During the early to mid-1840s, she charted numerous routes through and from many locations around Australia's north-east coast and nearby islands, including Whitsunday Island and the Capricorn Islands. During this part of her service she employed the painter and draughtsman Harden Sidney Melville to produce the first official hydrographic survey of the north-east coast of Australia. On 2 September 1844, she rescued the survivors of the British merchant ship "Lady Grey", which had been wrecked on Alert's Reef the previous day with the loss of a passenger whilst on a voyage from Sydney, New South Wales to Singapore.