[2] He transferred back to Hobart in 1831 as a clerk at the department's headquarters,[1] moving to Port Arthur in 1833 where he remained for fifteen years.

[3] He collected them for publication under the title "The Penal Settlements of Van Diemen's Land" and they were partially published in the Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science between 1842 and 1846.

[4] Lempriere was primarily known for his portraiture which included paintings of convict commandant Charles O'Hara Booth, ship's captain William Kinghorne, minister John Manton, and fellow portraitist George Fleming Armstrong.

A chalk and crayon drawing held by the British Museum has been tentatively identified by Gaye Scunthorpe and Cassandra Pybus as being a portrait of Maulboyheenner completed by Lempriere.

[5] During his periods stationed at the remote convict settlements, Lempriere made recordings and preserved specimens of local flora and fauna, as well as tidal and metereological observations.

[6] He frequently corresponded with British naturalist William Swainson, whom he sent significant number of samples spanning across birds, mammals, insects and molluscs.

[7] Lempriere also provided samples of Tasmanian fish to naturalist John Richardson, which were stored in glass vials and are held by the Natural History Museum, London.

[10] Lempriere kept daily records of tide levels at Port Arthur from 1837 to 1842, which were published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society via colonial governor John Franklin.

On 1 July 1841, he and visiting Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross carved a sandstone line on the Isle of the Dead to serve as a tide gauge.