Hamilton Hume's Trip to the South Coast

Before Hamilton Hume became a famous explorer, crossing overland from Sydney to Port Phillip together with William Hovell, he undertook a number of smaller trips traversing the land of the Dharawal, Gandangarra, Jerrinja, Wandi Wandian and Yuin peoples in the territory south and southwest of Sydney.

This year the NSW Heritage Festival theme is “Unearthed”, revealing the past, bringing to light lesser-known histories and stories, and unearthing knowledge to empower younger generations as custodians of culture and tradition. To mark the Heritage Festival, the Batemans Bay Heritage Museum is exploring some lesser-known stories from the time when Europeans came to the NSW South Coast.

The first story we shine a light on is Hamilton Hume’s second trip to the South Coast, a short five-day mission during which he travelled as far as Didthul, or Pigeon House Mountain as it was known to Europeans. It was an eventful trip, and perhaps the first time he spotted our very own Bhundoo/Clyde River.

Hamilton Hume, credit: Mitchell Library

It was Tuesday November 27th, 1821, when the 23-year-old Hamilton Hume set out from Lake Bathurst to try to reach the coast. Hume was already a seasoned explorer; he had completed four expeditions in the Southern tablelands area, and this was the second time he traversed this far southeast. In 1819 Hume had accompanied the Surveyor-General John Oxley, and deputy-surveyor James Meehan on a trip to Jervis Bay. Jervis Bay was one of the prime locations considered for a seaport that would allow both further development of the south coast area, and sea transport of goods from inland to Sydney and its markets. Oxley, Meehan and Hume had found Jervis Bay suitable as a port, but had trouble identifying a route that would allow easy access from the inland area.

The purpose of Hume’s second trip was to determine whether a road could be created from the inland area around lake Bathurst to Jervis Bay along a more southerly route than Oxley’s expedition had taken. The exploration took place at the beginning of the so called “squatting boom”, during which an expanding number of graziers drove their stock across the pastoral lands on the southern tablelands and the Monaro plain, and the question of how to get products to market was critical to graziers.

Approximate map of Hume's trek

Setting out

On the first day of his tour, Hume started at 9am and travelled Southeast, trying to avoid the steep gullies that surround the northern parts of the Shoalhaven River. He weathered a storm that drew in around 3pm, and an hour later he found himself on the bank of the Shoalhaven river. He writes in his journal:

“Crossed over with great care on a pebbled bottom the water being about three feet deep and the River not exceeding thirty yards in width. The Banks are rather low with many peces [sic] of good land either for cultivation of grazing. A loaded cart may pass here with safety”

The ease of crossing was something of a revelation, and of no small significance. During the earlier trip to Jervis Bay, Hume and Meehan had attempted to cross Shoalhaven River some 10-15 miles to the north, and they had found the river impassable. This had confirmed the accepted view that there was no way to get across the river on horseback. Finding the river passable at this southern location meant there was hope of a road capable of accommodating a wheeled cart from the southern tablelands to Jervis Bay.

Having crossed the water, Hume camped on the other side. The next morning he set off at 6 am, and pressed on towards the coast. He soon crossed another branch of the river, and described it as:

“a much handsomer piece of water a Boat might row or sail a considerable distance on either side of the fall it is 20 or 30 yards wide and well stocked with water fowl and Ducks. Black Swans are on the Banks and adjacent thereto are numbers of what we call in this country field Turkey but the European name (I believe) is Bustard there are several kinds of them.”

Both these passages are notable for the way Hume’s description of the landscape was focused on how it could provide economic opportunity and material benefit for potential European settlers or travellers. He points out where land could be utilised for grazing or agriculture, the presence of wildlife suitable for hunting and food, and where the terrain would facilitate transport of goods to markets. This was a common lens through which explorers and travellers from the British Empire viewed the places they visited.

It was also a lens that failed to acknowledge that the landscape he was mapping for European occupation was already inhabited by people who depended on its bounty for their survival, and who cared for and shaped the environment so that it would continue to provide what they needed.

Hume Meets the Locals

Around midday on the second day of the trip, Hume encountered a group of the local people through whose territory he was travelling. He wrote:

“At 12 o’clock fell in with a tribe of Natives who were much surprised at seeing a white man. There were by no means timid or inclined to be hostile but appeared quite friendly."

Hume was interested in the knowledge the local people had about the geography and terrain between the river and coast, since it would help him find the best route to where he was going:

“I determined to stop the remainder of the day to gain from them what information I could respecting the country I intended to pass on my way to the Coast.”

This was a common practice among European explorers. They sought out and benefitted from the knowledge of the people who already lived in the lands they explored and used this knowledge to facilitate the incursions of colonisers. Hume found the group very helpful:

“They assured me there was not the least difficulty or obstacle to prevent me from accomplishing my design; they also described to me a high Hill called by them Coorooth a few miles to the Southwest of where I then was which abounded with the animals called the Roombat (sic) beyond which was a very fine country with extensive plains, but they were at variance with the Tribe of natives belonging to that Place.”

Hume didn’t introduce the group of people he met, so we don’t know their name or language, but in the quote above he refers to the strained relations of this group to the people living closer to the coast. He met the group on the eastern shore of the Shoalhaven river at the far south of the catchment, which gives us some clues as to who they may have been. The lands to the west of his location were Gandangarra and Ngunnawal lands, and the area around Shoalhaven River was on the lands of the Jerrinja and Wandi Wandian tribes. Further to the south around the Bhundoo/Clyde river was the lands of the Walbunja. Perhaps Hume had encountered a Gandangarra or Ngunnawal speaking group who were skirting the eastern boundary of their territory, and who had a dispute with their neighbours.

While Hume didn’t introduce the people he met, he did leave with a token of his appreciation:

“I caught them several Kangaroos with which they were much pleased but I could not prevail on any of them to accompany me owing to the terror occasioned by the coast natives.”

Hume ascribes the unwillingness of the local people to continue with him across neighbouring territory to “terror” of the neighbouring people. This is likely a rather reductive representation, perhaps stemming from nuance being lost in translation, or Hume’s lack of understanding of his hosts’ culture. The relationships between the peoples living in the hinterland areas and those on the coast were often complex, with carefully regulated interactions around trade, intermarriage and ceremony. Walking trails such as the Corn Trail in Monga National Park connected the tablelands with the coast and were used frequently by large and small groups from both areas, keeping these cultural networks alive.

Hume continued with a brief description of what he observed of the group’s appearance and customs:

“They wore coverings made of the Opossum string sewed together with the sinews of the Kangaroos tail. I shewed them the use of fire arms by shooting several near their Huts my piece being Double Barrelled. I fired twice which quite confused them they seemed much astonished how I could kill without putting anything in the barrel. The uncle (Polygamy is common among these people men in general have three wifes [sic] I took notice of one man having six) are in general tall well made in proportion with a great quantity of hair on their heads which they grow to a considerable length. Their weapons are much larger, their spears being from 12 to 14 feet in length & some longer.”

This passage suggests that the people he met were staying in the location, rather than just passing through, and that while they might have been surprised at meeting Hume, they had encountered people with firearms before – albeit not double-barrelled firearms.

Pigeon House Mountain The next morning Hume set out at 7am, armed with the knowledge that his hosts had shared about what lay ahead. He crossed a rivulet abounding with eels, which the local people called Toon, and after a few miles of heavy scrub he ascended the last major hill before Pigeon House Mountain. This, he said was shaped like a sugar loaf, and devoid of trees or vegetation. He called it Mount Barren, and erected a pole with a white cloth to celebrate what he clearly felt was his own personal discovery. At 2 pm he finally found himself on top of Didthul/Pigeon House Mountain, or “Tedgele” as his information had the traditional name. He described the view:

"saw Port Jervis bearing NE distant 12 or 14 miles. I also saw about 3 or 4 miles from the Pidgeon House a piece of water bearing E by S whether a lake or a river, I could not discern but the surrounding country appears to be good, saw the smoke of the natives [sic] fires in various directions along the coast."

The body of water Hume saw to the southeast may very well have been the Bhundoo, meaning Deep Water in Yuin – the same body of water that was just about to be given its English name, River Clyde, only two days later, when Lieutenant Robert Johnston arrived at the estuary in the British Navy cutter Snapper on December 1, 1821.

The purpose of Hume’s trip had been to determine whether a road could be made from Lake Bathurst to Jervis Bay, and standing at the top of Didthul he could tell that a road was very much possible:

“Finding no obstacle of any consequence to prevent a road being made from the interior to the Jervis’s Bay to discover which was the object of my tour.”

He concluded that it was time to commence the return journey:

“My provisions exhausted and being a long distance from home surrounded on the other side by the natives who were of the most ferocious disposition, I thought it most expedient to shape my course home-wards as I had succeeded in my undertaking”

The return journey was beset by a few challenges, including Hume almost being swept away when swimming over a rain swelled creek. But he made it back to Lake Bathurst by 8.30pm on December 1.

Travel Companions?

Until this point in the journal, the reader could be forgiven for assuming that Hume was travelling entirely alone. He makes no mention of companions as he sets out, or in his deliberations around navigation. He references no campfire conversations, beyond those had with the group camping by the Shoalhaven river. Reading between the lines of the text, however, there are some indications that there might be others with him. One such example is the way he refers to landmarks that he comes across as they are called by “the natives”: for example “Cowenbullen” and “Quangem” – both local names of hills that Hume passes on the first day of his trip. Given that he is exploring a route that has not previously been documented in English, he must either be accompanied by a First Nations person with local knowledge, or at the very least have spoken to a local guide before setting out.

It is also unclear how Hume can communicate so well with the people camping by the Shoalhaven River tributary. According to Robert Macklin author of Hamilton Hume: The Life and Times of Our Greatest Explorer, Hume was skilled at communicating and forging positive relationships with the First Nations people he met on his travels. This was perhaps the case, but it certainly isn’t the full picture.

The mystery of whether Hume had travel companions is resolved only in the very last sentence of the description of his trip, where Hume briefly concludes:

“– took with me two natives named Nullanan a native of the Cow pasture and Underduck a native of the Lake Bathurst the behaviour of both these natives during the whole of my tour exceeded all my expectations.”

It was common practice for 19th century colonial explorers in Australia and elsewhere to be accompanied and guided by First Nations persons who could provide expertise in terms of language and geography, and it would have been highly unusual for Hume to be travelling alone. It was equally common for these guides to remain unnamed, or if they were named, have their critical contributions to the expedition downplayed. Hume certainly didn’t foreground the assistance he received from the men he calls Nullanan and Underduck, but he does at least eventually acknowledge them. Nullanan’s Country was given as the Cowpastures; the area south of the Nepean River called so because a handful of cows and bulls off the First Fleet had escaped and formed large wild herds that thrived in the area. It was eventually named Camden, and lay at the confluence of Gandangarra, Dharawal and Dharug lands. Underduck was from the Lake Bathurst area, which suggests that he may have been a Gandangarra man.

So while Hume was perhaps better than many other explorers at building relationships with the First Nations people he met, and while he eventually acknowledged that he had the assistance of two guides, he didn’t really depart from the tradition of scores of Europeans from Columbus onward, who explored and discovered lands that had already been populated, intimately known and claimed for thousands of years by the traditional custodians, but represented their expeditions as the result of little but their own wit and preservation.