View in Raffles Bay

Phillip Parker King (1791-1856), son of Governor Philip Gidley King, was born at Norfolk Island and became one of Britain&#8217s leading hydrographers, adding considerably to the charting of the Australian continent. In 1817, King was given command of the cutter Mermaid to complete the exploration and survey of the northwestern coast not already examined by Matthew Flinders. Amongst the nineteen man crew were Allan Cunningham the botanist, John Septimus Roe who would later become surveyor-general of Western Australia and the Sydney aborigine Bungaree. During his four subsequent voyages, King named Port Essington and Buccaneer&#8217s Archipelago, proved the insularity of Melville Island, surveyed the west coast from Rottnest Island to Cygnet Bay and the entrance to Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1824. From Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia.