Colonial Events 1843

.........	Shipwrights begin to build clipper ships making the voyage from England faster
..........	Invention of the 'Stripper' a labour saving harvesting machine that revolutionized the wheat industry. Find out more about the 'Ridley Reaping Machine' at the Library of South Australia
..........	Wool auctions introduced in Sydney by Thomas Sutcliffe Mort Read about Thomas Mort at the National Portrait Gallery
...........	Vines planted at Henry Lindeman's Cawarra in the Hunter Valley
January	Boiling down sheep for tallow begins as monetary confusion deepens
January	Rainfall from Moreton Bay to Maitland - luxuriant crops expected
January	Benevolent asylum in East Maitland situated in former immigrant's home until the end of 1843 when patients were moved to Hannan House
January 7	*Maitland Mercury* newspaper first published ( New South Wales)
January 11	Auction of Bowthorne Estate on the Paterson River
January13	Bushranger Long Tom Forrester captured by Chief constable Shields of Scone at Belltrees. Select here to read more about Long Tom Forrester
February	Canadian rebels to receive pardons - On the night of the 7th February Mr. Roebuck moved in the House of Commons, an humble address be presented to her Majesty, that pardon may be extended to all persons transported to our penal colonies from Upper and Lower Canada for political offences committed during the late unhappy disturbances in those provinces. He grounded the motives on the facts principally that the disturbances commenced from an idea that the French population was to be reduced to an inferior standing, and deprived of their privileges......The Australian 21 July 1843
February	Political Meetings held at Newcastle – A public meeting of the electors of Newcastle having been called by Major Wentworth’s friends, to be held on Wednesday last for the purpose of strengthening the cause of the Major in that town, about thirty or forty gentlemen left Maitland at an early hour on Wednesday morning for the purpose of attending the meeting. A number of Mr. Scott’s friends also left Maitland for the same purpose. At about one o’clock the gentlemen composing the committee assembled in front of Mr. McGreavy’s house, and from one to two hundred of the inhabitants of Newcastle, chiefly of the labouring classes, also assembled. Flags were flying from the windows of several inns in the town; nearly the whole of Mr. Scott’s adherents wore rosettes at their breasts of green, purple and blue ribbons, and were attended by a band. - Maitland Mercury Saturday 11 February 1843
February 14	Foundation stone of Australian Library laid by Alexander McLeay in Bent Street Sydney
February	Heavy rain Hunter River district
Feburary 27	Bushranger John Quigley captured by Henry Smith near Harper's Hill, Maitland district
March 1	Striking comet observed in Europe and Australia. Select here to read more about the Great March Comet
March 9	Rev. Dr. John Bede Polding returned to Sydney bringing with him other clergymen
March	Robert Keddie advertising regular supply of coal from his pit, Coal Hill, East Maitland
March	Hunter River in Flood
March	Rinoplasty surgery performed by Dr. Liddell at Bolwarra
March	Hundreds of dead and dying fish seen floating down Wallis Creek
April	Thomas R. Johnson, editor of the Satirist newspaper convicted of a series of obscene libels sentenced to 2 years in Newcastle Gaol. Printer W. Brown sentenced to 1 yr in Berrima gaol.
April	Whooping cough prevalent in the Hunter
April 22	An elephant's tusk weighing 30lbs and about fifty inches in length and 14 inches in circumference dug out of the sand near Stockton. Supposed by some of the old residents of Newcastle to be the relic of the wreck of a large ship from India, which was lost in the year 1827. To be sold at Alexander Flood's auction rooms
May	T`he City Theatre, in Market Street Sydney, opened by Messrs. Simmons and Belmore.`
May	Limestone bed discovered at Black Creek
June	Emigration on bounty to NSW to the extent of 5000 persons to be resumed
June 7	'Yesterday being the day appointed for the whole paraphernalia connected with the Old Gaol, prisoners, officers, etc., to remove to the New prison at Darlinghurst, the interior of the old building presented busy scene the whole day. At an early hour 119 of the prisoners were marched out of the Gaol, the redoubtable Curran heavily ironed taking precedence of his brother culprits. They were strongly guarded all the way to their new abode by a detachment of 50 policemen, 4 inspectors, and chief constable Mitchell under command of Capt. Innes. The second batch of prisoners consisted of 50 females who were escorted to the New Gaol by a smaller detachment of the police'.(SG)
June 28	Duncan McGillvrey killed in election riots at Paterson
July	The Hexham Hotel on the road to Newcastle opened for business. Thomas Prentice proprietor. The Hexham Hotel was previously run by William Sparke. The location of Spark's land can be seen on this map. (Click to enlarge). More about the Hexham Hotel
July 27	New Legislative Council to meet for the first time. Speaker to be elected
August	Alexander McLeay Esq., member for Gloucester, Macquarie and Stanley elected Speaker at the first meeting of the Legislative Council
September 15	Government enacted insolvency legislation. Imprisonment for debt abolished.
September 15	A Lien on Wool Act passed to fight depression
September	Several paid police magistrate positions terminated after the office abolished by Legislative council.
November	New Church at St. Albans, Lower Hawkesbury opened for divine service. Rev. Simpson Hawkesbury on the Net History of St. Albans
November	Departure of Sir John Franklin from Tasmania
November	Thomas Tute and Thomas Blakeney, two private soldiers of the 99^th Regiment, indicted for an assault on John Rinker a constable in the Newcastle police at Newcastle
December 14	Six prisoners assisted by three soldiers escape from Norfolk Island in a whale boat
December 22	Death of King's Commissioner John Thomas Bigge
December 28	Maiden Session of the Legislative Council of New South Wales closed