Recently discovered colonial records have provided new evidence that Australian sea levels are rising. In the 1840’s, amateur scientist Thomas Lempriere set up a rudimentary tide gauge cut into rock on the Isle of the Dead, where Port Arthur convicts were buried. It is believed to be the earliest such gauge in the Southern Hemisphere. But while the gauge is still there, it was meaningless without the detailed records Lempriere took from it, which family members believed had been destroyed. However, according to news.com.au and CSIRO Marine Research, some detective work has uncovered those records from the archives of the Royal Society in London and the Australian Archives in Hobartsome. The analysis of those records reveal that the ocean has risen approximately 13.5 cm since the 1840s, without taking into account vertical land movement.