AustLit

This, the twenty-fifth in a series on pioneers and explorers, tells of the establishment of settlements at Port Essington, Raffles Bay and Fort Dundas on Melville Island and of how the buffalo came to Northern Australia from Timor. In 1823 Govenor King and William Barnes suggested that Northern Australia needed protection both military and commercial from foreign powers. Consequently an expedition was embarked on to set up a fort at Port Essington. The settlement was attacked by the Aborigines who were repulsed but a ship sent from there was attacked by the native people of Timor and the crew killed. Another ship sent out was attacked by pirates. At about this time the buffalo was imported from Timor by Maurice Barlow and when the settlements were abandoned the buffalo were set loose and multiplied in the hot wet conditions. The settlement moved to the Swan River in Western Australia. In 1838 the French did try to claim the Northern land but Captain Bremer turned them back.