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EUROBODALLA ABORIGINAL CULTURAL HERITAGE STUDY
South Coast NSW
the melancholy Loss of Mr. Stewart and his Boat’s Crew ; as also of a
Man by the Name of Briggs, and his Companions, who some Time
since deserted from the Colony in a Whale Boat ; viz. Stewart, losing
his Boat near Two-fold Bay, was endeavouring to make his Way back
by Land, in which Effort he was cut off by the Natives of Two-fold
Bay. Briggs, and his Companions, were lost in Bateman Bay, by the
Boat having upset ; and being so far from the Land, were not able to
reach the Shore. This was the Account received from them ; but, from
my own Observations, seeing Knives, Tomahawks, and Part of the
Boats’ Geer in their Huts, I am induced to think they suffered the same
Fate as the unfortunate Stewart. 22
The following year the Snapper returned to the Bay to record further information on
the possibilities for European settlement in the area. 23 It is further reported that in
1822 a young man by the name of William Kearns travelled, at the instigation of the
explorer Charles Throsby, from Lake George to a hill around nine miles south of
Bateman’s Bay. He is stated to have not gone any further south, “… because of the
reputed hostility of the natives in this area” 24 .
Also in 1821 survivors of the wreck of the ship Mary at Twofold Bay travelled north
to Sydney by boat:
On the 9 th instant, Captain Heany bid farewell to the scene of his
calamity, and shortly after reached Montague Island off Mount
Dromedary, where they remained a few hours in order to refresh.
Provisions soon became exhausted, having been compelled to leave the
wreck so suddenly as to preclude the possibility of procuring a
sufficient supply, or even thinking of it, when existence seemed to be
dubious ; and had abundance been their portion at this critical juncture,
the boat was too small to admit any greater bulk than that it contained.
So reduced the sufferers became at length, that they were constrained
to subsist on shellfish, or any other article that might obtrude itself on
the beach ; and what contributed to render their situation the more
forlorn and terrific, was that of beholding the shores as they passed
lined with the barbarous tribes. On Montague Island some nuts were
found in a native hut, recently abandoned ; eagerly and ravenously
were they devoured ; but they disagreed with those that partook them,
so much so, that Captain Heany declares he has not yet recovered from
the pernicious effects produced by them… 25
In October of 1826 John Harper, a member of the Wesleyan Missionary Society,
travelled by boat down the south coast in search of a suitable location to establish a
‘Mission to the Aborigines’. On the 14 th of that month the boat put in at Bateman’s
Bay and remained there for two weeks. Harper recorded the visit in his Journal:
22 th th
Report from Robert Johnson, 10 December, 1821 In Sydney Gazette, 15 December, 1821, p.1.
23
Gibbney, op.cit., pp.14-15.
24
Primary source accounts of this journey have not been sighted. Account taken from , T.M. Perry,
Australia’s First Frontier: The spread of settlement in New South Wales 1788-1829, Melbourne
University Press in association with Australian National University, 1965, p.100 [originally published
1963].
25 rd
Anon, ‘Loss of the Colonial Vessel Mary’, Sydney Gazette, 23 June, 1821.
Goulding Heritage Consulting Pty Ltd
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