1870

1870	9-Feb	A ‘Southern Cross’ flag, claimed to be the official ensign of the Colony of Victoria, was hoisted in HMVS Nelson.
1870	10-Sep	Gun teams from the Victorian Naval Brigade exercised for the first time in HMVS Nelson.
1870	29-Oct	HMVS Cerberus, armoured turret ship, met a gale while on passage from Chatham to Plymouth. Officials at the Admiralty were concerned at the seaworthiness of the ship following the loss of HMS Captain, a similar type of vessel. Lt Panter, RN, reported the ship sailed like ‘a half tide rock’. On arrival at Plymouth the crew promptly deserted.
1871	9-Apr	HMVS Cerberus, armoured turret ship, arrived in Port Philip on her maiden voyage.
1871	20-Sep	The Russian corvette Vitiaz, Capt Paul Nikolajovitch Nasimov, landed the explorer Miklouho-Maclay to set up an observation station at Astrolabe Bay.
1871	25-Sep	Russian naturalist N. von Miklouho-Maclay arrived at Madang, New Guinea, in the corvette Vitiaz, to study anthropology in the area. Miklouho-Maclay remained at Madang for 15 months.
1872	11-Jan	The British Prime Minister, Mr Gladstone, proposed the use of HMVS Victoria for policing blackbirding in the South Seas.
1872	21-Feb	Capt John Moresby, RN, HMS Basilisk, criticised settlers at Somerset, Cape York, for their involve-ment in blackbirding.
1872	10-Mar	Lt Gowlland, RN, was despatched from Sydney in SS Governor Blackall to search for survivors from the brig Maria, believed wrecked in the of Bramble Reef, Qld.
1872	12-Mar	HMS Basilisk, paddlewheel sloop, Capt John Moresby, RN, rescued eight survivors of the brig Maria from Bramble Reef, Qld. The brig was owned by a syndicate of 76 Sydney men known as the New Guinea Prospecting Association. They sailed from Sydney in the unseaworthy vessel on 25 January 1872, bound for the Fly River. A subsequent investigation into the loss found the captain had no navigation experience.
1872	12-May	HMS Blanche, Capt Cortland H. Simpson, RN, sailed from Port Jackson on a 13 000-mile, 189-day cruise of the Pacific Islands to investi-gate blackbirding, skull-hunting and the murder of British subjects.
1872	14-Sep	An international court met in Geneva and awarded $15,500,000 compensation to the USA for the permission given by Britain to the Confederate States raider to use British ports during the closing stages of the Civil War. Shenandoah was repaired and refitted at Williamstown before sailing out to destroy the American whaling fleet in the North Pacific.
1872	4-Nov	HMS Alacrity schooner was commissioned at Sydney for black birding patrols in the Pacific islands.
1872	5-Dec	HM schooners Beagle and Sandfly were commissioned at Sydney for anti-blackbirding patrols in the Pacific islands. Both vessels were sold out of service in 1883.
1872	21-Dec	HMS Challenger, screw corvette, sailed from Portsmouth on a round the world oceanographic cruise.
1873	5-Jan	Capt John Moresby, RN, HMS Basiisk, seized the schooners Melanie and Challenge and charged the captains with blackbirding.
1873	9-Jan	Capt John Moresby, RN, HMS Basilisk, arrested the barque Woodbine off the Queensland coast on suspicion of blackbirding.
1873	14-Jan	Capt John Moresby, RN, HMS Basilisk, paddle-wheel sloop, seized the barque Crishna carrying kidnapped natives. The vessel was later sold by the Government.
1873	16-Jan	HMS Renard, schooner, was commissioned in Sydney for blackbirding patrols in the Pacific. The vessel was sold out of service in 1883.
1873	11-Feb	HMS Conflict, schooner, was commissioned at Sydney for blackbirding patrols in the Pacific. The vessel was sold out of service in 1882.
1873	16-Feb	HMS Challenger, Capt G. Nares, RN, became the first ship to conduct ocean surveys south of the Antarctic Circle. Challenger undertook the RN’s first world wide oceanographic survey which included Australia.
1873	20-Feb	Capt John Moresby, RN, HMS Basilisk, wooden paddle sloop, discovered Port Moresby, New Guinea. He named it in honour of his father, Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby.
1873	17-Mar	HMS Challenger, oceanographic survey ship, arrived at Port Philip on her world voyage.
1873	6-Apr	Capt John Moresby, RN, HMS Basilisk, commenced a survey of 275 miles of the south and east coast of New Guinea.
1873	19-Apr	HMS Challenger, oceanographic research ship, surveyed Sydney Harbour and Broken Bay. Challenger Head in Broken Bay was named after the ship.
1873	24-Apr	Capt John Moresby, RN, HMS Basilisk, took possession of Moresby, Hayter and Basilisk Island for Great Britain.
1873	24-Jun	A seaman from HMS Fly was speared to death on Cape York peninsula.
1873	11-Aug	Capt Francis Price Blackwood, RN, HM ships Fly and Bramble, and the cutter Midge, surveyed passages in the Arafura Sea.
1873	21-Aug	Sub Lt William Creswell, RN, commanding a cutter from HMS Midge, silenced a gun in a Chinese pirate fort at the mouth of the Larut River, Malaya, with rocket fire.
1873	14-Sep	The graving dock at Williamstown was completed.
1873	16-Sep	Sub Lt William Creswell, RN, HMS Badger, schooner, fought off two large Chinese pirate galleys on the Larut River, Malaya. Badger was aground and the battle was fought at point-blank range. Creswell was severely wounded in the engagement.
1873	24-Oct	Lt Connor, RN, HM schooner Pearl, arrived at Endeavour River, Qld, to supervise the establish-ment of Cooktown as the port of the Palmer River goldfields.
1874	2-Mar	HMVS Nelson was the first warship docked in the Alfred Graving Dock at Williamstown, Vic.
1874	21-Mar	Cdre J. G. Goodenough, CB, CMG, RN, and Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of NSW, met the paramount chiefs of Fiji on board HMS PearL and discussed the annexation of the islands by Britain.
1874	28-May	Capt John Moresby, RN, HMS Basilisk, paddle- wheel sloop, completed a survey of Redscar Bay, Basilisk Island, China Straits, Hayter Island, Milne Bay, Normanby Island, Fergusson Island, Possession Bay, Cape Bartle Island, Collingwood Bay, Richie Island, Parsee Point, Huon Gulf, Lesson Island, Humboldt Bay and Threshold Bay.
1874	11-Aug	Staff Cdr John Thomas Ewing Gowlland, RN, was drowned off Dobroyd Point, Port Jackson, when his boat was swamped while surveying the entrance to the port.
1874	30-Sep	Fiji was annexed to the British Crown. Cdre Goodenough in HMS Pearl noted that one of the native chiefs who signed the annexation docu-ment ‘was sulky and had been drunk’.
1875	3-Mar	Sir Charles Thomson, scientist in HMS Challenger, surveyed the Admiralty Islands.
1875	23-Mar	HMS Challenger, wooden steam corvette, recorded a sounding of 8366 m in the Pacific.
1875	14-Jun	Cdre James Goodenough, RN, HMS Pearl, sailed from Sydney on his last voyage. He transported the first Governor of Fiji, Sir Arthur Gordon, to the new colony.
1875	20-Jun	HMS Pearl, Cdre James Goodenough, carried out a flag-showing cruise in the Fiji Islands.
1875	12-Aug	Cdre J. G. Goodenough and six sailors from HMS Pearl were wounded in an attack by natives in the Santa Cruz Islands.
1875	20-Aug	Cdre J. G Goodenough, RN died in his flagship HMS Pearl in Port Jackson.
1876	31-Jan	The French Navy ship Correze landed the naturalist M. A. Raffrey and his party at Dorei, New Guinea. Raffrey contributed greatly to the knowledge of flora and fauna on the island.
1876	6-Apr	HMS Phoebe, steam corvette, was sold out of service at Plymouth, England. Phoebe was on the Australia Station in 1868.
1876	24-May	HMS Challenger arrived at Sheerness on the completion of a world oceanographic research cruise.
1876	17-Jun	HMS Sappho, Cdr Digby, RN, arrived at Port Moresby to exert legal authority over miners and to protect native rights.
1876	21-Aug	The telegraph cable between New Zealand and Australia was joined at Botany Bay, NSW.
1876	3-Oct	The Dutch warship Dassoon, Capt van der Crab, arrived at Geelvink with the naturalist J. E Teysmann to record New Guinea flora.
1877	23-Aug	HMS Penguin, composite screw sloop, was commissioned at Glasgow, Scotland. The sloop spent most of her service life in Australian waters.
1878	15-Nov	VA Sir G. F. Bowen, KCMG, Governor and C in C of the Colony of Victoria, proclaimed the bushranger Ned Kelly an outlaw.
1879	17-Aug	Capt P. Richards, MS Renard schooner, commanded a punitive expedition to Kabakadai New Britain following threats by natives to murder missionaries. A landing party burnt two huts and cut down 100 banana trees. As a final warning to the natives, a rocket was fired from the Renard bringing down a coconut tree in the village square.
1879	21-Nov	Capt Purvis, RN, HMAS Danae, corvette, submitted his report on the Six Day War in the Duke of York Islands to Cdre Wilson of the Australia Station. The war was a clash between native tribes assisted by British and German trading interests in the islands.
1879	29-Nov	Maj Gen Sir William Jervois, RE, presented his report on the provision of local defences, forts, ships and batteries for the Australian colonies.