Ahoy Shipmates

The Fleet was bound for a place called Albany, Austraila

To be honest I did not even know where it was and I thought I knew Australia pretty well.

Here is a location map:


I located this extract from Wikipedia for everyone’s benefit.

“Albany, is the largest regional city in WA situated on the south coast of Western Australia 408 kilometres (254 miles) south-southeast of Perth.
The city centre of Albany is located between the hills of Mount Melville and Mount Clarence which look down into Princess Royal Harbour. There are many beaches surrounding Albany, with Middleton Beach being the closest to the town centre. Some popular beaches include Middleton Beach, Frenchman's Bay and Muttonbird Island.

Albany was the home of the Menang Noongar people, who made use of the coastal waters of the area over the summer months. They called the area Kinjarling which means “the place of rain”. Fish traps found at Emu Point suggest that the area held a significant population of Aboriginal people. Albany is also the oldest continuous European settlement in Western Australia, and was founded in 1826, three years before the state capital of Perth. The King George Sound settlement was a hastily-despatched British military outpost, intended to forestall any plans by France for settlements in Western Australia.

The first European explorers to visit the area around Albany were on the Dutch ship Gulden Zeepaert (Golden Seahorse) skippered by Francois Thijssen in 1626. They sailed along the south coast towards South Australia.

Many years later in 1791, English explorer George Vancouver explored the south coast including entering and naming King George Sound. Albany was the site at which on 26 September 1791, Vancouver took possession of New Holland for the British Crown. Vancouver went out of his way to establish good relations with the local Aboriginal people.

In 1792, Frenchman Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in charge of the Recherche and L'Esperance reached Cape Leeuwin on 5 December and explored eastward along the southern coast. The expedition did not enter King George Sound due to bad weather.

In 1801, Matthew Flinders entered King George Sound and stayed about a month before charting the rest of the southern Australian coastline. By 1806 he had completed the first circumnavigation of Australia.
Australian-born explorer Philip Parker King visited King George Sound in 1822 on the Bathurst.

On 26 October 1826 Frenchman Dumont d'Urville in the L'Astrolabe visited King George Sound before sailing along the south coast to Port Jackson.

Later in 1826, on Christmas Day, a British Army expedition, led by Major Edmund Lockyer arrived on the Amity, from Sydney, and founded a military base. Lockyer rescued Aboriginal women from offshore islands, who had been kidnapped by sealers operating in the Great Australian Bight as sexual slaves, and apprehended the culprits sending them east to stand trial. As a result the local Minang Noongar organised a corroboree in his honour, cementing the good relations established earlier between local Aboriginal groups of the area and European explorers.

Albany was officially named by Governor Stirling at the beginning of 1832, at the time that political authority passed to the Swan River colony. It is named after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, and son of King George III.

Albany was also the final destination in 1841 of explorer Edward John Eyre, after being the first person to reach Western Australia by land from the east (Adelaide).

Until the opening of the Port of Fremantle in 1900,[4] Albany was also home to the only deepwater port in Western Australia, Princess Royal Harbour, which is the largest natural harbour in Western Australia and also on the entire south coast of the Australian mainland, outside of Melbourne. This facility meant that for many years, the first port of call for the mail from England was Albany. This put Albany in a privileged position over Perth and it remained that way until C. Y. O'Connor used dynamite on the reef blocking the entrance into the Swan River in Fremantle.
The city is nestled between three large hills, Mount Clarence, Mount Melville and Mount Adelaide, and faces both Princess Royal Harbour and King George Sound

Since that time, Albany has become popular with retirees, with inhabitants enjoying the fresh air, clean beaches, and fine views over the Southern Ocean, while still proving a thriving regional centre.

Albany is home to HMAS Albany (based in Darwin) and the adopted home port of the Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Anzac. Albany is frequently visited by other warships.”

Cheers



Sean