6 January. Telegraph lines to Toodyay and York opened, and to Albany 26 December.
10 March. The most severe gale in the history of Fremantle swept over the town and created great devastation among the buildings and shipping. With one exception every overseas vessel in the harbour was driven ashore, but most of the coasters escaped as the weather-wise skippers of those small craft had taken the precaution of running over to Careening Bay at the approach of the storm.
Dr HC Barnett appointed colonial surgeon at Fremantle, holding the position until 1895, when the office of colonial surgeon was abolished, but Dr. Barnett continued as medical attendant to the Lunatic Asylum.
The coaster Flying Foam lost on a voyage from Champion Bay to Fremantle, supposed to have foundered at sea.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 6 August, 2015 and hosted at freotopia.org/timeline/1872.html (it was last updated on 19 December, 2018), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.