Place In Time
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday February 28, 2008
The Hawkesbury flows smoothly but it was far from peaceful the day a ship's crew mutineered, writes Peter FitzSimons.
There's something sort of dreamy about the Hawkesbury River. To the commuters who constantly rush back and forth across it on the F3, its ever-languid vision is a twice-daily counterpoint to their own ever-harried hurriedness. Ah, but despite appearances, dat ol' man river, dat ol' Hawkesbury, has itself known moments of mayhem. As a matter of fact, it has seen nothing less, me hearties, than piracy! See, way back when Sydney was little more than a tiny foothold of hope in what seemed to many of the First Fleet as an entire continent of hopelessness, Cap'n Phillip and some of his men sallied forth up the Hawkesbury to see if there might be a place up the river better suited to serious European settlement than Sydney Cove. The short answer was "no", but a year later, in 1789, Cap'n ventured even further up river and this time found a good deal of arable land, which was shortly to become Sydney's breadbasket. River traffic soon grew, with government supply ships regularly heading up the Hawkesbury to take supplies to the outlying settlements and bringing back produce in return. As the ships wended their lazy way back and forth they would frequently stop at a place just opposite Dangar Island called the Tanks, which boasted a natural reservoir of fresh water. It soon became a routine ... But wait! On this day in September, 1797, something is afoot on the pride of the Sydney fleet, the supply ship Cumberland. It has just stopped to take on water at the Tanks, before continuing to head upriver, when the convict members of the crew fall upon their masters and subdue them. Cry tyranny! And now they are joined by other escaped convicts, hiding out on Dangar Island. Thus, instead of continuing up the Hawkesbury, the Cumberland turns around and sets off back towards the river mouth and, the convicts hope, freedom. The ship pauses long enough to drop off the captured coxswain and crew at Palm Beach, then heads north. When finally the coxswain makes it back through virgin bush to tell his extraordinary tale, Governor Hunter is not well pleased and in no time at all has dispatched one of his best men, Lieutenant Shortland, with two boats, to hunt the pirates down and bring them back for trial and, no doubt, a good hanging. Alas, alas, of the Cumberland and her pirate crew, there is no sign. Lieutenant Shortland gets as far as Port Stephens before deciding to turn back. Still, it is while moseying back down the coast that he sights a coastal cleft that looks like a promising spot for the pirates to be hiding. Upon investigation he discovers another mighty river, which he promptly names the Hunter River and this, in turn, soon becomes the entrance to Newcastle and a mighty source of coal for the colony.The Cumberland? It was never seen again, though a rumour swept the colony for years that one of the escapees was subsequently seen in London. Let us hope so...With thanks to reader Michael O'Flynn, a resident of Dangar Island. Do you have a historical anecdote about a place in Sydney? Write to Peter FitzSimons at pfitzsimons@smh.com.au.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
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