Escape River to Gove
The jewellery world has long had a romantic obsession with Pearls; indeed they are one of the primary reasons for early European settlement of the top of Cape York & the Torres Strait, and with depletion of the original natural beds, a cultured pearl industry now flourishes throughout this area.
It’s late afternoon after a blowy 70 nautical mile passage as ‘Envy’ enters the Escape River, a day’s sail from the ‘tip’, and the river’s muddy coloured waters appear totally covered with thousands of seemingly impenetrable round black floats. Caught in the late afternoon glare we cautiously edge ‘Envy’ through this maze of floating balls several hundred metres wide and obscuring the narrow channel, our first of many Pearl Farm experiences, to seek the sanctuary of a sheltered anchorage 2½ miles upstream. Each float suspends a wire cage holding six pearl shells which have been artificially seeded to grow a pearl, harvested after 2, 4, or 6 years depending on the size of pearl required.
Since the morrow will see us past the tip of Cape York, Audrey and I reflect over a ‘Sundowner’ what we’ve seen cruising this vast Queensland coast. The Great Dividing Range influences much of the coast south of Cooktown, with some wonderful mountainous skylines interspersed with lower rolling hills & valleys, and savannah grasslands; the Peninsular then offers the contrast of mostly lower undulating country with extensive areas of coastal sandhills, much of it covered in low scrubs.
On the other hand are the scores of islands, a mixture of sandy cays or the peak tops of a long since buried continental shelf with their odd and sometimes spectacular mix of scenic bays, beaches and rugged rock escarpments. North of Cairns the Great Barrier Reef sweeps in to claim some of the action adding additional beauty and navigational challenges, though the channels are well marked, and offers somewhat protected waters which make for pleasant sailing.
The following day would see the culmination of a wish since early childhood. Less than 20 miles northward lay the site of old Somerset, in Albany Passage almost at ‘the tip’, to where my pioneering great-grandfather Frank Jardine, led the first European overland expedition to reach the tip of Cape York in 1864/65, and had the Jardine River named in his honour.
With the tide in our favour ‘Envy’ scooted into narrow Albany Passage and all of a sudden we were in Somerset Bay, a very lovely sandy beached inlet with steep rocky headlands at either end. As a child I studied the large old oil painting, which hung on the lounge wall at Chelmer, of Somerset Homestead atop the hill overlooking this very same spot where ‘Envy’ now rested at anchor, out of the tidal race.
My first reaction is that this snug little bay, perhaps 400 metres wide, was much smaller than I had imagined from the painting and numerous family photos, but far more tropical and attractive. It had taken me 62 years to get here, so with pride, anticipation and excitement Aud & I dinghied the 100 metres ashore leaving ‘Pea Green’ under a shady coconut palm on this tropical sandy beach where once had stood the boardwalk to a substantial boatshed and jetty, while we set about exploring my family’s roots.
In its heyday Somerset settlement held a small garrison of English Redcoat Soldiers, in addition to administration personnel, the government residency, hospital and barracks, plus other buildings, and was fully surveyed as a township. When the government relocated its FNQ administration centre from Somerset to Thursday Island in the late 1870’s, Frank Jardine, who had been the Government Magistrate, purchased the property and made Somerset his home.
Steeped in a colourful history for those times, including Jardine’s Samoan Princess wife Sana, his seabed discovery of silver coinage subsequently made into engraved sterling cutlery, his pearling and grazing exploits and their gentry lifestyle notwithstanding such isolation, Somerset today sadly lies overgrown and neglected.
Little remains since the old homestead burnt down 40 odd years ago, other than Frank and Sana Jardines’ beach-side graves, plus two others, and a monumental cairn with its brass plaque honouring my father, which stands over a metre tall beside the two ship’s cannons and flagpole at the historic hilltop site of the old residency, some 7 minutes walk up through the rain forest from the beach. The extensively cleared residency site offered 180° views across to Albany Island and the fast flowing 500 metre passage between.
My grandfather H.G. Vidgen, another true son of the North, married Jardine’s eldest daughter, Alice in 1899. My father was born at Somerset in 1901 and subsequently purchased the property in 1925 following Frank Jardine’s death and it became our family home until 1948, when father sold the property back to the government. The rest of the Vidgens of that era lived either at adjoining Muddy Bay, or on Thursday Island (affectionately known as T.I.), where my parents also had a ‘town house’, which still stands today.
So that’s today’s history lesson folks, my apologies to those of you who have suffered it all before.
We could afford only a short visit at Somerset, since we needed to work the tide to our favour for the 25 nm run to Thursday Island, where ‘Envy’ subsequently dropped anchor at neighbouring Horn Island, 1km across the channel from T.I., which is exposed to southerly winds. Since strong weather was forecast for the next several days we wanted to be comfortably tucked up, in the company of eight other yachts, with T.I. a $9 ferry ride away.
Bruce’s twin brother John lives at Thursday Island where his work takes him through upper Cape York and the islands of the Torres Strait. Four days were spent with John in his hillside apartment with its panoramic maritime views, while it blew 30/35kts and rained a lot, an unusual occurrence during the North’s ‘dry season’. He tells us there are no privately owned rental residences on T.I., with all rental accommodation owned by the government and in short supply.
Together with cruising friends Trevor & Joan Long off ‘Been-A-Long’, we got comprehensive tours of the Island, and enjoyed meals together, including some yummy BBQ’d fish out of ‘Envy’s’ freezer. Thursday Island is only 2½ km long, has a very picturesque waterfront Esplanade, and two dominant hills, one at either end of this small northern outpost. ‘Millman Hill’ has a wind farm with two huge wind generators that are seen from miles away, while ‘Green Hill’ overlooks the main shipping channel and has an old military Fort, now an interesting Museum.
The wide main street still has a few old colonial buildings, it’s far from modern, and most housing, being government owned, is of a good standard. Local Torres Strait Island people far outnumber all others, and many commute daily in their small aluminium dinghys from several neighbouring islands.
Horn is a significantly larger island but much smaller township; it has the local airport, a very good Museum reflecting Horn’s major WW2 war effort, and Vidgen Creek which ran through Uncle Gordon’s butchery holding paddocks back in the old days.
It’s a long way from Cape York to Darwin, starting point for the “Sail Indonesia Rally 2006”, and it was time to go, so ‘Envy’ and ‘Been-A-Long’ returned an energetic farewell to John as he waved to us close by from the Hospital grounds right there at Vivienne Point, after seven exciting days at Thursday Island, as we raced close by the point doing 9.6 knots with the swift current.
We gave historic Booby Island Lighthouse a safe margin (where early sailing ships left and collected mail from ‘post office’ cave), as we headed out into the shallow and rough Gulf of Carpentaria to commence our ‘over the top’ passage.
Next landfall will be in Arnhem Land at Gove, a hard three day passage away, and as “Envy’ settled into its sea going rhythm I reflected on the previous ten days of excitement, pleasure and discovery as Audrey and I at long last retraced my family roots up here at the top end of Australia.
Remember, a bad day’s sailing (almost always) beats a good day at the office!
Gove, June 2006
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