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← 1802 1801 1800 1803 in Australia → 1804 1805 1806
Decades:	1780s 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s
See also:	Other events of 1803 Timeline of Australian history

The following lists events that happened during 1803 in Australia.

Incumbents

• Monarch - George III

Governors

Governors of the Australian colonies:

• Governor of New South Wales – Captain Philip King

Events

• 14 January – Lieut-Col David Collins is commissioned in England to found a new settlement on Bass Strait, preferably at Port Phillip.
• 5 March – George Howe publishes the first issue of the weekly The Sydney Gazette and The New South Wales Advertiser, Australia's first newspaper.
• 19 April - Governor King proclaims toleration for Catholics and allows Fr James Dixon to say mass for Irish convicts.
• 14 May - Illegal Masonic meeting held in Sydney and all participants arrested.
• 25 November - William James Hobart Thorne is the first white child born in Victoria when he is born at Port Phillip, in what was then part of New South Wales but later became Victoria. He dies on 2 July 1872.
• 27 December – Convict William Buckley escapes from Sullivan Bay, Victoria. He lives with the Wautharong Aboriginal people for 32 years.
• 26 June – John Macarthur writes the Statement of Improvement and Progression of Fine Woolled Sheep in New South Wales.

Exploration and settlement

• January–February – Acting Lieutenant Charles Robbins and NSW Surveyor General Charles Grimes survey Port Phillip in HMS Cumberland
• 2 February – Charles Grimes discovered the Yarra River.
• 9 June – Investigator arrives in Port Jackson after circumnavigating Australia. On the voyage Matthew Flinders charted the coast and Robert Brown made an extensive collection of the flora of Australia.
• 11 September – John Bowen with a party of forty-eight found the first settlement in Van Diemen's Land near the Derwent River.
• 9 October – David Collins, on HMS Calcutta and Ocean, establishes the short-lived settlement at Sullivan Bay on Port Phillip

Births

• 1 January – Daniel Egan, politician (died 1870)

Deaths

• 26 August – Joseph Luker, police officer (born c. 1765)
• 16 September – Nicholas Baudin, French explorer (born 1754)
• 17 November – William Balmain, First Fleet surgeon (born 1762)

References

1. Proclamation, Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 24 Apr 1803
2. ^ Franklin, James (2021). "Sydney 1803: When Catholics were tolerated and Freemasons banned" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 107 (2): 135–155. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
3. "The Late Robert Thorne". The Mercury (Hobart). Vol. LIV, no. 6, 116. Tasmania, Australia. 27 September 1889. p. 2. Retrieved 2 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
4. "Finding Settlements First Son". The Age. 16 November 2003. Retrieved 7 November 2019.

v t e Years in Australia (1788–present)
18th century	1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800
19th century	1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900
20th century	1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
21st century	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Timeline of Australian history

• 1803 in Australia
• 1803 by country
• Years of the 19th century in Australia