Entrance of Oyster Harbour King George III Sound, Interview with the Natives.

Phillip Parker King, the son of the third Governor of New South Wales, was born on Norfolk Island in 1791. His father enrolled him in the Portsmouth Naval Academy and introduced him to Matthew Flinders. Flinders, in turn, introduced King to the hydrographer of the Admiralty, Captain Thomas Hurd, who carefully trained the lad in marine surveying techniques. After the defeat of Napoleon, the British Government decided that &#8216circumstances consequent upon the restoration of Peace &#8230 rendered it most important to explore, with as little delay as possible, that part of the coast of New Holland &#8230 not surveyed by the late Captain Flinders&#8217. King was instructed to report on the natural resources, botany, and native inhabitants and to examine all gulfs and openings &#8216likely to lead to an interior navigation into this great continent&#8217. King made four voyages in all, charting the Australian coast over a four year period. The first of these two views shows King George&#8217s Sound, where King&#8217s mentor Flinders had previously visited and the second shows the impressive Cascades of the Prince Regent River with its abundance of fresh water. From Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed Between the Years 1818 and 1822.