This Day in Australian History - 16th September

1770 - Captain Cook becomes the first European to note the appearance of the Aurora Australis.

1800 - John Macarthur sends the first sample of Australian-grown wool to England, in the ship Buffalo.

1818 - Croker's River is discovered by European explorer John Oxley.

1824 - Lieutenant Oxley commences survey of Brisbane River.

1830 - Patrick Francis Moran, third Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and the first Australian cardinal, is born.

1847 - Explorer Edmund Kennedy returns to his depot to find that Aborigines have ransacked his supplies.

1850 - A monster anti-transportation meeting is held in Barrack Square, Sydney, and the Anti-Transportation League is formed.

1879 - The Hunter River at Maitland rose to 27½ft, causing some of the lowlands to become flooded.

1879 - The first permanent tram-line in Sydney was opened. The route was from the vicinity of Redfern station, via Pitt-street, Belmore Park, and Elizabeth-street, to Hunter-street. The work began on May 15, 1879, and the trial over the completed line was by horse traction on September 6, 1879.

1880 - Railway to Roma, Queensland, is opened.

1889 - Hanged at Melbourne Gaol, Filipe Castillo, for the murder of Annie Thornton at North Carlton.

1891 - Sydney Post Office clock and bells started.

1902 - Two severe thunderstorms hit Brisbane and a tramcar is struck by lightning.

1907 - The S. S. Tomki is wrecked at Tweed Heads.

1910 - The Australian Notes Act of 1910 was assented to. The Australian Notes Act 1910 was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which introduced an Australian national currency, the Australian pound.

1912 - The Commonwealth Savings Bank extends its operations into Queensland.

1927 - Governor General, John Baird (Baron Stonehaven), with staff, commence residence at Canberra.

1956 - Australia's first television broadcast is made by TCN Channel 9 in Sydney.

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Sources:

1. Anniversaries To-Day (1933, September 16). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 8. 
2. Anniversaries To-Day (1935, September 16). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 6. 
3. To-day's Yesterdays (1933, September 16). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954), p. 8. 
4. To-Day's Anniversaries (1930, September 16). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 8. 
5. This Day in History