Coastal Names of Northern Territory: Darwin to WA Border

West Point
9.9.1839. Wickham. Location in relation to Port Darwin.

Charles Pt
9.9.1839. Wickham. Named after Naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Darwin was the British naturalist who became famous for his theories of evolution and natural selection. From 1831 to 1836 Darwin served as naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle on a British science expedition around the world which visited the northern shores of Australia. The expedition visited many places around the world, and Darwin studied plants and animals everywhere he went, collecting specimens for further study. Like several scientists before him, Darwin believed all the life on earth evolved (developed gradually) over millions of years from a few common ancestors. Although supported by a mass of circumstantial evidence, his theory of natural selection does not include a testable hypothesis for discovering the mechanisms of heredity.

Thrings Channel
1862. Named by John McDouall Stuart after the third officer of Stuart's final exploration party which was the first to finally cross the Australian continent from south to north. Stuart also named Things Creek and James Creek, into which it flowed. Over time James Creek has disappeared from nomenclature with Things Creek being the name for the whole of the stream.

Pt Emery
9.10.1839. Wickham. Named after Lieut. James Barker Emery who found fresh water below the cliff point after entering harbour on the HMS Beagle. Although named Emery Point by Wickham and Stokes, from the time Palmerston (now Darwin) was settled in 1869 until World War II, the point was known as Point Emery. Army mapping and Navy charts of the early to mid 1940s show the point as Emery Point, by which it is known today.

Bynoe Harbour
12.9.1839. Wickham. Named after Benjamin Bynoe, surgeon, bird collector and boatswain, HMS Beagle.

West Channel
10.10.1839. Wickham. Its location.

Fish Reef
10.10.1839. Wickham(?). Many fish caught here. No mention of the name appears in the journal of the exploration by Wickham and Stokes, and the name did not appear on Admiralty charts until March 1870.

Quail Isld
10.10.1839. Wickham (/). Quail found here.

Bare Sand Isld
The name Bare Sand Island first appeared on charts in 1913, but since 1920 has marked a different island. This confusion is evident to those who use or know of the islands, with locals calling the eastern island Bare Sand Island and the other island Sandy Island; whilst other locals know the western island as Bare Sand Island and the eastern island having no name. One theory for the name Bare Sand Island is that the name was applied to the eastern rock island because it was bare of sand, where as the western island is sandy. Alternatively, the name could have been given prior to 1883 to the western island as it was bare sand, with no vegetation.

Grose Isld
29.8.1819. King. This island takes its name from Cape Grose which was bestowed on the point by PP King who also records Paterson Bay which was later called Port Patterson by Wickham and Stokes in 1839. The association between Pat(t)erson and Grose, both known to Governor King (PP King's father) suggests that Grose Island was named after Major Grose. Grose Island was used as a RAAF bombing range between 1957 and 1979.

Beer-Eetar Isld
The name appears on present mapping series and has been adopted from the pre-war Naval Hydrographers records. The origin of the name if unknown but is believed to be of aboriginal origin.

Dum In Mirrie Isld
First charted by the Navy in 1969 and the Army in 1943. The first reference to Dum in Mirrie is by Basedow in 1905 when he used the orthography Damminmurre and associated the island with the Star Dreaming mythological track. The Aboriginal Area Protection Authority has the name as Daminmirri Wulmar which is similar to Basedow's orthogrphy.

Indian Isld
12.8.1838. Wickham and Stokes. The journal HMS Beagle recorded Indians crossing Bynoe Harbour on a raft (Raft Point). Aboriginals at that time were referred to as Indians. The name first appeared on the British Admiralty Charts in 1883. Its aboriginal name of Uldy Jedlo was recorded on a chart 1935.

Port Patterson
2.9.1819. King. King's spelling of the name of the Port was incorrect as it commemorates the colonial Lieutenant-Governor of NSW, William Paterson (1755-1810). The nearby Paterson Point was named in 1990 - the Point is named to reflect the correct spelling of Paterson.

Fog Bay
B T Finniss in a report of the coast between Escape Cliffs and Victoria River, dated 1st September 1865, to Hon Henry Ayers, Chief Secretary wrote:- "We named it Fog Bay, as a very dense fog in the morning rendered all objects invisible beyond one hundred yards".

Point Blaze
1.9.1819. King. King's published report "Survey of the Intertropical Coasts of Australia", states, " ... we anchored off a point of land, which, from the circumstances of a very large fire burning upon it, was called Point Blaze."

Channel Pt
2.9.1819. King. Descriptive.

Peron Islds
PP King records (2nd September 1819) the naming of Peron Island by Nicolas Baudin in June, 1803. He compared his longitude with Baudin, who is believed to have named the Island after Francois Peron, the French naturalist who was accompanying Baudin on the Naturalist. However, there is no mention of Baudin naming the island in Christine Cornell's translation of "The Journal of Post Captain Nicolas Baudin"Named after Expedition naturalist, Francois Peron. . Peron has the distinction of having more Australian coastal features named after him than anyone else. that is because he took his expedition's journal back to France after Baudin's death and was responsible for it being published. He detested Baudinand changed most of the coastal features named after the leader to his own name.

Anson Bay
2.9.1819. King. Named after George Anson (1697-1762). British admiral, entered the navy in February 1712 and became lieutenant in 1716, commander in 1722 and post-captain in 1724. In 1737, he was appointed to the Centurion which, as flagship of a fleet of six ships, was sent out ill-equipped to attack the Spanish possessions in South America. After losing 5 ships by successive disasters, he circumnavigated the world in the course of eight years, capturing underway at Cape Espiritu Santo the Nuestra Señora de Covadonga. By the world at large, he is known as the commander of this voyage. In 1745, he was invited to join the Admiralty with the rank of rear-admiral of the white. In 1751, he became first Lord of the Admiralty.

Cliff Head
2.9.1819. King. Descriptive.

Red Cliff
2.9.1819. King. Descriptive.

Cape Ford
3.9.1819. King. PP King's Journal of his exploration of the Australian coast makes no mention of after whom it is named.

Cape Scott
3.9.1819. King. PP King's Journal of his exploration of the Australian coast makes no mention of after whom it is named.

Cape Dombey
16.8.1801. Baudin. Named after Joseph Dombey, 18th century French Doctor of Medicine, Medical Botanist and a well known artist who enriched the Museum at Paris with numerous collected plants.

Tree Point
2.9.1819. King. Descriptive.

Port Reefs
2.9.1819. King. Descriptive.

Cape Hay
8.8.1819. King. PP King records steering close to Cape Hay, but does not mention the origin of the name in his narrative.

Pearce Pt
Mentioned in PP King's narrative (10.9.1819) as a name applied by Matthew Flinders in March 1803 in South Australia after a person in the Admiralty, (possibly Capt Joseph Pearce). Somehow the point was named Point Pearce by Kinh but for what reason was not stated.

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf
16.8.1801. Baudin. Named after Joseph Bonaparte (right) , brother of Napoleon Bonaparte (1768-1844). Born at Corte in Corsica, educated at the college at Autun in France, returned to Corsica in 1784 and studied law at Pisa. He became a barrister at Bastia and was soon elected a councilor of the municipality of Ajaccio. Became Napoleon's King of Spain, but failed to meet his brothers expectations in the interest of the Spanish people. After Napoleon's defeat, he fled from Spain. He died at Florence.

Barthelemy Hills
16.8.1801, Baundin. Francois Barthelemy (1747-1830) diplomat and member of the Directory, later marquis or Nicolas Martin baron Barthelemy (1765-1835), distinguied French general who fought in Spain.

Treachery Bay
7.12.1839. Wickham. John Lort Stokes was speared by a native here. Stokes recorded, "to commemorrate the accident which behell me, the bay within Pt Pearce was called Treachery Bay, and a high hill over it Providence Hill."

Fossil Head
10.10.1839. Wickham. Fossils found here. It was siscovered by Commander J Lort Stokes whilst surveying from HMS Beagle in Treachery Bay, an estuary of Victoria River. On Stokes' chart of Victoria River this feature is called Fossil Summit.

Gore Channel
10.10.1839. Wickham. Named after Lieut. Graham Gore, HMS Beagle.

Queens Channel
2.12.1839. Wickham. Named after the newly crowned Queen Victoria.

Quoin Isld
10.10.1839. Wickham. Shape of a patch of trees on the island.

Entrance Isld
17.10.1839. Wickham. Located at the entrance of Victoria River.

Turtle Pt
4.9.1819. King. Turtles seen there.

Pelican Isld
4.9.1819. King. Pelicans seen there.

Rocky Isld
4.9.1819. King. Descriptive.

Medusa Banks
14.9.1819. King. PP King's journal records that Peron's Atlas mentions the basket fish or sea basket, a species of crinoid in this area. It is a soft gelatinous hydrozoan or jelly fish. The French named it Banc des Meduses "after their siting in 1803."

Cambridge Gulf
29.9.1819. King. Named after the Viceroy of Hanover.