 His brother one above him, Ratu Timoci Tavanavanua (Timothy) was born in 1847.His father had unified all the tribes of Fiji under his reign in the mid-1800s and subsequently ceded the islands to the United Kingdom in 1874.In 1872 Celua came to Australia and was in the care of the Rev Francis Tait until he was enrolled at Newington College under the Presidency of the Rev Joseph Horner Fletcher.