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THE EARLY HISTORY OF BRUNY ISLAND. 

 By 



Clive E. Lord 



(Curator of the Tasmanian Museum). 



(Read 13th September, 1920.) 



Many of the coastal features of our Island State are 

 entwined with the romance of its early history. The 

 nomenclature recalls visits of the hardy navigators, who, 

 in years gone by, sailed amid the uncharted areas of the 

 Southern Ocean in search of the Great South Land. Later, 

 as the discovery of Australia became known, various ex- 

 peditions added, little by little, to the knowledge of the 

 coast line. The Southern part of Tasmania came in for a 

 considerable amount of attention in the early days, mainly 

 owing to the fact that the existence of Bass Straits was 

 not known, and all vessels coming from the westward had 

 to weather the South-West Cape in order to reach the 

 East Coast of the Continent and the seas beyond. Some 

 staved for the purpose of examining the coast more closely 

 whilst others merely sought the land in order to replenish 

 their supplies of wood and water. Nearly all the naviga- 

 tors of whom we have record, however, left some trace of 

 their visit by naming the prominent features of the locality 

 wherein they stayed. In a previous paper t 1 ) I traced the 

 early history of Maria Island, and inl the present instance 

 it is desired to place on record a few facts that have been 

 compiled in relation to Bruny Island and its early ex- 

 plorers. In doing so it must be remembered that the 

 records will be merely those of whom we have know- 

 ledge. While they were undoubtedly the chief ones, it is 

 well to recall that there were probably many ships that 

 set forth to explore the Southern seas, but which never 

 returned. 



Whence, or how, Tasmania became to be inhabited 

 by the dusky aborigines, who withered away so rapidly 

 with the advent of the European settlement, we have 

 no certain knowledge, although many theories have been 

 advanced. They were here long before the seventeenth 

 century, and doubtless gazed with wonder at the high 

 pooped Dutch vessels which appeared off the South Coast 

 in the spring of 1642. For it was on the 29th of Novem- 



(1) The Early History of Maria Island. P. and P. Eoy. Soc. Tas., 

 1919. 



