1888 in Australia

Incumbents

Premiers

• Premier of New South Wales – Henry Parkes
• Premier of Queensland – Samuel Griffith, then Thomas McIlwraith, then Boyd Dunlop Morehead
• Premier of South Australia – Thomas Playford II
• Premier of Tasmania – Philip Fysh
• Premier of Victoria – Duncan Gillies

  Governors

• Governor of New South Wales – Lord Carrington
• Governor of Queensland – Sir Anthony Musgrave
• Governor of South Australia – Sir William Robinson
• Governor of Tasmania – Sir Robert Hamilton
• Governor of Victoria – Lord Loch
• Governor of Western Australia – Sir Frederick Broome

  Events

• 27 January – Centennial Park is opened in Sydney.
• 30 January – The Presbyterian Church of New South Wales establishes its first school, the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney.
• 1 July – "The Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women" first published by Louisa Lawson, in Sydney.
• 1 August – The Melbourne Centennial Exhibition is opened.
• 4 October – Princes Bridge, Melbourne is opened.
• 9 October – Launceston, Tasmania is proclaimed a city.
• 25 October – The captain of the, Henry Townley Wright, refuses to relinquish his command after being ordered to do so by the Queensland government. The Colonial Secretary orders Wright be dismissed from the Queensland Maritime Defence Force, and has him removed from the ship by Queensland Police.

  Undated

• Excavation begins on the water supply tunnels beneath Fremantle Prison, in Western Australia.
• Australia’s 100th Birthday

  Arts and literature

• Angus & Robertson publish their first book, A Crown of Wattle, a collection of poetry by H. Peden Steel

  Sport

• 6 November – Mentor wins the Melbourne Cup.

  Births

• 12 January – Leslie Gordon Chandler, ornithologist
• 29 June – Squizzy Taylor, Melbourne gangster
• 18 September – Herb Gilbert, national rugby league team captain
• 31 October – Hubert Wilkins, polar explorer
• 14 December – Harold Hardwick, freestyle swimmer

  Deaths

• 21 February – William Weston, Premier of Tasmania
• 30 May – Louis Buvelot, painter
• 15 August – Robert Seddon, British rugby union player
• 9 October – Anthony Musgrave, Governor of South Australia and Queensland
• 28 October – William Bede Dalley, Australia's first member of the Privy Council.