Nlle. Hollande: Port-Jackson. Sauvages des Montagnes-Bleues. 1. Hara-O 2. Karadra

Rare portraits of two Blue Mountain’s aboriginal man Pellion met on the lower Blue Mountains during his trip to Bathurst in late November 1819.

Pellion assisted the official artists J. Arago and A. Taunay during the three-year voyage around the world. On 12 September 1818, l’Uranie reached Shark Bay, WA, where a camp was established. The expedition struck camp and sailed for Timor a fortnight later. It then sailed into Port Jackson on 18 November 1819 where they were made welcome by Governor Macquarie, who entertained them at both Sydney and Parramatta and permitted both artists and scientists to wander freely. William Lawson guided the surgeon-zoologist Quoy and the botanist Gaudichaud-Beaupre on an expedition over the Blue Mountains to Bathurst along Cox’s road. De Freycinet had intended Arago to accompany them, but his place was taken by Pellion ‘whose zeal, activity and courage never failed him in dangerous enterprises, and whose talents as a draughtsman rendered him equally proper for this mission’. Freycinet had previously visited Sydney in 1802-3 when the Baudin voyage sailed into Port Jackson.

Pellion wrote: ‘It was in one of these pleasant retreats that we first saw any of the wretched inhabitants of these lofty regions [ie the Blue Mountains]: there were only two; one a sick old man, lying kangaroo skins, near a fire, and receiving the attention of a younger man. Mr Lawson recognised this old man as Karadra, supreme chief or king of that part of the mountains. No one, according to him, had proved more dangerous to the English, many of whom had perished at his hand, without anyone being able to catch him in the act. For a long time, however, this man had been peacefully disposed towards the settlers.

From Freycinet, Louis de, Voyage autour du monde.

References: Ferguson, J.A., Bibliography of Australia: F941

Collections:
National Gallery Australia: NGA 2011.1246
National Library Australia: Bib ID 1914306
National Portrait Gallery: 2011.68
State Library of New South Wales: CALL NUMBERPXD 923/6-10 / PXD 923/8