1850 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1850 in Australia.

Incumbents

 * Monarch - Victoria

Governors
Governors of the Australian colonies:
 * Governor of New South Wales – Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy
 * Governor of South Australia – Sir Henry Fox Young
 * Governor of Tasmania – Sir William Denison
 * Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony – Captain Charles Fitzgerald.

Events

 * 26 January – The Irish Exile, a weekly newspaper, starts publishing in Hobart by Patrick O'Donoghue: aimed mainly at fellow Irish prisoners and deportees.
 * 5 August – Port Phillip (later called Victoria) established as a separate colony from New South Wales.
 * 1 June – First convicts arrive in Western Australia, ticket-of-leave transportation suspended in New South Wales.
 * 1 October – University of Sydney is founded as Australia's first university.
 * Undated – The Port Phillip District Wars end
 * Undated – Between 15-20 Indigenous Australians are killed in East Gippsland as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.
 * Undated – 16 Indigenous Australians are poisoned to death in Murrindal as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.
 * Between 15-20 Indigenous Australians are killed in Brodribb River as part of a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people known as the Gippsland massacres.

Science and technology

 * Bucolus fourneti - described by Étienne Mulsant

Births

 * 7 January
 * Joseph James Fletcher, biologist (born in New Zealand) (d. 1926)
 * Robert Richardson, journalist, poet and writer (d. 1901)
 * 29 January – Lawrence Hargrave, engineer, explorer, and inventor (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1915)
 * 1 February – Sir Matthew Davis, Victorian politician (d. 1912)
 * 13 February – Michael Kelly, 4th Archbishop of Sydney (born in Ireland) (d. 1940)
 * 17 February – Alf Morgans, 4th Premier of Western Australia (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1933)
 * 23 February – Octavius Beale, piano manufacturer and philanthropist (born in Ireland) (d. 1930)
 * 25 April – William Knox, Victorian politician and businessman (d. 1913)
 * 26 April – James Drake, Queensland politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1941)
 * 12 May – Sir Frederick Holder, 19th Premier of South Australia (d. 1909)
 * 23 August – Sir John Cockburn, 18th Premier of South Australia (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1929)
 * 7 September – James Stewart, Queensland politician (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1931)
 * 22 October – Charles Kingston, 20th Premier of South Australia (d. 1908)
 * 23 November – Henry Lowther Clarke, 1st Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne (born in the United Kingdom) (d. 1926)
 * 3 December – Sir Richard Butler, 23rd Premier of South Australia (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1850)
 * 21 December – Sir William McMillan, New South Wales politician and businessman (born in Ireland) (d. 1926)
 * Unknown – Christie Palmerston, explorer and prospector (d. 1897)
 * Unknown – Mei Quong Tart, merchant (born in China) (d. 1903)

Deaths

 * 22 January – William Westall, landscape artist (born and died in the United Kingdom) (b. 1781)
 * 3 February – Samuel Stocks, jun., businessman in South Australia (born in the United Kingdom c. 1812)
 * 9 February – Elizabeth Macarthur, pastoralist and merchant (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1766)
 * 16 June – William Lawson, New South Wales politician and explorer (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1774)
 * 3 September – Ikey Solomon, convict (born in the United Kingdom) (b. 1787)
 * Unknown, possibly April – Yuranigh, guide and stockman (b. 1820)