- 1798 – George Bass and Matthew Flinders leave Sydney to explore Van Diemen's Land.
- 1816 – Reverend Samuel Leigh opens the first Methodist church in Australia, at Castlereagh, New South Wales.
- 1830 – The "Black Line" campaign of the Black War begins in an attempt to capture all Tasmanian Aborigines. The campaign lasts seven weeks and only succeeds in bringing two Aborigines to the authorities.
- 1919 – Sir Zelman Cowen, 19th Governor-General of Australia, was born in Melbourne.
- 1919 – Death of Alfred Deakin, leader of the movement for Australian federation and second Prime Minister of Australia, aged 63.
- 1935 – Thomas Keneally, novelist and author of Schindler's List, was born in Homebush, New South Wales.
- 1941 – John Curtin becomes the fourteenth Prime Minister of Australia.