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Posts related to: Holdfast Bay

Week 37 – taxing ‘ardent spirits’

In South Australia With his full complement of surveyors at last, Colonel Light can now divide them into two groups to cover a greater area of the coast.  He sends the largest group under George Kingston to Holdfast Bay, with the second group under Finniss remaining at Rapid Bay. Light intends to inspect Port Lincoln, […]

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Week 39 – settling in at Holdfast Bay

Scene: Robert Thomas's tent and rush hut

In South Australia Colonel Light is busy making arrangements to secure food and means of transport for the new settlement at Holdfast Bay.  He contracts with Captain Duff of the Africaine to buy sheep, oxen and carts in Hobart and writes a long letter of explanation to the Commissioners in London to justify his purchases. […]

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Week 40 – Finally! The harbour is found

In South Australia Colonel Light is a relieved man. He has identified the harbour that will become Port Adelaide and is excited by what he sees. ‘[O]ne of the finest little harbours I ever saw is now fairly known’ he writes, adding that it is ‘more extensive, safe and beautiful, than we could even have […]

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Week 41 – Fire!

In South Australia Colonel Light is under increasing pressure to identify the site for the capital and begin his detailed land surveys.  He is acutely aware of the impatience of the emigrants camped at Holdfast Bay and knows that they will soon be joined by hundreds more from the Buffalo. But he has been instructed […]

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Week 42 – the scourge of scurvy

In South Australia By 4 December Colonel Light has managed to sail to Port Lincoln.  His next challenge is to manoeuvre into the harbour, which he finally manages after a ‘great deal of trouble’. There he meets up with the Cygnet and with Captain Lipson, who has been waiting on the arrival of Governor Hindmarsh.  […]

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Week 43 – settling on Holdfast Bay

Scene: Holdfast Bay

In South Australia Colonel Light is preparing to leave Port Lincoln to return to Gulf St Vincent after satisfying himself that southern Eyre Peninsula is no place for the initial settlement. Once again he battles unsettled weather and strong contrary winds. Luckily he decides to anchor overnight just off Thistle Island, because the morning reveals […]

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Week 44 – ‘excellent eating’: kelp, parrots and a new oven

In South Australia On 18 December Colonel Light sails the Rapid into the harbour on the Port River with the Tam O’Shanter close behind. It is an emotional moment for Light.  In his mind’s eye he can see this harbour, ‘in a creek that had never before borne the construction of a marine architect’, as it might […]

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Week 45 – Journey’s end and new beginnings

Scene: Proclamation of South Australia

Christmas Day dawns fine and hot in the settlements, with the colonists in pensive mood.  Inevitably their thoughts turn to friends and family in England as they reflect on the very different circumstances of this first Christmas in South Australia. As usual Mary Thomas is the optimist.  She attends a makeshift church service in the […]

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