1831 in Australia

Incumbents

Governors

• Governor of New South Wales - Ralph Darling.
• Governor of New South Wales - Major-General Sir Richard Bourke.
• Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania - Colonel George Arthur
• Lieutenant-Governor of Western Australia as a Crown Colony - Captain James Stirling

  Events

• 4 March - James Stirling commissioned as Lieutenant-Governor of Western Australia, rectifying the absence of a legal instrument providing the authority detailed in Stirling's Instructions of 30 December 1828.
• 14 March - The Surprise, the first paddle steamer built in Australia, was launched in Sydney.
• 18 April - The Sydney daily newspaper and Australia's oldest newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald is first published.
• The Ripon Land Regulation Act provides land grants.

  Arts and literature

• Australia's first novel, Quintus Servinton: A Tale founded upon Incidents of Real Occurrence was written and published in Tasmania. It was written by the convicted English forger Henry Savery and published anonymously.

  Births

• Lewis Bernays
• James Boucaut
• William John Clarke
• William Bede Dalley
• John Darling
• Alfred Felton
• Walter Russell Hall
• Laurence Halloran
• Robert Herbert
• Adelaide Ironside
• Martin Howy Irving
• Patrick Jennings
• George Kerferd
• Duncan McIntyre
• Thomas Petrie
• Frederick Pottinger
• Henry Gyles Turner

  Deaths

• 22 December - Charles Fraser, botanist
• Collet Barker
• John Hayes