Colonial Events
1795
February
Survey of Port Stephens by Charles Grimes, assistant Surveyor GeneralMarch
Store established at Hawkesbury river under the superintendence of Baker who had arrived on the SurprizeMarch 1
Charles Grimes returns from his survey of Port Stephens giving An Account of the natives of the district.August 26
Arrival of the Providence, Captain Broughton, with an account of Runaway Convicts found at Port Stephens.September 5
Death of assistant surgeon emancipist John IrvingSeptember 7
Arrival of Governor Hunter in Sydney on the Reliance. Henry Moor was captain of the Reliance. He was also captain of the Fortune in 1806 and the Wanstead in 1814. (State Library NSW) Henry Waterhouse was appointed second commander of the Reliance with the power to act in John Hunter's absence. (Australian Dictionary of Biography).Also on board the Reliance were surgeon George Bass and midshipman Mathew Flinders and surgeon George Bass who brought with him on the Reliance a small boat later called Tom Thumb
'The discovery of the Strait which separates New Holland from Van Diemen's land, was made in a whale sloop, commanded by Mr. Bass, the surgeon of the Reliance. This vessel may be said to have been consecrated to that great discovery, and hazardous navigation; for it is preserved in the harbour with a sort of religious veneration; some snuff boxes have been made out of its keel, of which the possessors are both proud and jealous; and the governor himself thought he could not make a more acceptable present to our chief, than a piece of the wood of this sloop, encased in a large silver toothpick box; round which were engraved the principal particulars of the discovery of Bass Straits' - A Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere By Francois Peron