Camden Harbour, Western Australia

Camden Harbour was a short-lived settlement in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in 1864–1865 that was situated in the larger Camden Sound. The settlement was also known as the Camden Harbour Expedition, as well as the Government Camp.[1]

Ships known to have transported people to the settlement included Calliance, which was wrecked on its shores.[2][3]

A number of families settled and explored from this location,[4][5] however it did not continue after 1865. The Sholl family were one of such families that were part of the community.[6]

Camden Harbour was visited in June 1865 by the crew of the tiny Forlorn Hope, who were well received by Government Resident Robert J. Sholl and Government Surveyor James Cowle, but found them and other settlers, many from Victoria, despondent and weary. The ground was hard and stony and the grass of little value to the few remaining sheep, who were weak and dying. As the crew left they witnessed the burning by Victorian settlers of Calliance's hull, to recover her copper sheathing.[7]

Charles Smith Bompas was dismissed as Camden Harbour's doctor by Sholl around October 1865, having only been there about a month.[8] Bompas left the settlement on Kestrel shortly after.[9]

The location has been visited in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by Kimberley cruise ships.[10]

References
  1. Camden Harbour Pastoral Association (1864), Description of Camden Harbour, its climate and adjoining country : with map, Fergusson & Moore, retrieved 3 January 2016
  2. Crawford, R. M.; McManus, Walter (1962), Camden Harbour, retrieved 3 January 2016
  3. Richards, Christopher (2005), There were three ships : the story of the Camden Harbour expedition 1864-65 (4th ed.), KKNM, ISBN 978-0-646-37561-8
  4. Martin, James; Panter, Frederick Kennedy (1864), Report for the information of H.E. the Governor of Western Australia, and the promoters of the north-western expedition of 1864, on the voyage and the resources of the districts explored, Govt. Pr, retrieved 3 January 2016
  5. Sholl, R. J. (Robert John) (1866), Journal of an expedition from the Government Camp, Camden Harbour, to the southward of the Glenelg River in North-western Australia, retrieved 3 January 2016
  6. Sholl, Trevarton Charles (1975), Journals ... 1865-1866, Perth, Camden Harbour, Roebourne, [Perth, retrieved 3 January 2016
  7. "Voyage of the Forlorn Hope". The Adelaide Express. II (528). South Australia. 23 August 1865. p. 2. Retrieved 23 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "CAMDEN HARBOUR". The Inquirer And Commercial News. XXV (1, 312). Western Australia. 20 September 1865. p. 3. Retrieved 24 July 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. William Shakespeare Hall (1865). Journal of W.S. Hall  – via Wikisource.
  10. Souter, Corioli (November 2013), "Camden Harbour reconsidered", AIMA Bulletin, 37: 87–97, ISSN 1447-0276


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