Maritime Heritage of the Batavia Coast with Dr Howard Gray: Phillip Parker King charts the coast in 1822

This week marks 200 years since Phillip Parker King sailed along the Batavia Coast, charting the waters and naming prominent landmarks on the shore. In the first part of an ongoing series Maritime Heritage of the Batavia Coast, local historian Dr Howard Gray reflects on that fateful voyage. The Batavia Coast has a wonderfully rich maritime history, from the First Nations people who lived along the shoreline, the Dutch encounters and disasters, the French and English who passed by, the shore-whaling stations and trading vessels of the early colonial days, to fishing and other enterprises, with lots of wrecks and many colourful events, which continue today. A significant maritime anniversary — from a European point of view — occurs this week with the 200th anniversary of Phillip Parker King sailing along the Batavia Coast, charting the waters and naming the prominent landmarks on the shore. In 1817, King had been ordered by the British Admiralty to map in detail the Australian coastline, filling the gaps left by others such as Matthew Flinders. His first three voyages were on the 76-ton cutter Mermaid, replaced by the 170-ton sloop Bathurst in 1820. In January 1822, after stopping briefly at Rottnest Island, which the French had already surveyed in detail, the Bathurst continued northward, keeping some miles out to sea. It was very dangerous sailing in uncharted waters with the strong southerly winds and confusing currents that prevail at that time of year and with many reefs in their path, as they were to find out. On January 17, 1822, King steered the Bathurst towards the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, shown vaguely on previous charts. In his own words, King wrote: “At half-past four o’clock the masthead man was cautioned to look out for breakers and in less than half an hour afterwards he reported some bearing North-West by North. On going to the masthead I saw them distinctly for they were not more than four miles off, and on looking round the horizon towards the westward, distinctly saw the island of Frederick Houtman’s Abrolhos, which for some time the masthead man persisted was only the shadow of the clouds; but a small hummock being soon afterwards descried upon the summit of the largest, confirmed my conjectures. The group appeared to consist of three islands, all low and of small size. Beyond and around them the sea was smooth and to the southward another patch of breakers was observed. Preparations were now made to tack off, but I had scarcely reached the deck when the lookout man reported rocks under our lee bow . . .” They turned the ship away just in time. King noted the position of the vessel as latitude 28 degrees 53 minutes, level with the northern end of Pelsaert Island. His chart would show the Abrolhos as mapped by Jan Steyn, the skipper of the wrecked Zeewijk in 1727, just a small portion of the archipelago. The Bathurst sailed eastward and the next morning, January 18, 1822, as dawn broke, the distinctive landforms ashore were distinguished, as King recorded: “. . . a range of flat-topped land, probably about one thousand feet high. At the northern end of the range were four or five hills standing apart from each other, of which, in the view we then had of them, the northernmost was flat-topped, and the others peaked; at the south end of the range were three other distinct hills, the centre being peaked and the other two flat-topped. Near the centre of the main range was another summit that was remarkable for its form.” King gave the main features names: Moresby’s Flat-topped Ranges, Mount Fairfax, Wizard Hills and the Menai Hills. He also named the channel between the mainland and the Abrolhos as the Geelvink Channel. These European names have stuck on maps until today. Why did King choose these names? What were the names the local First Nation people had for them? What part did King’s visit play in the European colonisation of the western portion of the Australian continent? We will explore these in future articles. King’s account of his voyage can be found at: https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/e00028.html