Page 12 - 1977 NAB CalendarMaritime Life in early Australia Part One
P. 12
PORT ESSINGTON (N.T.)
MAY
This French lithograph shows Port Essington from the short-lived British Essington. Further information about Le Breton is given in the notes for October.
settlement of Victoria in the Northern Territory. This was the second attempt to This view was lithographed by Emile Lassalle after a drawing by Le Breton, and
establish a British outpost on this site; an exploring party had dismissed it in 1824 published in Dumont d’Urville's “Voyage au Pole Sud et dans I’Oceanie (Atlas
after only three days because no fresh water could be found. However, the need pittoresque)’’ which appeared in Paris in 1846.
to establish British claims to the northern coast and the possibilities of trade with The French found a very new settlement just taking shape, and Le Breton has
areas further north induced the British to send another expedition to Port conveyed this in his view across the half-completed battery at Adam Head. 18-
Essington in 1838. This time fresh water was found and a settlement developed. pounder guns were being hauled to a position on the cliff where they could
It was planned as a purely naval venture, and the garrison of Royal Marines made defend the harbour against foreign attack. The barrel in the foreground was one
up almost the entire population. of a number salvaged from the wreck of the British ship “Orontes” and used in
the construction of the battery. The jetty, which had just been completed to low
In 1839 two French ships undertaking a scientific expedition under the command water mark, survives today as a pile of rubble overgrown with mangroves. Le
of Captain Dumont d’Urville anchored for several days at Port Essington, where Breton was looking towards the hospital and Government House, where Captain
they were warmly received. D’Urville comments on the beautiful sandy beaches, Bremer, the commandant, received d’Urville and his officers This wooden
but also reveals some drawbacks of life in the new settlement: the heat was structure was made at Port Jackson, and had been erected on the site only two
intolerable, and flies and mosquitoes irritated the visitors so much that they weeks before the French arrived. Victoria was abandoned in 1849 and little
sought refuge in the sea, only to be attacked by crabs.
remains of the settlement today. The site, which now forms part of the Coburg
M. Goupil, the official artist with the expedition, and Louis Le Breton, the young Peninsula Wildlife Sanctuary, is being preserved by the Department of the
surgeon, took the opportunity to produce some of the first drawings of Port Northern Territory. It is hoped to restore what is left of the buildings.
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