The Province of South Australia ... With a sketch of the Northern Territory, by H. D. Wilson

Preface

. HE following account of the Province of South Aus- J tralia, from its discovery in 1627 to the end of 1892, was written under the authority of the Government of the Colony. The work differs in plan and arrangement from other books of a similar character which have appeared in former years. Besides being brought down to a later period, the volume includes much that has not hitherto appeared in print in a collected form. Apart from the official aid which has been received by the author in the execution of his work, he is indebted to many friends and others for useful suggestions and valuable information, of which he has been glad to avail himself. They are too many to be indicated by individual names, but it is hoped that they will kindly accept the grateful and sincere acknowledgments for their assistance which are tendered to them here.

Adelaide, December, 1893. CONTENTS. Page. Chapter I. — Discovery of South Australia . . . . 1 " I L— Physical Features .. .. .. .. 12 " HI. — Fauna .. .. .. .. , . 25 " IV. — Flora . . . . . . . . . . 35 " V. — Climate and Meteorology .. ... .. 43 " VI. — Foundation and Settlement . . 62 " VII. — Progress and Development .. .. .. 79 " VIII. — Progress and Development .. .. 93 " IX. — Explorations of the Interior .. .. 107 " X.- Explorations of the Interior .. ... .. 118 " XL — Explorations of the Interior .. .. 129 " XII. — Political Constitution . . . . . . . . 145 " XIII. — Law, Crime, &c. .. .. .. .. 161 " XIV. — Land Laws .. .. .. ., .. 184 " XV. — Population .. .. .. .. .. 211 " XVI. — Agriculture .. ., .. .. .. 227 " XVII. — Mines and Minerals .. ... .. ., 253 " XVIII. — Pastoral .. .. .. .. .. 285 " XIX. — Commerce . . . . . . . . . . 297 " XX. — Revenue: Public Debt: Public Works .. .. 315 " XXI. — Education . . . . . . . . . , 333 " XXII. — Religious and Charitable Institutions .. .. 350 " XXIII. — Municipal Institutions and G-eneral Matters . . 368 " XXIV. — Aborigines .. .. .. .. .. 387 " XXV. — Northern Territory .. .. ., ..

Chapter I

Discovery of South Australia.— Nuyts in 1627— The Great Australian Bight — The Coastline — Captain Flinders in the "Investigator" — Sights Cape Leuwin in December, 1801— Fowler's Bay and Banks- Peninsula — Lands on Thistle Island— Mr. Thistle and his Boat's Crew Lost — Port Lincoln, Spencer's Gulf — Kangaroo Island, St. Vincent's Gulf — Troubridge Island and Shoal — Mount Lofty — Head of St. Vincent's Gulf — The Hummocks — Mount Brown — Mount Arden — Yorke's Peninsula — Backstairs Passage — Encounter Bay — Meets "Le Geographe" — Proceeds to Sydney- — Loss of the "Porpoise" — Sails for England in the "Cumberland" — Arrival at Mauritius — Kept Phisoner for Six Years and a Half — Returns to England — His Death — Captain Barker — His Arrival in St. Vincent's Gulf — Ascends Mount Lofty — Penetrates to the Murray Mouth — Murdered by the Natives.

The discovery of that part of New Holland which now constitutes a portion of the province of South Australia was made in the year 1627, by a Dutch navigator who named it Nuyts' Land. The newly-found country extended, along the greater part of the coastline which forms the Great Australian Bight. Its appearance was not attractive. All that was seen from the ships was two long lines of cliffs about 400ft. high, brown and dark-colored at the top, and nearly white at the bottom, which extended tor several hundred miles. The aspect of the newly-discovered land was not of a kind to encourage further investigation, even if the discoverer had at command the time and the means necessary for such an undertaking. It is not surprising, therefore, that that portion of Australia was not again visited for nearly two hundred years.

The founding of the colony of New South Wales led to the organisation of many expeditions to examine and explore the coasts of the territory which had been newly acquired by England. They were gradually extended both north and west, and were rewarded by most important discoveries. Admiral D'Entrecasteaux, a French officer, commanded an expedition to seek for La Perouse, who had not been heard of for many years. In the course of his search he made important discoveries in Van Dienien's Land, as Tasmania was then called, visited the west coast of Australia, and steering along the south part of New A Holland, reached Fowler's Bay about the end of the year 1792. Lieu tenant Grant, R.X., was sent from England, in command of the Lady Nelson, a brig of sixty tons burthen, for service as a surveying ship, under the direction of the Governor of New South Wales.

On his way to Bass's Straits, through which he had been instructed to pass on his way to Botany Bay, he discovered Cape Banks and Cape Northumber land. He also saw Mount Gambier and Mount Schanck, both of which were named by him. These are the earliest recorded discoveries of the country now called South Australia. Matthew Flinders, a midshipman on board the Reliance, who had long been engaged in exploring and surveying work at Moreton Bay, returned to England in the year 1800. He had distinguished himself greatly in naval explorations, but especially with Mr. Bass in sailing through Bass' Straits, and in proving what had only been conjectured before — that Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land as it was then named, was an island. In England his discoveries became known through the exertions of Sir Joseph Banks, who brought Flinders and his projects for further explorations in the seas of New Holland prominently before the Admiralty, then directed by Earl Spencer as its First Lord.

A ship was purchased for the purpose of carrying out Flinders' plans, and he was appointed to command her. The vessel was not new, but she was considered to be good enough for the work which was before her. She was thoroughly refitted and coppered, and was provided with all that in those days was deemed necessary to ensure the success of the expedition. Her burthen was only 340 tons. She was re-named the Investigator. She had previously sailed under the name of the Xe?iophon. Mr. Robert Brown accompanied Flinders as botanist to the expedition, and Mr. Westall, the celebrated landscape painter, as artist. A well-known writer on the subject of the exploration of Australia*, observes " that a more fortunate selection lor the purpose could not have been made. Australia owes very much to both those men.

The labors of Brown upon the coast left nothing to be desired. Of course he could not see every thing ; but he saw so much that one is astonished to observe how little was left for others to do. Since his time naturalists have had hard work to glean novelties from the regions near which Brown had set his foot. To Westall the same meed of praise can be given. The classic story of Flinders is rendered truly charming by the powerful pencil of the artist." Mr. Franklin, cousin to Flinders, who (as Sir John Franklin) became Governor of Van Diemen's Land and who subsequently died in the Arctic regions when in command of an expedition to discover the north-west passage, was a midshipman on board the Investigator. * J. E. Tenison Woods, Discovery and Explorations of Australia. London, 1865. The Investigator left Spithead on the 18th of July, 1801. 'Ihe voyage to Cape Leuwin extended over a period of five months, including a brief stay at Madeira and the Cape of Good Hope.

Cape Leuwin was sighted on the 6th of December. Flinders entered King George's Sound with the intention of making some necessary repairs to his ship, but he found no place suitable for the purpose. He accordingly moved on to a neighboring inlet called Princess Royal Harbor, where the Investigator was overhauled and her defects made good. On leaving the harbor, Flinders kept close in to the land in the expectation of finding some opening ; none, however, existed. There was a gap for a short space in the line of the cliffs, and smoke was seen inland, but the break did not continue for any great distance and the high land appeared once more. * The length of these cliffs from their second commencement is thirty three leagues, and that of the level bank from Cape Pasley no less than 145 leagues.

The height of this extraordinary bank is nearly the same throughout, being never less than 400ft. and nowhere more than 600ft. In the first twenty leagues the rugged tops of some inland mountains were seen above it, but during the remainder of its long course the bank was the limit of the view. Flinders pursued his voyage to the eastward, still keeping near to the ■coast until he saw the end of the second range of cliffs. Here it became sandy and turned north-east for some few miles. He had reached the head of the Great Australian Bight, j- A few hours' sail brought him to Cape Nuyts, beyond which no exploration had extended. Here the country ■showed signs of improvement ; it was fairly wooded, but the soil appeared to be sandy. After passing Cape Nuyts several bays were found. The iirst, Fowler's Bay, was named after the first lieutenant of the ship ; Smoky Bay, Streaky Bay, Anxious Bay, and Coffin's Bay were visited in turn and named, but the country nowhere presented features of interest.

After spending some short time in surveying the various inlets which abound off that portion of the eastern limit of the Great Australian Bight, he followed the coastline past Point Sir Isaac until it began to trend to the north. On the 17th of February, 1802, Flinders landed. The place where he disembarked was thought to be connected with the mainland, but it was soon ascertained that it was an island. This was -named "Thistle Island," after the mate of the Investigator. Numerous seals were seen there and many traces of kangaroos ; no natives, however, were met with. To the north a group of islands was discovered, and a boat was sent away under the charge of Mr. Thistle and a midshipman * Flinders' Voyages to Terra Australis. London, 1814. if About 160 miles west of this is situated the small port of Eucla, discovered in 1863 by Captain E. A. Delisser (formerly of 79th Regiment). named Taylor to examine them and to find a suitable watering place.

After cruising about for some time the cutter was seen under sail apparently on her way back to the ship. As night came on the boat was lost sight of, and those on board became anxious, as there was no sound nor sign that she was approaching the Investigator. Captain Flinders, on hearing that the cutter had not returned, sent Lieutenant Fowler away with a boat to see what detained the missing craft. Two hours 2>assed, and as the second boat did not return a gun was fired : Lieutenant Fowler at once came back, but without tidings of the missing cutter. He had found no trace of her, but he had met with broken water close by the spot where the object of his search had last been seen, which was sufficient to have upset his own boat if it had been under sail. At daylight the Investigator stood in towards the mainlaind in the direction in which the cutter was last sighted, and after anchoring in a small cove in whicli the ship was well sheltered, a boat was sent away to search for the cutter.

It soon returned towing the wreck of the missing craft bottom upwards. She had been dashed against the rocks and broken to pieces. Of the crew there was not the slightest trace, nor was any ever seen. They were either carried out to sea, or, what is more pro bable, taken by the sharks, which at all times abound in those waters. Flinders named the cove in which the wreck was found " Memory Cove," and he left behind him a copper plate, on which the particulars of the misfortune were engraven. After designating several of the islands in the neighborhood by the names of the men who had formed the crew of the cutter, he proceeded on his voyage. The southern point of the mainland was named "Cape Catastrophe," as a memorial of the first serious misfortime that had fallen upon the expedition. In the course of the boat expeditions in search of the cutter, a beautiful bay was discovered.

This was called Port Lincoln. The harbor is magnificent, and the climate, especially in the summer months, delightful ; but the country which surrounds it, except in a few places, is not good ; and although at one time it was looked upon as a proper site for the capital of the colony, it has never made any great progress. After surveying the islands which form the Sir Joseph Banks' Group, the Investigator proceeded up the remarkable indentation which bears the name of Spencer Gulf. The coast on the western side was flat and sandy, whilst that on the east was high and bold. Near the shore it was low and not well grassed, but it rose in the distance to a fine mountain range. Flinders steered up the gulf in the expectation of finding a river, but his expectation was not realised. The shores of the gulf gradually contracted.

The mountain range to the east was very near, and in the west a series of moderately high flat-topped hills was discovered. Mount Brown was visible in the distance, but the western hills seemed to mark the end of the indentation. Flinders then determined to examine the head of the gulf. He could not take his ship into the inlet in which it terminated ; he therefore proceeded onward in a boat. The inlet followed a serpentine course for some miles, between banks covered with mangroves. After considerable trouble a landing was made, but no fresh water could be found. Much disappointed. Flinders returned to his ship. Messrs. Brown and Westall in the meantime had made an excursion to the eastern mountains, now known as the Flinders Range, with the intention of going to the top of Mount Brown. They travelled for a distance of about sixteen miles to the foot of the mount, and reached the summit early in the evening.

There they remained all night without water, but they were amply rewarded for the hardships they had under gone in reaching the crest by the splendid view which lay before them. The mount is over 3.000ft. above the sea level. It is described as sublime solitude and desolation. To the west was the gulf meandering through low cliffs, topped with sand or shrubs, which in the distance looked like yellow meadows. Further in, distance merged both scrub and sand into one subdued dusky brown tint, out of which square blue blocks of table land rose here and there in the distance. To the east was wood and plain and swelling hills, with mountains beyond, rugged and barren ; but on every side, north, south, or east, the dusky brown or misty blue was not broken by a single silvery spot of water. Time has wrought a great change in this part of the country.

The inlet that cost Flinders so much disappointment is now an important port, named Port Augusta, which is the centre of a large import and export trade, and the desolate looking country around Mount Brown is extensively and profitably cultivated. In the middle of March, 1802, Flinders returned down the gulf, examining the eastern side as he progressed. One large bay, called Hardwicke Bay, was discovered, but although it is safe and commodious it is not much in use. The coast as seen from the sea is low and sandy, but inland the country is fertile, and is mostly under cultivation. After passing the southern headland of Yorke's Peninsula, which was named Cape Spencer, the Investigator was driven by stress of weather to take shelter under the land which lay to the south. This was at Kangaroo Island.

The point which afforded the vessel protection from the storm was called Point Marsden. Beyond this was a bay, named Nepean Bay, where the vessel anchored. Flinders remained here for three days, during which he endeavored to penetrate inland, but the scrub was so dense and the trees so high, that nothing could be seen. The crew of the ship employed themselves in killing kangaroos and skinning and preparing them for food. These animals were so tame that they allowed themselves to be knocked over with clubs without any attempt to escape. After living on salt provisions such as were then supplied to all ships, the change afforded by a most abundant supply of fresh meat must have been both useful and welcome to the crew. In gratitude for so seasonable a supply of fresh food Flinders named the place Kangaroo Island.

The animals killed were of large size and weight, and it is certain that they must have been extremely numerous. Very recently nine specimens were captured on the island, though for many years it was thought that they had ceased to exist. After the crew had recruited themselves in this way, the Investigator s commander set sail to pursue his exploration on the coast from Cape Spencer. A broad strait intervenes between Kangaroo Island and the southern head lands of the main. This channel was named Investigator's Strait. It may be as well in this place to state that Kangaroo Island is to the south of the mainland. It is about a hundred miles long from Cape Willoughby on the east to Cape Borda on the west, and about thirty-six miles broad in its widest part. From Cape Gautheaume on the south to Point Marsden on the north the coastline is high, rocky, and dangerous to approach.

It is well wooded, indeed rather thickly timbered. It con tains a great deal of good land and is fairly well watered. The climate is excellent, and there is an abundance of fish all along the seaboard. It is, however, very thinly populated, and it is only in a few places that any settlers are to be found. After quitting the island the ship headed up St. Vincent's Gulf, where Troubridge Island and Shoal were first seen. Flinders had seen Mount Lofty from Nepean Bay. As he proceeded up St. Vincent's Gulf he again saw the eminence which formed the highest peak of that mountain chain which stretched from Cape Jervis to the head of Spencer's Gulf, where Port Augusta is now established. The coast appeared low, and apparently composed of saud and rock, but the aspect of the country continually changed.

As the hills came into view the slopes appeared to be -well timbered and the intervening land well grassed. Smoke seen in various places denoted the existence of native camps inland. Proceeding onward for some distance the Investigator anchored off a sandy beach. Mangrove swamps were noticed on the horizon as the evening drew on. Next day Flinders left his ship in a boat to examine the head of the gulf. It greatly resembled the head of St. Vincent's Gulf. There were wide mud flats, at times covered with water, and an abundance of mangroves ; but where the shores converged, the water was salt. There was no sign of any fresh water stream flowing into the sea. A port is now established there called Port Wakefield. A boat's crew was sent on shore with orders to ascend some hills, now known as the Hummocks, which lay a few miles inland.

They did not come up to them, because they had not made preparation to remain on shore. Flinders reached the top of a smaller elevation to gain a view of the whole of the inlet. He noticed that the Mount Lofty Range ran within a few miles of the Hummocks. The soil appeared to be sandy, but the trees were large. Between the two ranges there was a broad swampy valley, into which water ran from the hills during the rainy weatner, and found its way thence into the gulf. He came to the conclusion that the eastern ridge which rose from Cape Jervis was identical with that which he had seen in Spencer's Gulf, whose summit had been ascended and named Mount Brown, and whose furthest point north was designated Mount Arden. He estimated the distance as 300 miles, but the range extends much further. The peninsula which hems in the eastern side of St. Vincent's Gulf was called Yorke Peninsula ; its outline is not unlike that of Italy.

The length of the peninsula is over 100 miles, its breadth at the head of the gulf about thirty-two miles, from Royston Head to Troubridge Point about forty-six miles, and from Point Turton to Sturt Bay about ten miles. The Investigator returned to Kangaroo Island without examining any more of the coast, except that portion which is opposite to Cape Jervis. The strait which lays between the island and the cape is not more than seven miles wide, and is named Backstairs Passage. After passing through this passage to the eastward, three small granite islands were discovered. They con sisted of bare rock, and are known as The Pages. These are situated at the western extremity of that large indentation of the coast into which the River Murray flows, marked on the charts as Encounter Bay, and lying between the 138th and 140th meridians of E. longitude.

This designation owes its origin to the circumstance that in this bay (longitude 138° 58" E. and latitude 35° 40" S.) the Investigator fell in with the French ship Le Geographe, under Captain Baudin, which was also on a voyage of discovery. She had parted from her consort, Le Nattraliste, in a heavy gale that had overtaken them in Bass's Straits. Captain Flinders went on board the Geographe, and exchanged credentials with the commander, and compared experiences. Captain Baudin had explored the coast from Western Port to the spot where the vessels met, so that the whole of the southern boundary of New Holland had been examined from east to west. Here the history of the discovery of South Australia comes to an end. A portion of it had been seen, but not examined, in 1627. That section of the province which starts from Nuyts' Point, and includes Banks' Peninsula, the Sir Joseph Banks' group of islands, the two gulfs, Yorke Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, and that space which intervenes between Cape Jervis and the Murray Mouth, was first discovered, and to a large extent surveyed, by Flinders alone.

The remaining portion, from Encounter Bay, near the Murray Mouth, to Discovery Bay, at the eastern boundary of South Australia, was claimed to have been discovered by Baudin — who, however, did not recognise, or perhaps did not know of, the discoveries of Lieutenant Grant in the Lady Nelson. He contented himself with naming the prominent features of the coast, without making surveys or determining longitudes. The subsequent career of Captain Flinders does not immediately concern the Province of South Australia. It was so remarkable, however, that it deserves to be briefly related. After proceeding to Sydney, and from thence to the Gulf of Carpen taria, where he did good work, Flinders was compelled to return to Port Jackson, owing to the ravages of scurvy amongst his crew and the unseaworthy condition of the Investigator.

He applied to the Governor of New South Wales (Capt. King, R.N.) for another ship, but, not succeeding in obtaining one, he determined to proceed to England and apply to the Admiralty. He left Port Jackson in the Porpoise on the 12th July, 1803, and five days afterwards was wrecked upon a reef in about longitude 150° 0" E. and latitude 22° 11" S. He returned to Sydney in the longboat of the wrecked vessel, and, obtaining assistance, he rescued all his crew from the reef. He then determined to sail to England in a small schooner, the Cumberland, of only twenty-nine tons. He reached the island of Mauritius in safety, but his little craft wanted thoroughly refitting. On landing he exhibited his passport as an explorer, but the authorities of the island would not recognise it, treated him as an impostor, and detained him in custody for six years and a half.

He did not reach England till the year 1810. The history of his discoveries and his hardships was published in 1814, in which year he died, it is said, on the very day that his splendid work was published. The treatment he received from the French Government was execrable. M. Peron, the naturalist on board the Geographe, in his work on the dis coveries made by Captain Baudin, absolutely ignored all that Flinders had done. In the French maps published, the names of capes, headlands, islands, &c, fixed on by Flinders were all changed, and French names substituted. So complete was the alteration that not even the smallest island escaped. The thoroughness of the surveys made by Flinders may be judged from the fact that surveys made a few years back by Captain Hutchinson, R.N., and Staff Commanders Howard, R.N., and Goalen, R.N., fully confirmed the accuracy of his work as far as it had gone.

After the lapse of nearly ninety years they are still reliable South Australia has no monument in honor of that gallant officer, to whom its discovery is mainly due, except an obelisk erected to his memory at Port Lincoln by his cousin, Captain Sir John Franklin, R.N., when he was Governor of Van Diemen's Land. Time, however, has done justice to his achievements. The names which he originally gave to the places he had discovered and made known to the world, have all been restored to the charts, and are now universallv recognised, whilst those substituted by the French are almost forgotten. Captain Flinders was an enterprising explorer and also a scientific navigator. He was gifted with courage, perseverance, sound judgment, and unflinching fortitude. His name deserves to take an honorable position amongst England's most renowned navigators, but more especially amongst the names of those whose discoveries form a glorious introduction to the history of the island continent of Australia.

Many years elapsed from the time that Flinders parted company with Captain Baudin and the Geographe in Encounter Bay in 1802 before any expedition was set on foot to ascertain what kind of country lay behind the extensive coastline which had been discovered by those navigators. Whatever interest might have been aroused in England when Flinders' work was published in 1814, it soon faded out. The exciting events which preceded and followed the close of the great European struggle in 1815 left little room for considering what immediate or future value the remote territory of New Holland and its dependencies might possess for the British nation. In New South Wales the case was different. The Governors of that settlement from time to time sent forth exploring parties in various directions to acquire some knowledge of the immense territory which, with so little trouble and cost, had become a part of the Colonial Empire of the United Kingdom.

It could not have been supposed even in those days that such an extent of country as that, bounded by the Indian seas on the north and west and the Southern and Pacific oceans on the south and east, could be peopled by means of the colonising plan then in force. The transportation system had not been a success as far as it had been followed out, and it must soon have become evident that discoveries of large tracts of land suitable for the settlement of white men must effect some modification, at the least, of the experimental jirocess under which the first colony had been established at Botany Bay. In 1828 Captain Sturt, afterwards Colonial Secretary in South Australia, was commissioned by Sir Ralph Darling, then Governor of New South Wales, to explore the Macquarie river westward as far as he could and if possible to its mouth.

He set out on the 10th of November, and he closed his arduous and distressing journey by reaching the Darling River in longitude 145° 33' E. and latitude 29° 37' S. He was not able to proceed further, and after an absence of nearly five months regained his starting point in Wellington Valley. In the following year Sturt again started out, this time for the purpose of tracing down the course of the Murrum bidgee and all the rivers connected with it as far as was possible. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the details of his voyage, or upon the sufferings which he and his party endured. He traced the River Darling down to its junction with the Murray, and floated along that stream in the face of the most frightful difficulties, until he came into Lake Alexandrina. At the lake he saw Mount Barker, but he mistook it for Mount Lofty.

He had achieved a great triumph, however, for he had traced the Murray nearly to its mouth, and thus solved the question of all the western waters from the Darling Downs to the Australian Alps. On the return voyage Sturt and his party suffered even more than they did on the outward passage, for they were worn out with exhaustion from overwork and starvation. They were just six months away, during which the party, comprising only six men, had ventured some thousands of miles in an open whaleboat through a country infested by hostile savages. Captain Collet Barker, of the 39th Regiment, who had been employed at Port Raffles and afterwards in Western Australia, on leaving King- George's Sound w-as directed by the Governor of New South Wales to call at Encounter Bay, in St. Vincent's Gulf. He arrived at its entrance in April, 1831.