Flinders - Drimmie Head and Drimmie Rock Australia 1803

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Flinders at Drimmie Head 1803 Australia

Drimmie Head and Drimmie Rock on the

Gove Peninsula Northern Territories Australia

During the period between December 1801 and 9 June 1803

he (Flinders) proceeded to sail around Australia,

charting and surveying the entire coastline

as well as islands, bays and headlands.

Flinders named many features after members of his crew.

Memory Cove was named when eight members of his crew

drowned whilst searching for fresh water.

He named a beautiful harbour Port Lincoln after his home county.

Sir Joseph Banks, the famous botanist,

has a group of islands named for him.

It was Flinders who suggested that Terra Australis be named Australia.

Extracts from Flinders Diaries

14.02.1803 Flinders at Drimmie Head

Early in the morning a party of men was sent to cut wood,

and the botanical gentlemen

landed on Point Dundas upon their pursuits;

I went to examine the north-eastern part of the bay.

Beyond a low isthmus there, a piece of water was seen

communicating with the south-eastern part of the bay,

and making a peninsula of the high rocky land named Drimmie Head;

at high water, indeed, it is an island,

for the tide then flows over some parts of the isthmus.

After taking two sets of bearings,

I rowed southward along the shore of Drimmie Head;

and from a hill near the south-west extremity saw the western coast

as far northward as a cliffy cape which was named Cape

after the worthy representative of Yorkshire.

16.02.1803 Flinders in Melville bay

In the morning, being frustrated by a fresh wind at north-west,

with unsettled weather,

Messieurs Brown and Bauer accompanied me

in a boat excursion to the eastern part of the bay.

Coasting along the mangrove shore northward

and after landing at one other place,

we came to the isthmus which connects

Drimmie head to the land of Point Dundas;

and it being near high water,

the boat was going over the isthmus

by a small passage through the mangroves,

and we reached the ship at one o'clock,

where every thing was prepared for weighing the anchor.

This bay is unnoticed in the Dutch chart,

and I name it , in compliment to

the Right Hon. Robert Saunders Dundas, viscount Melville,

who, as first lord of the Admiralty,

has continued that patronage to the voyage

which I had experienced under some of his predecessors.

It is the best harbour we found in the Gulph of Carpentaria;

the entrance is from the N. N. W., four miles wide,

and free from danger; and within side,

the sole dangers not conspicuous,

are a sandy spit running half a mile to the S. S. E. from Point Dundas,

and the Half-tide Rock,

half a mile from the north-west part of Drimmie Rock.

The above passages taken from the Flinders Papers

establish in my mind at least

that the naming of Drimmie Head and Drimmie Rock

took place on this voyage.

We know that some of his crew were Scots from this passage

taken from The Life Of Captain Matthew Flinders R.N. By E. Scott

"The Norfolk remained fifteen days in Moreton Bay.

An effort to tickle the aboriginal sense of humor was a failure.

Two of the crew who were Scotch,

commenced to dance a reel for the amusement of the blacks."

Discovering who this member of our family was

has taken up an inordinate amount of my time

and goes on the back burner for now.

April 2018

After much searching at last I have found a possible candidate

for our unnamed member of Flinders crew.

From The National Archives

In the "Registers of allotments and allotment declarations, Archive"

Archive reference ADM 27/14

Record set British Royal Navy Allotment Declarations 1795-1852

D Drimmie Year 1805 Rank Able Seaman Vessel Mediator

Pay book number 167 Relationship Mo Ann Drimmie

David Drimmie born 1751 in Inch Fettercairn Kincardineshire Scotland

To William Drimmie and Ann Croal

This would make David Drimmie 51/52 when he

possibly joined Flinders aboard the Investigator

Drimmie is a fairly rare surname and of Scottish origin.

Among the Flinders Papers is a list of names

given by Flinders to points on the Australian coast,

with his reasons for doing so.

Flinders papers, Melbourne Public Library

APPENDIX C. NAMES GIVEN BY FLINDERS

TO IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN COASTAL FEATURES.

VOYAGE OF THE INVESTIGATOR (Northern Territory):

Vanderlin Island, the Dutch "Cape Vanderlin."

Sir Edward Pellew Group, Cape Pellew, after Admiral Pellew.

Craggy Isles. West Island. North Island.

Centre Island. Observation Island. Cabbage-Tree Cove.

Maria Island, the Dutch "Cape Maria."

Bickerton Island, after Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton.

Cape Barrow, after Sir John Barrow.

Connexion Island. North Point Island.

Chasm Island, "the upper parts are intersected by many deep chasms."

North-West Bay.

Winchelsea Island, after the Earl of Winchelsea.

Finch's Island, after the Winchelsea family name.

Pandanus Hill, from the clump of trees upon it.

Burney Island, after Captain James Burney, R.N.

Nicol Island, after "His Majesty's bookseller."

Woodah Island, "it having some resemblance to the whaddie,

or woodah, a wooden sword used by the natives of Port Jackson.

" Bustard Isles--They "harboured several bustards."

Mount Grindall, Point Grindall, after Vice-Admiral Grindall.

Morgan's Isle, after a seaman who died there.

Bluemud Bay, "in most parts of the bay is a blue mud

of so fine a quality that I judge

it might be useful in the manufacture of earthenware.

" Point Blane, after Sir Gilbert Blane of the Naval Medical Board.

Cape Shield, after Commissioner Shield.

Cape Grey, after General Grey, Commandant at Capetown.

Point Middle. Mount Alexander. Point Alexander.

Round Hill Island.

Caledon Bay, after the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope.

Cape Arnhem, extremity of Arnhem's Land.

Mount Saunders.

Mount Dundas, Melville Isles--After Dundas,

Viscount Melville, a colleague of the younger Pitt.

Mount Bonner.

Drimmie Head.

Cape Wilberforce, after W. Wilberforce, M.P.,

the slave-emancipator, who was a friend of Flinders.

Melville Bay, after Viscount Melville. Harbour Rock. Point Dundas.

Bromby Islands, after the Reverend F. Bromby, of Hull,

a cousin of Mrs. Flinders.

Malay Road. Pombasso's Island, after the chief of the Malay praus.

Cotton's Island, after Captain Cotton of the

East India Company's Directorate.

English Company Islands, after the East India Company.

Wigram Island. Truant Island, "from its lying away from the rest."

Inglis Island. Bosanquet Island. Astell Island. Mallison Island.

Point Arrowsmith, after the map-publisher.

Cape Newbald, Newbald Island--After Henrietta Newbald,

nee Flinders, who introduced him to Pasley.

Arnhem Bay. Wessell Islands, name found on a Dutch chart.

Point Dale. Wreck Reef.

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