January. February 105‘FLINCHING A YEARLING, A YOUNG SEA ELEPHANT, TRISTAN DE ACUNHA’ BY AUGUSTUS EARLE: NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA
Governor John Hunter despatched the two-masted schooner
Francis, accompanied by the longboat the Eliza, to Preservation
Island, where they arrived on 10 June 1797, to ecstatic scenes
among the long-suffering castaways.A
FTER FOUR MONTHS stuck on Preservation Island,
the bad luck continued. Hamilton and 14 crew, along
with some salvaged cargo, departed on 21 June 1797
aboard the Francis, while six lascars boarded the Eliza. In heavy
gales the ships separated: the Francis returned to Port Jackson, but
the Eliza was never seen again.
The gutsy John Bennett, who survived the trek to Port
Jackson, had returned to Preservation with the rescue ships and
stayed behind at the lonely outpost with five of the Indian sailors
to protect Sydney Cove’s remaining cargo. It took three voyages
over a nine-month period to rescue all the crew and cargo.
Joining the third voyage was navigator Matthew Flinders, who- along with George Bass – would discover that Tasmania was
an island the following year.
Back in Sydney, word was out that a ship full of rum had sunk,
and that the islands where it happened swarmed with seals. Within
months, the Bass Strait islands had become a magnet for ex-
convicts, deserting seamen and sealers keen to cash in on
the bountiful pickings.
Seals were killed for their oil for use in lights and machinery
and their skins to supply the then-expanding fur markets in Europe
and Asia. The lucrative sealing industry provided the catalyst for
Port Jackson to emerge from the shadow of penal servitude and
move into trade and commerce, and with it came considerable
economic growth.
But all of this came at the cost of untold Aboriginal lives and
resulted in the eradication of three species of seal in the area:
the New Zealand fur seal, Australian sea lion and the Southern
Elephant seal. Only the Australian fur seal now remains on the
Furneaux Islands. By 1800 some 200 sealers were operating in
and around Bass Strait, where the seal slaughter continued for
more than a decade. Many settled at Kent Bay on Cape Barren
Island, the first European settlement south of Sydney.
Traumatic and tragic as it was, the sinking of Sydney Cove
stimulated exploration of the region and the establishment of
Australia’s first export industry. It also led to the discovery of a
passage through Bass Strait, which opened up an important new
shipping route between NSW and both Europe and Asia.
The shipwreck also encouraged European settlement of
Tasmania: Lieutenant John Bowen established the first colony at
Risdon Cove, near Hobart, in September 1803. And although
Truganini, who died in 1876, was widely considered the last of
the original Tasmanian Aboriginals, her people did not disappear
entirely. Surviving Aboriginal women and their subsequent unions
with sealers lured to the region formed a distinct community on
Flinders and other islands. Today, there are thousands of descend-
ants of this community, including our guide Cindy.
I help her reload the tender on Panamuna, where it’s anchored
above the skeleton of Sydney Cove, for our journey back to Flinders
Island. And we leave the picturesque scenery behind us and the
relics that hint at a tragic and significant history.After four months
on Preservation
Island, the bad
luck continued.
̃
The earliest commercial
products exported from Port
Jackson (Sydney) were sealskins
and oil from the Furneaux
Islands. In 1798 sealers on the
Nautilus camped at Cape Barren
Island, and set about killing
and skinning seals. The ship’s
first cargo arrived back in Port
Jackson in December with 5200
skins and 300 gallons of seal oil.AGAG THANKS Flinders Island Tourism and Business Inc.; Michael Buck
and Lois Ireland; Flinders Council; Mike Nash; Tasmania Parks and
Wildlife Service and the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston.