James Kelly (Australian explorer)

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James Kelly (1791-1859), Australian mariner, explorer and port official, was born on 24 December 1791 at Parramatta, New South Wales. He was probably the son of James Kelly, a cook in the convict transport 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 sandalwood trades as well as making a voyage to India. In 1812 he was chief officer of the full-rigged ship Campbell Macquarie on a sealing voyage when the ship was wrecked on Macquarie Island. He became the first Australian-born master mariner with voyages in the sealing industry and general trade between Hobart and Sydney.

In December 1815 Kelly left Hobart in command of an expedition to circumnavigate Tasmania using the whaleboat Elizabeth . The party made the official discovery of Port Davey on the south west coast, and on 28 December of Macquarie Harbour on the central west coast. Features within the harbour were named the Gordon River 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 Zealand and landed near the present-day Otago. The Maoris first gave him a friendly reception, but on the next day attacked and three of his men were killed. Kelly retaliated by destroying canoes and burning their village, which he said had 600 houses.

In May 1819 Governor Macquarie confirmed Kelly's appointment as pilot and harbourmaster at the Derwent River. 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 Island. 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 Peninsula and Kelly Point on Bruny Island (later renamed Dennes Point.

[edit] References

Douglas Pike (editor). Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1967, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
unstated. Historical Records of Australia, Series 3, Vol. 2-6. Melbourne: Government Printer.
Bowden, Keith M. Captain Jamees Kelly of Hobart Town. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Whitham, Charles. Western Tasmania: A Land of Riches and Beauty.