A dodgy channel refuge, a founding soldier’s identity
and an Aboriginal waterside camp
A dramatic episode from the 1830 journal entries of Collet Barker brings to the fore not only a scene of near tragedy for the garrison personnel but site of one of Wannua’s fires during the intense time of his fighting for status (indeed for his life) within the Mount Clarence Aboriginal group.
11 JUNE. The Dr, with Mills, Gough & Lane in the long boat fishing, intending to go as far as Breaksea (Island). They started before I was up, or I would have attempted to dissuade them, as the morning was very threatening. About 8 – 1/2 (8.30) I heard a hasty step along the garden, the door opened & in came the Doctor out of breath exclaiming ‘Oh Sir’ & with such an expression of countenance that forboded from it the loss of the boat with all his companions.
It was not so bad as this, but they had somehow sunk the boat & he told me Gough, who was no swimmer, would have been drowned but that he swam on shore with him. He added from his very heart, ‘I am done with boating’.
He could give no clear account of how it happened. All I could hear from him was the boat had filled in a heavy squall & was now near Deane’s rock, but within the harbour. He begged me to send assistance and to bring up Gough & the things, but said they wanted no boat.
I desired Sergeant Shore immediately to send a party & four men off. . . I proceeded. . . with the Whale boat to the place which was a little to this side of Deane’s harbour, where we found the boat on her side beating on a sunken rock a few yards from the shore. Mills & Gough were on the shore, the former walked, having as I afterwards found, just carried Lane on shore insensible from a rock where he had been left, & being afraid to quit it, had remained until he became benumbed with the cold, when Mills had swum off & fetched him.
The men from the settlement had arrived & called out to me that Lane was almost dead. I desired them to carry him with all speed to the settlement, when Clay answered they could not as the beach was so rocky & there was swamp within. Cavanagh instantly proposed to carry him, if I would put him on shore, which I did at once as there was no time for parlaying and he had him on his back and was off in a moment, our men following & relieving him after I had abused them for being a bunch of lazy fellows, vexed at their want of animation. . .
We got her off after a little, by unshipping the mast and raising the anchor, and finding Deane’s Harbour unfit from the heavy swell and strong wind, I made them pull over with some difficulty to the Possession side where she was hauled as high as possible on the little sandy beach & turned bottom upwards, after vainly endeavouring by bailing out the water to make her float. On getting her out, indeed it was seen to be impossible, as she is a complete wreck. Her starboard side from keel to gunnel is all to pieces.
It seems they had started about half an hour when a heavy squall & thunderstorm came on. They lowered sail and came to anchor under Mount Clarence, most imprudently, as the wind was from the SW. On starting again after getting up the anchor, the foresail gave way & she became unmanageable. Mills called to Gough to let go the anchor, but it was not done & she struck her side against a rock near the point.
The Dr jumped out, as well as Lane, & on pushing her off these two were left. Lane afterwards got in someway to the boat but she struck again, filled with the surf and sunk. Mills swam on shore with some things. The Dr from the shore seeing Gough buffeting the water but in great danger, swam off to assist him & cautioning him not to lay hold of him brought him safe. Lane was left and became so numbed he was unable to swim & was brought off by Mills insensible, which he continued until he came nearly to the settlement.
. . . the Dr. . . had not recovered his presence of mind when I saw him. Gough, however, is indebted to him for his life, a circumstance that gives him great satisfaction & he expresses himself very grateful that he has no lives to answer for. When he left Lane on the rock, he thought him able to swim.
The location of Deane’s Harbour, which is not marked on any maps of Albany, has long been a source of interest. Barker refers to it a number of times in his journal, specifically when recounting the above sinking of the garrison long boat on the treacherous winter’s morning of June 11th, 1830. But Barker also refers to Deane’s Harbour on June 17th, when speaking of Wannua.
17 June. To the island which now justifies its name of Green. Things coming on surprisingly since I was last there. Sprouts from old cabbage stalks actually heading. Boat load. Saw Wannewar (Wannua) & family in Deane’s Harbour as I passed. They have taken a snug berth and made their fire under a large rock by a bush near the waterside. There was no hut. Huts now pretty general, I believe, even for the single men. The blacks however do not talk of such a one’s hut, to express his home or resting place, they say such a one’s fire.
So, the question begs who was Deane and where, exactly, are the rock and the harbour?
The location is simple enough to surmise as being on the west side of Point King, at the entrance to Princess Royal Harbour. Barker says, I made them pull over with some difficulty to the (Point) Possession side where she was hauled as high as possible on the little sandy beach. . .
Above: Point Possession, now known as Uredale Point, was opposite to where Collet Barker described Deane’s Harbour. Source: This image was copied from the Rainbow Coast website where it is featured under the page dedicated to Ataturk Channel.
Above: On the north side of Ataturk Channel, directly opposite Point Uredale/Possession Point, is a shallow cove which appears to be the place Barker described as the imprudently attempted landing place of the long boat after it was caught in a squall and thunderstorm on 11th June, 1830. Image: This image was also copied from the Rainbow Coast website where it is featured under the page dedicated to Ataturk Channel.
Above: Deane’s Rock is probably the central rock falling into the water in the narrow bay at Ataturk Channel which Barker referred to as Deane’s Harbour. Image: Doctored grab from Google Maps.
The question as to who Deane was is more difficult to answer as there was no one at the garrison during Barker’s time who went by that name. There was, however, a Private John Denn aboard the Amity who sailed in with Major Lockyer on 25th December 1826. Thanks to the fantastic work of Diane Oldman at Redcoat Settlers .com, a variation of Denn’s surname is Dean and it would appear that Private Denn (who was at the garrison from Dec 1826 to Oct 1827) was the Private Deane referred to by Lockyer in his rough journal entry of 14th February 1827 when he was attempting to follow the French (Kalgan) River upstream toward its source. It had rained heavily, and Private Deane had come down with a chill (Lockyer called it ‘ague’), sufficient for Lockyer to be concerned for Deane’s health, so called off the excursion. (HRA S3 V6 Pg. 495) It is the only mention of Deane I could find among all the archived communications, so how Deane’s Harbour got its name remains something of a mystery.
One possibility is that as Lockyer’s returning crew sailed their way back to Princess Royal Harbour from Oyster Harbour on 14th Feb, it was in the area of Deane’s Harbour where Lockyer spied the Isabella, the Navy relief vessel from Sydney, which he had been anticipating for some weeks and which was the first contact the garrison personnel had with the organised outside world since leaving Hobart on December 6th, more than three months previous. Lockyer noted this in his journal, and in his letters of report, in the same paragraphs he mentions the sick soldier. Perhaps, as they came into Princess Royal Harbour they noted the shallow cove and gave it the name Deane’s Harbour as it was Deane’s predicament which led to the sighting of the Isabella. Or, perhaps for some other reason at some other time, this location was in use and for want of describing precisely where, gained its name for reason’s relating to the particular actions of Private Deane/Dean/Denn.
Adding to the plausibility of this possibility are two 1828 water colours made by Dr Isaac Scott Nind. The paintings are made from, or very near to, Deane’s Harbour. One image faces east, looking through the channel mouth into King George’s Sound. The other faces west, looking along the north shore back toward Residency Point and Mount Melville. Nind might have simply thought it a picturesque location affording important views, and so decided upon it as his vantage, but something had to cause him to make his way there a year or more after the event, and for him to sit for a while to consider it.
Above: Scott Nind’s 1838 water colour looking east from the western end of Deane’s Harbour, which bends northward into the evident cove. Image: This version gratefully copied from the Albany Historical Society website.
Above: Scott Nind’s second 1828 water colour , this one looking west from the area of Deane’s Harbour toward Residency Point and Mount Melville. Due to land reclamation, this view is no longer visible. Image: This version also gratefully copied from the Albany Historical Society website.
Neither Lockyer nor Barker considered Deane’s Harbour worthy enough to officially detail or commission the name, but it would appear to have been in use across the garrison era and perhaps for as long as small boats were the primary means of transport from the settlement to other coastal parts. There is no known name for this small cove today, as far as I can ascertain, but perhaps it might become recognised as Deane’s Harbour again as we move forward in time.
Who knows. . .