Australia, 1886
Type: Cruiser 1st Class, Armoured ; Armament Originally 2 x 22-ton 9" ; 10 x 6 in qf ; later reduced to 1 x 9.2 " ; 5 x 6 "
Launched : 25 Nov 1886 ; Disposal date or year : 1905
Displacement: 5600 tons
Propulsion: Twin Screw Complement: 497
Machinery notes: 8500 hpi ; Speed ; 17.1 knots ;
Notes:

19 Nov 1889 Commissioned at Chatham.

18 July 1889 - 7 June 1893 Mediterranean.

1893 - 5 Feb 1903 Coast Guard Service.

Weekly Dispatch 28 Jan 1900
Army and Navy Notes - Court Martial

Although the facts as revealed in the court martial recently held on Lieutenant M. E. L. Thompson, of the Australia, were pitiful, yet there is a strong feeling of the sympathy among naval officers for the then prisoner. Serving for no less than seventeen years and a half as a lieutenant, frequently recommended for promotion, and each time passed over, constantly applying for his discharge, and as often being refused, it is small wonder that his interest in the Service evaporated.

About 20 lieutenants junior to Lieut. Thompson, with no chance of promotion, have found good billets in the Coastguard ; but here again he has been constantly passed over. In such circumstances the Admiralty are more to blame than an erring officer, for it must be obvious that the senior executive officer of a ship who has no more zeal for the Service is incapable, by the very condition of things, to set that example which is required of him, and which he was capable of setting until he had lost heart.

No civilian employer would dream of keeping on a servant who had wearied of his duty ; but the Admiralty, because they are short of lieutenants, compel an officer to serve, though they know of his reluctance to make himself efficient, or even to take the ordinary steps to maintain discipline.