Collett Barker (1784 - 1831)

Born 31 Dec 1784 in Hackney, London, England

Ancestors

Died 30 Apr 1831 at age 46 in Encounter Bay, South Australia

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Biography

Collett was born in 1784 in London. He was the son of William Barker and Sarah Collett. Collett Barker joined the British Army as an Ensign in January, 1806, rising to the rank of Captain by 1825. He was killed by aboriginals in South Australia in 1831. ^[1]

On 13 September 1828 Captain Barker arrived as the new commandant of Fort Wellington, the settlement at Raffles Bay in the Northern Territory, and the following year was commander at King George Sound in Western Australia. Barker was an excellent administrator and proved to be an humane friend to the local indigenous people of both commands. He recorded Aboriginal place names, people, traditions and beliefs which would have been lost entirely. Had he lived he was to be sent to New Zealand's north island as first resident by Governor Darling because of the feared Māori unrest; his role was to conciliate.

In 1831, on the recommendation of Charles Sturt, who had discovered the shoaled mouth of the Murray River the previous year, Barker was sent to explore the east coast of the Gulf of St Vincent in South Australia to see if another channel from the Murray entered the sea there.

On 13 April 1831 Capt. Barker and his party arrived at Cape Jervis on the Isabella. He examined the coast and found that there was no channel. Barker discovered the Onkaparinga River on 15 April. He then explored the ranges inland, north of the present site of Adelaide, and climbed Mount Lofty where he sighted the Port River inlet, Barker Inlet and the future Port Adelaide, his most important discovery. He then moored Isabella near present Yankalilla Bay and went overland to explore the area around Lake Alexandrina and Encounter Bay. On 29 April the mouth of the Murray was reached. Barker swam across the narrow channel the next morning, went over a sandhill, and was never seen again. A few days later the party learned that Barker had been killed by the local indigenous people who had mistaken him for a whaler or sealer.^[2]

In December 1829, Thomas Braidwood Wilson (naval ship surgeon) named the town Mount Barker after Captain Collet Barker, the former commandant of the garrison at King George Sound.^[3]

To view the connections between Dobson and Collett families, click here

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