Griffiths Island whaling station
The whaling station on Griffiths Island was on what was then Rabbit Island , south of Port Fairy in Victoria , Australia . Rabbit Island has since become part of Griffiths Island due to sand washing .
The whaling station was built in the 1830s and operated until 1843. It is one of several land stations that served whaling and was of particular importance for the further development of the colonization of Australia .
Surname
The island was named after John Griffith, an entrepreneur and trader from Tasmania who ran other businesses in addition to whaling . Not only did he build the whaling station on Griffiths Island, but he built a house and garden there.
Griffiths Island
The small, flat island that lies off Port Fairy in Bass Strait is approximately 1.5 kilometers long and 0.8 kilometers at its widest point. Griffiths Island originally consisted of three islands, Goat, Rabbit and Griffiths Island. Since the European colonization, these three islands had come together to form an island due to sand alluviation and deposition from natural and human influences.
Whaling station
The first European to come near the island was the Norwegian whale hunter, Captain James Weishart, in 1828, who found himself there in a small boat called Fairy in search of whale and seal hunting grounds . He got caught in a storm and took shelter in Port Fairy Bay .
In the mid-1830s, Europeans used the island area as a whaling station , which, as documented in historical plans, was owned by "Messrs Connolly & Co" and later by "Mr John Griffiths". The whaling land station was on the eastern tip of Rabbit Island. There is evidence of the old buildings of the whaling station and of a "Trywork Hill" on cartographic documents. Whaling became uneconomical and ended around 1843, leaving the buildings to their own devices.
The wooden buildings were reused by Flora Rachel Wallace Dunlop from 1854 as a mission station for young Aborigines . The buildings of the whaling station only fell apart after the time of Dunlop, after she left the island.
Ocean-going transport ships, such as The Brothers 1847, were built on the island in the 1840s .
Today the uninhabited island is a tourist destination and can be reached on foot from Port Fairy via a causeway.
Monument protection
The entire island was listed as a historical monument in July 27, 1982 and this was updated in 2017. In the justification for the special protection of the island, among other aspects, the importance of historical traces for whaling stations, which must be secured, is pointed out.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Griffiths Island (PDF 1.8 MB), on Moyne Shire Council. Retrieved July 29, 2019
- ↑ Port Fairy (PDF), on Victorian Places. Retrieved July 20, 2019
- ↑ a b Griffiths Island , July 27, 2017, on Victorian Heritage Database Report. Retrieved July 29, 2019
Coordinates: 38 ° 23 ′ 36 " S , 142 ° 14 ′ 45" O