Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Volume II Part 21

The country between Cape Grenville and Cape York is low and sandy, with but few sinuosities in its coast line: it is exposed to the trade wind, which often blows with great strength, from South-East and South-East by East.

ESCAPE RIVER, in 10 degrees 57 1/2 minutes, is an opening in the land of one mile in breadth, trending in for two or three miles, when it turns to the north, and is concealed from the view; the land on the north side of the entrance is probably an island, for an opening was observed in Newcastle Bay, trending to the south, which may communicate with the river. The entrance is defended by a bar, on which the Mermaid was nearly lost. (Volume 1.) The deepest channel may probably be near the south head, which is rocky. The banks on the south side are wooded, and present an inviting aspect.

NEWCASTLE BAY is nine miles in extent by six deep; its sh.o.r.es are low, and apparently of a sandy character; at the bottom there is a considerable opening bearing West 1/4 North eight miles and a half from Turtle Island.

Off the south head of the bay is TURTLE ISLAND, a small rocky islet on the east side of an extensive reef, in lat.i.tude 10 degrees 54 minutes, and longitude 142 degrees 38 minutes 40 seconds; it is separated by a channel three miles wide from reef x, which has a dry sand at its north end, in lat.i.tude 10 degrees 53 minutes, and longitude 142 degrees 42 minutes, it has also some dry rocks and a mangrove bush on the inner part of its south end.

Four miles to the north of x are two shoals y and Z, both of which are covered; y is two miles and a half long, and three miles and a quarter; neither of them appeared to be a mile in width; the north-west end of z, when in a line with Mount Adolphus, bears North 19 degrees West.

Off the north head of Newcastle Bay, which forms the south-east trend of the land of Cape York, is a group of high rocky islands, ALBANY ISLES; and immediately off the point is a reef, which extends for about a mile; half a mile without its edge, we had ten fathoms.

The islets 12, 13, and 15, were only seen at a distance.

THE BROTHERS, so called in Lieutenant Bligh's chart, are two high rocks upon a reef.

ALBANY ISLES contain six islands, of which one only is of large size; the easternmost has a small peak, and a reef extends for less than a quarter of a mile from it; the peak is in lat.i.tude 10 degrees 43 minutes 45 seconds, and longitude 142 degrees 35 minutes 5 seconds.

YORK ISLES is a group about seven miles from the mainland; the princ.i.p.al island, which is not more than two miles long, has a very conspicuous flat-topped hill upon it, MOUNT ADOLPHUS,* in lat.i.tude 10 degrees 38 minutes 20 seconds, and longitude 142 degrees 36 minutes 25 seconds. Off the south-east end of this island are two rocky islets, the southernmost of which is more than a mile distant; the northern group of the York Isles are laid down from Captain Flinders.

(*Footnote. There is a bay on the west side or Mount Adolphus, but it appeared shoal. Roe ma.n.u.script.)

CAPE YORK, the northernmost land of New South Wales, has a conical hill half a mile within its extremity, the situation of which is in 10 degrees 42 minutes 40 seconds South, and 142 degrees 28 minutes 50 seconds East of Greenwich. There is also an island close to the point with a conical hill upon it, which has perhaps been hitherto taken for the cape; from which it is separated by a shoal strait half a mile wide; the lat.i.tude of the summit is 10 degrees 41 minutes 35 seconds, and longitude 142 degrees 28 minutes 25 seconds. From this island a considerable shoal extends to the westward for six miles towards a peaked hill on the extremity of a point. In the centre of this shoal are some dry rocks.

At the distance of nearly five miles from the above island is the rocky islet a, in lat.i.tude 10 degrees 36 minutes 50 seconds, and longitude 142 degrees 27 minutes 45 seconds; it is of small size, and surrounded by deep water; and, being easily seen from the strait between Cape York and the York Isles, serves to direct the course.

POSSESSION ISLES consist of nine or ten islets, of which 2 and 7 only are of large size, and neither of these are two miles long; they are also higher than the others. Number 1 is a small conical hill; 2 is hummocky; 3, 4, and 6, are very small; 5 makes with a hollow in its centre, like the seat of a saddle. The pa.s.sage between 2 and the small islets 3 and 4 is the best; there is six and seven fathoms water; but in pa.s.sing this, it must be recollected that the tide sets towards the islands on the northern side.

ENDEAVOUR STRAIT is on the south side of Prince of Wales' Islands: a shoal extends from Cape Cornwall (lat.i.tude 10 degrees 45 minutes 45 seconds, longitude 142 degrees 8 minutes 35 seconds) to the westward, and is probably connected with a strip of sand that stretches from Wallis'

Isles to Shoal Cape. We crossed it with the cape bearing about East, when the least depth was four fathoms; but on many parts there are not more than three fathoms. Variation 5 degrees 38 minutes West.

PRINCE OF WALES ISLANDS are much intersected by straits and openings, that are very little known; there was an appearance of a good port, a little to the South-West of HORNED HILL (lat.i.tude 10 degrees 36 minutes 35 seconds, longitude 142 degrees 15 minutes) which may probably communicate with Wolf's Bay; the strait to the south of Wednesday Island also offers a good port in the eastern entrance of some rocky islands and without them is the rock b, with some sunken dangers near it.

WEDNESDAY ISLAND; its north end, in lat.i.tude 10 degrees 30 minutes 10 seconds, and longitude 142 degrees 15 minutes, may be approached close, but a considerable shoal stretches off its western side, the greater part of which is dry.

Off HAMMOND'S ISLAND is a high, conspicuous rock, bearing West 3/4 South, and five miles and three-quarters from the north end of Wednesday Island.

Captain Flinders pa.s.sed through the strait separating Wednesday Island from Hammond's Islands, and had four, five, and six fathoms.

Abreast of the strait separating GOOD'S ISLAND from the latter is the reef c, on which are several dry rocks, but abreast of it, and one mile and one quarter from it, is the reef d,* which is generally covered; the latter bears South 75 degrees West three miles and a quarter from the rock off Hammond's Island, and about North 45 degrees West two and a quarter miles from the opening between Good and Hammond's Island; the marks for avoiding it are given in the sailing directions.

(*Footnote. d consists of three small detached patches, that extend farther off than is at first observed. There is also a narrow strip of rocks extending for a short distance off the north-east end of the reef off Hammond's Island. Roe ma.n.u.script.)

Abreast of Wednesday, Hammond, and Good's Islands, is the NORTH-WEST REEF, an extensive coral bank, many parts of which are dry; it is ten or eleven miles long; the channel between it and the islands is from one mile and three-quarters to two miles and a quarter wide.

b.o.o.bY ISLAND (lat.i.tude of its centre 10 degrees 36 minutes, longitude 141 degrees 52 minutes 50 seconds) is a small rocky islet of scarcely a third of a mile in diameter; its south-west end has a shoal projecting from it for half a mile, but its other sides are bold to. In a North 70 degrees East direction from it, at the distance of two miles and three-quarters, is a sandbank with three fathoms; it was discovered by the ships Claudine and Mary, on their pa.s.sage through Torres Strait, when it was named LARPENT'S BANK.*

(*Footnote. It is near the west end of a shoal of five miles in length, extending in an east and west direction, a few feet only below the surface of the water. Roe ma.n.u.script.)

APPENDIX A. SECTION 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WINDS AND WEATHER, AND OF THE PORTS AND COAST BETWEEN WESSEL'S ISLANDS AND CLARENCE STRAIT.

In the sea that separates the land of New Guinea and the islands of Timor Laut and Arroo from the north coast of Australia, the winds are periodical, and are called the east and west monsoons, for such is their direction in the mid-sea. Near the Coast of New Holland the regularity of these winds is partly suspended by the rarefied state of the atmosphere; this produces land and sea-breezes, but the former are princ.i.p.ally from the quarter from which the winds are blowing in the mid sea. The usual course of the winds near the coast in the months of April, May, and June, is as follows: after a calm night, the land-wind springs up at daylight from South or South-South-East; it then usually freshens, but, as the sun gets higher, and the land becomes heated, gradually decreases. At noon the sea-wind rushes in towards the land, and generally blows fresh from East; at sunset it veers to the North-East, and falls calm, which lasts the whole night, so that if a ship, making a course, does not keep at a moderate distance from the land, she is subject to delay; she would not, however, probably have so fresh a breeze in the day time. Later in the season of the easterly monsoon, in August, September, and October, calms are frequent, and the heat is sultry and oppressive; this weather sometimes lasts for a fortnight or three weeks at a time. The easterly monsoon commences about the 1st of April, with squally, rainy weather, but, in a week or ten days, settles to fine weather and steady winds in the offing, and regular land and sea breezes, as above described, near the coast. It ceases about the latter end of November or early part of December; the westerly monsoon may then be expected to blow strong, and perhaps with regularity.

This is the rainy season, and is doubtless an unwholesome time; Captain Flinders' crew experienced much sickness in his examination of the Gulf of Carpentaria during this monsoon, but, when upon the western side of the gulf, he thought that the fine weather then experienced might be occasioned by the monsoon's blowing over the land. In January and February the monsoon is at its strength, but declines towards the end of the latter month, and in March becomes variable, with dark, cloudy, and unsettled weather; the wind is then generally from the South-West, but not at all regular.

The current sets with the wind, and seldom exceeds a knot or a knot and a half per hour; between Capes Wessel and Van Diemen it is not stronger, and its course in the easterly monsoon, when only we had any experience of it, was West: the strength is probably increased or diminished by the state of the wind.

The tides are of trifling consequence; the flood comes from the eastward, but rarely rises more than ten feet, or runs so much as a mile and a half per hour. High water takes place at full and change at Liverpool River, and Goulburn Island at six o'clock, at the entrance of the Alligator Rivers in Van Diemen's Gulf, at 8 hours 15 minutes, and at the south end of Apsley Strait at 3 hours 25 minutes.* The flood-tide comes from the eastward, excepting when its course is altered by local circ.u.mstances; the rise is not more than eleven feet at the springs.

(*Footnote. In St. Asaph's Bay, Lieutenant Roe found high-water take place at full and change at 5 hours 45 minutes; and in King's Cove at 5 hours 15 minutes; at the latter place it rose fourteen feet.)

The variation of the compa.s.s in this interval is scarcely affected by the ship's local attraction. Off Cape Wessel it is between 3 and 4 degrees East; at Liverpool River about 1 3/4 degrees East, at Goulburn Islands 2 degrees East, and off Cape Van Diemen, not more than 1 1/2 degrees East.

The dip of the south end of the needle at Goulburn Island was 27 degrees 32 1/2 minutes.

When the survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria was completed by Captain Flinders, his vessel proved to be so unfit for continuing the examination of the north coast, that it was found necessary to return to Port Jackson; and as he left it at the strait that separates Point Dale from Wessel's Islands, which is called in my chart BROWN'S STRAIT, he saw no part of the coast to the westward of that point, nor did he even see Cape Wessel, the extremity of the range of Wessel's Islands, which terminate in lat.i.tude 10 degrees 59 1/4 minutes, and longitude 135 degrees 46 minutes 30 seconds. The group consists of four islands, besides some of smaller size to the southward of the northernmost, and also a few on the eastern side of Brown's Strait; one of which is Cunningham's Island, of Captain Flinders. c.u.mBERLAND STRAIT is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 25 minutes, longitude 135 degrees 31 minutes.

POINT DALE, unless it is upon an island, appears to be the east extremity of the north coast; its lat.i.tude is 11 degrees 36 minutes, longitude 135 degrees 9 minutes: there are several rocky islands of small size, lying off, encompa.s.sed by a reef, which extends for eight miles North-North-East 1/2 East from the point. In Brown's Strait the tide sets at the rate of three and a half and four miles per hour; the flood runs to the southward through the strait. To the westward of Point Dale the coast extends for about sixty miles to the south-west to Castlereagh Bay; in which s.p.a.ce there are several openings in the beach, that are probably small rivers: one, ten miles to the South-West, may be a strait insulating Point Dale, and communicating with Arnhem Bay.

CASTLEREAGH BAY is forty miles wide, by about eighteen deep; it is fronted by a group of straggling islands of low coral formation, crowned with small trees and bushes: the centre of the northernmost islet is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 41 minutes 50 seconds, longitude 134 degrees 10 minutes 5 seconds. To the eastward of Cape Stewart, the western head of the bay, the coast is very much indented, and probably contains several openings or rivulets, particularly two at the bottom of the bay. The beach is generally sandy, with rocky points, and the sh.o.r.e is wooded to the beach; the interior was in no part visible over the coast hills, which are very low and level.

From the extremity of CAPE STEWART, which is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 56 minutes, and longitude 133 degrees 48 minutes, a reef extends to the West by North 1/2 North for eight miles and a half; having, at a mile within the extremity, a low sandy key, with a small dry rock half a mile to the eastward. Every other part of the reef is covered.

To the westward of Cape Stewart is a sandy bay nearly eleven leagues in extent, but not more than seven deep; near its western end there is a small break in the beach, but it did not appear to be of any consequence.

The extreme point of this bight is the eastern head of LIVERPOOL RIVER, whose entrance is to the westward of Haul-round Islet; which, as well as Entrance Island, is connected to the above point by a shoal. Haul-round Islet is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 54 minutes, and longitude 134 degrees 14 minutes; Entrance Island is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 57 minutes, and longitude 134 degrees 14 minutes 50 seconds.

The entrance is from one and a quarter to two miles wide. The reef extends for half a mile from Haul-round Islet, close without which the water is deep, the least depth in the entrance is five and three-quarter fathoms; and, in some parts there are thirteen and fourteen fathoms: at seven miles within Haul-round Islet, the depth decreases to four fathoms, and then gradually shoals to three; after which it varies in the channel of the river to between nine and twelve feet at low water. A bar crosses the river at the low mangrove island, over which there is not more than three feet at low water; but, as the tide rises more than eight feet at the springs, vessels drawing ten or eleven feet may proceed up the river.

The stream runs in a very tortuous course for upwards of forty miles, but as our examination was una.s.sisted by bearings or observations, it is laid down from an eye sketch.

POINT BRAITHWAITE, in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 45 minutes 50 seconds, and longitude 133 degrees 55 minutes 20 seconds, is twenty miles to the westward of Haul-round Islet; to the southward of it is Junction Bay, which was not examined.

For the next thirty miles the coast is very much indented, and has some deep bays on either side of Point Barclay, as also one to the eastward of Point Turner, at the bottom of which an opening, a mile in width, is probably a river. Here also the feature of the coast is altered, being low and level to the eastward as far as Point Dale, without a hill or rising ground in the interior to relieve its monotonous appearance. At this place, however, a range of rocky hills, WELLINGTON RANGE, commences, of about twenty miles in extent: five miles behind it is the Tor (lat.i.tude 11 degrees 54 minutes, and longitude 133 degrees 10 minutes 20 seconds) a solitary pyramidal rock; and seven miles and a quarter West by South, from the latter is a peak-topped hill.

The two latter are apparently unconnected with the range, on which there are four remarkable ridges, of which the two westernmost are the most remarkable.

GOULBURN ISLANDS consist of two islands, each being about twenty miles in circ.u.mference; they are separated from each other by a rocky strait three miles wide, which in most parts is deep enough for a ship of any size to pa.s.s through; the lat.i.tude of the centre of this strait is 11 degrees 32 minutes. Macquarie Strait separates the southernmost from the main, and is nearly two miles across: the depth in mid-channel being eighteen fathoms: the lat.i.tude of Retaliation Point, which is on the northern side of the strait, is in 11 degrees 39 minutes.

SOUTH WEST BAY affords good anchorage in five and six fathoms at a mile from the sh.o.r.e, and vessels may anchor at a quarter of a mile off the beach in three fathoms muddy bottom.

At the north end of the bay are the Bottle Rocks separated from the point by a channel two and a quarter fathoms deep. The Bottle Rock was one of our fixed points, and is placed in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 37 minutes 24 seconds, and longitude 133 degrees 19 minutes 40 seconds. The bay affords a convenient place for wooding and watering; the latter may be had during the early months of the dry season (as late as August) from a drain at the base of the Pipe Clay Cliffs at the north end of the bay. There are also some holes on Sims Island that contain water for a much later period. The holes have been made by the Malays for the purpose of collecting it.

MULLET BAY is on the west side of the north island, affording good anchorage in the easterly monsoon in six and seven fathoms mud, at a mile from the sh.o.r.e. The flood-tide here sets to the eastward, and it is high water at full and change in the strait at six o'clock; the rise of the tide is not more than five or six feet. The north-east point of North Goulburn Island is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 26 minutes, longitude 133 degrees 26 minutes.