Exploration of The Victorian Coast
In 1800, Lieutenant James Grant RN was the first known explorer to pass through Bass Strait from west to east. He was also the first to see, and crudely chart, the south coast from Cape Banks in South Australia to Wilsons Promontory in Victoria. Grant gave the name "Governor King's Bay" to the body of water between Cape Otway and Wilson's Promontory, but did not venture in and discover Port Phillip.
Grant named Cape Schank, Mount Gambier, Cape Northumberland, Cape Banks, Cape Bridgewater, Mount Schank, Lady Julia Percy Island, Portland Bay, Point Danger and Cape Otway along the southern coast. After arriving in Sydney on 16 December 1800, Grant was ordered by Governor King to take cartographer Francis Barrallier to chart the southern coastline to protect it against claims by the French. Grant sailed on 8 March 1801, with John Murray aboard as first mate, and en route explored Jervis Bay, where he was able to befriend some aborigines. But when he discovered that they practised cannibalism, he set sail again. Grant surveyed as far as Westernport. However, her most famous southern voyage was in early 1802 when John Murray, having been given command of the Lady Nelson, discovered the entrance to Port Phillip. On the same voyage he also surveyed King Island (which he later named after the Governor of New South Wales). He did not name the Kent Group; Matthew Flinders named them in 1800.
In 1801 she came under the command of Jonathan Murray. Later she was under George Courtoys and then James Symons.
Read more about this topic: HMS Lady Nelson (1798)
Famous quotes containing the words exploration, victorian and/or coast:
“For women who do not love us, as for the “disappeared”, knowing that we no longer have any hope does not prevent us form continuing to wait. We live on our guard, on watch; women whose son has gone asea on a dangerous exploration imagine at any minute, although it has long been certain that he has perished, that he will enter, miraculously saved, and healthy.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Conscience was the barmaid of the Victorian soul. Recognizing that human beings were fallible and that their failings, though regrettable, must be humoured, conscience would permit, rather ungraciously perhaps, the indulgence of a number of carefully selected desires.”
—C.E.M. (Cyril Edwin Mitchinson)
“What do we want with this vast and worthless area, of this region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds, of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs; to what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts, or those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to their very base with eternal snow? What can we ever hope to do with the western coast, a coast of 3,000 miles, rockbound, cheerless, uninviting and not a harbor in it?”
—For the State of Kansas, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)