1887 in Australia

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1887 in Australia

1884 • 1885 • 1886 • 1887 (1887) • 1888 • 1889 • 1890

Other events of 1887 • Timeline of Australian history

Incumbents

• Premier of New South Wales – Patrick Jenning (until 19 January), then Henry Parkes
• Premier of South Australia – John Downer (until 11 June), then Thomas Playford II
• Premier of Queensland – Samuel Griffith
• Premier of Tasmania – James Agnew (until 29 March), then Philip Fysh
• Premier of Victoria – Duncan Gillies
• Governor of the Crown Colony of Western Australia – Sir Frederick Broome

Events

• 1 January – Clement Wragge is appointed Government Meteorologist for Queensland
• 21 January – Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any Australian capital city.
• 23 March – 81 miners are killed during a coal gas explosion at Bulli, New South Wales
• 22 April – A cyclone hits a pearling fleet off Eighty Mile Beach, 120 men drown.
• 22 June – The Fremantle Town Hall is opened.
• 19 October – The Sydney-bound steamer SS Cheviot is wrecked near Point Nepean, Victoria, claiming 35 lives.

Science and technology

• Construction of Goulburn Weir commenced, one of Australia's earliest irrigation schemes.

Sport

• Dunlop wins the Melbourne Cup

Births

• 2 February – Pat Sullivan, film director (d. 1933)
• 16 April – Henry Gordon Bennett, soldier (d. 1962)

Deaths