1887 in Australia explained

The following lists events that happened during 1887 in Australia.

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.
• 11 May – Ship Darling Downs with 7725 bales of Australian wool sinks at Nore after collision with Britannia^[1]
• 22 June – The Fremantle Town Hall is opened.
• 26 Sept – The Celtic Club Melbourne is formed and remains today as Australia's oldest Irish Club
• 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.^[2]

Arts and literature

See main article: 1887 in Australian literature.

Sport

• Dunlop wins the Melbourne Cup

Births

• 2 February – Pat Sullivan, film director (died 1933)
• 16 April – Henry Gordon Bennett, soldier (died 1962)
• 6 July – Annette Kellerman, swimming celebrity (died 1975)
• 28 October – Herb Byrne, Australian rules footballer (died 1959)
• 30 November – Beatrice Kerr, swimmer, diver, and aquatic performer (died 1971)

Notes and References

1. News: Collision off the English Coast . . 10,056 . Victoria, Australia . 16 May 1887 . 23 July 2024 . 5 . National Library of Australia. Perhaps SS Britannia (1882)
2. Web site: Goulburn Weir . Gouldburn-Murray Water . 28 November 2023 .