See also: 1840 in Australia, other events of 1841, 1842 in Australia and the Timeline of Australian history.

Incumbents

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales - Sir George Gipps
• Governor of Queensland - (office first formed in 1859)
• Governor of South Australia - Lieutenant Colonel George Gawler to 15 May then Sir George Grey
• Governor of Tasmania - Captain Sir John Franklin
• Governor of Victoria - (office first formed in 1851)
• Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony - John Hutt.

Events

• May 3 - New Zealand was proclaimed a colony independent from New South Wales.
• June 7 - Darlinghurst Gaol took in its first prisoners.
• July 1 - The convict assignment system was abolished in New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land and was replaced by the probation gang system.
• September 1 - Port Phillip Savings Bank was established.
• October 23 - Caroline Chisholm established the Female Immigrants Home to help unemployed new arrivals to Australia.

Exploration and Settlement

• February - The first economic minerals discovered in Australia were silver and lead at Glen Osmond, now a suburb of Adelaide in South Australia.

• April 7 - Edward John Eyre becomes the first European to cross the Nullarbor Plain. He arrived in Western Australia with Wylie, an indigenous Australian who accompanied him. Eyre left Fowlers Bay, South Australia on 25 February and reached Albany, Western Australia on 7 July.

Science & Technology

• April 13 - the first photograph was taken in Australia by a visiting naval captain, Captain Augustin Lucas
• May 24 - Gas lighting used for the first time in Sydney

• William Bland published a paper on the first scarlet fever epidemic in Australia; probably Australia's earliest contribution to clinical medicine.

Arts and literature

• The first Australian book for children was published in Sydney: A mother's offering to her children, by a 'lady long resident in New South Wales'. Although published anonymously, the author is known to be Charlotte Barton.

See also

• 1841
• 1840s