[1] She traded between Port Lincoln and Port Adelaide, but also carried cargo and passengers to Melbourne and Hobart Town, including soldiers, police, criminals, an executioner, as well as numerous civilians.

[1] Captain Emanuel Underwood arrived in Port Adelaide in 1840 aboard Baboo.

He brought with him the frame of a small vessel of 15 tons (register), together with sails, spars, ropes, and tackle.

[3] He then assembled her on the mudflats of Port River and named her for George Gawler, the governor of the colony.

Governor Gawler, Underwood, master, was making for Port Lincoln when a storm drove her northward and onto a reef near Reevesby Island, in the Sir Joseph Banks Group on 1 August 1847.