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Image Not Available for Report by Commander William Norman on the expedition of HMCS VICTORIA to the Gulf of Carpentaria
Report by Commander William Norman on the expedition of HMCS VICTORIA to the Gulf of Carpentaria
Image Not Available for Report by Commander William Norman on the expedition of HMCS VICTORIA to the Gulf of Carpentaria

Report by Commander William Norman on the expedition of HMCS VICTORIA to the Gulf of Carpentaria

Date1861 - 1862
Object number00008346
NameParliamentary paper
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 350 mm, 0.1 kg
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionA report submitted to both houses of Victorian Parliament by Commander William Henry Norman on the expedition of HMCS VICTORIA to the Gulf of Carpentaria as part of the search for the explorers Burke and Wills. The report also contains a copy of Commander Norman's journal of the expedition. HistoryHMCS VICTORIA was a 176 foot sloop, propelled by a screw driven engines of 120-horse power. The vessel was initially employed in guarding the coastline of the state of Victoria and defending Port Phillip Bay. In 1860 she took troops and stores from Hobart to New Zealand where she remained for some time during the First Taranaki War. Thirty of the crew volunteered for land service ot form a naval brigade and by doing so became the first Australian unit to see action in a war overseas. In 1861 HMCS VICTORIA was sent to the Gulf of Carpentaria with directions from the Royal Society of Victoria to search for the missing Burke and Wills exploration party. VICTORIA under Commander William Henry Norman sailed from Hobson's Bay in August 1861 for Brisbane, where William Landsborough and the Queensland Relief Expedition boarded. They arrived at the Albert River in the Gulf of Carpentaria at the end of September. After finding only traces of the explorers, they returned to Melbourne on 31 March 1862. During her career VICTORIA was involved in the rescue of survivors from several shipwrecks, used in hydrographic surveys and carried the first salmon eggs to Tasmania to begin the industry that still thrives today. The vessel was de-commissioned in 1882 and was sold to Western Australia in 1884. SignificanceHMCS VICTORIA was the second warship to be built for an Australian colonial navy but the first British-built ship to be given to a colony of the British Empire. In her role during the First Taranaki War in New Zealand, the vessel became first Australian warship to be deployed overseas.