Maritime Heritage of the Batavia Coast with Howard Gray: Early exploration of the Abrolhos Islands

STANDFIRST: In part 11 of historian Howard Gray’s series, Maritime heritage of the Batavia Coast, the focus turns to early exploration of the Abrolhos Islands. George Fletcher Moore and Capt. Dring aboard HMCS Champion took the opportunity to have a quick look at the Houtman Abrolhos Islands on their way to survey Hutt Lagoon in January 1840. The Abrolhos had not been visited intentionally, as far as it is known, by anyone in the 1700s or early 1800s, although American whalers had quite possibly done so. Whalers and sealers had begun to ply these coastal waters as early as 1790, pursuing migratory humpback, right, blue and sperm whales. They needed water and timber for boiling down blubber in try-pots aboard and some mainland sites and the islands are thought to have been visited and known to them. Moore found P.P. King’s 1822 chart, which had shown Houtman’s Abrolhos as just one group of islands and reefs as drawn by Jan Steijns, master of the ill-fated Zeewijk in 1727, as ‘”insufficient as a guide’” But he did find the Abrolhos exceedingly interesting: “… so far from those islands being cautiously avoided as an object of danger, they may confidently be sought as a place of security where vessels may find shelter from all winds, and safe anchorage in all weathers — where they may be in smooth water to repair any damage, and may find sufficient wood for fuel for any temporary purpose — where the small animal called wallaby is found in great numbers — where birds, and eggs, and oysters, are abundant — and where, probably, turtle frequent the shores at the proper season. “As to fresh water, we did not see any on the islands we visited, but the Dutch, who remained there for some time, are said to have found it at one island, where they rebuilt a vessel, and from the number of wallabies and birds which we saw, water is probably to be found on many others also. This place seems well qualified for a whaling station, as the deep smooth water close to some of the steep coral shores affords peculiar facilities for cutting off the blubber.” Moore concluded the islands were on the outer rim of a volcanic crater and was particularly taken by the coral formations, writing that “nothing can exceed the beauty of the different sorts of coral as seen under the clear smooth water”. The sea lions also caught his attention — and that of the crew of the Champion: “… These islets appear to be a favourite resort of seals, many of which we saw, but of the sort called hair seals. The sailors knocked many of these upon the head with clubs as they lay sleeping upon the shores.” Australian sea lions have a very low reproductive rate and their numbers have still not recovered from the carnage inflicted on them by shipwreck survivors, sealers, visiting sailors and others for whom killing them was deemed a sport. From a population of perhaps over 600, the numbers today are still less than 150 in their northernmost stronghold, and the species is now listed as endangered. Howard Gray’s award-winning book Jambinbirri-Champion Bay is available at the WA Museum Geraldton or online at westralianbooks.com.au. He can be contacted at hsgray@midwest.com.au.