Mystery of Old Hut on Thistle Island

After the voyage of Nuyts in 1627 and the abortive proposal for colonisation in 1718, the South-West of Australia lay dormant for over 70 years. The French had sent La Perouse out on a world-wide exploration.

After doing portion of the trip, he made Botany Bay, on January 24, 1788, just six days after Governor Phillips had arrived there. On leaving, La Perouse stated his intention of going through Torres Strait and exploring the south coast of New Holland. He sailed away, but his ships were wrecked on the reefs surrounding Vanikoro Islands which Dillon, the discoverer in 1827 misnamed Mannicolo (various ways of spelling).

Dumont D'Urville in the following year also made a search of these islands and located the guns and other non-perishable articles on the seabed opposite Paiow. A considerable portion of the crew of La Perouse perished and the balance built a boat and essayed to get back to civilisation.

In 1861 the remains of a small wreck were found at Temple Island, off Cape Palmerston, Queensland. In 1889 a search of this wreck was made and conclusive proof found that the craft was the one built at Mannicclo.

Before Dillon's discovery was made known the French Government, becoming anxious, sent an expedition under the command of Rear Admiral Bruny D'Entrecasteaux in search of La Perouse. The rear-admiral made a landfall near Cape Chatham (Western Australia in December 5, 1792.

Although not associated with Eyre Peninsula, it may be mentioned here that in a voyage of discovery round the world, Capt. George Vancouver, in the Discovery, accompanied by the Chatham, had in the year 1791 traced the coastline from Cape Chatham — which he had reached and named on September 26, 1791 — to Termination Island, at which point unfavorable winds compelled him to abandon the survey of the coast. But he gave us something definite of that part of the coast, and a start at reaching out toward the Eyre Peninsula of the future.

Sailing eastward along Nuyts Land, mapping the coast and in keeping nearer the coast than Vancouver, D'Entrecasteaux was able to do better work, and generally speaking found the form of the coast line conformable to what Nuyts had laid down, for according to Flinders, D'Entrecasteaux praises the general accuracy of the Dutch navigator, in that "the latitude of Point Leeuwin (not Cape Leeuwin) and the coast of Nuyts land were laid down with an exactness surprising for the remote period in which they were discovered." Although praising the Dutch work, D'Entrecasteaux did not try to honor Nuyts when naming any prominent feature along the coast line.

Flinders sums up the opinion held by D'Entrecasteaux of the country thus : — "The shore was either a steep calcareous cliff of equal height, or low and sandy, with a few naked hillocks behind, and above these, no hills nor any thing of the country could be seen."

It was then that D'Entrecasteaux used the much quoted reference to Nuyts's paucity in the description of the country, and which was referred to in a previous article. Because of lack of water and supplies D'Entrecasteaux had to abandon his survey of the south coast on January 3, 1793, near latitude 31.49, longitude 131.38½. He apparently did not see the islands St. Francois or St. Pieter. M. Beaupre, his engineer, prepared an excellent chart of the coast, showing soundings only on the last five degrees of it, none being shown on the western section. No names were applied to any features on the South Australian coast.

Having abandoned the survey, D'Entrecasteaux sailed for Van Dieman's Land, and found no signs of La Perouse, although he must have passed close to the islands, where relics of the ships and stores were distributed among the inhabitants.

The expedition, after having circumnavigated Australia, arrived at Java, having lost the captain of the Esperance on the way and D'Entrecasteaux of the Recherche a victim of scurvy. On arrival the vessels were seized by the Dutch Government, and the crews imprisoned.

A whaler living on Thistle Island after the settlement of South Australia saw the remains of an old hut, and among the ruins, was a stone seemingly bearing the date 179-, the last figure not readable. It was claimed that the hut was most likely to have been erected by La Perouse and his crew. When this was made known in recent years, a search was made for the stone, but although the ruins were there, no trace of the dated stone could be found. It can with safety be said that La Perouse could not have reached Thistle Island, and that the ruins were those of a hut erected by some early whaler or sealer.

Capt. Grant in the Lady Nelson was on the southern coast in 1800. After leaving King George's Sound he did not see the coast line until opposite Mounts Gambier and Schank, both of which he named. Flinders would not know of these discoveries until he arrived in Sydney in 1802 and consequently would be under the impression that he was to explore the whole coast, as virgin country, but to safeguard himself, in his manuscript log, when at St. Pieter and St. Francois Isles, he stated, "as far as I know the coast abreast of the islands and further eastward, is totally unknown."

Eyre Peninsula can claim Flinders as peculiarly its own explorer, for with the exception of the five degrees longitude at the western boundary of the State, he surveyed and mapped the whole coast line, in the course of which he lost his master and part of the crew. Among the most notable features discovered were Spencer Gulf and Port Lincoln, including Boston Bay.