The Fort Wellington settlement at Raffles Bay, on the northern side of the Cobourg Peninsula, in the Northern Territory of Australia, was the second of four failed attempts by the British to settle the north of Australia
before Palmerston (Darwin) was established.
Today, the Fort Wellington settlement lies in ruins and getting to this remote spot can be challenging.
Iwaidja Speaking Peoples
Iwaidja speaking people were hunters, gatherers, and fishers, who have lived on the Cobourg Peninsula for between 40 000 and 60 000 years.
Many of the Aboriginal people of West Arnhem Land, including the Iwaidja People, tell of the powerful Dreamtime Ancestral being, the Rainbow Serpent (snake woman) named
Warramurrungundji, who is depicted with a womb or dilly bags, full of babies, emerging from the Arafura Sea and stepping onto
this continent. Warramurrungundji
headed inland, depositing her children along the way and instructing them to speak different languages.
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| People of Arnhem Land (1950, March 11). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954) |
A pidgin language appears to have developed from the Aboriginal contact with the Macassans. As there were over 200 dialects of Aboriginal language in Australia, Aboriginal clans were often adept at making themselves
understood by various means.
Also, it was custom for the Iwaidja people to marry outside of the clan, so, individuals would often have to learn a different Aboriginal language.
Thomas Braidwood Wilson, a surgeon in the Royal Navy, who visited Raffles Bay in 1829, described various
aspects of Aboriginal life: (Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, 1835.). He wrote:
"In this part of the coast, the natives are divided into three distinct classes, who do not intermarry. The first and highest is named Mandro-gillie, the second Man-bur-ge, and the third, Mandro-willie. (Wilson. 1835:165)
Thomas Wilson’s 1835 journal is one of the oldest language documents from the Northern Territory.
At Raffles Bay he collected "the dialect of the natives of Raffles Bay’", which many linguists today describe as a mix of Iwaidja and Marrku. Wilson also recorded men and women’s personal names, body parts, plant and animal names, place names and words for weapons and utensils.
Wilson wrote that, "the true sound of Aboriginal peoples" words was difficult to obtain. He also observed that although Aboriginal people across the colonies were physically similar, they possessed "little affinity of language". This observation shows understanding of the diversity of Aboriginal languages spoken throughout Australia.
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| Unnamed woman, Northern Australia, circa. 1890, photo by Henry King |
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| "Yowadja" warrior N.T. "Iwaidja" man, decorated with body paint, dated 1910-01-01. Northern Territory Library |
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| Young warrior, Northern Territory, 1870s-80s, by Paul Foelsche |
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Elder of the Larrakia or Iwaidja people, Darwin, Northern Territory, 1870s-80s., by Paul Foelsche
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Some Visitors and Explorers
The first recorded sighting of the Northern Territory coastline was by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon aboard the ship Duyfken in 1606.
LuÃs Vaez de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through Torres Strait, charting New Guinea's southern coast and possibly sighting Cape York in October 1606.
Makassar people of today's Indonesia were sourcing trepang (sea cucumber) from northern Australia from somewhere around 1750.
Sailing to the Arnhem Land coast each year with the monsoon winds to an area they called Marege (wild country). They would obtain trepang, and send it to China, where it was a delicacy and aphrodisiac.  |
| The 1999 replica of Duyfken under sail in c. 2006, Rupert Gerritsen |
In 1636, the ships Cleen Amsterdam and Wesel sailed west along the northern coastline of the Cobourg Peninsula and Melville Island, calling the land Van Diemen Land. The charts made during this voyage do not survive.
Captain Cook sailed past the Northern Territory in 1770 but didn't stop.
Captain Dumont D'Urville, visited Australia various times between 1824 and 1840. In 1826, sailing in the
Astrolabe, he possessed secret orders to find a site for a French penal colony and naval base on the
Australian coast. D'Urville later visited the Victoria Settlement, Port Essington, in 1839.
The Portuguese colonised East Timor in the 17th century and journeyed to the Bathurst and Melville Islands to capture Tiwi people for slavery until at least the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Military PostsThe Dutch, who had colonised the Dutch East Indies - modern Indonesia, had a longer presence in northern Australia than the British. So, the British were fearful of the Dutch making a
territorial claim on Australia's north.
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| Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Saturday 13 April 1935 |
The Four failed Attempts at Settlement of the North
1827
As Stirling sailed into Raffles Bay on June 17th 1827, he found a Malay trepang station on a small island towards the entrance of the bay. And on land, furnaces and frames for boiling and drying the trepang by the Malay people were evident.
When they later anchored, Aboriginal people were sighted, but they disappeared into the bush.
At Raffles Bay, Stirling named the garrison Fort Wellington. Leaving Captain Henry Smyth in
charge of forty-four soldiers, twenty-two convicts, a Malay interpreter and his son, a surgeon, a storekeeper, two women, five children and 22 convict labourers from Sydney, Stirling sailed away.
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| James Stirling established Fort Wellington in 1827 |
Later, some of the Iwaidja men, who the British encountered, were given English nicknames, including Wellington, who was thought to be the leader. His real name was Mariae.
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| Nautical chart of the North Coast of Australia Sheet IV by Commander Phillip P. King, 1818-21 |
Raffles Bay was named by the explorer Phillip Parker King in 1818, after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the lieutenant governor of Java and founder of the colony of Singapore.
This second settlement, part of a strategy to keep the French and Dutch from claiming parts of the Australian continent and to
establish trade links with Southeast Asia, got off to a difficult start.
Soon, after arriving at Raffles Bay, the men began to fall sick from scurvy. By the end of October, 49 of the 76 people in the settlement were on the sick list (Darling, 25 Feb 1828). Captain Smyth was also afflicted with malaise.
The surgeon, Dr Cornelius Wood, became so ill that on 1 October he tried to take his own life. However, Privates' Thomas Smith and Thomas Williams took the knife away from him. Captain Smyth placed the surgeon on suicide watch. Surgeon Wood continued to make attempts on his own life and his fever worsened,
until he died on 13th October.
The Raffles Bay settlement was now without a surgeon and Lime Juice to treat the scurvy.
And Worse Still
The freshwater ran out.
Then Stirling’s whaleboat was stolen and completely destroyed and stripped of iron by the Iwaidja people for spearheads.
And a soldier was speared near the garrison.
Smyth
ordered a reprisal On 30 Jul 1827, exasperated by, "habitual pilfering" by the Iwaidja, "and following the wounding of a soldier … responded by ordering an indiscriminate attack".
"Dr Thomas Braidwood Wilson tried to determine a true account of the deaths, but this was difficult to determine. He wrote:
A party of the military (and, I believe, also of the prisoners) were dispatched in search of natives. They came unexpectedly on their camp at Bowen’s Straits, and instantly fired at them, killing some, and wounding many more. A woman, and two children, were amongst the slain; another of her children, a female, about six or eight years old was taken, and brought to the camp, and placed under the care of a soldier’s wife. After this, the natives kept aloof from the settlement . . ."
Frontispiece from Volume 1 of Phillip Parker King's Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia (1827). It is entitled "View in Raffles Bay, with Croker's Island in the distance
Thomas Braidwood Wilson
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| Thomas Braidwood Wilson, created before 1843 |
Dr Wilson also wrote his observations about the settlement and the Aboriginal people in his book,
Narrative of a Voyage Round the World.Of the Iwaidja he wrote:
"they go entirely naked, and their shoulders, breasts, nates, and thighs, are ornamented with cicatrices, resembling the braiding of a hussar's jacket. Their hair is long, generally straight, and powdered with red earth."And
"Many of them have the front tooth in the upper jaw knocked out in the same manner as the Port Jackson natives mentioned by Captain Collins. They paint their faces, and frequently their entire bodies, with red earth; those who are inclined to be dandies, draw one or two longitudinal lines of white, across the forehead, and three similar on each cheek; and a few who appeared to be exquisites, had another white line drawn from the forehead to the tip of the nose. The nasal cartilage is invariably perforated; but it is only on particular occasions that they introduce a bone or piece of wood, and sometimes a feather through it."And
"Although it may seem rather paradoxical, yet I do not hesitate to say, that the natives, far from being such untameable savages as originally represented, are, in reality, a mild and merciful race of people. They appeared to be fond of their wives and children; at least, they talked of them with much apparent affection. They have frequently interposed their good offices in preventing the soldiers' children from being chastised: I have seen them run between the mother and child, and beg the former to desist from her (as it appeared to them) unnatural conduct, in punishing her own offspring."A New Commandant: Captain Collet BarkerOn 13 September 1828, Captain Collet Barker arrived as the new commandant of Fort Wellington, at Raffles Bay. He found that relations between the Aboriginal people and the settlers under the command of Captain Henry Smyth had deteriorated to the point of mutual fear and hostility.
In his first dispatch to Governor Darling, Barker reported:
"Nothing has been seen of the Natives for a considerable time; they appear to have deserted the immediate neighbourhood". A series of thefts and spearings by the Aborigines led to the former commandant offering a reward of five pounds for "any native who could be brought in, hoping that, by keeping such individual at the settlement, it might have the effect of preventing any further hostility".Over 1000 seafarers,
interested in trade, visited Raffles Bay during the year following Captain Barker's arrival.
Improved Relations
On 18 September, Captain Barker ordered that guns not to be used at the settlement unless absolutely necessary. He addressed the men on "the importance of avoiding cruelty toward the Natives".
On 25 November 1828, Captain Barker managed to make contact with the Aboriginal people when he and Davis. the surgeon. were taken to the
place of contact, where they met ten Iwaidja men.
Captain Barker presented the Iwaidja people with handkerchiefs, a pair of scissors, and some bread. The Iwaidja invited Barker to accompany them. However, Barker declined to do so, though he tried to convey that he would be pleased to do so another time.
The second contact between Captain Barker and the Iwaidja people was written by Barker as follows:
"... as we were cruising along the shore some natives were discovered. We made friendly signs to each other and I ran the boat in and landed unarmed desiring everyone else to remain in the boat. On our approach to the beach the natives returned some distance from it, evidently in a little alarm. I advanced to show I supposed them to be, and soon fell in with one who seemed to be a chief. We exchanged presents, I giving him a handkerchief and he giving me a spear, unheaded, and the stick for throwing it. He had perhaps taken off the head. He also gave me a string of beads...I asked for Wellington and he pointed to himself and repeated the name. Another native soon came up and afterwards a third. They did not want me to go with them and appeared rather in a hurry. When I got on board again I found there was a bit of bread in the boat and I sent my servant with it. The doctor went with him. They ate up the bread immediately and the chief took off a pair of bracelets and gave them to the doctor."
Captain Barker began to write in his journal personal names, words and observations about the Iwaidja culture that he learned through the improved relations. However, the theft by the Iwaidja of the settlement's canoes continued to cause problems, until Captain Barker arranged to lend the canoes. Soon, the Iwaidja would return the canoes along with fish and tortoise shell in them, as thanks.
Some of the names of the Iwaidja people that Captain Barker recorded were, Monanoo, Luga, Miago, Olobo and Marambal.
Sharing Culture
When the Iwaidja were induced to enter the settlement they were quite overcome when they saw the young girl, taken during Smyth's reprisal.
"On discovering the little native girl, both Wellington and Waterloo evinced great emotion, particularly the latter, who was on that account, believed to be her father. Seeing her so well taken care of increased their confidence; she was then named Mary Waterloo Raffles, but her native name was Riveral."
"After this occurrence, the intercourse with the natives was renewed, and, as Captain Barker used every precaution to prevent their receiving injury or molestation from any individual in the camp, it continued unbroken . . ." (Wilson 1835:70, 74)
Such were the improved relations that on 29 January 1829, two Iwaidja men, Alobo and Pamoono, entertained the British by playing the didgeridoo and singing and dancing.
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| "Dance of the Aborigines at Raffles Bay" by Lieutenant George Edward Nicholas Weston (1796-1856), drawn on 30 Jul 1829. Published in the book "Narrative of a Voyage round the World" by Thomas Braidwood Wilson in 1835. |
The Iwaidja would sometimes sleep in the garrison, and Captain Barker, whom the Iwaidja called the Commandant,
welcomed Mariae and the other Iwaidja into his home, where the ship's fiddler would play the hornpipe, and they would all dance.
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| "DANCE MUSIC." Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907) 31 August 1889 |
Orders to Abandon
On 21 July 1829, Captain Barker received orders to abandon the Fort Wellington settlement.
Before taking their leave, Captain Barker took his Iwaidja friends around the settlement and told them about the fruits and vegetables that would soon be theirs to consume.
On 28 August the settlement at Fort Wellington was abandoned.
Barker then moved on to become commandant of the British settlement at King George Sound. He was killed by Aboriginal people in 1831, perhaps mistaken for a whaler or sealer, who had kidnapped Aboriginal women.
"The following particulars were obtained
from three sources, all of which agreed that
Captain Barker's footsteps were tracked by
two natives along the sand ridge near the beach
on the east side of the inlet. That these two
men were afterwards joined by a third, and
when it was ascertained that Captain Barker
had no musket nor any means of defence the
signal of attack was made by 'cooeing.' That
Captain Barker never perceived their approach
until he received his first wound from Cum-
marringeree, whose spear entered at the left
hip and came out of the opposite side. That
Captain Barker then ran into the surf up to
his knees, making signs with his hands, and
calling to them to desist. The second spear
was then thrown at him by Pennagoora,
which entered at the right flank, and quickly
afterwards Wannagetta threw the third spear,
which entered his back and came out in front.
Captain Barker then fell down, and the three
natives brought him on shore and drew their
spears backwards and forwards through his
body till he was dead. They then took him
up and cast him into the sea in deep water."
1894 'AN OLD TIME EPISODE.', The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931)
1839: The French
French explorer Dumont D'Urville visited Raffles Bay in 1839 in the Astrolabe, accompanied by another ship La Zéléé. D'Urville said, "nothing was more depressing than our day in Raffles Bay". And "the heat was intolerable......The flies harassed us during the day, replaced at night by the mosquitos". He went on to say that their beds and food were invaded by ants.
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| The photograph is a print of a lithograph by Louis Auguste de Sainson, who accompanied d’Urville on the journey. The image is a part of Archives New Zealand’s former Post and Telegraph/Telecom Museum Holdings collection. |
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| Dumont D'Urville, the French explorer, visited Raffles Bay between 27 March and 6 April 1839 and made contact with the Macassar trepanging fleet and visited the camp. Louis Le Breton, the official artist on the voyage, painted this: "Pêcheurs de Tripang à la Baie Raffles." |
The Beagle
John Clements Wickham, Commander and surveyor of the
Beagle, mapped Australia's northern coastline in 1839. Leaving Sydney in May, the
Beagle arrived in the north in July, surveying the coastline.
Lieutenant John Lort Stokes of the
Beagle was the first British person to spot Darwin harbour on 9 September 1839. Commander Wickham then named the port after Charles Darwin, the English naturalist who had
sailed on the earlier second expedition of the
Beagle.
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| The Popular Science Monthly, Volume 57 p. 87, reproduction of frontispiece from Darwin, Charles (1890), Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the various countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle |
The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont
In the book,
The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont as Told by Himself (1899), de Rougemont, who claims that he spent thirty or so years as a castaway among the Aboriginals of North-West and Central Australia, talks about his visit to Raffles bay:
"......accompanied me to a camp of black fellows near some lagoons, a little way farther south of their own camp. Before they left, they presented me with a quantity of bêche-de-mer, or sea-slugs, which make most excellent soup. At the place indicated by the Malays, which was in Raffles Bay, the chief spoke quite excellent English. One of his wives could even say the Lord’s Prayer in English, though, of course, she did not know what she was talking about. “Captain Jack Davis,” as he called himself, had been for some little time on one of her Majesty’s ships, and he told me that not many marches away there was an old European settlement; he even offered to guide me there, if I cared to go. He first led me to an old white settlement in Raffles Bay, called, I think, Fort Wellington, where I found some large fruit-trees, including ripe yellow mangoes. There were, besides, raspberries, strawberries, and Cape gooseberries."
Mildirn/Captain Jack Davis
Mildirn, known as Captain Jack Davis, was born in 1835 near the Cobourg Peninsula. He was four years old when the Port Essington garrison was established. He became a messenger for the officers and was "something of a pet with the regiment".
At the age of twelve, Mildirn was taken to Hong Kong on a merchant ship with two other young boys, Mijok and Aladyin, in 1847, Mildirn was left stranded when the ship's master died but was recognised by Crawford Pasco, an officer who had served at Port Essington, and he organised the boys' return to Port Essington.
Mildirn crewed on a merchant ship for a number of years and became a fluent English speaker. He was also well known for "giving vent to the most horrible blasphemies and obscenities", which he had learnt from the soldiers.
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| Mildirn, sometimes spelt Medlone, also known as Jack Davis, Old Jack Davis or Port Essington Jack, aged 94 |
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| Philip Galtanyarra Traditional landowner - gives address of welcome. Fort Wellington, Raffles Bay. Published 1977-09-26, Peter Spillett Collection. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Today
Most of the Cobourg Peninsula Ramsar site (wetland) is managed as part of Garig Gunak Barlu National Park. Translated as: Garig (a local language name), Gunak (land), Barlu (deep water).
Around The Cobourg Peninsula
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| Cobourg Peninsula, NT |
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| Cobourg Peninsula, NT |
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| Cobourg Peninsula, NT |
