Fort Wellington & Port Essington
Fort Wellington 1827 - 1829
Captain James Stirling (founder of Perth WA) selected the site for Fort Wellington at Raffles Bay on the Cobourg Peninsular - proclaimed on Waterloo Day 18 June 1827. Capt. HG Smyth appointed commandant - 30 soldiers of the Buffs, 14 Royal Marines, 13 Royal Navy other ranks and 22 convicts from Sydney (Grenville Pike see below)
Smyth succeeded by Capt. Collett Barker (Commandant of Solitude, Mulvaney & Green 1991 see below)
Macassans arrive in 1828 & 29 Wet Seasons
Early 1829 Fort Wellington abandoned - in the following year Macassan trepangers and their families arrived to join the settlement and begin Dry Season trepanging but the settlement was deserted.
Smyth succeeded by Capt. Collett Barker (Commandant of Solitude, Mulvaney & Green 1991 see below)
Macassans arrive in 1828 & 29 Wet Seasons
Early 1829 Fort Wellington abandoned - in the following year Macassan trepangers and their families arrived to join the settlement and begin Dry Season trepanging but the settlement was deserted.
Victoria Settlement - Port Essington 1838 - 1849
Captain Gordon Bremer had originally visited Port Essington and rejected it for lack of water in favour of Melville Island. Glenelg - then secretary of state for the colonies under Melbourne - was under pressure to re-invigorate the notion of northern trading centre and he selected Port Essington as the site and Captain Bremer as the man to make it happen. Bremer left once again set out from Sydney for the north coast in September 1838 in command of a fleet including HMS Alligator, HMS Britomart under Capt. Owen Stanley and the transport Orontes - Capt. John McArthur was to be the commandant of the new settlement. A town of 1,280 acres was planned but land sales in 1841 & 1844 failed. In November 1839 an early cyclone flattened the settlement - HMS Pelorus was driven aground with the loss of a dozen lives - a whaler from Britomart under Captain Owen Stanley rescued the survivors. She was dis-masted, buried in mud, re-floated and back in commission within months - then to Sydney and in July 1840 she was off to the First Opium War.
In J.G. Knight's 'The Northern Territory of South Australia' he includes G.R. McMinn's brief account of the early history in which he writes "The settlement at Port Essington was established by the Imperial Government as a military post and harbour of refuge for distressed vessels. It received no support from private settlers, and consequently secured very little public attention. No attempt appears to have been made to test the producing capabilities of the country. This establishment existed for 19 years, and was finally abandoned in 1850. It was during the period of occupation that Leichardt made his memorable journey from Sydney to Port Essington."(The Settlement pp10)
In J.G. Knight's 'The Northern Territory of South Australia' he includes G.R. McMinn's brief account of the early history in which he writes "The settlement at Port Essington was established by the Imperial Government as a military post and harbour of refuge for distressed vessels. It received no support from private settlers, and consequently secured very little public attention. No attempt appears to have been made to test the producing capabilities of the country. This establishment existed for 19 years, and was finally abandoned in 1850. It was during the period of occupation that Leichardt made his memorable journey from Sydney to Port Essington."(The Settlement pp10)
News of the cyclone reached Sydney in May 1840 and a relief vessel the Gilmore arrived on 12th July 1840 to find the ravages of weather and sickness compounded by poor diet and an unhealthy environment away from the sea breezes. In 1845 Ludwig Leichhardt and party staggered into the settlement. At the close of 1848 McArthur and the few remaining souls abandoned the settlement and sailed away.
