Tuesday morning, 31st May 1898, on board SS “Chingtu” 7:15 a.m.
Yesterday we arrived at Port Darwin at 1 o’clock. The day was very bright, fine, & very hot. We anchored at the Quarantine (provoking reminiscences) anchorage & whistled for the doctor. The inhabitants were celebrating the Queen’s birthday[1] & evidently the Dr. had not been just at hand, as we had to wait fully ¾ hour before the launch made its appearance. We were soon declared all right & permission given to go ashore. We had lunch during the waiting period, & at 2:30 we boated ashore. The steamer first, after Dr. left us, weighed anchor & steamed quite close in. When nearing Port Darwin, we observed the place was en féte, flags flying everywhere, & we found, as I’ve said, they were keeping the Queen’s birthday. They had arranged to defer it till the 30th May so that they might have the previous Saturday afternoon, right up til the Tuesday morning, & sports had been organized, so we made our way to the ground, & the usual athletics were underway. It was very hot, a clear blue sky, & a scorching sun over head, topees[2] & umbrellas were very necessary. What interested me particularly was the [4:21] swarms of Aborigines that had come in to witness the sports, & I got 4 very favourable snap shots of them, also 1 of a group of Chinamen. These are the greater majority of the inhabitants of the town (Palmerston is the name of the town), & 1 shot of the vaulting competition, all of which I am very hopeful will come out right. As to the place itself, there wasn’t an object worthy of photographing, a most uninviting place, straggling buildings such as they are, the best are occupied by English, these being engaged by the South Australian government. If you consult the map of Australia, you will see that South Australian territory extends from S. to N., & the Southern part is called South Australia, & the upper portion Northern Territory. Customs, British & Australian Telegraph, a bank of its kind, hospital &c., occupy the British chiefly, & the Chinese does the labor. It’s a very fine harbour & pearl fisheries are a great industry. There seemed to be a few real bright stars, early settlers, Britishers, who were having a grand burst out, as the occasion was favourable. Uncle Ben came to my mind, just such like did I take these to be. The vegetation is, of course, tropical, but the grass & scrub is very dry. It is winter here. The residents consider this the cool season. At no time during our summer have we it anything near so hot. I enjoyed the afternoon on shore. It came [4:22] in all but suddenly dark, & that at sun set soon after 6, but oh, what a sun set. A picture indeed. It was most beautiful & the night throughout of the kind we dream of. We all felt sorry to leave the deck where we sat in chairs enjoying the cool gentle breeze with the sky perfectly clear, moon direct overhead, & stars like diamonds. I shall remember it. The first glimpse of the coast as we neared it was disappointing & quite in keeping with the locality ashore. It must be a very, very monotonous life for the white man, & certainly not his country, & social life must become wearisome. No source of entertainment outside at night, & no twilight. This Tuesday morning we got under weigh at 6 exactly, just as daylight opened. The sun rose, then I got up & went on deck to see the start & oh, what a delicious cool morning. I went below & had my bath, dressed & got on deck where I had a cup of Bohea brought me, & there I sat inhaling the fine air (like the Galashieldser at Spittal) & as we soon got out of sight of anything interesting, I thought I better commit to paper my first experience of Australia.
The decks are washed down every morning early, all brass work cleaned, & the saloon boys are early at it: cleaning, washing, polishing, & dusting, & now tables for breakfast are fully prepared. It is just 8 & with you about 11 Monday night.
I do hope you all enjoyed the holiday!! We cross the mouth of the Gulf of Carpentaria [4:23] in the course of our passage today, & our next port of call will be Thursday Island. None of these calling ports are of much interest. They are too far north & commerce not strong, however, all is interesting to me. I’ve just been to look at the chart as to our position & the gulf, so I see it is a long distance, & I suppose it will be well into tomorrow morning before we approach the gulf. The sea is beautiful blue just now & the air fine.
Our position yesterday at noon was as follows:
Monday 30th May, Lat. S. 12.28 – Long. E. 130.49 – 274 run.
I fancy the Sunday’s reckoning must have been guess work. We had no sun that day & likely they calculated by “dead” reckoning, as they judged we would not reach Port Darwin till evening (4 to 6 roughly) & we were surprised when we sighted the land about 10 o’clock, points reaching far into the ocean. It suited our convenience well, as had we arrived at night, we very likely would not have gone ashore – too dark to view, & we would have sailed all the same this morning, not much cargo for this place. We’ve got a lot of Jap passengers tho’, from Port Darwin going down the coast. It appears Japs chiefly work the pearl fisheries. The “town” is lighted by electricity & the telegraph (cable) station is a place of importance to this northern part. Buildings all roofed with corrugated iron & painted white & looks well on the approach. A monsoon 2 years ago unroofed every building in the place & blew the most of them down. A very serious calamity it had been.
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[1] Queen Victoria
[2] A lightweight helmet-shaped hat made of pith or cork.