James Kelly (1791-1859), Australian mariner, explorer and port official, was born on 24 December 1791 at
ParramattaParramatta is a suburb in the west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It sits on the bank of the Parramatta River, west of the Sydney central business district, approximately at the geographical centre of its metropolitan area. It is known colloquially as 'Parra'.Parramatta is the...
,
New South WalesNew South Wales is Australia's most populous state, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland and east of South Australia...
. He was probably the son of James Kelly, a cook in the
convictA convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". After a conviction, convicts often become prisoners. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
transportThe term convict ship is colloquially used to describe any ship engaged on a voyage to carry convicted felons under sentence of penal transportation from their place of conviction to their place of banishment.- Colonial practice :...
Queen, and Catherine Devereaux, a convict transported for life from Dublin in the same ship.
Kelly was first apprenticed as a seaman in 1804 and sailed in vessels engaged in the sealing and
sandalwoodSandalwood is the name of different fragrant woods. These woods are yielded by the tree Santalum and Santalaceae, which are often used for the essential oil it contains. These trees are heavy and yellow in color as well as fine-grained...
trades as well as making a voyage to
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
.
James Kelly (1791-1859), Australian mariner, explorer and port official, was born on 24 December 1791 at
ParramattaParramatta is a suburb in the west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It sits on the bank of the Parramatta River, west of the Sydney central business district, approximately at the geographical centre of its metropolitan area. It is known colloquially as 'Parra'.Parramatta is the...
,
New South WalesNew South Wales is Australia's most populous state, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland and east of South Australia...
. He was probably the son of James Kelly, a cook in the
convictA convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". After a conviction, convicts often become prisoners. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
transportThe term convict ship is colloquially used to describe any ship engaged on a voyage to carry convicted felons under sentence of penal transportation from their place of conviction to their place of banishment.- Colonial practice :...
Queen, and Catherine Devereaux, a convict transported for life from Dublin in the same ship.
Kelly was first apprenticed as a seaman in 1804 and sailed in vessels engaged in the sealing and
sandalwoodSandalwood is the name of different fragrant woods. These woods are yielded by the tree Santalum and Santalaceae, which are often used for the essential oil it contains. These trees are heavy and yellow in color as well as fine-grained...
trades as well as making a voyage to
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
. In 1812 he was chief officer of the full-rigged ship
Campbell Macquarie on a sealing voyage when the ship was wrecked on
Macquarie IslandMacquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica. 54°37'53"S, 158°52'15"E. Politically, it has formed part of the Australian state of Tasmania since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a world...
. He became the first Australian-born master mariner with voyages in the sealing industry and general trade between
HobartHobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1803 as a penal colony, Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2008, the city had a greater area population of approximately 209,287...
and
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
.
In December 1815 Kelly left Hobart in command of an expedition to circumnavigate Tasmania using the
whaleboatA whaleboat is a type of open boat that is relatively narrow and pointed at both ends, enabling it to move either forwards or backwards equally well. It was originally developed for whaling, and later became popular for work along beaches, since it does not need to be turned around for beaching or...
Elizabeth . The party made the official discovery of Port Davey on the south west coast, and on 28 December of
Macquarie HarbourMacquarie Harbour is a large, shallow, inlet on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.-History:James Kelly entered on the 28th December 1815, however Charles Whitham discovered variations on this date....
on the central west coast. Features within the harbour were named the
Gordon RiverThe Gordon River is one of the major rivers of Tasmania, Australia. It rises in the centre of the island and flows westward. Major tributaries include the Serpentine River and the Franklin River. The Gordon River empties into Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast of Tasmania.The entire course of...
after the owner of the
Elizabeth and Birch Inlet after Kelly's employer and sponsor Thomas William Birch. Birch was granted a monopoly to exploit Huon Pine on the west coast as a reward.
In November 1817, commanding Birch's
Sophia, Kelly sailed on a sealing venture to
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
and entered
Otago HarbourOtago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, from the harbour mouth...
. With him was
William TuckerWilliam Tucker is the name of:* William Tucker , twentieth century guitar player* William Tucker , convict, sealer, trader in human heads, Otago settler, New Zealand's first art dealer...
who had settled in the area in 1815 and was returning. The harbour chief, Korako, would not ferry across Maori from Whareakeake, two miles north along the coast, where Tucker had established himself, and whose people now wished to receive their returning Pakeha's gifts. A few days later, when Kelly, Tucker and five others went in a long boat to Whareakeake they were at first received peaceably but then attacked. Tucker, Veto Viole and John Griffiths, Kelly's brother-in-law, were killed and eaten. Kelly returned to the
Sophia still lying in the Otago Harbour and now distrusting Maori there attacked them destroying canoes and burning the "beautiful City of Otago", which he said had 600 houses. Whareakeake became known as "Murdering Beach". Kelly probably exaggerated his revenge but did kill some people and destroyed some property. Unknown to him he had walked into a pre-existing feud the precise cause of which only became known to historians with the discovery of a manuscript in 2003 which gave the long missing Maori side of the story.
In May 1819 Governor Macquarie confirmed Kelly's appointment as pilot and harbourmaster at the
Derwent RiverDerwent River usually refers to:* Derwent River which flows through Hobart.It may also refer to:* Derwent River which crosses the Birdsville Track at Mungeranie in the Lake Eyre Basin...
. In December 1821 as master of the
Sophia he assisted in transporting convicts to the newly established penal station at Macquarie Harbour, and in 1825 he helped to set up the secondary penal station on
Maria IslandMaria Island is a mountainous island off the east coast of Tasmania. The entire island is a National Park. Maria Island National Park has a total area of 115.50 km² which includes a marine area of 18.78 km², off the island's north-west coast. The island is about 20 km in length from...
. Business interests, mostly in whaling, banking and insurance, saw him resign from Government service in the late 1820s.
Kelly's wife died in 1831 and two sons drowned in 1841 and 1842, respectively. He was financially ruined by the economic depression of the early 1840s and spent most of the remainder of his life back in the employ of the port authorities. He died suddenly in Hobart on 20 April 1859, survived by only three of his ten children.
Kelly's name is perpetuated by a number of geographical features including Kelly's Steps in Battery Point, Hobart, Kelly Basin at Macquarie Harbour, Kelly Island off
Forestier PeninsulaThe Forestier Peninsula is a peninsula of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Its coordinates are . It is connected to the mainland at East Bay Neck, near the town of Dunalley...
and Kelly Point on Bruny Island (later renamed
Dennes PointDennes Point is both a geographical feature and a small township at the northern tip of Bruny Island in Tasmania. It is named after the Denne family who first settled the area as farmers around the 1830s, although it was known as Kelly's Point up to the 1840s, being named after pioneer shipmaster...
).
According to a newspaper feature written by
Christopher KochChristopher John Koch AO Australian novelist, was born in Hobart in 1932. He has twice won the Miles Franklin Award. In 1995 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for contribution to Australian literature....
, Kelly's trousers, "in response to a bet, were proved to hold five bushels of wheat."
Microform
- Kelly, James, 1791-1859. First discovery of Port Davey and Macquarie Harbour p. 160-181 "Royal Society of Tasmania : Papers and Proceedings, 1920. Issued separately 24th December, 1920" Microfiche. Canberra : National Library of Australia, 2004. Attended NCGS from 2000 to 2007