Australia Station | |
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Royal Navy squadron on the Australia Station moored in Sydney in 1880 |
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Active | Created in 1859 |
Country | United Kingdom Later, Australia |
Branch | Royal Navy Later, Royal Australian Navy |
The Australia Station was the British—and later Australian—naval command responsible for the waters around the Australian continent.[1]
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In the early years following the establishment of the colony of New South Wales, ships based in Australian waters came under the control of the East Indies Squadron of the Royal Navy and from the 1820s, a ship was sent annually to New South Wales, and occasionally to New Zealand.[2]
In 1848, an Australian Division of the East Indies Station was established.[3] However in 1859 the British Admiralty established an independent command, the Australia Station, under the command of a commodore who was assigned as Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station.[1] This decision was partially in recognition of the fact that a large part of the East Indies Station had been detached to Australian waters, while also reflecting growing concern for the strategic situation in the western Pacific in general, and in Tahiti and New Zealand in particular.[1] Ships serving on the Station were assigned to the Australian Squadron.[1] In 1884 the station was upgraded to a rear admiral's command.[1]
At its establishment, the Australia Station encompassed Australia and New Zealand, with its eastern boundary including Samoa and Tonga, its western edge in the Indian Ocean, south of India and its southern edge defined by the Antarctic Circle. The boundaries were modified in 1864, 1872, 1893, and 1908.[4] At its largest, the Australia Station reached from the Equator to the Antarctic in its greatest north-south axis, and covered one quarter of the Southern Hemisphere in its extreme east-west dimension, including Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Melanesia and Polynesia.[5]
In 1913, the Australian Squadron was disbanded, and responsibility for the Station was handed over to the new Royal Australian Navy, at which time it covered Australia and its island dependencies to the north and east.[1] At the same time it was reduced to exclude New Zealand and from then until 1921, when a separate New Zealand Station was established, New Zealand and its surrounds were part of the China Station.[6] In 1958 the Australia Station was redrawn again, no longer including New Zealand but now including Papua New Guinea.[1]
The following is a list of the Royal Navy officers who occupied the post of Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station.
Rank | Name | Term began | Term ended | |
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Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station | ||||
Commodore | William Loring | 26 March 1859 | 10 March 1860 | |
Commodore | Beauchamp Seymour | 10 March 1860 | 21 July 1862 | |
Commodore | William Burnett | 21 July 1862 | 7 February 1863 | |
Commodore | William Wiseman | 20 April 1863 | 23 May 1866 | |
Commodore | Rochfort Maguire | 23 May 1866 | 28 May 1867 | |
Commodore | Rowley Lambert | 28 May 1867 | 8 April 1870 | |
Commodore | Frederick Stirling | 8 April 1870 | 22 May 1873 | |
Commodore | James Goodenough | 22 May 1873 | 20 August 1875 | |
Commodore | Anthony Hoskins | 7 September 1875 | 12 September 1878 | |
Commodore | John Wilson | 12 September 1878 | 21 January 1882 | |
Commodore | James Erskine | 21 January 1882 | 12 November 1884 | |
Rear Admiral | George Tryon | 12 November 1884 | 1 February 1887 | |
Rear Admiral | Henry Fairfax | 1 February 1887 | 10 September 1889 | |
Rear Admiral | Lord Charles Montagu Douglas Scott | 10 September 1889 | 12 September 1892 | |
Rear Admiral | Nathaniel Bowden-Smith | 12 September 1892 | 1 November 1894 | |
Rear Admiral | Cyprian Bridge | 1 November 1894 | 1 November 1897 | |
Rear Admiral | Hugo Pearson | 1 November 1898 | 1 October 1900 | |
Rear Admiral | Sir Lewis Beaumont | 1 October 1900 | 10 November 1902 | |
Vice Admiral | Sir Arthur Fanshawe | 10 November 1902 | 10 September 1905 | |
Vice Admiral | Sir Wilmot Fawkes | 10 September 1905 | 31 December 1907 | |
Vice Admiral | Sir Richard Poore | 31 December 1907 | 31 December 1910 | |
Vice Admiral | Sir George King-Hall | 31 December 1910 | 23 June 1913 |
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