Chapter XIV: Appendix: A. Section 3

DESCRIPTION OF THE WINDS AND WEATHER, AND OF THE PORTS AND COAST BETWEEN WESSEL'S ISLANDS AND CLARENCE STRAIT.

In the sea that separates the land of New Guinea and the islands of Timor Laut and Arroo from the north coast of Australia, the winds are periodical, and are called the east and west monsoons, for such is their direction in the mid-sea. Near the Coast of New Holland the regularity of these winds is partly suspended by the rarefied state of the atmosphere; this produces land and sea-breezes, but the former are principally from the quarter from which the winds are blowing in the mid sea. The usual course of the winds near the coast in the months of April, May, and June, is as follows: after a calm night, the land-wind springs up at daylight from South or South-South-East; it then usually freshens, but, as the sun gets higher, and the land becomes heated, gradually decreases. At noon the sea-wind rushes in towards the land, and generally blows fresh from East; at sunset it veers to the North-East, and falls calm, which lasts the whole night, so that if a ship, making a course, does not keep at a moderate distance from the land, she is subject to delay; she would not, however, probably have so fresh a breeze in the day time. Later in the season of the easterly monsoon, in August, September, and October, calms are frequent, and the heat is sultry and oppressive; this weather sometimes lasts for a fortnight or three weeks at a time. The easterly monsoon commences about the 1st of April, with squally, rainy weather, but, in a week or ten days, settles to fine weather and steady winds in the offing, and regular land and sea breezes, as above described, near the coast. It ceases about the latter end of November or early part of December; the westerly monsoon may then be expected to blow strong, and perhaps with regularity.

This is the rainy season, and is doubtless an unwholesome time; Captain Flinders' crew experienced much sickness in his examination of the Gulf of Carpentaria during this monsoon, but, when upon the western side of the gulf, he thought that the fine weather then experienced might be occasioned by the monsoon's blowing over the land. In January and February the monsoon is at its strength, but declines towards the end of the latter month, and in March becomes variable, with dark, cloudy, and unsettled weather; the wind is then generally from the South-West, but not at all regular.

The current sets with the wind, and seldom exceeds a knot or a knot and a half per hour; between Capes Wessel and Van Diemen it is not stronger, and its course in the easterly monsoon, when only we had any experience of it, was West: the strength is probably increased or diminished by the state of the wind.

The tides are of trifling consequence; the flood comes from the eastward, but rarely rises more than ten feet, or runs so much as a mile and a half per hour. High water takes place at full and change at Liverpool River, and Goulburn Island at six o'clock, at the entrance of the Alligator Rivers in Van Diemen's Gulf, at 8 hours 15 minutes, and at the south end of Apsley Strait at 3 hours 25 minutes.* The flood-tide comes from the eastward, excepting when its course is altered by local circumstances; the rise is not more than eleven feet at the springs.

(*Footnote. In St. Asaph's Bay, Lieutenant Roe found high-water take place at full and change at 5 hours 45 minutes; and in King's Cove at 5 hours 15 minutes; at the latter place it rose fourteen feet.)

The variation of the compass in this interval is scarcely affected by the ship's local attraction. Off Cape Wessel it is between 3 and 4 degrees East; at Liverpool River about 1 3/4 degrees East, at Goulburn Islands 2 degrees East, and off Cape Van Diemen, not more than 1 1/2 degrees East.

The dip of the south end of the needle at Goulburn Island was 27 degrees 32 1/2 minutes.

When the survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria was completed by Captain Flinders, his vessel proved to be so unfit for continuing the examination of the north coast, that it was found necessary to return to Port Jackson; and as he left it at the strait that separates Point Dale from Wessel's Islands, which is called in my chart BROWN'S STRAIT, he saw no part of the coast to the westward of that point, nor did he even see Cape Wessel, the extremity of the range of Wessel's Islands, which terminate in latitude 10 degrees 59 1/4 minutes, and longitude 135 degrees 46 minutes 30 seconds. The group consists of four islands, besides some of smaller size to the southward of the northernmost, and also a few on the eastern side of Brown's Strait; one of which is Cunningham's Island, of Captain Flinders. CUMBERLAND STRAIT is in latitude 11 degrees 25 minutes, longitude 135 degrees 31 minutes.

POINT DALE, unless it is upon an island, appears to be the east extremity of the north coast; its latitude is 11 degrees 36 minutes, longitude 135 degrees 9 minutes: there are several rocky islands of small size, lying off, encompassed by a reef, which extends for eight miles North-North-East 1/2 East from the point. In Brown's Strait the tide sets at the rate of three and a half and four miles per hour; the flood runs to the southward through the strait. To the westward of Point Dale the coast extends for about sixty miles to the south-west to Castlereagh Bay; in which space there are several openings in the beach, that are probably small rivers: one, ten miles to the South-West, may be a strait insulating Point Dale, and communicating with Arnhem Bay.

CASTLEREAGH BAY is forty miles wide, by about eighteen deep; it is fronted by a group of straggling islands of low coral formation, crowned with small trees and bushes: the centre of the northernmost islet is in latitude 11 degrees 41 minutes 50 seconds, longitude 134 degrees 10 minutes 5 seconds. To the eastward of Cape Stewart, the western head of the bay, the coast is very much indented, and probably contains several openings or rivulets, particularly two at the bottom of the bay. The beach is generally sandy, with rocky points, and the shore is wooded to the beach; the interior was in no part visible over the coast hills, which are very low and level.

From the extremity of CAPE STEWART, which is in latitude 11 degrees 56 minutes, and longitude 133 degrees 48 minutes, a reef extends to the West by North 1/2 North for eight miles and a half; having, at a mile within the extremity, a low sandy key, with a small dry rock half a mile to the eastward. Every other part of the reef is covered.

To the westward of Cape Stewart is a sandy bay nearly eleven leagues in extent, but not more than seven deep; near its western end there is a small break in the beach, but it did not appear to be of any consequence.

The extreme point of this bight is the eastern head of LIVERPOOL RIVER, whose entrance is to the westward of Haul-round Islet; which, as well as Entrance Island, is connected to the above point by a shoal. Haul-round Islet is in latitude 11 degrees 54 minutes, and longitude 134 degrees 14 minutes; Entrance Island is in latitude 11 degrees 57 minutes, and longitude 134 degrees 14 minutes 50 seconds.

The entrance is from one and a quarter to two miles wide. The reef extends for half a mile from Haul-round Islet, close without which the water is deep, the least depth in the entrance is five and three-quarter fathoms; and, in some parts there are thirteen and fourteen fathoms: at seven miles within Haul-round Islet, the depth decreases to four fathoms, and then gradually shoals to three; after which it varies in the channel of the river to between nine and twelve feet at low water. A bar crosses the river at the low mangrove island, over which there is not more than three feet at low water; but, as the tide rises more than eight feet at the springs, vessels drawing ten or eleven feet may proceed up the river.

The stream runs in a very tortuous course for upwards of forty miles, but as our examination was unassisted by bearings or observations, it is laid down from an eye sketch.

POINT BRAITHWAITE, in latitude 11 degrees 45 minutes 50 seconds, and longitude 133 degrees 55 minutes 20 seconds, is twenty miles to the westward of Haul-round Islet; to the southward of it is Junction Bay, which was not examined.

For the next thirty miles the coast is very much indented, and has some deep bays on either side of Point Barclay, as also one to the eastward of Point Turner, at the bottom of which an opening, a mile in width, is probably a river. Here also the feature of the coast is altered, being low and level to the eastward as far as Point Dale, without a hill or rising ground in the interior to relieve its monotonous appearance. At this place, however, a range of rocky hills, WELLINGTON RANGE, commences, of about twenty miles in extent: five miles behind it is the Tor (latitude 11 degrees 54 minutes, and longitude 133 degrees 10 minutes 20 seconds) a solitary pyramidal rock; and seven miles and a quarter West by South, from the latter is a peak-topped hill.

The two latter are apparently unconnected with the range, on which there are four remarkable ridges, of which the two westernmost are the most remarkable.

GOULBURN ISLANDS consist of two islands, each being about twenty miles in circumference; they are separated from each other by a rocky strait three miles wide, which in most parts is deep enough for a ship of any size to pass through; the latitude of the centre of this strait is 11 degrees 32 minutes. Macquarie Strait separates the southernmost from the main, and is nearly two miles across: the depth in mid-channel being eighteen fathoms: the latitude of Retaliation Point, which is on the northern side of the strait, is in 11 degrees 39 minutes.

SOUTH WEST BAY affords good anchorage in five and six fathoms at a mile from the shore, and vessels may anchor at a quarter of a mile off the beach in three fathoms muddy bottom.

At the north end of the bay are the Bottle Rocks separated from the point by a channel two and a quarter fathoms deep. The Bottle Rock was one of our fixed points, and is placed in latitude 11 degrees 37 minutes 24 seconds, and longitude 133 degrees 19 minutes 40 seconds. The bay affords a convenient place for wooding and watering; the latter may be had during the early months of the dry season (as late as August) from a drain at the base of the Pipe Clay Cliffs at the north end of the bay. There are also some holes on Sims Island that contain water for a much later period. The holes have been made by the Malays for the purpose of collecting it.

MULLET BAY is on the west side of the north island, affording good anchorage in the easterly monsoon in six and seven fathoms mud, at a mile from the shore. The flood-tide here sets to the eastward, and it is high water at full and change in the strait at six o'clock; the rise of the tide is not more than five or six feet. The north-east point of North Goulburn Island is in latitude 11 degrees 26 minutes, longitude 133 degrees 26 minutes.

From Macquarie Strait the land trends to the westward, and north-westward to De Courcy Head, and forms but few sinuosities. POINT BROGDEN, in latitude 11 degrees 30 minutes, the only projection in this space, is remarkable for being higher than usual, and for having a range of cliffs to the southward of the point; with a solitary tree near its extremity, hence the land is rocky towards De Courcy Head, which is a cliffy projection in latitude 11 degrees 17 minutes 30 seconds; thence the shore continues rocky to Cape Cockburn, a low rocky point, with a conspicuous tree at its extremity. The point is wooded to within a short distance of the sea, as is generally the case with the shores of this coast. CAPE COCKBURN is in latitude 11 degrees 18 minutes, and longitude 132 degrees 53 minutes 5 seconds.

MOUNTNORRIS BAY extends between Cape Cockburn and Cape Croker, it is twenty-eight miles wide, and twenty-three deep. It contains several islands, and is also fronted by a group, of which New Year's Island, the latitude of whose centre is 10 degrees 55 minutes, and longitude 133 degrees 0 minutes 36 seconds, is the outermost; the others are named Oxley, Lawson, McCluer, Grant, Templer, and Cowlard. They are straggling, and have wide and apparently deep channels between them. Between New Year's and McCluer's Islands, the channel is nearly eight miles wide and eighteen and nineteen fathoms deep. A reef extends off the north-west end of the latter island for nearly three miles, and the ground is rocky and shoal for some distance off the north-east end of Oxley's Island. Grant's Island is higher than the others, which are merely small woody islets, the centre is in 11 degrees 10 minutes.

At the north-east end of Mountnorris Bay is MALAY BAY which is four miles wide and six deep; it affords good anchorage in four and five fathoms in the centre: as it offered no other inducement, we did not land upon any part of it. Between Valentia Island and Point Annesley, the channel is more than a mile wide and four fathoms deep. VALENTIA ISLAND has a reef off its north point, and another off its south-east point, each about a mile in extent.

COPELAND ISLAND is small and wedge-shaped, its summit is in latitude 11 degrees 28 minutes, and longitude 132 degrees 43 minutes; four miles and a quarter West-North-West from it is a covered sandbank having nine feet water near its edge; it was not quite certain whether it was joined to the land or not, from which it is distant two miles and a half.

On the western side of the bay there is a strait two miles wide separating Croker's Island from the main; it is ten or eleven miles in length, and is navigable since the Malay fleet were observed to pass through it.

CROKER'S ISLAND is twenty-one miles and a quarter from north to south, and from two to five broad, its northern extremity is in 10 degrees 58 minutes 30 seconds latitude, and 132 degrees 34 minutes 10 seconds longitude; about three-quarters of a mile within it there is a remarkable rocky knob: its south extreme is in 11 degrees 19 1/4 minutes.

PALM BAY, on its western side, is an excellent anchorage in the easterly monsoon; it is four miles and a half wide, and nearly three deep. The shore is rocky for a mile off, and the south point has a rocky shoal projecting to the West-North-West for a mile and a quarter.

DARCH'S ISLAND is separated from Croker's Island by a navigable strait two miles wide; near the reef at the north-east end we had six fathoms, but in mid-channel the depth was as much as eleven fathoms. A considerable reef projects off the east end for more than a mile. The island is about two miles and three-quarters long, and is thickly wooded; its north point is in latitude 11 degrees 7 minutes 30 seconds.

RAFFLES BAY forms a good port during any season; it is seven miles deep, and from two to three broad: beyond High Point the depth is not more than three fathoms and a half. The anchorage is however quite safe.

The bay to the eastward of Point Smith, which has a reef extending from it for nearly a mile, has a shoal opening at its bottom of very little importance. At the north-east end of the bay, separated from the point by a channel a mile wide, and more than five fathoms deep, is a small sandy island, with a reef extending for a mile off its north end.

PORT ESSINGTON, the outer heads of which, Vashon Head and Point Smith, are seven miles apart, is an extensive port, thirteen miles and a quarter deep, and from five to three wide; independent of its Inner Harbour, which, with a navigable entrance of a mile wide, is five miles deep and four wide. The port is not only capacious, but has very few shoals or dangers in it.

On the western side, off Island Point, there are some rocks, and also a reef projects for a mile off the bluff point that forms the east head of Knocker's Bay. The western side of the entrance to Inner Harbour, is also rocky and shoal for two-thirds across, but near the opposite point* the depth is thirteen fathoms.

(*Footnote. This is Point Record of Captain Bremer, see above.)

On the eastern side of the port there is no danger beyond a quarter of a mile from the shore, excepting a reef of rocks, some of which are dry; this danger, when in a line with a remarkable cliff two miles and a quarter to the south of Table Point, bears East-South-East 1/2 East; close without them the depth is five fathoms.

The INNER HARBOUR is divided into two basins which extend in for two miles on either side of Middle Head, a cliffy projection, surrounded by a rocky shore for a quarter of a mile off. The anchorage between the entrance and Middle Head is in five and six fathoms mud, and in the centre of the western basin the depth is five fathoms mud. The shores are higher than usual, and are varied by sandy beaches and cliffs, some of white and others of a red colour. The western side of the port was not visited, and our tracks and examinations were made principally on the opposite shore. At the bottom of Knocker's Bay is a shoal mangrove opening, of no importance. See volume 1.

POINT SMITH is in latitude 11 degrees 6 minutes 45 seconds, and longitude 132 degrees 12 minutes 30 seconds.

VASHON HEAD has a considerable shoal projecting from it, and extending into the bay to the westward which was called TREPANG BAY. This bay has an opening at the bottom, that appeared to be shoal. A small sandy island lies at the distance of a mile and three-quarters from the shore; the reef projects into the sea for nearly a mile farther, and apparently extends to the South-West to the north head of POPHAM BAY, which has a small opening at the bottom, but of shoal approach; good anchorage may be had in Popham Bay in five and six fathoms, a little within the heads, and as they bear North and South-South-West, it is well sheltered in the easterly monsoon. Hence to CAPE DON is three miles and a half. The latter cape is in latitude 11 degrees 19 minutes 30 seconds, and longitude 131 degrees 45 minutes 30 seconds.

VAN DIEMEN'S GULF is seventy miles deep, and more than forty broad. It has two outlets to sea; the one to the northward, DUNDAS STRAIT, is sixteen miles wide and very deep; the other, CLARENCE STRAIT, is seventeen miles wide, and communicates with the sea round the south sides of Melville and Bathurst Islands: it is probably not so safe as Dundas' Strait, on account of Vernon's Isles, which lie in mid channel, near its western end.

The north eastern side of Van Diemen's Gulf washes the south side of Coburg Peninsula. It has several bays, and, to the eastward of MOUNTS BEDWELL and Roe, the shore is fronted by SIR GEORGE HOPE'S ISLANDS, forming a channel or port within them twenty miles deep and from three to six broad; the entrance to it is round the north end of GREENHILL ISLAND, which is separated from the land of the peninsula, by a strait a mile and a half wide: the depth in mid-channel, for the shore on either side for half a mile is shoal and rocky, is eighteen fathoms, and within it the bottom is six, seven, and eight fathoms deep, and principally of mud. This strait is in latitude 11 degrees 35 minutes.

The eastern side has several openings in it, but the shores are very low, and of shoal approach. At its south-east end are the two (and probably three) Alligator Rivers; the westernmost (or centre) is fronted by FIELD ISLAND, the centre of which is in 12 degrees 6 minutes latitude, and 132 degrees 25 minutes 10 seconds longitude. These rivers have been described in the narrative. See volume 1. The bottom of the gulf is very low, and forms two bights, separated by a point that projects for seven or eight miles.

In the neighbourhood of the rivers the country is sprinkled with wooded hills, that extend in a straggling chain towards Wellington Range, of which they might be considered a part: but between the rivers and Clarence Strait the country is low and flat, and only protected from inroads of the sea by a barrier of sandhills, beyond which not a vestige of the interior could be seen.

CLARENCE STRAIT separates Bathurst and Melville Islands from the mainland: it is seventy-five miles long, and from seventeen to thirty-five wide. The narrowest part is at about its centre, between Cape Gambier and Cape Eldon, and in this space is a group of four low rocky islands, covered with mangroves (Vernon's Islands) from which considerable reefs extend towards either shore.

The best channel is probably on the northern side, near Cape Gambier, which is in latitude 11 degrees 56 minutes 20 seconds; and there also appeared to be a wide and safe channel on the south side; but the neighbourhood of Vernon's Islands is rocky. The flood-tide sets to the eastward into the gulf.

MELVILLE ISLAND is of considerable size, and forms the western side of Van Diemen's Gulf; its greatest length from Cape Van Diemen to Cape Keith being seventy-two miles, and its greatest breadth thirty-eight miles; its circumference is two hundred miles.

We did not land on any part of it, excepting in the entrance of Apsley Strait, at Luxmoore Head (latitude 11 degrees 21 minutes, longitude 130 degrees 22 minutes) from which we were driven by the natives. It appeared fertile and more elevated than the coast to the eastward, and to possess several good harbours, particularly Apsley Strait, besides several bays on its north coast; and from the appearance of the land on its east side, and the extent and abrupt shape of the hills, it is probable that there may be a port there also.

BRENTON BAY is the mouth of a small inlet, which may probably prove to be a fresh-water stream; and the bottom of LETHBRIDGE BAY appeared likely to yield one also. The hills and coast are wooded to the brink of the cliffs and sandy beaches that vary the northern shores of Melville Island.

The most unproductive part appeared to be the narrow strip that extends towards Cape Van Diemen. On either side of the point, near Karslake Island, is a bay, and at the bottom of each there is an opening in the land, like those of Brenton and Lethbridge Bays.

The western trend of CAPE VAN DIEMEN is in latitude 11 degrees 8 minutes 15 seconds, and longitude 130 degrees 20 minutes 30 seconds. The coast to the south-east of the cape is formed by a range of cliffs, extending uninterruptedly for seven miles, of a most remarkable white appearance, whiter even than the usual colour of the pipe-clay cliffs to the eastward. Cape Van Diemen is a low sandy point, with a shoal spit projecting from it for four miles, within half a mile of the extremity of which we had no bottom with ten fathoms: from this a very considerable shoal (MERMAID'S SHOAL) extends to the westward and south-westward for seventeen miles; and, curving round to PIPER'S HEAD, forms the northern limit of the entrance to Apsley Strait: its western edge is rather steep; we coasted along it, and had overfalls between ten and four fathoms near its edge. It is not only possible, but very likely, that there are channels through it, but the most direct channel is round its south side, across the bar, on which there is (at low water) five fathoms. To sail into APSLEY STRAIT by this channel, if coming from the westward, steer in on the parallel of 11 degrees 15 minutes, until the northern part of Bathurst Island is seen: when the western trend of the island bears South, you will be abreast of the west extremity of the shoal off Cape Van Diemen. Steering on, you will see Piper's Head, a cliffy point, forming the north entrance to the strait, which must be kept upon the bearing of East by North, until the low, sandy, south point of the strait's entrance* is in a line with the summit of LUXMOORE HEAD, a remarkable flat-topped hill on the eastern side of the strait, bearing South 59 degrees East. Then steer East by South, keeping the lead going, and hauling to the north if the soundings are less than seven fathoms, until the strait is opened bearing South-East by South, when you may haul in for Luxmoore Head, and anchor at will.

(*Footnote. Point Brace of Captain Bremer.)

The narrowest part of the strait is where the low, sandy extremity, Point Brace, bears South 40 degrees East; the channel then is from seventeen to eighteen fathoms deep, and shoals suddenly on its south, but gradually on its north side: it is about a mile and a half wide.

APSLEY STRAIT is forty miles long, and from one to three broad; the widest part being at the north end: the southern end, for five or six miles from the outlet, is very rocky; the south entrance is in latitude 11 degrees 45 minutes; the flood sets to the southward, and the ebb, from Van Diemen's Gulf out of Clarence Strait, runs through the strait to the north, which must cause many shoals off the south entrance; the depth is generally from ten to thirteen fathoms, but is very irregular towards the south end; at low water many parts are dry, which leave the channels very intricate. We passed over it at high water without knowing our danger, for the stream of the tide carried us through the deepest part of the channel.

BATHURST ISLAND is from thirty to thirty-three miles in extent, having a circumference of a hundred and twenty miles. GORDON BAY, on its western side, affords a good shelter in the easterly monsoon; it is ten miles wide, and six deep, and terminated by PORT HURD, the entrance to which is fronted by a bar, having twelve or fourteen feet on it at low water. Near the south-western head of the bay two projecting cliffy points (Twin Cliffs) terminate a sandy bay, from which wood and, probably, water may be obtained.

PORT HURD, at the bottom of Gordon Bay, in latitude 11 degrees 39 minutes 30 seconds, is a mere salt-water inlet, running up in a South-East direction for eight miles; it then separates into two creeks that wind under each side of a wooded hill; the entrance is three-quarters of a mile wide, and formed by two low points. At the back of the port are some wooded hills; one of them, Mount Hurd, kept in the opening between the two points of entrance, is the mark for the deepest part of the bar. When within the entrance the port opens, and forms a basin two miles and a quarter broad, after which it narrows and runs up at from half to a quarter of a mile wide, with a channel four and five fathoms deep.

The country here is thickly wooded, but very low, excepting a few ranges of hills that may rise to the height of two hundred feet. The south side of Bathurst Island has no sinuosities.

Near CAPE FOURCROY the coast is formed by sandhills: but, for the next fifteen miles, it is low and backed by wooded hills.

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