1830

1830	8-Jan	Officers of HM ships Crocodile and Zebra gave performances of two plays, Agnes or the Bleeding Nun and The Miller and His Men, in a tent on the site of Sydney’s Opera House.
1830	27-Nov	The Sydney Gazette reported the death of ‘His Aboriginal Majesty, King Boongarie’. Boongarie, or Bungaree, was the first Aboriginal to circum-navigate Australia, He accompanied Lt Matthew Flinders, RN, in HMS Investigator. Bungaree died on Garden Island and his body is believed to be buried in the Rose Bay area.
1831	9-May	The Sydney Herald reported: ‘A Greek captain named Domini Neni is at present an inmate of Hyde Park Barracks. He was the commander of a piratical vessel in the Straits. She mounted 17 guns and had a large crew belonging to her and had committed several acts of piracy upon British vessels, when she was captured after a desperate engagement by one of His Majesty’s vessels. The captain had just completed 21 days exercise on the mill in consequence of his attempting to escape from the Colony’.
1831	30-May	The Sydney Herald reported: ‘The whole of the population of Pitcairn Island were removed to Otahiete by His Majesty’s Ship, Comet. The little colony amounted to 86 persons’.
1831	12-Jun	Lt Edward Biddulph, RN, inaugurated the first regular steam ship service in Australia. Biddulph was captain and part-owner of the paddlewheel steamer Sophia Jane.
1831	13-Jun	The Sydney Herald reported: ‘A circular has been addressed by the Admiralty to Lieutenants of the Royal Navy within the list of 7/- a day offering the rank of retired Commander, but without the increase of pay.’
1831	30-Jun	HMS Comet, sloop, 18 guns, was stationed at Port Jackson. The vessel was used for punitive expeditions in the Pacific Islands.
1831	11-Jul	RA Isaac Smith, last surviving officer of Capt James Cook’s first and second voyages, died at the age of 79.
1831	21-Jul	Henry Hacking, former quartermaster in HMS Sirius, and explorer, died at Hobart, last.
1831	23-Jul	The French Navy survey ship La Favorite, Cdr M. Laplace, arrived at Hobart to conduct a survey of Tasmania and New Zealand.
1831	1-Aug	The NSW Government Gazette announced that officers of the Royal Navy and Marines, retiring from the service or going on half-pay (in Australia), would be entitled to the following remissions when purchasing Crown land: those who had served 20 years and upwards, £300; 15 years and upwards, £250; 10 years and upwards, £200; and 7 years and upwards, £150.
1831	24-Aug	The Long Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal were instituted in the RN.
1831	18-Oct	HMS Zebra, brig, Cdr Durrell de Saumaresque, RN, arrived at Sydney, with despatches from the newly established colony at Port Philip.
1831	31-Oct	The Sydney Herald reported that Capt Laplace of the French corvette La Favorite had taken possession of New Zealand in the name of France. A fort, complete with cannon, had been erected on Koradika Beach in the Bay of Islands.
1831	10-Nov	HMS Zebra, brig, was despatched to New Zealand to investigate reports that the French corvette La Favorite was engaged in establishing a fort.
1831	27-Dec	HMS Beagle sailed from England on an historic five-year scientific cruise. Charles Darwin, the naturalist, accompanied the expedition and later published his account of the voyage. The city of Darwin, NT, was named in his honour.
1832	23-May	HMS Zebra, Capt L. McMurdro, RN, found the abandoned whaler Oldham inside the reef at Walls Island. While he was examining the derelict vessel, Zebra was attacked by natives in a boat from the Oldham. Capt McMurdro drove the natives off with carronade fire.
1834	28-Oct	Capt Sir James Stirling, RN, Governor of WA, led a force of troops against warring natives at Pinjarra, WA.
1835	9-Aug	HMS Zebra, was washed ashore in heavy winds and damaged. The crew jettisoned her guns and heavy equipment and warped her into deep water.
1836	23-Apr	Captain Hindmarsh, RN HMS Buffalo was appointed Governor of SA.
1836	23-Aug	Capt William Hobson, RN, HMS Rattlesnake, frigate, arrived in Sydney. He was despatched to Port Philip to carry out urgent surveys of the port and to supervise the new settlement.
1836	8-Sep	HMS Hyacinth visited Booby Island, Torres Strait, in a search for survivors from the merchant vessel Sir Charles Eaton. The warship was sighted by one of the two survivors but his captors prevented him from making his presence known.
1836	11-Sep	Capt Thomas Lipson, RN, was appointed Naval Officer Port Adelaide.
1836	29-Sep	HMS Rattksnake, Capt W. Hobson, RN, landed Capt William Lonsdale as Resident Magistrate at Port Phillip. Hobsons Bay was named in honour of Rattlesnake’s captain.
1836	1-Oct	Capt William Lonsdale, King’s Own Regiment, sailed up the Yarra River in HMS Rattlesnake to exert his authority in the settlement at Port Phillip.
1836	12-Oct	HM colonial schooner, Isabella, Lt Charles Morgan Lewis, RN, arrived in Port Jackson with one survivor and 45 skulls from the barque Sir Charles Eaton, wrecked on Aureed Island, Torres Strait, in 1834. The crew and passengers of the barque had been massacred by natives.
1836	28-Dec	Capt John Hindmarsh, RN, Governor of SA, arrived at Holdfast Bay in HMS Buffalo.
1837	29-Apr	Four convicts charged with stealing HM colonial cutter Frederick arrived at Hobart under escort. The escapees had been apprehended in Chile by the frigate HMS Blonde.
1837	5-Jul	HMS Beagle, 10-gun brig sloop, Capt Robert Fitzroy, RN, sailed from Plymouth Sound on its round-the-world cruise of scientific discovery. Charles Darwin was the naturalist on the expedition.
1837	8-Jul	HMS Sulphur arrived in Honolulu to mediate in disputes between native chiefs and Roman Catholic missionaries. Two days later the French warship Venus arrived to protect French rights.
1837	15-Nov	HMS Beagle, Capt Robert Fitzroy, RN, arrived at RottfleSt Island, WA, to commence a programme of surveys in Australian waters
1838	27-Jan	Lt S. Jones, RN, reported in the Perth Gazette the results of his survey of the southern coastal areas of WA.
1838	8-Feb	The French ship L Astrolabe, Capt Dumont d’Urville, was trapped in the ice in Antarctica.
1838	25-Mar	HMS Beagle, brig sloop, Capt Robert Fitzroy RN, commenced the survey of King Sound John Lort Stokes, RN, mate, and later captain of the ship, wrote an account of the ship’s work in the Cruise of the Beagle.
1838	17-Apr	Explorer Lt Grey was rescued at Hanover Bay, northern Australia, by HMS Beagle and the colonial schooner Lynher. Grey was later to become Governor of SA, New Zealand and Cape Town.
1838	25-May	HMS Beagle, Capt Wickham, RN, returned to the Swan River on completion of the survey of Dampier Archipelago. Wickham discovered and named the Fitzroy River on this voyage.
1838	22-Jul	The Governor of Tasmania, Capt Sir John Franklin, RN, met Capt Robert Fitzroy, RN, HMS Beagle, Capt Sir Gordon Bremer, RN, HMS Alligator, and Lt Owen Stanley, RN, HMS Britomart, at Hobart.
1838	18-Aug	LT C. Wilkes USN, commanding the US ships Vincennes, Peacock, Porpoise and two tenders sailed from Norfolk Virginia on the first US exploration expedition to the pacific. During the squadron’s four year voyage, it sailed 90,000 miles and cruised 2,00 miles long the Antarctic coastline which Lt Wilkes claimed for the US. The unheralded arrival of the squadron at Port Jackson in Nov 1839 created a furore of fear for the safety of the colony from an attack from the sea.
1838	17-Oct	French corvettes, L ‘Astrolabe and Zelëe, Capt Dumont d’Urville, landed punitive parties on Fiji and burnt the village of Viwa in retaliation for the massacre of the crew of the French ship Amiable Josephine in 1834.
1838	11-Nov	HMS Beagle, Capt Robert Fitzroy, RN, sailed from Port Jackson to conduct a survey of the western Bass Strait Islands.
1838	19-Dec	HMS Alligator, sloop, escaped foundering in a gale in Cockburn Sound, WA, by sailing through an undiscovered opening which was named Lambert Channel.
1839	19-Jan	Nathaniel Ogle, author of A Manual for Emigrants, estimated that 17920 line-of-battle ships or 20 British navies could be built from timber stands in the vicinity of Perth, WA.
1839	23-Mar	Lt Stanley, RN, HMS Britomart, brig, investi-gated the loss of the schooner Essington and the massacre of her crew at Timor Laut.
1839	17-Jun	Traces of oil deposits in Australia were discovered by the crew of HMS Beagle while drilling a well for water on the Banks of the Victoria River, NT.
1839	8-Jul	Cdr J. C. Wickham, RN, HMS Beagle, continued the survey of Torres Strait commenced by Cdr P. P. King, RN.
1839	22-Jul	Capt Laplace, French frigate Artemise, landed120 Marines and 60 sailors at Honolulu and demanded complete freedom of worship for Roman Catholics and the payment of 20 000 Spanish dollars in restitution from the native chiefs. Immediate hostilities would follow if the demands were not met.
1839	27-Jul	HMS Beagle, Cdr John Wickham, RN, discovered the Adelaide River, which he named in honour of the Queen.
1839	9-Sep	HMS Beagle, Cdr John Wickham, RN, discovered and named Port Darwin in honour of the naturalist Charles Darwin.
1839	6-Oct	Col William Light, founder of the city of Adelaide and a former midshipman in the RN, died.
1839	20-Oct	HMS Beagle, Capt John Wickham, RN, discovered the Victoria River in northern Australia and named it in honour of the Queen.
1839	29-Nov	USN ships Vincennes and Peacock, and five smaller warships commanded by Lt Charles Wilkes, USN, sailed into Port Jackson under cover of darkness and anchored undetected in Sydney Cove. Lt Wilkes remarked: ‘Had war existed we might, after firing the shipping and reducing the greater part of the town to ashes, have effected a retreat before daybreak in perfect safety’.
1839	7-Dec	Cdr John Lort Stokes, RN, HMS Beagle, was speared by a native in Joseph Bonaparte Gulf.