27-666: Cockle Creek may refer to: Cockle Creek (Tasmania) , in Australia Cockle Creek (Virginia) , in the United States Cockle Creek railway station , in Boolaroo, New South Wales, Australia Battle of Cockle Creek , during the American Civil War Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
54-402: A former British colonial penal settlement , established on Sarah Island , Macquarie Harbour , in the former colony of Van Diemen's Land , now Tasmania , operated between 1822 and 1833. The settlement housed male convicts, with a small number of women housed on a nearby island. During its 11 years of operation, the penal colony achieved a reputation as one of the harshest penal settlements in
81-637: A small promontory a 5-minute walk from the car park explains the area's history of settlement around bay whaling, timber getting and coal mining. Longer walks include to the Fishers Point Navigation Light and ruins of the Pilot Station and a track to South East Cape for cliff-top views of the Southern Ocean and Maatsuyker Island . Tasmanian Indigenous People valued this region for the seals, shellfish and bush hunting it provided during
108-762: Is the farthest point south one can drive in Australia. It is located on Recherche Bay on the edge of the Southwest National Park , part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area . There are no shops or other facilities in the settlement, but a campground is located in the National Park with public toilets and a public phone. The National Park Ranger's office is only staffed intermittently. Main activities are camping , fishing , birdwatching and bushwalking . Arts Tasmania with
135-470: The Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service offers an artists residency program at Cockle Creek "for an individual or collaboration of practising artists working in any art form to develop their work in response to the natural environment of Tasmania." The area is known for its scenic beauty of deserted white beaches and turquoise waters of Recherche Bay and a variety of short and multi-day bushwalks including
162-534: The 1830s there were four whaling stations at Cockle Creek. In 1836 a pilot station was set up on Fisher's Point, the southern headland to Recherche Bay, but was abandoned by 1851. During the 1840s the Crown granted seven leases for the establishment of bay whaling stations in Recherche Bay. But whales had been hunted with pregnant cows and calves indiscriminately slaughtered. Sperm whales and southern right whales were
189-481: The Australian colonies. The former penal station is located on the eight-hectare (twenty-acre) Sarah Island that now operates as a historic site under the direction of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service . The penal station was established as a place of banishment within the Australian colonies. It took the worst convicts, those who had reoffended and those who had escaped from other settlements. The isolated land
216-517: The Prince Leopold. Advice of his arrival and of the choice of Sarah Island for the headquarters of the new settlement was sent on 23 January 1822. Sergeant George Waddy of the 48th Regiment was Commissariat Sergeant and second in command of the experimental penal settlement in 1821. His youngest child Jane Waddy was born on Sarah Island in 1822. As Sarah Island could not produce food, malnutrition , dysentery , and scurvy were often rampant among
243-660: The World Heritage Area which provoked some controversy. As a result of protests, the developer decided in December 2006 to pursue approval for construction of the main lodge building and carpark development on private land adjoining the National Park. A development of a new site plan for Cockle Creek and Recherche Bay, and the still proposed resort at Planter Beach, Cockle Creek East, was announced in March 2008. Sarah Island (Tasmania) The Macquarie Harbour Penal Station ,
270-595: The area, and subsequent archeological sites associated with the expedition have also been located. The region provided an important port of call for ships transporting convicts to the Sarah Island Penal Colony in Macquarie Harbour on the West coast of Tasmania from 1822 to 1834, when sealers, whalers and loggers visited the area and settled to extract Huon pine , or conduct bay whaling in Recherche Bay. During
297-511: The convict population. The penal colony had to be supplied by sea. Living conditions were particularly bad in the early years of the settlement. The settlement was so crowded, convicts were unable to sleep on their backs in the communal barracks. Punishment involved solitary confinement and regular floggings - 9,100 lashes were given in 1823. In 1824 a prisoner named Trenham stabbed another convict in order to be executed rather than face further imprisonment at Macquarie Harbour Penal Station. It
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#1732852132846324-436: The convict who had been given responsibility for administering the lashes was also lashed. The severity of the lashings was sufficient to cause death in some cases. If a convict appeared in danger of death, a doctor could intervene, the lashing would cease (for a time) and be resumed once the convict was deemed to have recovered sufficiently for it to continue. After a time, a Scottish shipbuilder named David Hoy, who had heard of
351-404: The end of the 82 km South Coast Track , recommended for experienced bushwalkers equipped for wilderness walking. Bushwalkers may enjoy a range of vegetation types occurring together in a mosaic including tea tree scrub, dry sclerophyll forest, healthland, tall wet eucalypt forest, and Eucalyptus nitida woodland. A bronze sculpture of an infant southern right whale and interpretive sign on
378-417: The good timber became less accessible and coal was discovered enabling the tramways to transport coal for export by ship at Evoralls Point, just north of Cockle Creek. Eventually the coal seam dwindled, causing people to drift away. In 2004 Melbourne property developer David Marriner proposed building a $ 15 million eco-tourist complex at Cockle Creek East at Planter Beach within the National Park but outside
405-433: The last escape from the island. His book The Sarah Island Conspiracies - Being an account of twelve voyages to Macquarie Harbour and Sarah Island furthers understanding of the history and the recent archaeological work on the island. The films The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce and Van Diemen's Land deal with one of the more notorious escapees. Photography of the island and ruins have at various stages shown
432-575: The logs down the river. Once the establishment of the penal station at Macquarie Harbour was decided upon, Lieutenant John Cuthbertson of the 48th Regiment was appointed as its commandant, magistrate and justice of the peace on 8 December 1821. Four days later he left Hobart with Captain James Kelly, harbourmaster, Surveyor George Evans and Surgeon Spence in the Sophia, accompanied by some 16 soldiers, their wives and children and 66 male and 8 female convicts in
459-488: The main species hunted. By the 1850s bay whaling was in fast decline with the decimation of breeding whale populations using the bay to calve and the advent of deep sea whaling. The settlement numbered more than 2000 people at its peak with surveying for a town called Ramsgate in an advanced stage. As whaling started to decline, timber-getting became an important activity with wooden tramways transporting logs to sawmills at Cockle Creek, Catamaran and Leprena . But gradually
486-515: The narrow rocky channel. The surveyor who mapped Sarah Island concluded that the chances of escape were "next to impossible". Neighbouring Grummet Island, a small island to the Northeast, was used for solitary confinement. Lieutenant-Governor William Sorell wanted the new penal colony to be economically viable. It could then reimburse the British government for the expense of its establishment. The island
513-405: The remarkable properties of Huon Pine for shipbuilding came, voluntarily, to the island. He negotiated with the convicts, allowing them rations of rum and tobacco, and more weatherproof sleeping quarters in exchange for their cooperation. For a short period, it was the largest shipbuilding operation in the Australian colonies. Chained convicts had the task of cutting down Huon pine trees and rafting
540-518: The title Cockle Creek . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cockle_Creek&oldid=932769789 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Cockle Creek (Tasmania) Cockle Creek
567-462: The town of Strahan . Sarah Island has been frequently featured in Australian literature and theatre, often representing the worst excesses of the British convict system. Notable books include: In Strahan , the main port and town on the shores of Macquarie Harbour today Australia's longest running play The Ship that Never Was by Tasmanian author Richard Davey dramatises the Frederick escape ,
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#1732852132846594-508: The warmer months, with evidence of many shell middens in the area. French explorer, Bruni D'Entrecasteaux sailed his two ships, the Recherche and Esperance , into Recherche Bay in 1792 and again in 1793 on a scientific and botanical expedition. He subsequently named the bay after one of his ships. In 2003 the remains of a garden planted by the French were found and a reserve was created to protect
621-488: Was cleared soon after the arrival of the convicts and their Governor. However, this exposed the settlement to the howling gales of the roaring forties , so it was necessary to build a wall from Huon Pine to provide shelter. Convicts spent most of their waking hours, often up to their necks in water, cutting timber and preparing it for rafting down the river. Lashings were common and were to be administered by another convict. If they were not administered with sufficient severity,
648-404: Was finally closed in late 1833. Most of the remaining convicts were then relocated to Port Arthur . Despite its isolated location, a considerable number of convicts attempted to escape from the island. Bushranger Matthew Brady was among a party that successfully escaped to Hobart in 1824 after tying up their overseer and seizing a boat. James Goodwin was pardoned after his 1828 escape and
675-432: Was ideally suited for its purpose. It was separated from the mainland by the wide expanse of river, surrounded by a mountainous wilderness and was hundreds of miles away from the colony's other settled areas. The only seaward access was through a treacherous narrow channel known as Hells Gates . Strong tidal currents resulted in the deaths of many convicts before they even reached the settlement owing to ships foundering in
702-524: Was later used for pining purposes, and was known by the piners as Settlement Island, rather than Sarah Island, though it has since reverted to its original name. The ruins of the settlement remain today as the Sarah Island Historic Site —part of the larger Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area—though they are not as well preserved as those at better-known Port Arthur . The island is accessible via ferries and charter boats operating out of
729-408: Was subsequently employed to make official surveys of the wilderness he had passed through. Sarah Island's most infamous escapee was Alexander Pearce who managed to get away twice. On both occasions, he cannibalized his fellow escapees. As the station was closing down, ten convicts remained to complete an unfinished brig. The convicts later hijacked the vessel and escaped to Chile . The island
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