Port Essington

This article is about the early Australian settlement. For the settlement in Canada, see Port Essington, British Columbia.

Port Essington

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Port Essington, Northern Territory

New Victoria in 1839. Lithograph from Voyage au Pôle Sud et en Océanie by Jules Dumont d'Urville

Port Essington as illustrated in Ludwig Leichhardt's account of his expedition

Port Essington (Iwaidja language: Limbo Cardja) ^[1] is an inlet and historic site located on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. It was the site of an early attempt at British settlement, but now exists only as a remote series of ruins.

Nautical Chart of Port Essington, showing the Victoria settlement, surveyed by Charles Tyers in 1839

Indigenous Australians

Port Essington and the surrounding area has been the country of the Garig-Iwaidja group of people and their ancestors for at least the past 40,000 years. ^[2]

Dutch exploration

In 1705, the Dutch East India Company ordered Captain Maarten van Delft to prepare a fleet of three vessels to make an expedition from the East Indies to the northern coast of New Holland (Australia). After remaining three months on the Tiwi Islands, he surveyed some of the mainland, naming Maarten Van Delft Bay after himself. This bay is now known as Port Essington. ^[3]

Makassan interest

For the remainder of the 1700s, foreign interest in the region came from the Makassans, who visited the bay annually from Sulawesi to harvest trepang, shark fin, wax and turtle shell. There was hostility between the Indigenous people and the Makassans with some being made to work on their boats and a number being taken to Makassar. The Indigenous people, however, acquired new technologies from the Macassans such as iron tools. ^{[3] [4]}

British exploration

Port Essington was named on 23 April 1818 by Phillip Parker King in HMS Mermaid 'as a tribute of my respect for the memory of my lamented friend, Vice-Admiral Sir William Essington', ^[4] who was in command of Triumph at the battle of Camperdown in October 1797.

King was conducting a detailed circumnavigation of Australia, and whilst surveying Port Essington, he decided to remove a skeleton from an Aboriginal burial site. This caused a skirmish with the resident Iwaidja-Garig people, and King's vessel was showered with spears and stones. His crew fired several rounds but no casualties were observed. ^[4]

The Victoria settlement

Background

In the 1820s, the British Colonial Office became interested in establishing a settlement on Australia's northern coastline in the hope of both facilitating trade with Asia and discouraging the colonial aspirations of the French and the Dutch in the region. ^[5]

Port Essington and Melville Island were proposed as the first such settlements, ^[6] but the former was initially passed over due to a lack of fresh water. Captain Gordon Bremer took possession of Melville Island in September 1824 and founded the short-lived colony of Fort Dundas. ^[7] This was subsequently abandoned in 1828 in favour of Fort Wellington at nearby Raffles Bay. However, this too was abandoned in 1829.

Establishment of the settlement

Despite these failures, the British persisted with their policy of establishing a colonial outpost in the region and in 1838 Port Essington was revisited as a site to create a settlement. Again, Captain Gordon Bremer was chosen to lead the initiative and as a result, an outpost, officially named Victoria Settlement after the young Queen Victoria, but popularly known as Port Essington, was established. ^[8]

It was surveyed by Charles Tyers in 1839 and consisted of 24 houses and a hospital. A description of the harbour and settlement was communicated to the Royal Geographical Society, London, in 1839. ^[9]

On 24 August 1839 the only play ever staged in Port Essington was performed, the 1797 comedy in five acts Cheap Living by Frederick Reynolds. ^[10] The set and costume design was by Owen Stanley (1811–1850). ^[11] The play was performed again in 2010 with a grant from the Government of the Northern Territory, ^[12] with Tom Pauling, Administrator of the Northern Territory, acting as narrator in the play. ^[10]

While the British government intended to establish Port Essington as a major trading port, along the lines of Singapore, the new settlement suffered from the same adverse conditions that had previously plagued Fort Dundas and Fort Wellington. The settlement lacked resources and supplies and skilled labour. While some prefabricated buildings were brought from Sydney, many had to be built with what materials could be found in the area, and due to the unskilled nature of the builders, many of these were of poor quality. Disease was also rampant among the small population, and living conditions were poor. Consequently, it struggled to attract settlers, and the post was much-disliked by the troops stationed there.

A local Aboriginal leader Medlone, also known as Jack Davis, acted as a messenger and manager for relations with the local Aboriginal people.

Setbacks

Port Essington suffered a further setback when the settlement was demolished by a cyclone on 25 November 1839. The cyclone killed twelve people, drove the ship HMS Pelorus aground, and caused a 3.2 metre storm surge. The settlement was rebuilt afterwards, with some stone and brick buildings, due to the assistance of a brick maker who had been shipwrecked during the storm. ^[13]

Despite these setbacks, there was still widespread hope that Port Essington might be able to break the curse, as evidenced by Ludwig Leichhardt's 1844/1845 expedition. The New South Wales government had hoped to establish a direct line of communication with Asia, India and the Pacific, and supported Leichhardt's journey, which successfully charted an overland route between Moreton Bay (now Brisbane) and Port Essington. ^{[14] [15]}

A detailed map of Ludwig Leichhardt's route in Australia from Moreton Bay to Port Essington (1844 & 1845), from his Original Map, adjusted and drawn... by John Arrowsmith ^{[16] [17]} was ranked #8 in the ‘Top 150: Documenting Queensland’ exhibition when it toured to venues around Queensland from February 2009 to April 2010. ^[18] The exhibition was part of Queensland State Archives’ events and exhibition program which contributed to the state’s Q150 celebrations, marking the 150th anniversary of the separation of Queensland from New South Wales. ^[19]

In 1844, a group of convicts, which included trained masons and quarry men among them, was stationed at Port Essington. They were able to build a hospital of some quality at a beacon. Another arrival in 1844, late in the year, were Lieutenant George Lambrick and his was Emma Lambrick who had sailed there on the convict ship Cadet; Emma Lambrick would soon be the first European woman to die there. ^[20]

In 1846 Father Angelo Confalonieri made a decision to found a Catholic mission nearby, in an attempt to convert the local population. He had some success, converting around 400 people, but he died of fever in 1848, and the mission died with him. ^{[21] [22]}

Port Essington was still failing to attract settlers, and it was becoming increasingly clear both that the 1844 works had come too late, and that the settlement was unsustainable. Visiting the settlement in December 1848, soon before its closure, British scientist Thomas Huxley wrote that Port Essington was "most wretched, the climate the most unhealthy, the human beings the most uncomfortable and houses in a condition most decayed and rotten".

Abandonment

Finally, in 1849, Port Essington was, like the two previous attempts, abandoned. The demise of the settlement saw the end of British attempts at occupying the north coast. There would be one further unsuccessful attempt, by the Government of South Australia and Frederick Henry Litchfield in 1864, at Escape Cliffs (also known as Palmerston) near the mouth of the Adelaide River, before the first permanent settlement was established at Darwin (also initially known as Palmerston), in 1869.

The ruins of Port Essington still exist today, and while access is difficult, it is possible to do so by several means. It is possible to fly in through tours that can be arranged in Darwin, or to travel to the area alone by four-wheel drive or boat – although, as the ruins lie on Aboriginal land, a permit must be obtained first. Cabins and some camping sites are available at Black Point Ranger Station.

The Australian industrialist Essington Lewis was named after Port Essington.

References

1. Leichhardt, Ludwig (1847). Journal of an overland expedition in Australia from Moreton Bay to Port Essington. London: T & W Boone.
2. "Iwaidja". Documentation of Endangered Languages. DOBES. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
3. Forrest, Peter (1995). The Tiwi Met the Dutch (PDF). Winnellie: Tiwi Land Council. ISBN   0646235605.
4. King, Phillip Parker (1827). Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia. Vol. 1. Murray. p. 59.
5. Reid, Gordon (1990). A Picnic with the Natives: Aboriginal-European Relations in the Northern Territory to 1910. Carlton: Melbourne University Press. ISBN   0522844197.
6. Port Essington Travel Fact Sheet, The Sydney Morning Herald (2 December 2010)
7. A W Reed 'Place Names of Australia', Reed 1973.
8. Ritchie, G.S. (1967). The Admiralty Chart. London: Hollis & Carter. p. 288.
9. Barrow, John (1839). "On the Recent Establishment at Port Essington, on the Northern Coast of Australia. Extract from a letter of Captain Sir J. Gordon Bremer". Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 9: 499–501.
10. "Victoria's secrets reveal death and noble failure" by Mark Day, The Australian (30 October 2010). Accessed 9 April 2011
11. "Owen Stanley", Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, 25 February 2011. Accessed 9 April 2011
12. "Art Grants Awarded To Territorians" Archived 2011-03-26 at the Wayback Machine , Media release by Gerry McCarthy, Government of the Northern Territory (18 June 2010). Accessed 9 April 2011
13. "Port Essington - Northern Territory - Australia - Travel - smh.com.au". www.smh.com.au. 8 February 2004. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
14. Leichhardt, Ludwig (1847). Journal of an overland expedition in Australia, from Moreton Bay to Port Essington during the years 1844-1845. London: T. & W. Boone.
15. "LEICHHARDT". The Sydney Morning Herald . Vol. XXI, no. 2773. New South Wales, Australia. 1 April 1846. p. 2. Retrieved 11 August 2020– via National Library of Australia.
16. Detailed map of Ludwig Leichhardt's route in Australia from Moreton Bay to Port Essington (1844 & 1845), from his Original Map, adjusted and drawn... by John Arrowsmith. (negative photostat, 12 parts), Queensland State Archives, 1840, Item ID ITM635667, retrieved 11 August 2020
17. Prescott, Dorothy (18 July 2011). "Arrowsmith's Australian Maps". p. Eastern Portion of Australia, East 1847/1. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
18. corporateName=Queensland State Archives (5 April 2015). "Number 8 - Map of Ludwig Leichhardt's expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington (1844-1845)". Number 8 - Map of Ludwig Leichhardt’s expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington (1844-1845). Archived from the original on 5 April 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2020– via National Library of Australia.
19. Queensland State Archives (2014), "Annual report", Queensland State Archives Annual Report, Queensland State Archives: 6, 9, ISSN   1448-8426 , retrieved 4 August 2020
20. James, Barbara (2008). "Emma Jane Lambrick (1822-1846)". Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography (Rev ed.). Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press. p. 332. ISBN   9780980457810.
21. Pryer, G (2008). "Angelo Bernado Confalonieri (1813–1848)". Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography (Rev ed.). Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press. pp. 104–105. ISBN   9780980457810.
22. Bowling, Mark (8 August 2017). "Northern Australia's first missionary priest remembered 170 years later". The Catholic Leader . Brisbane. Retrieved 14 January 2025.

Further reading

• Cobourg Peninsular historic sites: Gurig National Park. Darwin, N.T. Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory. 1999–2000. 7 volumes
  v. 1. Cobourg Peninsular historic sites conservation plan – v. 2. Executive summary – v. 3. Raffles Bay heritage precinct – v. 4. Victoria Settlement heritage precinct – v. 5. Port Essington heritage precinct – v. 6. Cape Don Lighthouse complex – v. 7. Cobourg Peninsular historic sites original reference documentation. Record at the National Library of Australia
• Alan Powell, World's End: British military outposts in the ring fence around Australia, Melbourne University Press, 2016.
• Jim Allen, Port Essington: The historical archaeology of a north Australian nineteenth-century outpost, Sydney University Press in association with the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology, 2008; ISBN   9781920898878. A typescript of the 1969 thesis on which this book is based is available at the Australian National University's Open Research Library
• Mark McKenna, From the Edge: Australia's lost histories, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2016.
• Spillett, Peter (1972), Forsaken settlement : an illustrated history of the settlement of Victoria, Port Essington, North Australia, 1838-1849, Lansdowne, retrieved 28 July 2022

External links

• Port Essington, NT Place Names Register Extract
• Photographs in 2009 from Northern Territory Library
• Bibliography from Northern Territory Library
• Search for historic photos on Port Essington

11°21′38″S132°09′12″E / 11.36056°S 132.15333°E / -11.36056; 132.15333