forty-eight found the first settlement in Van Diemen's Land near the Derwent River.

See also

• 1803
• 1800s

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Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "1803 in Australia"