This Day in Australian History - 21st September

1791 - H.M.S. Gorgon, with Captain J. Parker in command, arrives in Port Jackson, with the Public Silver Seal for public documents in the Colony, and a Commission to the Governor authorising him to remit, either partly or wholly, any sentences under which convicts had been sent to the colony.  The vessel also carried 16 cows, 68 sheep, 11 hogs, and a bull calf from South Africa.

1845 - European discovery, by Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt, of the Macarthur River in Queensland, while his expedition was on its way to Port Essington, Northern Territory.  The river was named after Macarthur, of Camden, New South Wales.

1851 - The first licences to dig for gold are issued in Victoria, following authorisation to issue on September 1st.

1852 - Francis Thomas Green is publicly hanged outside Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of John Jones at Buckley's Creek. This was the last public hanging in NSW.

1861 - The body of the explorer, Robert O'Hara Burke, is found and buried at Cooper's Creek by A. W. Howitt's party.

1872 - Warburton departs Adelaide on his journey to explore central Australia from Alice Springs to Perth.

1879 - About 200 of the New South Wales Permanent Artillery, under Colonel C. F. Roberts, and nine officers arrive at Newcastle in connection with the mining industrial trouble at Lambton and Raspberry Gully.

1889 - Adoption of payment to members of the Legislative Council.

1903 - Sir Samuel Griffith is appointed first Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia.  At the time of his appointment he was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland.

1921 - Bills introduced in Queensland Parliament to provide for retirement of judges over 70 years of age.

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Sources:

1. Anniversaries To-Day (1933, September 21). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 6. 
2. Anniversaries To-Day (1934, September 21). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 12. 
3. Anniversaries To-Day (1935, September 21). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 10. 
4. This Day in History 
5. To-day's Yesterdays (1934, September 21). The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), p. 14. 
6. To-Day's Anniversaries (1931, September 21). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 8 (FIRST EDITION).