The Alteration of Historical Names
Little Short of Criminal
Wreck of the “Stirling Castle”
Band of Explorers-Sir George Gipps
Trip Undertaken in a “Nondescript Boat “
Mr. Russell’s Details of the Trip
A Novel Cure for Sunstroke
Gammon Island
Jolliffe’s Beard
This whaleboat trip to Wide Bay, and Mr. Andrew Petrie’s discovery of the river there, was recently referred to by Sir Hugh Nelson at a conference of the Royal Geographical Society, held at Mary- borough. The river discovered was known as the Wide Bay River for some years, but afterwards was christened the “Mary” in honour of Lady Fitzroy. Nowadays, following Mr. Andrew Petrie’s diary, one fails to recognise all points of interest by the names given. With regard to this, Mr. Knight, in his description of the trip, says :-” On the following day the party reached a place named by Mr. Petrie Bracefield Cape, but during later years renamed Noosa. And it may here be remarked that it was little short of criminal to substitute the present names for those bestowed by this band of explorers.” It was near Noosa that Bracefield or Graham (“Wandi” the blacks called him) was found, hence the name Bracefield Cape. He was a convict who had deserted in Logan’s time, and he it was who rescued Mrs. Frazer (wife of Captain Frazer, of the Stirling Castle) from the aboriginals. The wreck of the Stirling Castle (the boat, by the way, in which the Petries travelled from the old country some time previously) is ancient history now, and it will be remembered that Mrs. Frazer was obliged to live alone with the blacks until the time when Bracefield took her down to within a few miles of the settlement, and so was the means of her release.
Mr. Henry Stuart Russell, one of ” this band of explorers,” refers to the naming of the different places. In one part he says:- “Of the coast of the mainland between Cape Moreton and Sandy Cape little had hitherto been known. No survey of it had under any close examination from seawards been made; none whatever from landwards. Petrie being in the service of the Government, and acting under Sir George Gipps’s instructions, considered himself authorised to name mountains, headlands, or any remarkable spot not yet distinguished on a chart, as he thought fit, with the view of sending in his report, under which such designations would be printed on the Government maps. The low bluff which formed the southern and most eastern point of the sandy bay in which we were he called ‘ Bracefield’s Head’ (now Noosa Head), being most suggestive of the occurrence which had so much preoccupied us of late. From a higher ground further back we could see several noteworthy eminences which we had remarked from the boat when following the coast- line. Of these Bracefield told the native names, which were written down on the spot.”
It seems matter for regret that any of these names should have been tampered with, or that a true discoverer should in any way be overlooked. In those early times, however, many mistakes were made in different ways of course, it could hardly be otherwise. With regard to Brisbane town, it may not be amiss to mention an instance here. Governor Gipps, when the town was about to be laid out, was not pleased with the surveyor’s plans-the roads were too wide, and too much land had been wasted in reserves for his taste; consequently “the whole design had to be altered,” says Mr. Knight. “This, it appears, was a common trick of Governor Gipps’s” (still quoting Mr. Knight), “for in every other case where he had anything to do with the laying out of a place he acted in exactly the same manner. His argument in favour of narrow streets was novel, if unsound-namely, that the buildings on either side of such thoroughfares would have the effect of keeping out the sun! Mr. Andrew Petrie actually came to loggerheads with the Governor over the foolish proposition, and to mark his condemnation of the opinion of others, his Excellency ordered the width of all streets in Ipswich as well as in Brisbane to be reduced to sixty-six feet. Eventually the surveyors, after a good deal of trouble, were allowed to make the principal thoroughfares about eighty feet. Looking at Governor Gipps’s grabbing propensities, it is a matter for wonder that the Queen’s Park escaped being cut up into town lots.”
But to hail back to Wide Bay and the trip undertaken in what Mr. Russell terms a “nondescript boat.” “Certainly,” he says, “when in the water, with her full burden, her ‘mid- ship’s rowlock was but a measured five inches above the water; for I tried the distance afterwards. But I found that we could step two lug-sails and carry a bumpkin, stuck out for a bit of after canvas-that was a comfort.” Mr. Joliffe being a sailor, was bound (Mr. Russell says) to laugh at the boat.
How these gentlemen came to join Mr. Petrie on this trip happened in this wise. Mr. Russell was on the lookout for a fresh run for sheep, and so also was Mr. Joliffe. Mr. Russell had just determined to purchase a small craft or yawl, and start out, and was thinking over his plans, when Mr. Joliffe, bursting in upon him, informed him that Mr. Petrie had heard of his intention.
“I’ve had a long yarn with Petrie about your going, and I will tell you what he says: You’ve heard of that Bunnia-Bunnia which the blacks here talk so much about; Petrie is the only white man who has looked for and found it; he has a bit of its wood, you know; it’s called Petrie’s pine, and mighty proud of his discovery he is. Well, the Governor gave him orders before he left to go to the river on which they say it grows most, and examine it thoroughly and report. A proclamation has been issued that no settlers are to encroach on its quarters, and no white man is to cut down any of it. Petrie says he must go at once; the place is on the banks of a river, a little north of the river called the Morouchidor.’ Petrie says that queer-looking oyster boat isn’t fit for any sea; he wants you to join him; and his work, your own, mine, too, perhaps, may be knocked off by one trip.” “What boat can we have, though ?” “Why, there is a five-oared kind of mongrel whale-boat, which was built by a prisoner here, in a fashion, which he will take. You know that there will be no more Commandants at Brisbane; he will take five ticket men to pull, a mast to stick up, and a bit of a sail when the wind serves; the boat is new and sound, whatever she looks like, the other thing’s rotten.” (“Genesis of Queensland.”)
And so this party set out, and, in spite of many difficulties and hardships, surmounted all drawbacks, and in due course arrived safely back at the settlement again with their interesting addition in the way of numbers.
Mr. Russell is amusing in some of his details of this trip. On the party’s start out he begins to ask Mr. Petrie questions concerning the crew. When he finds that one man’s name is Russell, like his own, he asks no more on that point. Later on, during the journey up, he loses his hat overboard, and on this account evidently gets a touch of the sun, for when the blacks carry the party ashore his head is splitting, and intolerable pains creep through his limbs. Writing of it, he says:-
“I suppose I was in some sort tortured by sunstroke: that night was a horrible seal upon my recollections thereof. One of the men was trying to make me a head-covering out of some canvas; but why should my limbs torment me? Well, no explanation of the cause could have cured me, and thus I miserably stared the stars out of countenance with the help of the dawning day. My friends were alarmed, but could do nothing. Our two blacks were in such a funk’ that they kept me wakeful company throughout, though the whites watched in turn by pairs.
“With the sun’s return came that of the natives. After much gesticulation to the party, an old man squatted on his hams on the hot sand, and with a queer crone began to scoop out a hole with his hands alongside me. I took little heed, until it had assumed, under his vigorous and odoriferous exertions almost the appearance of a shallow grave. As a man under his first flooring’ by seasickness, so was I absolutely careless of what was going on around. Petrie and others gravely looking on, rifle in hand, reassured me on one head, yet I could realise nothing. I believe I must have been fast becoming unconscious. What happened I can tell, however, now. When all was ready, I learnt that two younger natives had lifted me into the grave, divested of every rag on my back. Our own blacks had assured Petrie that the old man could put me on my legs again; he was too anxious about me to repel their proffered service, as long as there was no unreasonable means resorted to. Some large leaves of a water plant had been brought and placed over my head to protect it, and that again was raised upon the roll of my own clothes. Well, I remember the queer sensation of hot sand being shovelled by their wooden implements eelamans-over me, up to the very chin. After that I knew nothing till I came to the sense of where I was. In fact, I seemed to wake up from a painful dream. I could move but my head. The leaves were lifted from my face, and the assemblage at first puzzled me. Arms had been packed in with the rest, and I was in a straight jacket of hot sand, pressed in a solid heap upon my carcass. But I felt no pain. The perspiration was still (for I was told it had been doing so for the last quarter of an hour) running in tiny rivulets from my head over my face into my eyes and ears. I was in a vapour furnace! Quickly I was un- earthed, covered with blankets or anything that caught their eye, and fell fast asleep. When I woke-in about six hours-I was well! Weak but terribly thirsty. I could have hugged the whole tribe in my gratitude-but they were all gone! I could see that the minds of my compagnons de voyage were much relieved, especially that kind-hearted Scot, Andrew Petrie. Some efficient headgear had been manufactured for me in the meanwhile, to commemorate which the hummock at the point was named ‘Russell’s Cap.'”
And so Mr. Russell goes on with the trip. He tells how they christened what is now Double Island Point “Brown’s Cape,” because Bracefield and the blacks assured them it was there that Brown, the mate of the Stirling Castle, had been killed and disposed of. Further on he describes. a mist into which they were entrapped-” so dense that, except the water immediately about the sides of the boat, nothing out of it could be distinguished.” Getting free from this at last, they fell into other difficulties, christened an island “Gammon Island,” because, after leaving it, and pulling and sailing about in and out all over the place, they landed at exactly the same spot, much to Mr. Russell’s disgust. He suggested the name as suitable to “his good Scotch friend”-Mr. Petrie-” who jotted it down with the ghost of a smile.”
In Mr. Petrie’s diary he describes a point of land as “Jolliffe’s Head.” With regard to this, Mr. Russell says:-
“Jolliffe’s long, black beard had been an object of mirth, and, I must add, admiration, all the jaunt through, especially to the blacks. This new river-head which we were leaving, and perhaps should never see again, tufted with that thick, glossy patch of dark pine brush, by some process associated itself with it, and down on the rough outline, the base of a future report, went under our official friend’s hand, ‘ Jolliffe’s Beard,’ for its baptismal name. I wonder whether it is called so still? Maybe it bears some later comer’s.”