At the time the college was still at Newington House and Celua arrived with "two native servants and a huge outrigger canoe, which became for the boys a source of great fun"[5] on the Parramatta River.

"[6] In the April of his first year in Australia he attended a picnic to farewell Charles St Julian, who had been appointed Chief Justice of Fiji.

[3] At the Queen's Birthday celebrations in Sydney in May 1872, Celua was part of the Newington College Cadet Corps (50 in number) who fired an honour salute.

In the winter break of 1873 he was in the Maitland, New South Wales, district when he helped to save a ten-year-old boy from drowning in the Hunter River.

[10] Given the claims of Antonius Tui Tonga (1850–1905) to be the son of the King of Fiji and to have been educated at Newington it is likely that he was Celua's second servant and on staying in Australia he migrated to Mackay, Queensland.

In Cannibals & convicts: notes of personal experiences in the Western Pacific by Julian Thomas, the author describes him as being "a striking example of the success of the pious training of the Wesleyans at Newington College, in Sydney.

This young scion of the house of Cakobau does not appear to have any ambition beyond that of getting through life comfortably ... Joe however, has very agreeable manners and he has one special good quality – he is strictly temperate as regards intoxicating liquors.

In the book Cruise of the Alert – Four Years in Patagonian, Polynesian, and Mascarene Waters (1878–82), Dr R. W. Coppinger speaks of his visit to Levuka and meeting Celua.

He spoke favourably of British rule, although, as we were otherwise informed, he himself had recently acquired a practical experience of the unpleasant consequences attending the commission of an indictable offence, in having to undergo a sentence of three months' hard labour.

The Cootamundra Herald carried the following notice on 27 October 1886: "Ratu Joe, son of the late King Thakambau, of Fiji, and a student of Newington College, has died of leprosy at Levuka, aged 26 years.