View of the Entrance of Port Macquarie. View up the River Hastings. At its junction with Kings River.

Rare engraving by Phillip Parker King of Port Macquarie.

May 10. The next morning we anchored off Port Macquarie and whilst the Lady Nelson was beating up to an anchorage Lieutenant Oxley accompanied me in the whale-boat to examine the entrance. May 14. And on the 14th Lieutenant Oxley and Mr. Roe accompanied me in one of our boats upon the examination of the river. After reaching our former station on the south bank we proceeded up the long reach towards Black-man Point, on which a tribe of natives were collected: the river is here divided into two streams we followed that which trended to the westward as it appeared to be the most considerable. At the end of the next reach the river is again divided into two branches, and as the southernmost was found upon trial to be the shoalest, the other was followed. On our left was a small contracted arm, which probably communicates with the lagoon on Rawdon Island here we landed to examine the trees which so thickly and beautifully cover both banks: several sorts of large growth were noticed, among which was a tree of the trichillieae, natural order Jussieu (Trichillia glandulosa), which the colonists have flattered with the name of rosewood, and a ficus of gigantic growth, both of which are very abundant. We landed at Point Elizabeth and walked a mile back through a fine open country, well timbered and richly clothed with luxuriant grass and apparently much frequented by kangaroos. From the edge of the bank Mount Cairncross, a remarkable round-topped hill which is conspicuously seen from the coast over the entrance of the port,* appeared over the next reach, and formed a rich picturesque back-ground for the view.

King’s important account of his coastal explorations and surveys, were undertaken 1818-1822 in the ships Mermaid and Bathurst. The views were engraved from King’s own sketches.

The British increasingly feared the motives of the ongoing French presence in the coastal waters of the “unclaimed” western half of the Australian continent, especially so after the Baudin expedition of 1800-1803. As a consequence King’s instructions were to complete the charting of the north-west which soon led to the British claiming Western Australia, on 2 May 1829.

References:
Ferguson, J. A. Bibliography of Australia Volumes 1-8, Canberra 1976 : 1084/1130.
Wantrup, J. Australian Rare Books. Sydney 1987 : pp. 161-163, 84b..
Abbey, J.R. Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860. London 1972 : 573.
Hill, J. The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages. San Diego 1974 : 927.

Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID 737186
State Library New South Wales: CALL NUMBERS 980.1/131C1 , 980.1/131B1
State Library Victoria: Record ID 993297803607636
State Library South Australia: 919.4042 K54
Australian National Maritime Museum: Object No: 00004331