Click here to read Part 1

Bass was a very busy person in the lead up to his voyage in a whaleboat to our southern shores in 1797. His exploits included, and I am summarising from many sources, a nine day voyage to Botany Bay and the George's River with Matthew Flinders and William Martin. Governor Hunter was impressed and they then set out for Norfolk Island in the Reliance but were back in Port Jackson by March 1796 and began preparations for another voyage along the coast. Their boat on this occasion was also called the Tom Thumb, but was a larger craft, and sailed south as far as Lake Illawarra, nearly losing their lives in a gale.

In June 1796 Bass and two companions made a bold and unsuccessful attempt to cross the Blue Mountains. After 15 days they turned back having reached the Grose Valley. ( Australian Enyc, op.cit. p.450.) Towards the end of 1796 Bass sailed again in the Reliance, this time to Cape Town for livestock, and returned in June of 1797 having circumnavigated the globe. He was then asked to investigate a deposit of coal in and around Coalcliff. At about this time he also walked from the Cowpastures, near the turnoff to Wollongong on the Freeway to Sydney, around Sutton Forest,  to Kiama.

Governor Hunter then granted him permission to make a voyage " for the purpose of examining the coast southward of this port, as far as he could with safety and convenience go". (Ibid.) He was given a whaleboat 28 feet and 7 inches long, and rowed out of Port Jackson on December 3, 1797.

I have had the good fortune to access Mr. Bass's Journal in the whaleboat in the Mitchell Library in Sydney on several occasions. It is handwritten and difficult to read on occasions as many a historian has found after nearly 220 years.

Let me summarise the voyage for you with some highlights of his time in and around Eurobodalla and the South Coast of NSW. The voyage, with six naval oarsmen, covered 1200 miles and originally was to be for six weeks.

It took three months, and he returned on February 25, 1798. Along the way he made many landings and discovered the Kiama Blowhole, Shoalhaven river and Heads, reported on Jervis Bay and Bateman Bay, discovered Twofold Bay and later Wilson's Promontory and Westernport. By the end of his voyage he was convinced that a strait existed between Van Diemens Land and the mainland. He was right of course but it was not until 1798 that he and Flinders completed that voyage and circumnavigation. 

George Bass and the whaleboat December 3, 1797 to February 25, 1798:

I was amazed and thrilled to read many years ago that Bass sailed into Potato Point with a noreaster at his back and that the following morning, at 6 am, he hit a southerly rounding the point and had to beach at Jemisons until the following day. As he did on many occasions he took the opportunity to explore the hinterland, frightened the local Yuin inhabitants and assessed the value of the land for agriculture and so on. Here is one quote from his journal dated Sunday, 17 December, 1797.. " employed in examining the country round...in general is either low and swampy or at once inclining to the mountains...but is now in a state of drought... We could not find a drop of fresh water."(p.9 Bass's Journal, State Library of NSW and the Historical Records of NSW, Governor Hunter, Vol 3).

In what I plan to be the third and final part of my writings on Bass I will reflect on his return trip and his extraordinary character upon arrival at Westerport and the things he did and wrote about later. Additionally I will add to the mystery of his early demise, some would say disappearance.

Finally, I wish all my readers a safe and happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. The same goes for all the rowers in the forthcoming George Bass Marathon in January 2016 and I hope the breeze/wind is at your back during your epic!

Bill Baker, Potato Point (aka Marka Point)

Bill Baker studied history at ANU and later at Wollongong  University and the University of Canberra. He taught for 10 years in high schools and then 20 years in TAFE and a couple of years in the teacher training program at UC. He retired from full time teaching at the end of 2004 but maintains a continuing interest in history, geography and writing. His other hobbies include surfing, golf and the fine life of retirement on the South Coast of NSW. He is a member of the Canberra and District Historical Society, a Life Member of the Royal Life Saving Society and a permanent friend of the Australian Institute of Sport.