The following lists events that happened during 1831 in Australia.
The year of the Ripon Land Grant, which attracted many settlers to Australia.
Incumbents Monarch - William IV
Governors Governors of the Australian colonies: Governor of New South Wales - Ralph Darling (to 23 October). Governor of New South Wales - Major-General Sir Richard Bourke (from 23 October). 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. 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.
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 5 August – Edward Broughton, bushranger and serial killer (b. 1803), hanged 22 December – Charles Fraser, botanist (b. 1788) Collet Barker John Hayes