During the second half of the 19th century the Australian states, like Canada and other British Commonwealth nations, all adopted British military issue arms.  However, as Britain was already stressed to provide updated arms for her own army and not always able to timely rearm her colonies, some of these far-flung possessions turned to alternatives.  It was in this turmoil that the Australian colony of New South Wales (at that time the states which were to later become the Australian Federation were independent entities) placed orders for the falling block rifle devised by Edinburgh gunsmith Alexander Henry (1828-1894). 

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  Since as early as 1865, Henry had been engaged in submitting his rifle designs in the competitions before the [British breech-loading selection committee (correct name?)] for a replacement to their existing Snider-Enfield (q.v.) service rifle, a conversion of the British P1853 muzzle-loader that was recognized as a stopgap and that would become substantially obsolete by the time of the adoption of a new rifle.  By 1867, Henry's improvements were such that his entry was moved on to the final rounds of competition.  The Henry rifle won the "best breech mechanism" in the 1868 trials, ahead of the Martini entry (which was essentially the overall concept invented by William O. Peabody (Peabody, q.v.) as improved by Frederich von Martini) and the Westley-Richards entries.  While Henry was awarded a £600 prize resulting from this competition, a third set of trials was undertaken in 1869, by which time the Westley-Richards had been withdrawn, leaving only a determination to be made between the Henry entry and the Martini as further modified by the British armory at Enfield.

 

  Following these extensive trials the British finally adopted their first purpose-built breech-loading military rifle, the Enfield Martini-Henry (q.v.) in 187_ as the ______ [formal name of the Mark I].  This Martini was an amalgamation of the Peabody (q.v.) with Martini improvement, to which Henry's contribution was his exceptional seven-groove polygonal barrel rifling).  But development and adoption of the Martini had taken long enough that the British were hard-pressed to manufacture sufficient Martinis quickly enough to meet domestic demand, let alone rearm colonies.

 

  Up until this time, Alexander Henry rifles made and sold mostly for sporting use.  The rifle is a dropping block design, more closely similar to the American Sharps action than to any other military design of the day.  In 1870 the New South Wales government placed its first order with Alexander Henry for 2500 rifles and short rifles [how many of each?] along with saber bayonets, the manufacture of which was initially subcontracted to Westley Richards (1871).  Later orders were manufactured by the National Arms and Ammunition Company and the Braendlin Armoury Company.  The first rifles were delivered about late 1871.  The order contained both long rifles chambered for the .450-3 1/4" Boxer-Henry Long cartridge, a cartridge originally tested and rejected for the Martini-Henry, and carbines chambered for the .450-2 1/2" Short chamber cartridge.  The British adoption of the Martini-Henry in 1872 gave the NSW authorities pause, as they debated whether to abandon further Henry orders, but they remained committed to the Henry and moved ahead with additional orders.  NSW did, however, adopt the standard British service cartridge, the "Short Chamber Boxer-Henry .45 caliber" which came to be known as the .577-.450 Martini-Henry.  Earlier delivered rifles were converted to the Martini-Henry cartridge by shortening the barrel from its original 34½ inch length to about 33¼ inches and re-boring the chambers to accept the .577-.450.

 

  In all, there were eight separate New South Wales orders with the Alexander Henry Arms Company [check proper name] for their rifles, short rifles and carbines.  The weapons were issued variously to the "Permanent Artillery," Naval Brigade, and various combinations of regular and volunteer infantry, artillery, cavalry, mounted rifles, cadets, engineers, police and prison guards.

 

  Kirton estimates as many as 6,000-7,000 New South Wales Henrys were produced.  Winfer (British Single Shot Rifles, Vol. 1 - Alexander Henry) at p.92 says that “surviving records point to orders of up to 5,400 and possibly more than 6,000."

 

  The New South Wales series of contracts appear to have been the Alexander Henry Company's only military contracts for its rifles.