INDEX

• Introduction
• Maps
• Significant Places in Australia's Maritime History
• Naming Australia
• Naming Australia's Coastal Features

WHO DID DISCOVER AUSTRALIA?

• The Phoenecians & Egyptians
• The Greeks & Romans
• The Chinese
• The Muslims
• The Portuguese
• The Dutch
• The British
• The French

COLONIAL EXPLORATION

• Index
• The French
• The British
• Other
• Inland explorers

Colonial Exploration: 1804 - Settlement on the Tamar River, Tasmania

French expeditions were exploring the Australian coastline at the same time as Matthew Flinders was making the voyage around Australia which established that this was a continent, and not a group of large islands. After the Governor of New South Wales reported the presence of French ships in Bass Strait, the British Admiralty proposed settlements at strategic locations to forestall any rival colonisation. Lieutenant John Bowen had set up a settlement at Risdon in the Derwent in the first half of 1803, under a Commission issued by Phillip Gidley King, the Governor of New South Wales. In a Confidential Instruction dated 1 May 1803 King told Bowen that, should ships of France or any other nation form a settlement in the neighbourhood, Bowen should advise them 'of His Majesty's right to the whole of Van Diemen's Land'.

Under the authority of the Letters Patent, David Collins was to take charge of a settlement intended to prevent the French occupying 'either of the most important objects' in Bass Strait &endash; King Island and Port Phillip Bay, according to a Colonial Office memorandum. When Collins investigated Port Phillip he rejected it as not suitable for settlement and sought further instructions from King. On 26 November Governor King sent him to investigate both Port Dalrymple and the Derwent River as locations for settlement, and instructed Collins to take command as Lieutenant-Governor at the preferred place. Collins sent a party of men to Port Dalrymple at the Tamar River first. He judged from their report that navigation on the river would be difficult and that the Aboriginal inhabitants were hostile. He then sailed south to the Derwent, arriving on 15 February 1804, and decided this was the most suitable location for settlement.

In January 1804, King instructed Bowen to deliver his charge to 'the Lieut. Governor' if Collins chose the Derwent, but Bowen was not at first willing to do so. His reasons are not on record, but the territory named in Collins' Commission does not include the Derwent. Collins was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of settlements to be formed 'to the northward of Basses Streights and on King's Island, or any other Island within the said Streights'. Governor King, annoyed at Bowen's delay, wrote to him in May 1804: 'I cannot conceive that you had any authority for declining giving up the settlement, etc, nor can I attribute Colonel Collins not claiming it as of right to any other motive but delicacy in him.' Perhaps it was this delicacy which lay behind the fact that Collins handed King's instruction to Bowen only on 8 May 1804.

In 1804, Governor King divided the Island into two dependencies, one initially centred on Port Dalrymple, under Lieutenant-Governor William Patterson, the other in the south under Collins. The Secretary of State for War and Colonies, Lord Hobart, had directed in a despatch of June 1803 (but only received in Sydney in May the next year) that a settlement be created at Port Dalrymple. In 'a political [that is, strategic] view', he continued, it was 'peculiarly necessary'. Hobart introduced an element of confusion, and amusement in Sydney, by describing Port Dalrymple as 'upon the southern coast', probably meaning the Derwent settlement, where Collins already was. King did the appropriate and convenient thing. Patterson's Commission, however, was issued not as Royal Letters Patent, but under the seal of the Governor of New South Wales.

The boundary in the Island was at the 42nd parallel south. The northern dependency was named the County of Cornwall and the southern the County of Buckinghamshire. These halves of the Island were jurisdictionally separate until 1812 when they were united under the Lieutenant-Governor of the southern half, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Davey.

While David Collins was still in Port Phillip Bay, wondering where to settle, he sent his namesake, William Collins, on a voyage of exploration to the Tamar estuary. By the time William Collins returned with good reports of the Tamar for settlement, David Collins was preparing for the expedition to the Derwent. A short while later, Governor King received a despatch from Lord Hobart (Secretary of State for the Colonies) which recommended the establishment at Port Dalrymple. Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson was nominated as Lieutenant-Governor of the new colony. After a first attempt was forced back by adverse winds, the party of 181 soldiers and convicts in four ships arrived at Outer Cove (George Town) on 4 November 1804.

Although he penetrated as far as the fertile site of Launceston, Paterson made the decision to set up his headquarters at the head of West Arm and founded York Town, while still maintaining small establishments at Outer Cove, Low Head and Green Island. In deciding on York Town, one can only imagine that Paterson was guided purely by the strategic necessity, as was Collins at Sorrento, of being near Bass Strait, and that he gave little thought to the problem of soil fertility and cultivation.

In March 1806, Paterson was willing to admit that York Town was a most unsuitable site and, accordingly, he moved his headquarters to the present site of Launceston. Paterson, before setting out on his expedition, had been involved in an argument as to his status, but Governor King had resolved the matter by dividing Tasmania at the 42° parallel and making Collins and Paterson sovereign in their respective halves, but subordinate to him as Governor.