BLACK SWANS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 139, 13 June 1936, Page 10 (Supplement)

BLACK SWANS

Black swans were supposed for two thousand years to be birds which did not and could not exist. The bird figured in proverb as the very height of impossibility, like blue moons, flying pigs and so on. It was on January 6, 1697, that a Dutch explorer sent a boat's crew ashore to explore an estuary he had sighted on the west coast of what he had called Zuidland, or South Land, that part of the great island which we call West Australia. Up the river there appeared a sight which _ made the wondering sailors doubt their eyes and suspect that they were the victims of witchcraft. Birds which were obviously swans were floating majestically on the quiet waters, but they were black. The men recovered from their fear and astonishment, and succeeded in catching four of the swans and carrying them back alive to Batavia. The news reached Amsterdam as fast as ship could sail, and the burgomaster of the day hastened to lay the thrilling story before the Royal Society. So knowledge of the supposed fabulous bird was obtained before Australia had a name, before its extent and nature were known. Black swans give their name to the great Swan RiveTr, and a black swan is the armorial symbol of West Australia.