This Day in Australian History - 5th October

1789 - Australian's first ferry service begins operation. The "Rose Hill Packet", commonly known as 'the Lump', was Australia's first ferry service. A wooden hoy, 'the Lump' was built by Reid, the carpenter of the ship Supply, weighing 12 tons and was the first boat built in Australia. It navigated the journey from Sydney Cove to Rose Hill (now Parramatta) in 2 days.

1791 - William Bryant and 10 other convict escapees from Sydney, who had reached Timor in a boat, were handed over to Captain Edward Edwards, of H.M.S. Pandora, by the Governor of the Dutch Settlements.

1825 - The Sydney Public Free Grammar School is established in premises which were later occupied by University Chambers. Dr. Laurance Henry Halloran was appointed first Headmaster, on November 4, 1825, and occupied the position for 13 months. 

1829 - First time gunpowder is made at Sydney.

1833 - The Theatre Royal, Sydney, is opened at the rear of Barnet Levey's hotel in George-street, Sydney, with the staging of "The Miller and His Men" and "The Irishman". It was an event that marked the continuous history of the stage in Australia.

1835 - European discovery and naming of Campaspe River, Victoria, by Sir Thomas Mitchell.

1839 - Colonel William Light who was responsible for the site of Adelaide and the South Australian colony’s first surveyor-general dies of consumption in Adelaide at the age of 54 years.

1840 - S.S. Clonmel, Captain Tolley, 598 tons, arrives in Port Jackson, being the largest steamer to arrive up to that date. The voyage occupied four and a half months. The Clonmnel was wrecked at Corner Inlet on January 3, 1841.

1855 - Sir Thomas Mitchell, the noted explorer and Surveyor-General of New South Wales, dies in retirement, at Darling Point, Sydney. He was Surveyor-General from 1827 to 1850.

1857 - The first leg, a distance of 24 miles 61 chains, is opened of what later becomes the Adelaide to Darwin transcontinental railway line. The first terminus was Gawler.

1860 - Hanged at Streaky Bay, South Australia, Manyetta, for the murder of John Jones at Mount Joy.

1892 - The Australian Cricket Council announces an inter-colonial cricket competition to be known as the Sheffield Shield.

1903 - Samuel Griffith is appointed as the first Chief Justice of Australia.

1903 - The first Federal High Court is constituted and the appointments were Chief Justice Sir Samuel Griffith, Justices, Sir Edmund Barton and R. E. O'Connor. The first sitting of the Court was held on the following day in Melbourne.

1917 - Referendum taken in Queensland on abolishing the Legislative Council; majority against, 62,909.

1918 - Capture of Montbrehain, France. Montbrehain was the AIF's final action in France in the First World War, in which the 2nd Division captured the village at a cost of 430 casualties.

1918 - Lieutenant G. Ingram, 24th Battalion, originally from Bendigo, Victoria, wins the Victoria Cross at Montbrehain, east of Peronne, France.

1926 - Miss Catherine Elizabeth McGregor was admitted to practice by the Queensland Supreme Court. She was the first woman admitted, but was not the first to practise.

1928 - The much criticised Coat-of-Arms of the City of Canberra is granted by the Heralds' College.

1933 – Diane Cilento, theatre and film actress was born in Brisbane.

1951 - The commencement of the aircraft carrier, HMAS Sydney's, first patrol off Korea's west coast made Australia the third country (after the USA and Britain) to operate a carrier in the Korean War. The carrier operated Firefly and Sea Fury aircraft (both types can be seen in the Memorial's Aircraft Hall).

1951 - Second Australian battalion committed to Korea. From September 1950 the main Australian army unit in Korea had been the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. The Australian Government announced that the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment would join it in March 1952.

1990 – After one hundred and fifty years, The Herald broadsheet newspaper in Melbourne is published for the last time as a separate newspaper.

1990 – The Daily Mirror in Sydney is published for the last time as a separate newspaper. The first edition of The Daily Telegraph-Mirror appears on the 8th.

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Sources:

1. Australian War Memorial 
2. South Australian Historians 
3. This Day in History 
4. Anniversaries To-Day (1933, October 5). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 6. 
5. Anniversaries To-Day (1934, October 5). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 10. 
6. Today's Yesterdays (1936, October 5). The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), p. 6. 
7. To-Day's Anniversaries (1931, October 5). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 8 (FIRST EDITION).