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railway line from Newcastle Waters to a suitable harbour in the Pellew Islands. Barclay was also required to survey
the harbour. He returned to Melbourne in December 1913 to write up his reports.
Barclay died in Hawthorn, Victoria, on 20 September 1917 and was buried at sea, south of Melbourne, three
days later. Both his wives, and the eldest son, Henry Alfred Leighton Barclay, survived him from his first marriage.
There was no issue from his second marriage.
H V Barclay, ‘Journal of Mr Barclay’s Exploration, 1878’, South Australian Parliamentary Paper, no 209, 1878; H V Barclay, Memorandum
Upon the Northern Territory of South Australia, Adelaide (nd); H V Barclay, ‘The Aborigines of Central Australia, and a suggested solution
of the difficulties surrounding the Aborigines’ Questions’, Review of Reviews (Australasian), 20 May 1894; H V Barclay, ‘Recent Central
Australian Exploration’, Victorian Geographical Journal, vols 23–24, 1905–06; H V Barclay, ‘Across Unknown Australia: The Mysterious
Sand-Waves of the Desert’, Life, 15 June 1907; H V Barclay, ‘The Resources of Central Australia: A Fertile Fifth of the Commonwealth’, Life,
15 August 1907; H V Barclay, ‘Roughing it in Central Australia: The Fascination of Exploring’, Life, 15 November 1907; H V Barclay, ‘Report
on Exploration of a Portion of Central Australia by the Barclay–Macpherson Expedition, 1904–5’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical
Society of Australasia: (South Australian Branch), vol 16, 1914–15; H V Barclay, ‘Explorations in Central Australia’, Proceedings of the Royal
Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian Branch), vol 32, 1930–31.
BRUCE W STRONG, Vol 1.BARKER, COLLETT (1784–1831), soldier, was born in England on 23 January 1784. He entered the
39th Regiment of Foot in 1806, received his Lieutenancy in 1808 and served in the Peninsular War (1811–14),
Canada (1814–15), Flanders and France (1815–19). He purchased a Captaincy in the 39th in 1825 and sailed for
Australia in 1828. On arrival in Sydney he was appointed commandant of the British garrison at Fort Wellington,
Raffles Bay, replacing Captain Henry Smyth. He reached there, on 13 September 1828, in the colonial vessel
Governor Phillip.
After the abandonment of Fort Dundas, an earlier British garrison on Melville Island, Fort Wellington became
the only British outpost on the north coast, where Barker controlled 77 people, mostly members of his 39th Regiment
and convicts. The official role of these garrisons was both commercial and strategic, an attempt to create a second
Singapore in the south, and to demonstrate British ownership to the French. In practice, the settlements were
almost fully occupied by the task of surviving in an alien environment.
On Melville Island, relations between the garrison and the Aborigines had been disastrous and, under Smyth,
the situation at Raffles Bay was worse. The local people were shot at whenever they approached and, just before
Barker’s arrival, a spear injury to a soldier was revenged by a massacre of a number of men, women and children.
On his arrival, Barker reversed Smyth’s instructions, banning the use of firearms except in extreme danger.
He unswervingly demonstrated his goodwill to the Aborigines by going out unarmed among them and within a
few months forged an amicable relationship with their leader, Mariac (‘Wellington’). Barker and Mariac between
them created a time of peace that was to influence permanently future race relations in the region.
The other major problem facing Fort Wellington was illness, which Barker correctly attributed to diet. He placed
great emphasis on the cultivation of fruit and vegetables and on fishing, and rapidly restored both the health and
morale of the community.
In 1828–29, the garrison was visited by a Southeast Asian trade fleet (the Macassans) and Barker promised
them substantial trade the following year. Unfortunately, news of improved prospects at Fort Wellington did not
reach England before the gloomy forebodings of his predecessor prompted the decision to close the settlement.
Barker was ordered to take command at the military detachment at King George’s Sound, Western Australia.
A disappointed Barker, tempted at first to disregard his orders, abandoned Fort Wellington to Mariac and the
Aborigines on 28 August 1829. In 1831 he was proposed as the first British Government Resident in New Zealand
and was ordered to Sydney. On the way he landed for survey work at the mouth of the Murray River, swam alone
across a stream and was there speared to death by Aborigines. A white man, he was killed in revenge by people
whose only experience of his race had been the recent depredations of the crews of sealing ships seeking their
women.
A most capable officer, a just and merciful commandant and a scholar with an inquiring, scientific mind,
Barker deserves chiefly to be remembered for his patient and accepting attitude to the Aboriginal people of
Raffles Bay and the successful creation of peace out of fear and tension. It is tragic that this exceptionally humane
man should have died for the sins of others.
Historical Records of Australia, vols 3, 5 & 6; Dictionary of National Biography, London, 1921; T B Wilson, Narrative of a Voyage Round the
World, 1835; C Stuart, Two Expeditions into the Interior of South Australia, 1834; Barker’s Diary, Mitchell Library, Sydney.
JOHN HARRIS, Vol 2.BARNES, WILLIAM JAMES (1869–1925), storekeeper and photographer, was born in Tamworth, New South
Wales, in 1869. In September 1892, at the age of 23, he came to Darwin and joined the firm of Philip R Allen & Co.
On 23 October 1897 he married Mary (known as Mollie), a twin daughter of W G Stretton and the family lived
in Peel Street. There were two sons of the marriage, a female child died in infancy.
Barnes stayed with Allens until the firm sold out to A E Jolly & Co, about 30 years. During this time he came
into contact with almost everyone in the Territory. In November 1917 he received a ‘handsome pair of silver entree
dishes’ in commemoration of 25 years service. At the presentation it was noted that he was the ‘oldest servant of
this long established firm, and this long service in the tropics speaks volumes for employer and employee’.