legend that the hay whalers built the 
reef must be viewed with grave doubts. 
The main part of it is most eertainlv 
of natural origin, and it is only a small 
portion of the superstructure which ad¬ 
mits of discussion on tills point.. A 
change of structure in the rocks is very 
noticeable here, and may 'e largely re¬ 
sponsible for the shelf-like reef. A 
fault can lie ] lainly seen at the hase 
of < ape Paul Enmnion, particularly on 
the exposed cliff section on the north¬ 
ern face. 
The Tasman Memorial i s situated at 
tlie head oi tliis inner cove, and in 
view of tlie discussions which have ta¬ 
ken place in regard to its location (see 
Paper.- and Proceedings of the Royal So¬ 
ciety of Tasmania. 11123). particular at¬ 
tention was paid to this aspect of the 
case. 
personally, after an exhaustive ex¬ 
amination of all available documents, 
obtaining opinions from authorities in 
Europe as to charts, etc., and two ex¬ 
tended visits to the site, I am of the 
opinion that the party who made the 
original selection for the site of the 
monument (vide press reports 22/1/1023) 
failed to locate the correct position 01 
the landing place of Tasman's earpcntei 
Considering that the wind was 
blowing srongly from the north (not 
from the east as some authorities have 
stated), there would be a great break 
on the reef, as the tide was low, and 
Tasman particularly refers to the surf, 
so that it is extremely unlikely that his 
boats would have crossed the bar espe¬ 
cially as the northern shore of the l>a\ 
would bo more sheltered. Moreover, 
the sketch in Tasman's journal definitely 
shows tlie Hag on the northern shore's 
of the hay. and the description of the 
sloping ground agrees far better with 
this position than with that at the head 
of the inner cove. It is questionable if 
there are any traces left of the original 
* trees noted by Tasman, but it is easy 
to find four stumps in either position. 
A comparison of a recent survey of the 
bay with one nt ulo over half a century 
ago shows a fair amount of erosion on 
* the inner northern shore of the bay and 
down among the shingle on the beacn. 
just outside the reef, remains the enor¬ 
mous stump of a very old eucalypt. It 
any tree might have a claim as being 
Gasman’s tree, r think that this one 
might well be considered, for as far as 
I can gather from the available evidence 
it occurs just at the spot where the 
carpenter apparently swam ashore. 
In dealing with the landing it is well 
to remember that the Dutch adopted the 
Gregorian system of chronology in 1583. 
whereas England did not change from 
the -1 nlinn system until two centuries 
later. Mr. G. H. llalligaii lias kindly 
worked out tin- dates, etc., in order to 
compute the state of the tides, etc., and 
his calculations show that Tasman’s De¬ 
cember 3. 1(542, was a Wednesday, it 
being full mocn two days later. 
f)n the occasion of i.ur present visit we 
were at the bay practically at the same 
state of the tide as Tasman, namely, 
soon after midday two days before the 
full moon. It was then an excptionallv 
low tide, a large extent of the reel 
being exposed. There was this differ¬ 
ence. however, that the sea was calm, 
whereas Tasman had a very strong 
northerly breeze, which would make a 
large break upon the reef, and at low 
tide make it impossible for a boat (par¬ 
ticularly if it were the beat's crew’s 
first visit to the bay) to attempt to 
come through the breakers. To use 
Tasman's own words. “The surf ran so 
high that, we could not get near the 
shore without running the risk of having 
our pinnace dashe<1 to pieces.'' 
As our party had lunch on the shores- 
of the lmy. tlie deeds of the hardy Dutch 
explorers were naturally recalled re 
mind, and one attempted to visualise 
the scene that took place when the first, 
explorers of our southern isle planted 
their flag “as a memorial to posterity. 
Other incidents of Tasman’s visits were 
recalled to mind, for on the day previous 
to the planting of the flag boats from tne 
ships had passed through the Narrows, 
and the site of our camp was probably 
within a few yards of where the first 
white ppoplo set foot on Tasmanian soil. 
The explorers returned to the ships, and 
among other matters reported that the 
land was inhabited, probably by giants, 
owing to the distance apart certain 
climbing notches were which were cut in 
si m- of the trees. They had also seen 
smoke from fires in the distance, and 
7 
