While she was stationed at Sydney there was scarcely a
dependency of the mother colony that was not more
Or less indebted to
her, either for proclaiming it a British possession, or for bringing it
settlers and food, or for providing it with means of defence against the
attacks of natives.
In the early history of Victoria the Lady Nelson occupies a niche
somewhat similar to that which the Endeavour fills in the annals of New
South Wales, but while Cook and the Endeavour discovered the east coast
and then left it, the Lady Nelson, after charting the bare coast-line of
Victoria, returned again and again to explore its inlets and to penetrate
its rivers, her boats discovering the spacious harbour at the head of
which Melbourne now stands.
The Lady Nelson also went northward as well as southward, and though many
of her logbooks are missing, some survive, and one describes how, in
company with the Investigator under Captain Flinders, she examined the
Queensland shore as far as the Cumberland Islands. Later she accompanied
the Mermaid, under Captain King, to Port Macquarie when he followed
Flinders' track through Torres Strait, and during her long period of
service she visited different parts of the coast, including Moreton Bay,
Port Essington, and Melville Island. Precisely how many voyages she made
as a pioneer will probably never be known. The ship, at least, played
many parts: now acting as King's messenger and carrying despatches from
the Governor to Norfolk Island; now fetching grain grown at the
Hawkesbury, or coals from Newcastle for the use of the increasing
population at Sydney; and at another time carrying troops and settlers to
the far distant north.
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