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5 unusual facts about Port Essington


Amphidromus cognatus

The snail was first described in 1907, from three specimens found at Port Essington on the Cobourg Peninsula before 1850, although it was not found there since.

Port Essington

The New South Wales government had hoped to establish a direct line of communication with Asia, India and the Pacific, and supported Leichhardt's journey, which successfully charted an overland route between Moreton Bay (now Brisbane) and Port Essington.

On 24 August 1839, the only play ever staged in Port Essington was performed, the 1797 comedy in five acts Cheap Living by Frederick Reynolds.

Soon before its closure, British scientist Thomas Huxley wrote that Port Essington was "most wretched, the climate the most unhealthy, the human beings the most uncomfortable and houses in a condition most decayed and rotten".

Trepanging

Archeological remains of Makasar contact, including trepang processing plants from the 18th and 19th centuries, are still found at Australian locations such as Port Essington and Groote Eylandt, and the Makasar-planted tamarind trees (native to Madagascar and East Africa).


King Expedition of 1817

Continuing north-east along the coast, the Mermaid eventually passed the northernmost tip of Arnhem Land, reaching a point on Cobourg Peninsula that King named Port Essington.

Roper River

The first European to explore the Roper River was Ludwig Leichhardt in 1845 as he made his way from Moreton Bay to Port Essington.

William Henry Pierce

First informally and then formally after his ordination in 1886, Pierce worked to convert Natives and suppress indigenous customs (like the potlatch and secret societies) in B.C. coastal villages such as Alert Bay, Bella Bella, Port Essington, Greenville, and Klemtu, and even Wrangell, Alaska.


see also

Tahmoor, New South Wales

Dr. Leichhardt met with nothing like it on his overland journey to Port Essington ; nor did Bruce, in his travels in Abyssinia ; nor did Mungo Park, or Dr. Livingstone, in their travels in the interior of Africa.