According to historical record, the first part of Australia discovered by Europeans, was the northern part of Queensland, and it also bears the mournful distinction of being the first scene of their death at the hands of the natives. Nearly three hundred years ago, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, a boat’s crew belonging to the “Duyfken,” one of the early Dutch vessels exploring there, was cut off and killed. The knowledge of the country obtained in those days produced no results as regards settlement, and very little addition was made to geographical knowledge until Captain Cook discovered and made known the eastern seaboard of North Queensland. The occupation and settlement of this large territory was initiated by the enterprise of pastoralists from the southern districts in search of new runs for their stock. Thus the first record of Queensland is of the North; her growth and settlement comes from the South.

The Dutch yacht “Duyfken,” despatched from Bantam in November, 1605, to explore the island of New Guinea, sailed along what was thought to be the west side of that country, as far as 14 deg. South latitude. The furthest point reached was marked on their maps Cape Keer Weer, or Turnagain, and the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria were supposed to be a part of New Guinea. Torres was the first to sail between New Guinea and the mainland of Australia; he commanded the second vessel of an expedition fitted out by the Spaniards for the purpose of discovery in 1606. He sailed through from the eastern side, and he describes the numerous islands lying between New Guinea and Cape York. It is probable he passed in view of the mainland, and his name is perpetuated in that of the Straits. The Gulf of Carpentaria is supposed to have been named by Tasman after the Governor of the East India Company; and so little by little the coast was explored, and the outline of Australia mapped out, until Captain Cook’s memorable discoveries of the east coast completed the chart of Australia and its history commenced. The west coast had been visited frequently by many Dutch ships, as it lay in their line of route in sailing to Batavia. Dampier, in 1688, was the first Englishman to land there, and his description of the country and the natives was far from encouraging. He spoke of them as the worst people he had ever met, and the country as the meanest. It was not until 1770, when Captain Cook ran the east coast up from Cape Everard to Cape York, and took possession of the whole territory in the name of King George the Third, that the veil began to lift from this land of silence and profound mystery. His voyage furnished the most reliable and scientific information about the coast line of Australia hitherto published. Captain Cook had been commissioned by the English Government to make a scientific expedition to the island of Otaheite, as it was then called, to witness the transit of Venus, on June 3rd, 1769. He was accompanied by Dr. Solander as a botanist, and Mr. Banks (afterwards Sir Joseph Banks), as a naturalist. After carrying out his commission, he sailed in search of the southern continent. He circumnavigated New Zealand, and thence steered westward till he sighted the shores of Australia on April 19th, 1770. After landing at Botany Bay on the 28th of the same month, he sailed north along the east coast to Torres Straits. He passed and named Moreton Bay and Wide Bay, and rounded Breaksea Spit on the north of Great Sandy Island, named Cape Capricorn, and Keppel Bay, Whitsunday Passage, Cleveland Bay, and Endeavour River, where he stayed some time to repair his vessel, the “Endeavour.” The spot where he beached his ship is now Cooktown, and a monument stands where his vessel was careened under Grassy Hill. Many of the principal headlands, bays, and islands, along the coast were named by him. Finally, he passed through Torres Straits, naming Prince of Wales Island, and Booby Island, and then sailed homeward by Timor and Sumatra.

Captain Matthew Flinders, navigator and discoverer, gave up his whole life to the cause of discovery, having as a young man in company with Bass, made trips along the southern coast of Australia in an open boat, soon after the settlement of Sydney. In 1799, he sailed from Sydney to explore Moreton and Hervey Bays in the “Norfolk,” and went as far as Port Curtis, landing at several places and examining the country. He was appointed to the command of the “Investigator” in 1801, and arrived in Sydney in May, 1802; thence he proceeded up what is now the Queensland coast, which he examined from Sandy Cape northwards. He named Mount Larcombe, near Gladstone; surveyed Keppel Bay and other places, correcting and adding to Cook’s charts; he sailed into the open ocean through the Great Barrier Reef in latitude 19 degs. 9 mins., longitude 148 degs., after many narrow escapes among the shoals and reefs. His destination was the Gulf of Carpentaria, and on his way he sighted Murray Island, where he saw large numbers of natives using well-constructed canoes with sails; from thence he steered west, anchoring close to one of the Prince of Wales Islands, where he and his crew mistook the large anthills for native habitations; then steering southwards, he found himself in the Gulf of Carpentaria, of which very little was then known. Flinders was the first English navigator to sail along its coasts, where such shallow waters prevail that they were at times afraid to go within three miles of the low shores, and had to be content with merely viewing the tops of the distant mangroves showing above the water.

There is only one tide in the twenty-four hours; it takes twelve hours for the tide to flow in, and twelve hours for it to flow out again; and very uninteresting is the aspect of the coast line sailing down the Gulf. Flinders anchored near Sweer’s Island, which he named, and examined Bentinck, Mornington, and Bountiful Islands adjacent thereto, the whole group being called Wellesley’s Islands. An inspection made here of the “Investigator” showed that there was scarcely a sound timber left in her, and the wonder was that she had kept afloat so long; however, Flinders determined to go on with his explorations. One island was called Bountiful Island from the immense number of turtles and turtles’ eggs which were there procured, and when leaving on the continuation of their course, they took forty-six turtles with them averaging 300 lbs. each.

There is at the present day on Sweer’s Island, a well containing pure fresh water called Flinders’ well, supposed to have been sunk by him, and near to it was a tree marked by him. This tree was standing in 1866-8, but as it showed signs of decay, it was removed in 1888 by Pilot Jones, and sent to the Brisbane Museum, where it now is. This tree (which is generally known as the “Investigator” tree) has a number of dates and names carved thereon, as follows:—

1.—1781, “Lowy,” name of early Dutch exploring vessel, commanded by Captain Tasman, after whom the Island of Tasmania is named.

2.—1798, and some Chinese characters.

3.—1802, “Investigator.” “Robert Devine.” (Devine was the first lieutenant of Flinders’ ship “Investigator.”)

4.—1841, “Stokes.” (Captain Stokes commanded the “Beagle,” surveying ship, which visited the Gulf in 1841.)

5.—1856, “Chimmo.” (Lieutenant Chimmo commanded the “Sandfly,” surveying vessel.)

6.—“Norman.” (Captain Norman of the “Victoria,” visited the Gulf in 1861 with Landsborough’s party in search of Burke and Wills. The Norman River is named after Captain Norman.)

In skirting the western shores of the Gulf, Flinders identified many leading features which were marked in Tasman’s chart, and which were found quite correct. On the last day of 1802, the “Investigator” was in sight of Cape Maria, which was found to be on an island. To the west was a large bay or bight, called by the Dutch Limmen’s Bight; and the whole coastal line seemed to be thickly inhabited by natives. Flinders mentions seeing many traces of Malay occupation along the shores of the islands of the Gulf—temporary occupation for the purpose of collecting beche de mer. Blue Mud Bay was so named by him on account of the nature of the bottom. This bay was surveyed. The country beyond was found to be higher and more interesting than the almost uniformly low shores of the Gulf they had been skirting for so many hundreds of miles. Melville Bay completed the examination of the Gulf of Carpentaria, which had taken one hundred and five days; the circuit being twelve hundred miles. Shortly afterwards they fell in with six Malay proas, held intercourse with the crews, and learned that the object of their expedition was to find trepang, or beche de mer; and as they had been trading for many years on the northern coasts of Australia, it is evident that they must have been well acquainted with the seas and shores of the Gulf. Flinders sailed for Timor, and thence to Sydney, as his vessel was now utterly unseaworthy, and reached the harbour in June, 1803.

His vessel after arrival was condemned, and Flinders determined to go to England to procure another ship to continue his surveys of the coast. On his way home, he was wrecked on a reef, and, returning to Sydney, obtained a small craft, in which he made another start, but, touching at Mauritius, was detained a prisoner for six years by the French, notwithstanding his passport as an explorer. After his release, he set about editing his journals and preparing an account of his researches. He completed this work, but died on the very day his book was published. No navigator or explorer has done more than Flinders in the matter of accurate surveys, or in the boldness of his undertakings, and his great work for Australia was entirely unrewarded. He spent his life in voyaging and discovery, and suffered many hardships, besides imprisonment.

One of the largest and most important rivers flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria has been named after him “The Flinders.”

In 1823, an expedition was sent out from Sydney under the command of Lieutenant Oxley to survey Port Curtis, Moreton Bay, and Port Bowen, and to report upon a site for a penal establishment. The party went up the Tweed River some miles, and then went northward to Port Curtis harbour. After landing in several places, a river was discovered which was named the Boyne. The vessel employed on this service was the “Mermaid,” and finding nothing about Port Curtis suitable for a settlement, Oxley returned south, and anchored at the mouth of the Bribie Island passage, which had not been visited by Europeans since Flinders landed there in 1799, and called it Pumicestone River. Here they were joined by two white men, Pamphlet and Finnegan by name, who had, with one other, been cast away on Moreton Island a short time previously, and had since been living with the blacks. These men piloted Oxley into the Brisbane River, which was named by him after Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor of New South Wales. They pulled up the river a long way above the present site of the city, and admired the beautiful scenery along its banks. This discovery led to the occupation of Moreton Bay as a penal settlement, and the foundation of the town of Brisbane.

Captain Wickham and Lieutenant Stokes of the “Beagle” were surveying the coast in that vessel, from 1838 to 1843, and Lieutenant Stokes afterwards wrote an account of their journeying. They named the Adelaide and Victoria Rivers on the north-west coast, both of which they located and explored. In 1841, the “Beagle” was on the east coast. She passed Magnetic Island, and sailed through Torres Straits into the Gulf of Carpentaria on an exploring cruise. In latitude 17 deg. 36 min., they entered a large river, which was followed up a long way in the boats, and was called the Flinders; it is one of the principal rivers entering the Gulf. Further west, in 1840, they had discovered and pulled the boats up the Albert River. Stokes was astonished at the open country found on the Albert. As far as the eye could reach, nothing was to be seen but open extensive plains, which he named “The Plains of Promise.” The fine stream of the Albert was followed until the boats were checked by dead timber about fifty miles from the entrance. The geography of northern tropical Australia owes a great deal to Stokes, who wrote most interesting accounts of his journeys.

Stokes surveyed and charted the estuaries of the Albert and Flinders Rivers, and he named Disaster Inlet, Morning Inlet, Bynoe Inlet, Accident Inlet, and the Van Diemen River, the latter he also examined and charted for some miles up from its mouth.

Mr. G. Phillips, in 1866-8, made the first examinations and surveys of Morning Inlet, Bynoe Inlet, (which he found to be a delta of the Flinders), Norman River, Accident Inlet, and the Gilbert River. Mr. Phillips was accompanied by the late Mr. W. Landsborough, the work being done in an open boat belonging to the Customs Department.

H.M.S. “Rattlesnake” left Portsmouth in 1846, under Captain Stanley, on a surveying and scientific cruise. She reached Queensland waters in 1847, and visited the Molle Passage, inside of Whitsunday Passage, where some of the most striking and charming scenery on the north coast of Queensland is to be found. They went as far as Cape Upstart, and failing to find water ashore, returned to Sydney. In 1848, they returned to the northern coasts, bringing the “Tam o’ Shanter,” barque, on board of which were all the members and outfit of Kennedy’s exploring party. Captain Stanley assisted Kennedy to land at Rockingham Bay and make a start on his ill-fated trip to Cape York.

They found cocoanut trees growing on the Frankland Islands, the only instance known of their indigenous growth on the coast of Australia.

They rescued from Prince of Wales Island a white woman who had been four and a half years among the blacks. She was the sole survivor of the crew of a whaling cutter, the “American,” wrecked on Brampton Shoal; she had been adopted by the tribe, and spoke the language fluently; she returned to her parents in Sydney when the “Rattlesnake” reached port. Professor Huxley, the scientist, was one of the party of the “Rattlesnake.”