Mahogany Ship
Encyclopedia
The Mahogany Ship refers to a putative, early shipwreck that is purported to lie beneath the sand in the Armstrong Bay area, approximately 3 to 6 kilometres west of Warrnambool
in southwest Victoria
, Australia
. In many modern accounts it is described as a Portuguese
caravel
.
While there is no conclusive evidence such a wreck exists today or that it ever existed, accounts of the relic persist both in popular folklore and in publications of varying academic rigour. Early reports relating to the ship touch upon two cardinal characteristics: it was described as being constructed of panels and its timbers were said to be of a dark wood, described as either mahogany or cedar. In terms of these criteria, the vessel did not resemble ships built in northern Europe in the 18th or 19th centuries.
by Europeans.
In January 1836, a party of three whalers
from Port Fairy
travelled to the mouth of the Hopkins River
in search of seals
. Their boat overturned and one man was drowned. The survivors were walking back to Port Fairy along the coast when, about halfway along, they discovered the wrecked ship in the sand dunes. The sighting was reported to Captain John Mills, who was in charge of the whaling station at Port Fairy. It is reported that Mills subsequently visited the wreck and described it as having very "hard dark timber – like mahogany
", giving rise to the name. Many historians believe that this account by Hugh Donnelly is the first reliable eyewitness account of the wreck, although it appears that Captain Mills himself placed nothing on the public record in writing. Donnelly first wrote this account in a letter to the "Warrnambool Standard" on 3 March 1890.
Some writers dismiss such tales as hearsay and argue that their supporters have been too romantic in the assessment of the import of the alleged wreck. Donnelly's credibility as an eyewitness has been seriously questioned and there is convincing evidence he did not arrive in Victoria until July 1841.
Nevertheless, despite all the doubts, the fascination continues. Some devotees have spent much of their lives trying to unravel the mystery, even carrying out excavations in the region in an attempt to unearth remains of the wreck. Three Mahogany Ship Symposia have been conducted in nearby Warrnambool
: in 1981, 1987 and 2005, attracting significant public and academic interest, and the contributions of Manning Clark
, Barry Jones
, Kenneth McIntyre
, Lawrence Fitgerald, Ian McKiggan, Bill Richardson, Edmund Gill, Jack Loney and many others.
Any search for buried timbers or artefacts will always be fraught with difficulties. The sand dunes in which the vessel may now rest have changed drastically over the years, possibly in response to the introduction of livestock and pests
such as the rabbit from Europe in the 1830s and 1840s. These creatures have contributed to destabilisation of the dunes, resulting in the generation of massive sand drifts that have destroyed the coastal road and overrun large areas of grazing land.
.
Another definite account was presented by the former editor of the Warrnambool Examiner, local historian Richard Osburne, who wrote about the wreck in his book "History of Warrnambool" (published 1877):
He followed up with a letter to the Port Fairy Gazette on 25 June 1890 during a period of heightened interest in the wreck, although he was unsure of the provenance of the ship.
After lobbying by the local museum curator in Warrnambool, a search of the area was carried out in 1890 and multiple, organised search parties set out from Warrnambool throughout the 1890s to locate the wreck but without success. The searchers may have been hindered by unreliable claims of first-hand reports of its location; it has since been argued that many people who had claimed to have seen the ship were merely repeating and embellishing older accounts.
The most recent reported sighting of the ship to which any historian attaches weight was in the 1880s. Historians have speculated that since then it may have disappeared deep under the sand dunes, or been used as firewood, or been swallowed up by the sea. It is also possible that the ship, as conceived of in folklore, never existed at all. Today there is no definitive evidence that the Mahogany Ship ever rested on that shore.
". However, both theories lacked supporting evidence. Popular writers of the time also tended to reinforce the notion of a Spanish wreck. In 1884, Julian Thomas, writing as “The Vagabond” for The Argus, referred to the vessel (in a series on "Picturesque Victoria") as being made of “Spanish mahogany.”
In The Book of the Bush (1893), George Dunderdale wrote of the 1836 discovery of a “Spanish” wreck; “Vain search was made for it many years afterwards in the hope that it was a Spanish galleon laden with doubloons.” Neither Dunderdale nor Thomas had seen the wreck themselves.
side of Warrnambool…of…a three hundred ton vessel …thrown completely into the [sand] hummocks”. The article went on to connect the wreck to the 1841 discovery of a number of articles of French manufacture found strewed along the beach. In 1981, writer Ian Mckiggan also found further evidence of an 1841 French shipwreck in the area in the journal of Government Surveyor C.J. Tyers. Tyers wrote that the wreckage (including a keg containing a boat compass by maker Devot of Harve) indicated an unknown French whaler had been lost in the area. However, the date of this report does not fit with the 1836 account, written by Hugh Donnelly in 1890.
, wrecked in 1522. Kenneth McIntyre
advanced this theory in 1977, as part of his theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia
and it has since gained considerable popularity. According to McIntyre the Mahogany Ship was part of a secret Portuguese expedition, under Cristóvão de Mendonça, that set out from the Spice Islands
in 1522 to look for the Isles of Gold. McIntyre argued secrecy would have been essential because the mariners were entering waters deemed Spanish under the Treaty of Tordesillas
. He suggested that, after discovering the north coast of Australia, they followed and chartered it and continued down the east coast and around Cape Howe
, before one of the caravels was wrecked at Warrnambool. The others turned back and returned to the Spice Islands. Maps and documents of such a voyage would have been kept locked away so as to avoid antagonizing Spain and to keep the discoveries from her or other nations. McIntyre suggested that all of the original documents have since been lost or destroyed, except for references to Jave la Grande, which appear on the French Dieppe school of maps
. Several other writers, including Lawrence Fitzgerald and Peter Trickett support McIntyre's theory connecting the Mahogany ship to a Portuguese voyage. Extant French world maps (the Dieppe maps) of 1540s, 1550s and 1560s are argued by McIntyre to depict Australia's southern coastline as far as Armstrong Bay - only six kilometres west of Warrnambool.
Another theory links the ship to Portuguese sea captain Gomes de Sequeira
, lost in 1525.
speculated that the ship was a modified Chinese junk. He pointed to the reports that it was made of a 'dark wood' and was 'of an unconventional design'. He also cited claims that local Aborigines
had a tradition "yellow men" had at one time come from the wreck. The claims of Chinese origin have not been well received in academic circles. Many notable historians have dismissed the notion as fanciful at best.
Today, visitors frequently take to the Mahogany Ship Walking Track, which follows the coast between Warrnambool
and Port Fairy
and passes possible sites where the Mahogany Ship may rest. The area of greatest interest to contemporary researchers is Armstrong Bay east of Gormans Road (formerly Lane) and west of Levys Point near Dennington.
The "Mahogany Ship", in common with the Loch Ness Monster
, has become a local industry and the legend is likely to be promoted and to endure, whatever the facts of the case.
A project to build a replica Portuguese caravel, called Notorious
, somewhat inspired by the Mahogany Ship is nearing completion at Port Fairy.
(1859), there is a fictional account of a wreck that resembled the Mahogany Ship. In the book the ship is described as being Dutch or Spanish. As two characters admire the Great Southern Ocean, the following conversation takes place;
In some editions a footnote at the bottom of the page reads: “Such a ship may be seen in the eastern end of Portland Bay, near the modern town of Port Fairy.”
To what extent this novel helped to promote the popular image of the wreck is uncertain. There are several examples of works of literature that have influenced the popular imagination to such an extent that the fictional accounts in the books are now widely held to be fact. A good example of this phenomenon from Australian literature is Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1967). The shocking events in it are presented as fact, complete with references to (imaginary) newspaper articles but in reality nothing like them ever occurred.
Wrack by James Bradley (1997) also uses a wreck inspired by the Mahogany Ship.
Warrnambool, Victoria
-Cityscape:The original City of Warrnambool was a 4x8 grid, with boundaries of Lava Street , Japan Street , Merri Street and Henna Street . In the nineteenth century, it was intended that Fairy Street – with its proximity to the Warrnambool Railway Station – would be the main street of...
in southwest Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. In many modern accounts it is described as a Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
caravel
Caravel
A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward...
.
While there is no conclusive evidence such a wreck exists today or that it ever existed, accounts of the relic persist both in popular folklore and in publications of varying academic rigour. Early reports relating to the ship touch upon two cardinal characteristics: it was described as being constructed of panels and its timbers were said to be of a dark wood, described as either mahogany or cedar. In terms of these criteria, the vessel did not resemble ships built in northern Europe in the 18th or 19th centuries.
Overview
For over a century and a half the mystery of this ship has captured the imagination of Australians. This fascination is largely because the existence of such a vessel could throw a different light on the earliest phases of exploration of the eastern seaboard of AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
by Europeans.
In January 1836, a party of three whalers
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
from Port Fairy
Port Fairy, Victoria
Port Fairy is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and 290 km west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the Southern Ocean.-History:...
travelled to the mouth of the Hopkins River
Hopkins River
The Hopkins River is a river in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It begins near Ararat, and enters Bass Strait at Warrnambool. It is one of two rivers flowing through Warrnambool, the other is the Merri River....
in search of seals
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
. Their boat overturned and one man was drowned. The survivors were walking back to Port Fairy along the coast when, about halfway along, they discovered the wrecked ship in the sand dunes. The sighting was reported to Captain John Mills, who was in charge of the whaling station at Port Fairy. It is reported that Mills subsequently visited the wreck and described it as having very "hard dark timber – like mahogany
Mahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
", giving rise to the name. Many historians believe that this account by Hugh Donnelly is the first reliable eyewitness account of the wreck, although it appears that Captain Mills himself placed nothing on the public record in writing. Donnelly first wrote this account in a letter to the "Warrnambool Standard" on 3 March 1890.
Some writers dismiss such tales as hearsay and argue that their supporters have been too romantic in the assessment of the import of the alleged wreck. Donnelly's credibility as an eyewitness has been seriously questioned and there is convincing evidence he did not arrive in Victoria until July 1841.
Nevertheless, despite all the doubts, the fascination continues. Some devotees have spent much of their lives trying to unravel the mystery, even carrying out excavations in the region in an attempt to unearth remains of the wreck. Three Mahogany Ship Symposia have been conducted in nearby Warrnambool
Warrnambool, Victoria
-Cityscape:The original City of Warrnambool was a 4x8 grid, with boundaries of Lava Street , Japan Street , Merri Street and Henna Street . In the nineteenth century, it was intended that Fairy Street – with its proximity to the Warrnambool Railway Station – would be the main street of...
: in 1981, 1987 and 2005, attracting significant public and academic interest, and the contributions of Manning Clark
Manning Clark
Charles Manning Hope Clark, AC , an Australian historian, was the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume A History of Australia, published between 1962 and 1987...
, Barry Jones
Barry Jones (Australian politician)
Barry Owen Jones AO, FAA, FASSA, FAHA, FTSE, FACE is a writer, lawyer, social activist, quiz champion and former politician. He campaigned against the death penalty throughout the 1960s, particularly against the execution of Ronald Ryan, and remains against capital punishment...
, Kenneth McIntyre
Kenneth McIntyre
Kenneth Gordon McIntyre OBE was an Australian lawyer, historian and mathematician who is perhaps best known for his controversial book The Secret Discovery of Australia - Portuguese ventures 200 years before Captain Cook....
, Lawrence Fitgerald, Ian McKiggan, Bill Richardson, Edmund Gill, Jack Loney and many others.
Any search for buried timbers or artefacts will always be fraught with difficulties. The sand dunes in which the vessel may now rest have changed drastically over the years, possibly in response to the introduction of livestock and pests
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
such as the rabbit from Europe in the 1830s and 1840s. These creatures have contributed to destabilisation of the dunes, resulting in the generation of massive sand drifts that have destroyed the coastal road and overrun large areas of grazing land.
Reports of sightings
In the early 1990s, Ian McKiggan documented forty purported eyewitnesses to the Mahogany Ship. While these were of varying degrees of detail, they indicate a strong local tradition about the wreck in the area. One of the earliest was a letter written on 1 April 1876 by Captain John Mason of Port Fairy to the Melbourne ArgusThe Argus (Australia)
The Argus was a morning daily newspaper in Melbourne established in 1846 and closed in 1957. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most of its history, it adopted a left leaning approach from 1949...
.
Another definite account was presented by the former editor of the Warrnambool Examiner, local historian Richard Osburne, who wrote about the wreck in his book "History of Warrnambool" (published 1877):
He followed up with a letter to the Port Fairy Gazette on 25 June 1890 during a period of heightened interest in the wreck, although he was unsure of the provenance of the ship.
After lobbying by the local museum curator in Warrnambool, a search of the area was carried out in 1890 and multiple, organised search parties set out from Warrnambool throughout the 1890s to locate the wreck but without success. The searchers may have been hindered by unreliable claims of first-hand reports of its location; it has since been argued that many people who had claimed to have seen the ship were merely repeating and embellishing older accounts.
The most recent reported sighting of the ship to which any historian attaches weight was in the 1880s. Historians have speculated that since then it may have disappeared deep under the sand dunes, or been used as firewood, or been swallowed up by the sea. It is also possible that the ship, as conceived of in folklore, never existed at all. Today there is no definitive evidence that the Mahogany Ship ever rested on that shore.
Spanish origin
In many of the accounts written in the late 19th century, the Mahogany Ship was described as Spanish. According to local writer and antiquarian Jack Loney, several theories supporting the Spanish connection were advanced. One theory was that the ship was the galleon "Santa Ysabel", which had sailed from Peru in 1595. A second theory was that the wreck was the ex-Spanish ship "Santa AnnaSanta Anna (ship) 1812
The Santa Anna was a Spanish ship totally wrecked in the Straits of Timor in 1812.The Santa Anna was a ship of 220 tons and was brought to Sydney in October 1806 after being captured by the privateer Port-au-Prince. Under the command of William Dagg the ship was sent to a seal fishery and then...
". However, both theories lacked supporting evidence. Popular writers of the time also tended to reinforce the notion of a Spanish wreck. In 1884, Julian Thomas, writing as “The Vagabond” for The Argus, referred to the vessel (in a series on "Picturesque Victoria") as being made of “Spanish mahogany.”
In The Book of the Bush (1893), George Dunderdale wrote of the 1836 discovery of a “Spanish” wreck; “Vain search was made for it many years afterwards in the hope that it was a Spanish galleon laden with doubloons.” Neither Dunderdale nor Thomas had seen the wreck themselves.
French origin
One of the earliest documented accounts of a wreck in the area was a Portland newspaper article of 1847 which described “a wreck, about two miles on the BelfastPort Fairy, Victoria
Port Fairy is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and 290 km west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the Southern Ocean.-History:...
side of Warrnambool…of…a three hundred ton vessel …thrown completely into the [sand] hummocks”. The article went on to connect the wreck to the 1841 discovery of a number of articles of French manufacture found strewed along the beach. In 1981, writer Ian Mckiggan also found further evidence of an 1841 French shipwreck in the area in the journal of Government Surveyor C.J. Tyers. Tyers wrote that the wreckage (including a keg containing a boat compass by maker Devot of Harve) indicated an unknown French whaler had been lost in the area. However, the date of this report does not fit with the 1836 account, written by Hugh Donnelly in 1890.
Portuguese origin
Today, the most widely accepted theory suggests that the vessel is a missing ship of Portuguese sea captain Cristóvão de MendonçaCristóvão de Mendonça
Cristóvão de Mendonça was a Portuguese sailor and statesman who was active in South East Asia in the 16th century.-Mendonça in João de Barros's Décadas da Ásia:...
, wrecked in 1522. Kenneth McIntyre
Kenneth McIntyre
Kenneth Gordon McIntyre OBE was an Australian lawyer, historian and mathematician who is perhaps best known for his controversial book The Secret Discovery of Australia - Portuguese ventures 200 years before Captain Cook....
advanced this theory in 1977, as part of his theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia
Theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia
Although most historians hold that the European discovery of Australia began in 1606 with the voyage of the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon on board the Duyfken, a theory exists that a Portuguese expedition arrived in Australia between 1521 and 1524...
and it has since gained considerable popularity. According to McIntyre the Mahogany Ship was part of a secret Portuguese expedition, under Cristóvão de Mendonça, that set out from the Spice Islands
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...
in 1522 to look for the Isles of Gold. McIntyre argued secrecy would have been essential because the mariners were entering waters deemed Spanish under the Treaty of Tordesillas
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas , signed at Tordesillas , , divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagueswest of the Cape Verde islands...
. He suggested that, after discovering the north coast of Australia, they followed and chartered it and continued down the east coast and around Cape Howe
Cape Howe
Cape Howe is a coastal headland in Australia, forming the south-eastern end of the Black-Allen Line, the border between New South Wales and Victoria.-History:...
, before one of the caravels was wrecked at Warrnambool. The others turned back and returned to the Spice Islands. Maps and documents of such a voyage would have been kept locked away so as to avoid antagonizing Spain and to keep the discoveries from her or other nations. McIntyre suggested that all of the original documents have since been lost or destroyed, except for references to Jave la Grande, which appear on the French Dieppe school of maps
Dieppe maps
The Dieppe maps are a series of world maps produced in Dieppe, France, in the 1540s, 1550s and 1560s. They are large hand-produced maps, commissioned for wealthy and royal patrons, including Henry II of France and Henry VIII of England...
. Several other writers, including Lawrence Fitzgerald and Peter Trickett support McIntyre's theory connecting the Mahogany ship to a Portuguese voyage. Extant French world maps (the Dieppe maps) of 1540s, 1550s and 1560s are argued by McIntyre to depict Australia's southern coastline as far as Armstrong Bay - only six kilometres west of Warrnambool.
Another theory links the ship to Portuguese sea captain Gomes de Sequeira
Gomes de Sequeira
Gomes de Sequeira was a Portuguese explorer in the early 16th century. It has been suggested by some historians that Gomes de Sequeira may have sailed to the northeast coast of Australia as part of his explorations, although this is highly disputed....
, lost in 1525.
Chinese origin
In 2002 English writer Gavin MenziesGavin Menzies
Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies is a retired British submarine lieutenant-commander and author. He is best known for his controversial book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, in which he asserts that the fleets of Chinese Admiral Zheng He visited the Americas prior to European explorer...
speculated that the ship was a modified Chinese junk. He pointed to the reports that it was made of a 'dark wood' and was 'of an unconventional design'. He also cited claims that local Aborigines
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
had a tradition "yellow men" had at one time come from the wreck. The claims of Chinese origin have not been well received in academic circles. Many notable historians have dismissed the notion as fanciful at best.
Recent events and today
In 1992 the State Government of Victoria offered a reward of A$250,000 to anyone who could locate the fabled vessel but the offer was withdrawn in 1993 without money having been paid. Extensive searches of the area were conducted in late 1999 and in 2004, using heavy drills that penetrated to a depth of 10 metres. The probes yielded only small, unidentified wooden fragments. Wood found in the area in 2005 has recently been dated to 3000 years old and from the olive tree family.Today, visitors frequently take to the Mahogany Ship Walking Track, which follows the coast between Warrnambool
Warrnambool, Victoria
-Cityscape:The original City of Warrnambool was a 4x8 grid, with boundaries of Lava Street , Japan Street , Merri Street and Henna Street . In the nineteenth century, it was intended that Fairy Street – with its proximity to the Warrnambool Railway Station – would be the main street of...
and Port Fairy
Port Fairy, Victoria
Port Fairy is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and 290 km west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the Southern Ocean.-History:...
and passes possible sites where the Mahogany Ship may rest. The area of greatest interest to contemporary researchers is Armstrong Bay east of Gormans Road (formerly Lane) and west of Levys Point near Dennington.
The "Mahogany Ship", in common with the Loch Ness Monster
Loch Ness Monster
The Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid that is reputed to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next....
, has become a local industry and the legend is likely to be promoted and to endure, whatever the facts of the case.
A project to build a replica Portuguese caravel, called Notorious
Notorious (ship)
The Notorious is a replica fifteenth century caravel, currently under construction. The ship has taken twenty years to build, made entirely from reclaimed timber. It was launched at Martins Point, Port Fairy, Victoria, Australia on Monday, 7th of February, 2011...
, somewhat inspired by the Mahogany Ship is nearing completion at Port Fairy.
The Mahogany Ship in fiction
In the novel Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn by Henry KingsleyHenry Kingsley
Henry Kingsley was an English novelist, brother of the better-known Charles Kingsley.Kingsley was born at Barnack rectory, Northamptonshire, son of the Rev. Charles Kingsley the elder, Mary, née Lucas. Charles Kingsley came of a long line of clergymen and soldiers, and in addition to the two...
(1859), there is a fictional account of a wreck that resembled the Mahogany Ship. In the book the ship is described as being Dutch or Spanish. As two characters admire the Great Southern Ocean, the following conversation takes place;
In some editions a footnote at the bottom of the page reads: “Such a ship may be seen in the eastern end of Portland Bay, near the modern town of Port Fairy.”
To what extent this novel helped to promote the popular image of the wreck is uncertain. There are several examples of works of literature that have influenced the popular imagination to such an extent that the fictional accounts in the books are now widely held to be fact. A good example of this phenomenon from Australian literature is Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1967). The shocking events in it are presented as fact, complete with references to (imaginary) newspaper articles but in reality nothing like them ever occurred.
Wrack by James Bradley (1997) also uses a wreck inspired by the Mahogany Ship.
See also
- Australian folkloreAustralian folklore-Australian Aboriginal mythology:*Bunyip - According to legend, they are said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes.*Rainbow serpent - It is the sometimes unpredictable Rainbow Serpent, who vies with the ever-reliable Sun, that replenishes the stores of water, forming...
- Geelong KeysGeelong KeysThe Geelong Keys were a set of keys discovered in 1845 or 1846 in the time of Governor Charles La Trobe at Corio Bay in Victoria, Australia. They were embedded in the stone of the beach in such a way as to make him believe that they had been there for 100–150 years...
- Theory of Portuguese discovery of AustraliaTheory of Portuguese discovery of AustraliaAlthough most historians hold that the European discovery of Australia began in 1606 with the voyage of the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon on board the Duyfken, a theory exists that a Portuguese expedition arrived in Australia between 1521 and 1524...
External links
Further reading
- For further information on the establishment of whaling at Port Fairy in the mid 1830s, see Powling, J.W. (1980) Port Fairy, The first Fifty Years. William Heinemann, Melbourne. ISBN 0 85561045X