Maritime Heritage of the Batavia Coast part 5: The story behind Kalbarri’s Red Bluff being put on the map

STANDFIRST: Historian Howard Gray tells the story of how Kalbarri’s famous Red Bluff came to be put on the map, in part five of the series, Maritime Heritage of the Batavia Coast. While Phillip Parker King gave names to the flat-topped ranges and peaks that he charted while sailing along the Batavia Coast 200 years ago, he retained some that other Europeans had already put on their maps. Three that stand out are Mt Naturaliste, Red Point and Gantheaume Bay. Red Point is the well-known Red Bluff, a stand-out feature at the end of the Kalbarri cliffs, spectacular when viewed from land or sea. King retained the name that Matthew Flinders included on his chart from his sail far offshore down the west coast in May 1803, preserving the name applied by others before him. On the French charts, based on Baudin’s voyage up the coast in 1801, we see it named as “Pointe Rouge”. On earlier Dutch charts we see it named as “Roude Hoek”, which in Old Dutch also translates as “red point”, emphasising the angular headland. For the early Dutch navigators, after months in the open ocean on the voyage from the tip of Africa headed for the spice islands of Indonesia, such prominent and distinctive landmarks were a welcome sight, giving a more precise position, affirming that they were on track. The ideal landfall was Dirk Hartog Island to the north, because further south the reefs of Houtman Abrolhos and Geelvink Channel made any approach to the mainland hazardous, as skipper van Steyn of the Zeewijk found in 1727. The coastal profiles drawn by Vlamingh and his crew in 1697 show the unmistakeable Red Bluff of today. Howard Gray is the author of several award-winning books, including Jambinbirri-Champion Bay — a pictorial and narrative history. He can be contacted at hsgray@midwest.com.au