14 June 1837   HMS Buffalo

HMS Buffalo, after being at anchor in Holdfast Bay for six months serving as a home for Governor Hindmarsh, set sail for Sydney on the 14 June 1837, and returned to England in 1839. In 1840 she arrived in Hobart Town from Quebec with a number of rebels and convicts and then went to New Zealand to load cargo, but she was wrecked in Mercury Bay in the Bay of Islands on the North Island of New Zealand on the 28 July.

The ship was built in Calcutta in 1813 as the merchantman Hindostan and was intended for service with the East India Company, but later that year she was purchased by the Royal Navy and renamed Buffalo. She was 120 feet long with a beam of 34 feet, her armaments consisted of sixteen 24 pound cannon and two nine pound long guns, and she had a complement of 93 officers and crew.

In 1980 a replica of the Buffalo was built to the original plans and specifications of the British Admiralty, although the interior is not the same as the first ship. The new Buffalo, permanently moored in the Patawalonga Boat Haven at Glenelg, is used as a restaurant and features a nautical museum. The replica cost $1.5 million and was opened by the Premier on the 2 May 1982.

Brochure:  H.M.S. 'Buffalo' Seafood Restaurant and Museum.