This Day in Australian History - 22nd September

1788 - Rebecca Small, stated to have been the first white girl born in Australia, was born on this day, in a cottage attached to the first Government residence in Sydney. Her father was Sergeant Small, of Governor Phillip's staff of attendants. She married Francis Oakes, and was mother of Archdeacon Oakes, of Bathurst. She died at Parramatta in 1883, aged 95 years.

1831 - The first drawing of a numbat is made, following the first recorded sighting.

1848 - Hanged at Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Francis Dermott (or Diamond or Durham), an African-American, for the violation of Mary Green on the Shoalhaven.

1848 - Edmund Besley Court Kennedy leaves Sydney on his last exploration.

1855 - The Operative Stonemasons' Society, at a meeting held in the Parramatta Hotel, passed a resolution that "eight hours should be the maximum of a day's labour." This was the first reference to eight hours' work that has been recorded.

1869 - Mackay Municipality is proclaimed.

1871 - Tolls are levied at Bolwarra and Pitnacree bridges in the Maitland district.

1874 - The first race meeting of the Northern Jockey Club is held on the old racecourse in West Matiland.  About 5,000 people were in attendance and the grandstand was used for the first time.  Races had been held on the course prior to the establishment of the club.

1882 - The Garden Palace, Sydney is destroyed by fire.  The International Exhibition had been held in the Palace from September 17, 1879, till April 21, 1880.  The fire destroyed valuable historical records which were housed in the Palace.

1883 - The first steam ferry is used on the Brisbane River, launched from Sutton and Co.'s yards, Kangaroo point.

1885 - Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia from 1945-1949, is born.

1887 - The Victorian Government takes over from a private company the telephone system in operation in Melbourne.

1891 - Rev. E. Griffith, father of Sir Samuel Griffith, died in Brisbane.  Mr. Griffith was pastor of the Congregational Church, West Maitland, New South Wales, when the church building was opened in December, 1857.

1909 - Extensive strike of cane-cutters at South Johnstone, North Queensland.

1913 - Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol, Ernest Austin, for the murder of Ivy Alexandra Mitchell. He was the last person executed in Queensland.

1918 - The first direct wireless message is received in Australia from England by Mr. E. T. Fisk, Managing Director of Amalgamated Wireless (Australia) on his experimental set at Wahroonga, New South Wales. The messages were sent by the Prime Minister of Australia (Mr. W. Hughes) and the Minister for the Navy (Sir Joseph Cook), and were dispatched from the Marconi Company's Transatlantic station at Carnarvon, Wales.

1921 - Bishop Sharp, of New Guinea, elected Archbishop of Brisbane.

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Sources:

1. Anniversaries To-Day (1933, September 22). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 10. 
2. Anniversaries To-Day (1934, September 22). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 8. 
3. This Day in History 
4. To-day's Yesterdays (1933, September 22). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954), p. 8. 
5. To-day's Yesterdays (1933, September 22). The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), p. 12. 
6. To-Day's Anniversaries  (1930, September 22). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 8.