Handbook of Western Australia/Introduction
THE
HANDBOOK
OF
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
Introduction.
DISCOVERY.
TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA, the great unknown South Land, was visited by the Portuguese Menezes, first of all Europeans, in the year 1527, when exploring the Indian Seas; and the memory of this discovery is perpetuated in the name given to the group of rocky islets on the West Coast, still known as the Abrolhos, a term frequently applied by the early voyagers of that nation to dangerous outlying islets and reefs, indicating the necessity for a good look out, and being a contraction of the words which in that language mean "open your eyes."
The Portuguese were closely followed by the Dutch, who examined and gave name to the districts of the Western Coast and its most notable features. In this will be found the only interest which their discoveries now command, as their surveys and descriptions of the places they visited have been superseded by those made since Great Britain took possession of the country.
In the year 1598, Houtman, who projected the Dutch East India Company, gave his name to the Abrolhos, which they still retain; and in 1629 Pelsart suffered shipwreck upon them. In 1616, the Endraght, of Amsterdam, made Sharks Bay and the island since known as Dorée, more properly Doore, and so named after Peter Doore, her pilot. Dirk Hartog gave his name to the island on the Western side of that bay, which still retains it, and an inscription was placed on its Northern point, Cape Discovery, now known as Cape Inscription. In 1619, Edel gave his name to the district round Sharks Bay; and Cape Leeuwin (or Lioness) was so named in 1622, after the vessel from which it was first seen. In 1627, the coast to the East of Cape Leeuwin received the name of Nuyts' land, from a passenger on board the Guide Zeepart, or Good Shepherd, on her voyage to Japan. In 1628, the captain of the Karien, De Witt, gave his name to the land to the North, and the North coast was visited by Tasman more than once after his voyage in 1642. In 1665, the Dutch Government gave the name of New Holland to the whole country, thus marking the priority of claim to its possession.
In 1689, during the reign of William and Mary, Dampier was sent in the Roebuck to examine the North and West Coasts. He entered, and named, Sharks Bay, and he also gave names, his own notably, to Dampier's land and Archipelago, as well as to other islands and places on the North coast.
In 1697 Vlaming, in the Gielvink, discovered and named the Swan River, and took back to Europe that "rara avis" the, till then unknown, black swan. From that time until 1770, when Cook discovered and took possession of Botany Bay, Australia appears to have been generally neglected.
The first land seen by Cook was Point Hicks, now in the Colony of Victoria; his successor, Vancouver, entered and named King George's Sound, in 1791; and the French expedition under Baudin and Freycinet, in the Geographe and Naturaliste, examined the Western coasts and sent boats up the Swan River. Flinders and Bass extended the discoveries of Cook to the West in 1798, and were followed by Murray, in 1802; and in the same year Flinders, now commanding the Investigator, sailing Eastward from King George's Sound, made and named Fowler's Bay, at the present Western limit of South Australia,-just anticipating the visit of the French expedition under Baudin, who, nevertheless, claimed the discovery and took possession, giving the country the name of Napoleon. When, however, after his captivity of seven years in the Mauritius, Flinders published an account of his discoveries, his rightful priority was conceded.
In 1801, the French corvettes Geographe and Naturaliste, with the galliotte Casuarina, which had been attached to the expedition at Port Jackson, made Cape Leeuwin in the month of June, and the names of the three vessels and their officers still maintain, on the Western coast, many reminiscences of their visit. The Vasse River was so named after a Dutch sailor, who accompanied the expedition, and was drowned off its mouth. The coasts of Endraght land, De Witts' land, and Sharks Bay were examined and named; returning southward, the Swan River was entered by boats, June 17, and explored as far as the islands above Perth Water, which were named after M. Hierrisen, Enseigne de Vaisseau. M. de Peron, the historian of the expedition, gave a very particular account of the river, which, however, was not confirmed in its details by the officers of the Success, in 1827. A large number of names given by the French are still retained and familiar to the ears of Western Australians, but some have been replaced by English appellations, as the Moreau, now the Canning, while others have undergone a process of translation, as Port Two-people.
The Northern coasts were surveyed by Capt. King, in 1820 to 1824, and his work was supplemented by Captains Wickham and Stokes, in the Beagle, between the years 1837 and 1843; the latter completing the survey of Sharks Bay.
The coasts of Western Australia being then sufficiently known, and it having been ascertained that the French had determined to establish themselves there, the Governor of New South Wales, in 1826, sent a party of about 75 persons, principally soldiers and convicts, to occupy King George's Sound, and, the next year, H.M.S. Success, to select a place for a settlement on the West coast, with special reference to the Swan River, off the mouth of which that vessel dropped her anchor on the 6th of March, and the next day the gig and cutter were sent, with their crews well armed, and with provisions for a fortnight, to examine the river, to proceed if possible to its source, ascertain the nature and productions of the country, and fix on an eligible site for a settlement. The boats, having reached Hierrisen's islands, were hauled over the flats, and ascended the river until stopped by fallen timber. In returning the gig was sent to examine the Canning River, and during the absence of the boats, the shores and waters of Gage's Roads had been examined.
Mr. Frazer, the Colonial botanist, accompanied the expedition, and he notices with much pleasure the beauty of the scenery, the vivid green of the foliage, and the astonishing luxuriance of the herbaceous plants, which he described as exceeding anything he ever saw on the East coast. Indeed the river, still beautiful, must, before its banks were denuded of the forest trees which then clothed them "so magnificently," to use his own expression, have afforded "a great treat "to one accustomed to the ever brown Eucalyptus of Port Jackson."
The reports made by Captain Stirling and Mr. Frazer, on the return of the Success to Sydney, determined the Governor to recommend that a settlement should be formed on the Swan River, and Captain Stirling was, in consequence, sent out in 1829, to give effect to his recommendation. Hitherto, nothing had been known of Western Australia but the coast line, and that imperfectly, with the lower course of the rivers Swan and Canning, and the lake or estuary into which they have their outlets. On his arrival. Captain Stirling lost no time in obtaining further knowledge both of the coast and of the interior of that country which it had become his duty to develop for the advancement and future prosperity of the Colony of which he was the founder; indeed, even before Stirling's arrival. Captain Fremantle (H.M.S. Challenger) had already hoisted the British flag at the place which now bears his name, and had explored the country lying between Cockburn Sound and the Canning River.
While Mr. James Drummond, the botanist, who accompanied Captain Stirling, was at his work near the coast. Ensign Robert Dale, of the 63rd, explored the country to the Eastward, and reached the valley of the Avon, at Mt. Bakewell; and afterwards, starting from thence, proceeded Eastward for about 60 miles to Mts. Stirling and Caroline, returning by a more Southern route past the mount which bears his name. Meanwhile, Lieut. William Preston, R.N., with Dr. Alexander Collie, had reached Leschenault, to the South; and Lieut. Archibald Erskine examined the Darling Kange. Dale again, in the end of the year 1830, went to trace the course of the Helena River, and Captain Thomas Bannister started from the Swan River to cross the country to King George's Sound. On the South, Captain John Molloy had discovered the Blackwood, and Governor Stirling with the Surveyor General, Lieut. J. S. Roe, R.N., having visited Leschenault and Augusta, military detachments and settlers were established at both places. Nor had those at King George's Sound been idle, and the names of Lieut.-Col. Lockyer, Captain Wakefield, Lieutenants Tollemache and Kent, and especially that of Dr. Wilson. Resident Magistrate at Albany, will not be forgotton.
In the work of exploration none were more active than the Governor himself, who, with the Surveyor General, examined the course of the Collie and Preston Rivers, and the latter explored the country beyond the range of hills, which the Governor named after him. Roe's range; but the first exploration of any length, or presenting any serious, difficulty, was that made from the Swan to King George's Sound, by Captain Thomas Bannister, who, in consequence of the inaccuracy of the calculations of the surveyor sent with him, only succeeded in reaching, after much hardship, the coast near the mouth of the Frankland, having discovered in his journey the Bannister and other affluents of the Murray, as well as those of the Blackwood and Frankland. He first noticed the gigantic growth of the trees near the South coast.The next year, Collie and Dale, removed to King George's Sound, proceeded to explore that district Collie from Oyster harbor about the King and Kalgan or Trench River, as it was then called, and the Porongurup Range, while Dale was sent to Tood-e-rup, a part of the Stirling Range, to search, but without success, for a cereal plant said to be used as food by the natives. This year also, 1831, Mr. J. G. Bussell examined the country between the Blackwood and the Vasse, as well as the coast to the West of those rivers.
In 1833, Mr. Alfred Hillman, a surveyor in the employ of the Government, explored the South coast from Albany as far as Nornalup inlet. In 1834, Mr. G. F. Moore made the junction of the Avon and Swan; Mr. Thomas Turner ascended the Blackwood; Mr. John Butler explored the Lake district to the North of Perth; Mr. C R. B. Norcott, Superintendent of Police, the Murray River valley; Mr. F. Ludlow traversed the country between Augusta and the Swan River; and Mr. W, K, Shenton, a draughtsman attached to the office of the Surveyor General, examined the Collie River.
In 1835, Hillman visited the Avon, Hillman, and Williams Rivers; Mr, Patrick Taylor examined the upper course of the Kalgan and Hay; Surveyor Thomas Watson the Murray; and Moore the Upper Swan; but that year is most notable for the expedition under the command of the Governor himself, attended by the Surveyor General, which, traversing the country about the head waters of the Murray and Blackwood, struck the course of the Palinup or Salt River, and returning from the West of the Stirling Range (so named after Governor Stirling), descended the valley of the Kent, and proceeded along the coast to King George's Sound. From thence they went in H.M.S. Sulphur to Cape Knob and Dillon Bay, and on their return Mr. Roe went back by York to the Swan River.
In 1836, further exploration was made by Hillman and Williams between the Avon and Williams Rivers; by Moore and Drummond about the sources of Moore River, and by Lieut. H. W. Bunbury in the valley of the Williams, and between the sources of the Dale and the Murray. In 1837 the Governor went by the valley of the Murray to Kojonup; and that year is notable for the landing of Lieuts. Grey and Lushington on the North coast, and for the discovery, by them, of the beautiful and fertile valley of the Glenelg River. Grey, however, having been severely wounded in a skirmish with the natives, returned with his party to Mauritius, to restore his health and prepare for a fresh descent on the North coast. Meanwhile, Hillman with his party was surveying the country, and laying out a road from Perth to King George's Sound.
It was, indeed, for the purpose of connecting the scattered settlements in the new Colony, that most explorations were now made. The settlers in the South-West very naturally desired that the road from Perth to Albany should pass near their locations, and the journeys of Messrs. W. Nairn Clarke, R. H. Bland (afterwards Colonial Secretary), F. C. Singleton, and Lieut, G. E. Egerton Warburton, were continued for the three following years with that object. At this time, also, Captain John Scully made further exploration on the Moore River, as did surveyor H. M. Ommaney (formerly a lieutenant in the army), on the coast to the West of Busselton, while Clarke examined the coast and its inlets between King George's Sound and Point D'Entrecasteaux.
Grey, by the advice of Sir William Nicolay, then Governor of Mauritius, had come to the Swan River to re-organise his party for farther exploration on the North coast; but as it was supposed that the main drainage of the interior would prove to be to the West, the rivers of the North coast being apparently of sufficient magnitude, and the limits of the basin of the Glenelg being known, he went by sea to Sharks Bay, into which a considerable river had been reported to flow from the East, and was landed with three whale boats and stores on Bernier island, where he made his dépot, and from thence proceeded across the bay, and after much danger and difficulty, succeeded in tracing its Eastern shore and entering the mouth of the Gascoigne River; but returning to his dépot one of his boats was broken up, the others shattered, and his stores destroyed in a violent storm, so that he was obliged to attempt to return to Swan River by sea in two boats, now unfit for service, and with a very insufficient stock of provisions. Attempting to land near the South of Gantheaume bay, his boats were destroyed in the surf on the beach, and it only remained to reach, if possible, the Swan River, on foot. In this terrible journey the party separated, but Grey and a faithful native named Kaibor, having reached Perth, sent back assistance to the rest, who, with the exception of Frederick Smith, a young volunteer who had attached himself to Grey, and Mr. Walker the surgeon, who had reached Fremantle unassisted, were picked up by a party sent to their relief under the Surveyor General. Smith died of exhaustion near the small river which bears his name, after having shown himself, by his courage and patient endurance of hardship and famine, worthy of his cousin Florence Nightingale. In this journey of nearly 300 miles, Grey discovered and passed over all the rivers of the West coast, from the Murchison to the Swan, and his description of the country led ultimately to its settlement. His accuracy was much disputed by some, but subsequent knowledge has fully confirmed his report. It was in this year that Eyre arrived at King George's Sound, having lost all his party except his native guide, in his journey along the coast from Port Lincoln. Captain Stokes, in the Beagle, this year surveyed the Abrolhos and Champion bay, which had been previously entered by Lieut. Helpman in the Colonial schooner of that name.
The views of the early settlers had been directed principally to agricultural pursuits; but after this time, as it had appeared from the explorations of Governor Stirling and Mr. Roe and their followers, that a large portion of the interior country was more fitted for pasturage, their attention was turned more especially to that industry, and with this object Drummond and Scully made explorations to the Victoria Plains, as did Mr. Henry Landor to the South-East of Beverley, and in 1843, with Mr. H. Maxwell Lefroy, he made an excursion into the Lake district to the East of York, where their names and discoveries are still perpetuated.
During the years 1847-8, Dr. F. Von Sommer, who, having a reputation for knowledge in natural science, had been taken into the employ of Government, examined and reported on the geology of the Victoria, Moore River, and Avon districts, and the country about Capes Riche and Naturaliste. In the latter year the Surveyor General, accompanied by Mr. Augustus Gregory, started on a journey of exploration to the East of the Stirling Range. Gregory had just returned from an expedition to the Murchison, on which river he had discovered lead and copper lodes (thus first directing attention to the mineral wealth of the Champion Bay district), as also the small harbor which bears his name; and on the Irwin River his brother, Mr. F. H. Gregory, had found what has since been. commonly known as the coal seam, and this, with the reports of Von Sommer, led to the supposition that there were vast deposits of that mineral extending &om the Irwin along the base of the Darling Range.
Surveyor General Roe, descending the Palinup, crossed to Cape Riche, and, returning on his tract to the North-East, reached Bremer Range, whence, directing his course to the South and East, and crossing the sources of the Fitzgerald and Phillips Rivers, he proceeded as far as Russell Range, near Cape Arid, at the Western extremity of the Great Australian Bight; and returning to Cape Riche, he found on the middle course of the Phillips, and lower course of the Fitzgerald, deposits similar to those found by Gregory on the Irwin, and in consequence, another discovery of coal was proclaimed. On reaching Cape Riche, he made a direct course to Bunbury and thence to Perth. The same year Helpman and Gregory returned by sea and land to make further examination of the reported coal measures, but the result was not satisfactory. They were again very carefully examined in 1875, by the Rev. C. G. Nicolay, who was sent by the Government for that purpose, but without the least indication of coal measures being perceptible.
It will appear, from this brief record, that before the year 1850 the coast of Western Australia, from Sharks Bay to the Great Australian Bight, had been explored, and a general knowledge obtained of the basins of the rivers from the Moore to the Phillips. The names of the early explorers, by whose labors this knowledge was acquired (and to those given in the above list several more might be added), should be familiar to those who now enjoy the benefits resulting from them. From 1850 exploration has been continued on a more extended scale, in a more systematic method, with more definite ends, at longer intervals, and for the most part by professional surveyors.
A. Gregory was occupied during the years 1852 and 1853 in the valleys of the Blackwood and Gordon, and made a short expedition from the Murchison to Sharks Bay. In 1854, surveyor Robert Austin with a large party, including several young volunteers since well known in the Colony, left the valley of the Avon, and proceeding East and North, reached Mt. Magnet, in the Lake district, nearly 300 miles due East from the mouth of the Murchison, and thence by a North-West course entered the upper basins of that river, and (after making vain attempts to reach the Gascoigne, where Mr. G. Phillips, with supplies sent by sea, awaited him) was obliged, with much suffering, to return, and with great difficulty reached the river. It was from this journey that some knowledge of the country about the head waters of the Murchison, now being so rapidly taken up for pastoral purposes, was first obtained. F. H. Gregory was on the Murchison in 1857, and the next year traced the courses of the Lyons and Gascoigne Rivers to the sea, and, by his discoveries, opened an easy route overland to the North-West coast, along which both sheep and cattle were driven by E. T. Hooley without difficulty in 1865.
In 1861, F. H. Gregory, landing with a party at Nicol Bay, explored the valleys of the Fortescue, Ashburton, Shirlock, Yule, and DeGrey rivers as far as Mt. Macpherson at the source of the Oakover; this led to the Settlement of the North-West coast, as it is still called. This year, also, the brothers Dempster made explorations to the East of Northam, and from the South coast to the Lake district, in which H. M. Lefroy made a still more extended exploration in 1863, in consequence of which, surveyor Hunt was sent with a party organised for well digging and to make a road by which cattle might be taken into it. Messrs. Cook and Clarkson were exploring its Northern limits at the same time.
In 1864, Austin, with Dr. Martin and others, entered the mouth of the Glenelg and explored the Western portion of the basin of that river as Grey had the Eastern; and, a settlement having been formed at Roebuck Bay, surveyor James Cowle traversed the country between that place and Nickol Bay. In 1870, surveyor John Forrest traced the coast from Albany to Eucla, and proceeded from thence to Adelaide, without suffering from want of water as Eyre had done.
Of the interior of the country nothing was known as yet beyond the Lake district, but in 1856 A. Gregory, with a party from Queensland, entered the territory of Western Australia from the North-East and found Sturt's Creek in a sandy desert; and—reports respecting white men, supposed to relate to Leichardt and his party, of whose fate nothing is known, having been received from the natives of the Lake district,—in 1869 John Forrest extended his search to the Eastward of Champion Bay as far as the 123rd meridian, and in 1871 his brother Alexander somewhat further beyond Hampden Plains. In 1872, surveyor W. C. Gosse attempted to cross from South Australia, but was driven back by want of water before reaching the 126th meridian. Colonel Warburton, however, the year following, succeeded in reaching the Oakover, the Northern branch of the DeGrey River, by the assistance of camels. It was reserved for John Forrest to cross the centre of the Colony from the Murchison, and thence to the Northern telegraph line of South Australia, with the ordinary equipment of a bushman.
The journals, reports, and maps of the explorers whose names have been recorded, and which are preserved in the office of the Surveyor General, with those of Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, Government Geologist from 1870 to 1873, furnish materials for the description of the Colony, both geographical and physical, as well as for the account of discovery already given; all of which might be enlarged with much advantage.