1874 in Australia

← 1873 1872 1871 1874 in Australia → 1875 1876 1877
Decades:	1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s
See also:	Other events of 1874 Timeline of Australian history

Events

• 8 January - Arthur Macalister becomes Premier of Queensland for the third time.
• 10 March - Ernest Giles is the first European to explore and later names (12 March) the Petermann Ranges.
• 1 April - John Forrest leads an expedition from Geraldton, Western Australia across the Gibson Desert to the Peake telegraph station in South Australia.
• 15 June - Brisbane's first Victoria Bridge opens; it is lost in the 1893 Brisbane flood.
• 31 July - George Kerferd becomes Premier of Victoria.
• 28 September - Victorian Humane Society established; it later becomes the Royal Humane Society of Australasia.
• 6 November - University of Adelaide established by act of the South Australian Parliament; it opened in 1876.

Arts and literature

• Marcus Clarke's For the Term of his Natural Life is published in book form

Sport

• Southern Rugby Union is established; renamed New South Wales Rugby Union in 1892
• Haricot wins the Melbourne Cup

Births

• 2 March - Gregan McMahon
• 3 March - Ada Crossley
• 17 September - Walter Murdoch
• 17 October - Lionel Lindsay

Deaths

• 1 February – Alexander Harris, soldier, teacher and author (b. 1805)
• 6 April – Michael Fenton, first Speaker of the Tasmanian House of Assembly (b. 1789)
• 17 May – Sir Roger Therry, jurist (b. 1800)
• date unknown
  • Robert Menli Lyon, Aboriginal advocate (b. 1789)