A RELIC OF EARLY AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3073, 8 May 1917, Page 7

A RELIC OF EARLY AUSTRALIA

MUSKETS FOUND IN THE BUSH

The picturesque discovery among the tangled undergrowth of green bush, near Dromana, of three muskets of old design, with their woodwork charred and eaten by bush fires, apparently, recalls an. interesting chapter of Australian history (says the "Age"). If the deductions that have been mado are correct, they represent a spot upon which the explorer Matthew Flinders stood more than a century i\«n. when, he first gazed upon tho rip- bluo expanse of Port Phillip, ai™ ..sieved himself, incorrectly, to be the first white man who had seen the great harbour. The discovery of tho muskets was made recently while clearing bush for roads upon a property on tho famous King Arthur's Seat. In the course of this work three muskets, half hidden among the • undergrowth, and "piled," as modem rifles aro piled in camp lines, tripod fashion, were found The woodwork was charred and burnt, and it appeared that tho spot must have been used as a camping place. The muskets were of the 'Lancaster" type such as the discoverer states were issued audi used by FMnders's party, and a further search is to be conducted in tho neighbourhood in case other romaing are to be found. It is now suggested that the cairn which was recently erected at Dromana in memory of Flinders has been wrongly placed. If the muskets represent a survival of the Flinders party, they must have been loft there when the explorer made his second voyage of exploration to Australia in the Investigator. This voyago was started on July 18, 1801, tho object being the completion of the exploration of tho coast of Australia and the discovery of any harbours. The vessel, a 334-ton 6loop, was laden with glittering toyßj beads, flannel and other trade articles, and Flinders was accompanied by an able staff of officers and scientists, include ing Robert Brown, a young Scottish botanist, who subsequently received the highest commendation for his scientifio work. Australia was sighted on Decomber 6, and a slow voyage was made along the coast, charts being constructed and harbours explored. After leaving Kangaroo Island, Flinders met the French explorer Baudin, in Enoounter Bay; and, finally, his ship rolling and plunging after a bout of stormy weather, he sighted the rocky gates of Port Phillip, ringed with white spray, on April 26, 1802. Ho thought himself to be its discoverer, but ho had been forestalled by a few weeks by Lieutenant J.. Murray. Tho Investigator passed into tho port, and anchored near the _ site of Sorrento, and on tho. following day Flinders, accompanied by Brown and 'William Westall, a landscape draftsman, rowed from the ship, landing eventually on the beach of Dromana Bay. Thonce he climbed tho Muff ascent of King Arthur's Seat, and from this poßt gazed in astonishment at the wide strotching blue of the harbour. It may ho that tho muskets that havo been found mark a spot where the party thus halted. Flinders on tho following day crossed tho Bay in his boat, and oxplqred what is now Corio Bay, and the neighbourhood of Geelong, climbing Station Peak there, and gazing from this eminonco over a sunlit stretch of rolling bush and green pasturo towards Mount Macodon. Ho had to leave shortlv afterwards, however, for Sydney, and it was on May 3 that the Investigator shook her sails, dipped a- courtesy to Port Phillip, and bore the explorer away.