Ever wanted to circumnavigate Australia? Well, for the next few weeks, that's what we'll be doing, at least virtually, and clockwise. So as to make sure all states and territories are covered, we'll be starting in Western Australia and exploring the early history of a small part of this massive state via TROVE...
Rottnest Island
Courtesy of Pixabay
A place with an interesting history is Rottnest Island, which Wikipedia describes as follows...
| Rottnest Island Western Australia | |||||||||
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Rottnest Island from space
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| Population | 334 (2016 census; up to 15,000 visitors at peak holiday periods)[1][2] | ||||||||
| • Density | 17.6/km2 (45.5/sq mi) | ||||||||
| Established | 1830s | ||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 6161 | ||||||||
| Elevation | 46 m (151 ft) | ||||||||
| Area | 19 km2 (7.3 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Time zone | AWST (UTC+8) | ||||||||
| Location | 19 km (12 mi) W of Fremantle | ||||||||
| LGA(s) | A-class reserve administered by the Rottnest Island Authority | ||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Fremantle | ||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Fremantle | ||||||||
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Rottnest Island (known as Wadjemup to the local Noongar people, and otherwise colloquially known as Rotto) is an island off the coast of Western Australia, located 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of Fremantle. A sandy, low-lying island formed on a base of aeolianite limestone, Rottnest is an A-class reserve, the highest level of protection afforded to public land. Together with Garden Island, Rottnest Island is a remnant of Pleistocene dune ridges.[3]
The island covers 19 square kilometres (7.3 sq mi) and is administered by the Rottnest Island Authority under a separate act of parliament. Rottnest is a popular holiday destination, and there are daily ferry services to Perth, the state's capital and largest city. It has a permanent population of around 300 people, with around 500,000 annual visitors (and up to 15,000 visitors at a time during peak periods).
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| Rottnest Island Courtesy of Pixabay |
The following comprise a little of the history of Rottnest Island.
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), Saturday 10 January 1829, page 2
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2191607
SWAN RIVER.
IN our Journal of Saturday last, we inserted an extract from the Courier newspaper on the proposed new settlement at Swan River, of the discovery of which we erroneously gave the credit to Captain Stirling, of His Majesty's ship Success, who visited that estuary on our West coast in the summer of 1827.
Since the notice of this river appeared, in our Paper, we have been obligingly favored with some little history of it; and as its banks may, ere long, be the site of a Western Colony, should Captain H. W. Montague (who, it appears, has been despatched to it in the ship Crocodile) report favorably of it, on a more minute and deliberate exploration of the river itself, and adjacent Country, than it should seem Captain Stirling had effected in 1827, we are happy to give insertion to the communication for the information of our Readers.
In the year 1696, the ship Geelvink, commanded by Cornelius de Vlaming, sailed from the Texel, in quest of a Dutch East Indiaman, supposed to have been lost on the coast of New Holland during her voyage from the Cape to Batavia. In December of that year, Vlaming made the West coast, in about lat. 32 ° South, and landing on a densely-wooded island in the offing, in company with the pilots of a dogger and small galley, likewise under his orders, found the soil, which was exceedingly sterile, perforated in every direction, forming horizontal burrows, the operations of what he considered a kind of rat ; and hence was suggested the name the island has ever since borne, viz. Rottnest. These burrows, however, have since been fully ascertained to be the retreats of a non-descript animal, having the habits of a brush kangaroo, but nevertheless (accord-ing to M. Peron, the able French Naturalist) forming a genus distinct in itself, of remarkable character.
From the Western side of Rottnest Island, the shores of the neighbouring main (named Edel's Land), and the estuary of a River) were descried by these early Navi-gators. In this river, which was explored to some distance from its mouth, Vlaming and his companions disturbed many swans, who instantly on their approach took to the wing ; and as numbers of these birds were met with as they ascended the stream, of which the sketch of Van Keulen, who was of the party, is still extant, the name of " Black Swan River," then given it, was suggested.
It does not appear that any further notice was taken by Navigators of Swan River during the succeeding century; in 1801, however, the French national ships of discovery, La Geographe and La Naturaliste, under the command of Commodore Baudin, touched on our opposite shores, and surveying this river, explored its channel considerably further than the point to which the Dutch Navigators had examined it.
Captain de Freycinet, who published an account of Baudin's Voyage, gives us the results of the boat-survey in the following words. (Voyage aux Terres Australes, p. 175, et seq) : -
" The mouth of Swan River is in latitude 32°. 4' 31" S.* and longitude East of Greenwich 115°. 46' 43". The channel is obstructed by a bar of rocks, which it is very difficult to pass over, and indeed
impracticable, if the wind blows from the sea. On entering, the passage is on the starboard side : it is narrow and shoal, and divided into two channels, in each of which there is from five to six feet of water ; after passing this, there is seven and eight feet : the course must then be towards the West, to avoid two shoals, which are on the right bank : after half a mile, the navigation is free, and in mid-channel the depth is not less than seven, eight, and nine feet. The river then trends in a northerly direction for seven miles, without any sinuosity of consequence. On the eastern bank are two
shoals ; the passage is then on the opposite side of the river, the depth of which is eight feet : beyond these banks the course of the river trends to the Eastward towards a low point, upon which there is a solitary tree: an extensive bank fronts this point, and the channel continues on the western shore ten feet deep. Here the river is a mile broad; it then increases its width, and forms spacious bays on either side, that were not examined.
* This parallel of latitude cuts the estate of J. P. Macqueen, Esq M. P. called Segenhoe, on one side of the continent, and our coast line a few miles North from Cape Hawke ; the climate of Swan River
may therefore be inferred.
Since the notice of this river appeared, in our Paper, we have been obligingly favored with some little history of it; and as its banks may, ere long, be the site of a Western Colony, should Captain H. W. Montague (who, it appears, has been despatched to it in the ship Crocodile) report favorably of it, on a more minute and deliberate exploration of the river itself, and adjacent Country, than it should seem Captain Stirling had effected in 1827, we are happy to give insertion to the communication for the information of our Readers.
In the year 1696, the ship Geelvink, commanded by Cornelius de Vlaming, sailed from the Texel, in quest of a Dutch East Indiaman, supposed to have been lost on the coast of New Holland during her voyage from the Cape to Batavia. In December of that year, Vlaming made the West coast, in about lat. 32 ° South, and landing on a densely-wooded island in the offing, in company with the pilots of a dogger and small galley, likewise under his orders, found the soil, which was exceedingly sterile, perforated in every direction, forming horizontal burrows, the operations of what he considered a kind of rat ; and hence was suggested the name the island has ever since borne, viz. Rottnest. These burrows, however, have since been fully ascertained to be the retreats of a non-descript animal, having the habits of a brush kangaroo, but nevertheless (accord-ing to M. Peron, the able French Naturalist) forming a genus distinct in itself, of remarkable character.
From the Western side of Rottnest Island, the shores of the neighbouring main (named Edel's Land), and the estuary of a River) were descried by these early Navi-gators. In this river, which was explored to some distance from its mouth, Vlaming and his companions disturbed many swans, who instantly on their approach took to the wing ; and as numbers of these birds were met with as they ascended the stream, of which the sketch of Van Keulen, who was of the party, is still extant, the name of " Black Swan River," then given it, was suggested.
It does not appear that any further notice was taken by Navigators of Swan River during the succeeding century; in 1801, however, the French national ships of discovery, La Geographe and La Naturaliste, under the command of Commodore Baudin, touched on our opposite shores, and surveying this river, explored its channel considerably further than the point to which the Dutch Navigators had examined it.
Captain de Freycinet, who published an account of Baudin's Voyage, gives us the results of the boat-survey in the following words. (Voyage aux Terres Australes, p. 175, et seq) : -
" The mouth of Swan River is in latitude 32°. 4' 31" S.* and longitude East of Greenwich 115°. 46' 43". The channel is obstructed by a bar of rocks, which it is very difficult to pass over, and indeed
impracticable, if the wind blows from the sea. On entering, the passage is on the starboard side : it is narrow and shoal, and divided into two channels, in each of which there is from five to six feet of water ; after passing this, there is seven and eight feet : the course must then be towards the West, to avoid two shoals, which are on the right bank : after half a mile, the navigation is free, and in mid-channel the depth is not less than seven, eight, and nine feet. The river then trends in a northerly direction for seven miles, without any sinuosity of consequence. On the eastern bank are two
shoals ; the passage is then on the opposite side of the river, the depth of which is eight feet : beyond these banks the course of the river trends to the Eastward towards a low point, upon which there is a solitary tree: an extensive bank fronts this point, and the channel continues on the western shore ten feet deep. Here the river is a mile broad; it then increases its width, and forms spacious bays on either side, that were not examined.
* This parallel of latitude cuts the estate of J. P. Macqueen, Esq M. P. called Segenhoe, on one side of the continent, and our coast line a few miles North from Cape Hawke ; the climate of Swan River
may therefore be inferred.
" To the S. E. is an opening which may probably be an arm of the river: it was named Moreau Inlet : it was not examined.
" Opposite to it is a sharp point, fronted by a shoal, and the channel is on the Eastern side of the river, with 13 feet water.
" Here the river widens, and forms a basin two miles and a half wide : a little above this the river is blocked up by shoals and islets (Heirisson Isles) between which the depth is not more than two or three feet, but afterwards deeper gradually from five to fifteen feet : the banks of the river are then not more than one-third of a mile wide, and then-continued in a serpentine course, with a channel from seven to ten feet deep, and free from shoals, as far as the boats examined it. The stream of the river ran very slowly, and winds through a valley, one side of which is abrupt and precipitous, and when it ceases to be so on one side, the heights immediately appear on the other."
So much for the French account of Swan River, which was again visited, in 1827, by Captain Stirling, of the Royal Navy, whose observations on the fertility of the soil, and general capabilities of the circum-jacent country, coupled with those of Mr. Frazer, the Colonial Botanist, who accompanied that Officer in the Success, proved, on their return, of the most flattering description. Should these, therefore, be fully confirmed (of which we entertain not the shadow of a doubt,) by Captain Montague, a colony will doubtless be planted, to which the views of Emigrants may be the rather directed than to our side of the continent, inasmuch as the voyage outward will be at least one month shorter, and the communication with India, the Cape, and Mauritius more readily effected.
Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal (WA : 1833 - 1847), Saturday 23 May 1840, page 2
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article638693
South Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1844 - 1851), Tuesday 28 January 1845, page 3
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71600486
Inquirer (Perth, WA : 1840 - 1855), Wednesday 25 March 1846, page 2
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65770187
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| Courtesy of Pixabay |
For further information re Western Australia, here are a few sites that may be of interest...
