188 G. H. HALLIGAN. 



THE OCEAN CURRENTS AROUND AUSTRALIA. 



By G. H. Halligan, 



Late Supervising Engineer and Hydrographer, N.S. W. Government. 



With Plate XI. 



[Read before the Royal Society of N.S. Wales, September 7, 192l.^\ 



Previous to the year 1770 when Cook explored and took 

 possession of the east coast of Australia, practically nothing 

 had been recorded of the currents around our coast, but 

 since that time each of the following explorers has added 

 to our knowledge: — Vancouver who entered and named 

 King George's Sound in 1791, Flinders and Bass who ex- 

 tended the discoveries of Cook on the east coast in 1798, 

 followed by Murray in 1802. During 1802-3 Capt. Matthew 

 Flinders in H.M.S. ''Investigator," explored the coast 

 between Sydney and the Gulf of Carpentaria, and completed 

 his remarkable voyage by sailing completely round Aus- 

 tralia. About the same date the French explorers Baudin 

 and Freycinet in the "Geographe" and "Naturaliste" 

 examined the north-west and west coasts. The northern 

 and north-western coasts were charted by Capt. King in 

 1820-4, followed by Captains Wickham and Stokes in 1837 

 to 1843, and Capt. Denham in 1858. Since 1872 the 

 Admiralty has carried out detached surveys, mostly on the 

 north and north-west coasts, but by far the larger portion 

 of the shores of Australia are still very imperfectly ex- 

 amined and charted, both as regards the outline of the land, 

 and the trend of the currents and tidal streams. Beside 

 the names above mentioned a great number of isolated 

 observations on the direction and velocity of some of the 

 surface currents have been made by chance visitors or 

 exploring expeditions at odd times, such as Capt. Sir James 



