Mapping Australian history and culture
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| Name | Humanitarians in the Antipodes: Voyage to South Australia |
|---|---|
| Description | A visualisation of the investigative tours of British Quakers, James Backhouse and George Washington Walker, who were 'travelling under concern' in the Southern oceans in 1830s. This section relates to a visit to the recently proclaimed settler-colony of South Australia. |
| Type | Journey |
| Content Warning | |
| Contributor | Heidi Ing |
| Entries | 16 |
| Allow ANPS? | No |
| Added to System | 2024-06-25 20:36:14 |
| Updated in System | 2024-06-25 20:36:29 |
| Subject | colonialism, religious society of friends, quakers, colonial history, james backhouse, george washington walker, transnational human rights activism |
|---|---|
| Creator | Penny Edmonds |
| Publisher | |
| Contact | penny.edmonds@flinders.edu.au |
| Citation | |
| DOI | |
| Source URL | https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634 |
| Linkback | |
| Date From | 1837-11-20 |
| Date To | 1837-12-16 |
| Image |
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| Latitude From | |
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| Longitude From | |
| Latitude To | |
| Longitude To | |
| Language | English |
| License | |
| Usage Rights | |
| Date Created (externally) |
From 20th November 1837 until the 23rd, the 'wind was adverse' so the ship Eudora 'beat backward and forward, between Kings Island and Cape Otway'. The ship 'tacked when about fifteen miles from its north coast, to avoid a reef, on which the convict vessel Minerva was lost about two years previously.
- Placename
- Cape Otoway, Victoria
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- Objects
- Eudora; Minerva
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 508
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
On 24 November 1837 the Eudora, passed 'the flat-topped, roundish hills, to the east of Portland Bay, the table land of Cape Bridgewater, the low, extended hills of Cape Northumberland, and several other points of the coast'.
- Placename
- Cape Bridgewater, Victoria
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- Objects
- Eudora
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 508
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Backhouse noted that the 'opening into St. Vincents Gulf by the Backstairs Passage' was maked by 'two little islands, called The Pages' and that a 'vast numbers of sea fowl, and some Seals of a yellowish colour with black muzzles, were upon one of the two little islands'.
- Placename
- The Pages, South Australia
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- Objects
- Eudora
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 508
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
They anchored 'about five miles from shore in Holdfast Bay, South Australia' and waited on board while the captain went to Adelaide. Upon his return the next day Backhouse & Walker were taken through rough sea by boatmen who told them 'not to be afraid'. The boatmen were paid a pound each when the party was 'landed in a small creek at Glenelg, a place consisting of a few rude huts, one of which was used as a store'.
- Placename
- Holdfast Bay, South Australia
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 509
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Backhouse & Walker were 'quickly conveyed over a flat country, covered with grass, and scattered trees of Eucalyptus, Acacia and Banksia, to the embryo capital of South Australia' where they 'received a kind welcome from John Barton Hack and his wife', who had both been acquaintances in England. The large Hack family 'were at this time dwelling... in a wooden house that they brought from England, in which they realized much more comfort than most of the other settlers did, in their rude huts, of rushes or of sods'.
- Placename
- Quaker Meeting House, Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- People
- John Barton Hack
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 509
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Backhouse & Walker presented their letters of introduction from Sir John Franklin to 'the Governor, Captain John Hindmarsh, and on James H. Fisher, the Commissioner for the Sale of Lands', and then called on 'the Episcopal Clergyman, Charles B. Howard', and 'T.Q. Stow, the Independent minister.'
- Placename
- Government House, Adelaide, South Australia
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- People
- Governor John Hindmarsh; Commissioner James Fisher; Charles Howard; Thomas Quinton Stow
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 510
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
On 30 November 1837 Backhouse & Walker 'walked about seven miles to Port Adelaide' where they observed 'two large stores of corrugated iron, in the form of the halve of horizontal cylinders, and several smaller ones of rushes' as well as 'some huts and tents'. Shipping was able to 'come up the creek' and 'by means of a cut of 180 yards across the salt marsh' boats could discharge their cargoes close to the stores'.
- Placename
- Old Port Road, Port Adelaide, South Australia
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 511
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 512
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Backhouse reported that the Aboriginal people in Adelaide were 'not numerous' and he believed these people were of an appearance 'much like those of other parts of Australia'. Backhouse observed that up until December 1837 only one European had lost his life through the actions of an Aboriginal person, but that this had been 'the result of his own profligacy'.
- Placename
- Pirltawardli, Adelaide, South Australia
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- People
- Aboriginal people;
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 512
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- People
- Aboriginal people
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 513
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Backhouse & Walker 'spent some time in conversation with the Commissioner for Lands', discussing Aboriginal people and 'the importance of promoting temperance among the settlers', some of whom had gotten an idea that the hotter climate justified 'more stimulating diet and drink', and that this notion had 'been promoted by an injudicious, medical man'.
- Placename
- Adelaide Survey Marker 1837, 102 Port Road, Adelaide, South Australia
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- People
- Aboriginal people; James Fisher
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 513
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- People
- Aboriginal men
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, pp. 515-516
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- People
- Aboriginal people; Bridget Hack
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 516
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Backhouse & Walker 'accompanied Robert Cock, in making a call upon the Governor, to converse with him on the propriety of the appointment of a committee to assist the Protector' Both the Governor and the Protector concurred 'that such a committee might be useful'.
- Placename
- Government House, Adelaide, South Australia
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- People
- Robert Cock; Walter Bromley; Governor John Hindmarsh
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 517
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Backhouse & Walker were back on board the Eudora on 16 December 1837 leaving South Australia for King Georges Sound. Backhouse reported that the wind was against them so they 'stood backward and forward, between Kangaroo Island and the small islands off York Peninsula'. Backhouse observed that Kangaroo Island was 'woody with grass in some places, but with deep gullies, and cliffs which were 'lofty, dark, and horizontally stratified'.
- Placename
- Investigator Strait, South Australia
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- Objects
- Eudora
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 522
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
Sources
Backhouse recalled the story of those who had, a few months before, 'landed from a vessel at the western end of the island, being tired with a long voyage, and thinking to make their way easily to Kings Cote, a settlement of the South Australian Company, on the eastern extremity. Some of the party reached this point, in a very exhausted state ; but the surgeon, and another person perished in the intricate bush'. Backhouse lamented that, 'Much danger attends strangers in any country, attempting to make their way from the coast, to distant places ; many have narrowly escaped death, in such attempts, in other parts of Australia'.
- Placename
- Harvey's Return, Cape Borda, Kangaroo Island, South Australia
- Type
- Other
Details
Description
Extended Data
- Journey_Title
- Voyage to South Australia
- People
- Dr John Slater; E.W. Osborne
- Objects
- Africaine
- Source
- Backhouse, Narrative of a Visit, p. 522
- Link
- https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10371634
