1831 in Australia

The following lists events that happened during 1831 in Australia.

The year of the Ripon Land Grant, which attracted many settlers to Australia.

Incumbents

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.
5 August – Edward Broughton, an English convict turned serial killer and bushranger is hanged after he escaped from Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour with four other convicts and later confessed to murdering three of his companions and resorting to cannibalism.
The Ripon Land Regulation Act provides land grants.

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.