Collet Barker

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Collet Barker (31 December 1784-30 April 1831) was a military officer and explorer, explored areas of South Australia, Western Australia and Cobourg Peninsula, Northern Territory

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[edit] History

Barker was born in Hackney, he lived in Newbury as a child. He joined the British Army in 23 January 1806 as an ensign by purchase in the 39th regiment of foot, becoming a lieutenant in 1809 and captain in 1825. Barker was a veteran of the Peninsular Wars, serving in Sicily, Portugal, Spain and France. He also served in Canada and Ireland before embarking with his regiment the 39th Regiment of Foot 1st Battalion on the prison hulk Phoenix arriving in Sydney 18 July 1828. On 13 September 1828 he arrived as the new commandant of Fort Wellington the settlement at Raffles Bay in the Northern Territory, and the following year was commander at King George's Sound in Western Australia. Barker was an excellent administrator and proved to be an humane friend to the local indigenous people of both commands. He recorded Aboriginal place names, people, traditions and beliefs which would have been lost entirely. Had he lived he was to be sent to New Zealand's north island as first resident by Governor Darling because of the feared Māori unrest; his role was to conciliate. In 1831, on the recommendation of Charles Sturt, who had discovered the shouled mouth of the Murray River the previous year, Barker was sent to explore the east coast of Gulf Saint Vincent in South Australia to see if another channel from the Murray entered the sea there.

On 13 April 1831 Barker and his party arrived at Cape Jervis on the Isabella. He examined the coast and found that there was no channel. Barker discovered the Onkaparinga River on 15 April. He then explored the ranges inland, north of the present site of Adelaide, and climbed Mount Lofty where he sighted the Port River inlet, Barker Inlet and the future Port Adelaide, his most important discovery. He then went overland to explore the area around Lake Alexandrina and Encounter Bay. On 29 April the mouth of the Murray was reached. Barker swam across the narrow channel the next morning, went over a sandhill, and was never seen again. A few days later the party learned that Barker had been killed by the local indigenous people who had mistaken him for a whaler or sealer. The towns of Mount Barker, Western Australia and South Australia are named for him as well as Mount Barker, South Australia was also named for him by Captain Sturt who erroneously thought this was Mount Lofty, as is the electoral division of Division of Barker in south-eastern South Australia.

[edit] Personal life

Captain Barker was never married; his nearest relations were Collet Dobson Collet, nephew; Clara Collet, great niece; Edward Dobson, New Zealand engineer, nephew; Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson New Zealand survey engineer, great nephew and George Dobson surveyor New Zealand who was murdered 1866 by the Burgess gang. it is rather tragic to think that Captain Barker and his great nephew George Dobson were both killed because of mistaken identity and with nothing more than a compass in hand.

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