In February, 1807, the regiment was ordered from Stirling Castle to Glasgow, as a better recruiting station; but not having proved as successful there as was expected, it was removed in May following to Perth, which, from being the town where the regiment was originally embodied, was expected to prove a better recruiting station.
In 1807 the regiment received new colours and accoutrements from Lieut.-General George Harris, and was newly armed and equipped in that year.
1808
On the passing of the Act, in the year 1808, for permitting a certain number of the militia of the United Kingdom to volunteer their services to regiments of the line, the SEVENTY-THIRD received a very considerable augmentation of force by volunteers, particularly from the Irish militia. The number received from the Scotch regiments of militia, allotted for the SEVENTY-THIRD, was not at all in the same proportion, and the only English corps allotted to it was the Stafford militia, from which thirty-three men volunteered, a circumstance totally unexpected, from the dislike English soldiers were known to entertain to the Highland uniform.
In December, 1808, the regiment, being then about four hundred rank and file, received orders to proceed to England, to embark for New South Wales, and commenced its march from Perth on the 26th of that month.
On the order for the embarkation of the regiment for New South Wales, a second battalion was added to the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment, which was directed to be placed on the establishment of the army from the 24th of December, 1808. It was ordered to consist, in the first instance, of four companies. When these companies were completed to a hundred rank and file each, the battalion was to be augmented to six companies, and so on, in succession, until the establishment was increased to one thousand.
1809
On the 13th of January, 1809, the regiment embarked at Leith on board of four packets, and the whole arrived in the course of that, and the beginning of the following month, at Gravesend, where the men were transhipped into two transports, and ordered round to Spithead. In March the regiment was landed at Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, marched to Newport, whence, after a few days, it was ordered to Colwell barracks.
A second volunteering from the militia took place in April, 1809, by which the SEVENTY-THIRD received a considerable increase of numbers, particularly from the Stafford, West Middlesex, and Durham regiments.
In April, 1809, officers and non-commissioned officers were detached to recruit for the second battalion, the head-quarters of which were fixed at Nottingham.[9]