Description
Rare date (1803) map of the three harbours of Botany Bay, Port Jackson and Broken Bay, based on Captain John Hunter’s large scale chart issued in 1793.
Hunter’s chart was the first to show the three harbours of Botany Bay, Port Jackson and Broken Bay and the became the template for later mapping of the interior as surveyed. Note this is the very large issue of the chart.
Hunter’s surveys of Botany Bay, Broken Bay and the coastlines that linked them, resulted in this crucial chart that provided the framework for all future mapping of the inland areas. Dotted lines indicate sections of Broken Bay and Botany Bay that are from ‘eye sketches’. The chart builds on Hunter’s Plan of Port Jackson New South Wales 1788, issued in Governor Phillip’s 1789 published account of the infant colony. Phillip had made three exploratory trips to Broken Bay in an attempt to locate adequate fresh water for the infant colony.
On the first trip (2 March 1788) Phillip and his crew (not including Hunter), discovered and explored: Brisbane Waters, Cowan Creek (South West Arm), Pittwater, Patonga Creek and camped on Dangar Island (Mullet Island). As supplies were running low, Phillip decided to head back to Port Jackson and although he had discovered tracts of fertile land, Phillip had not found his ‘large river’. Three months later Phillip assembled another party which included Hunter, to explore Broken Bay, leaving 6 June 1789. After further exploration of Brisbane Water, the party camped on Dangar Island for a second time. On 11 June they explored Mullet Creek and Mooney Mooney Creek and on the following day, Phillip and Hunter explored near Long Island and found themselves almost by accident, at what appeared to be an extensive inlet. They explored further upstream, reaching the Junction of the Macdonald River, noticing the water becoming increasingly fresher. Again finding their supplies were running low, they decided to return to Port Jackson to replenish.
On their third and final trip, 26 June 1789, they headed directly to their previous point on the Macdonald River and set up camp. On the following day they rowed up the Hawkesbury River to Richmond Hill. Phillip had succeeded in finding a significant freshwater river, together with large tracts of arable land.
Phillip later stated ‘The River, which I named, Hawkesbury, after Lord Hawkesbury, is laid on the Chart, from an eye-sketch made by Captain Hunter, as we rowed up it’.
Ferguson, J. A. Bibliography of Australia Volumes 1-8, Canberra 1976 : 345.
Abbey, J.R. Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860. London 1972: 565.
Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID:1295656
State Library New South Wales: Record Identifier 74Vv7J3Nx6BA
State Library Victoria: RARELT 994.402 B27H
State Library South Australia: 994.402 B276
