buildings, and a report on the earthquake that damaged the Paremata Barracks at Porirua. He also made occasional
bound for Sydney, New South Wales, arriving on 18 August 1846. Upon the continued native attacks in New Zealand it was decided that he had better go, and on 1 September 1846 he departed New South Wales in the aptly named trading brigantine Terror, anchoring at Auckland, on 19 September 1846. There he stayed with Captain Henderson, R.A., for several months. The Royal Engineer Office in New Zealand at this time consisted of Captain William Biddlecomb Marlow
R.E. and Clerk of Works George Graham R.E.. Both gentlemen had recently been exhaustively occupied with Hone Heke's War in the Bay of Islands (1845-46) and the Auckland defences.
On 22 November 1846, Collinson embarked in the Colonial Brig Victoria to his solitary station in Wellington, where trouble persisted in the Hutt Valley. Ten days after his arrival on 30 November, he embarked on H.M.S. Calliope, with the whole force, for Wanganui, where Captain Joseph Henry Laye, 58th Regiment, and himself selected a site for a stockade and arranged its construction. In January 1847, having returned to Wellington in a small trading cutter, he organised the construction of barracks, explored the road to Porirua and the Hutt Valley, and returned to Wanganui
in February to carry on the construction of defences there. Collinson returned to his station in Wellington in 1848, where duties included a plan for the defence of Wellington, the arrangement and construction of military
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visits to Wanganui and explorations about the local countryside. During his service in New Zealand he made a number of friends in Captain Henderson, R.A., Bishop Selwyn, Sir George Grey, Alfred Domett, William Fox and Tamehana. Dr Andrew Sinclair, the Colonial Secretary and naturalist, had served with his brother Richard on H.M.S. Sulphur.
Collinson departed New Zealand for Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), in March 1850. During his return to England from May 1850, he wrote two detailed papers on the history of military operations in New Zealand for publication in the Royal Engineer Papers. During his service
in New Zealand, the Commanding Royal Engineers were Brevet-Major William Biddlecomb Marlow R.E. and Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Bolton R.E..
In April 1869 Colonel T. Bernard Collinson R.E., advocated in a lecture to the Royal United Service Institute, the formation of one General Military School. In 1889 he edited his brother Sir Richard Collinson's journal for publication: Journal of H.M.S. Enterprise, on the expedition in search of Sir John Franklin's ships by Behring Strait, 1850-55. In 1892-94 he compiled a detailed and illustrated memoir (unpublished) of his work and experiences: Seven Years Service on the Borders of the Pacific Ocean, 1843-1850, Written for the Information and Satisfaction of my Children.
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