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EDMUND KENNEDY (1818-1848) - Edmund Kennedy was an educated Englishman and a qualified surveyor when he migrated to NSW in 1840. He joined the Surveyor Generals Dept and became second in charge to Thomas Mitchell the surveyor General. During the next few years he made several exploratory trips into N W Qld. Then in 1848 during Mitchell's absence in England he was commissioned by the NSW Gov to explore the Cape York Peninsula. Starting from Cardwell the most northern settlement at the time.

Cardwell

 His instructions were to explore the eastern coast as far as Albany Bay to reprovision from a ship that was to be sent and then to explore the west coast as far as Gulf of Cape Carpentaria and then travel overland back to Sydney........... In the light of today's knowledge it was an impossible task. Apparently when Thomas Mitchell heard of it he was most annoyed at the absurdity of the commission. It caused the death of men and served no useful purpose. During May 1848 the ship Tam 0’ Shanter arrived at Cardwell with Kennedy as one of thirteen men which included an Aborigine, Jacky Jacky, who was to prove the hero of the expedition and one of only 3 men to survive. There were 3 heavy carts, 26 horses, 100 sheep (the latter to be killed for food), a ton of flour, a large quantity of salted meat,, tea and sugar, pistols, shotguns and ammunition surveying and personal equipment tents, blankets etc. Some time was spent in looking for a spot where the ship could get reasonably close to a beach to unload. Finally a little bay, now called Kennedy Bay, was chosen and animals and all the stores landed and the ship sailed away. They were soon to find that they were surrounded by mangrove swamps. The only possible route was to travel south as far as the present Kennedy township. They had to discard the carts and manufacture pack saddles so that all their stores could be carried on horseback, no easy task.

By skirting the swamps they were able to travel N W to the Tully River which they followed to the present hydro power station After much reconnaissance Kennedy decided that if they were to make worthwhile progress north they would have to scale the coastal range and try on the western side. With a great deal of work a track was cleared up a ridge to the south of Tully River Falls to emerge in the vicinity of the present Koomboolooma Dam. With another 40 to 50 kms north they found good open forest country along the eastern side of the Herbert River. They were free of the rainforest but it had taken a heavy toll on the health of both men and animals as well as several weeks of precious time and they were very little closer to Cape York than from where they had started. They followed the Herbert River and crossed it at a point just east of Mt Garnet, from there they skirted the mountains near Irvinebank and picked up Emu Creek and followed north to this point. They had proceeded north for less than 200 kms out of the thousand or so to Cape York and about 3 months had already passed.

The impenetrable rain forest of the wet Tropics

Traveling ever north they sighted the sea for the first time at Princess Charlotte Bay. It was more difficult to follow the coast than inland but they struggled on to Weymouth Bay where the little settlement of Portland Road now stands. Here Kennedy made another major decision. In an endeavour to make faster progress, stores, animals, guns and ammunition were shared out and 8 men left here while he and the other four pushed on. However about a week later another man accidently shot himself so once again the party was split with the injured man and 2 others being left at Shelbourne Bay. The situation was getting critical with the only hope of survival for the whole party was to reach the waiting ship at Albany Bay as soon as possible. Kennedy with Jacky Jacky continued alone but the Aborigines who had been observing the party for sometime now became more menacing. Finally one man threw a spear and mortally wounding Kennedy. Jacky Jacky nursed and protected him until he died. Before passing out Kennedy gave Jacky Jacky explicit instructions to hide his notebooks and proceed as fast as possible to the coast and attract the attention of people on a ship that should be waiting there. Jacky was able to obey these instructions and was taken on board the ship where he told his sorry tale. The ship set sail for Shelbourne Bay as soon as possible, signs of where the men had been were found but no survivors or bodies. Continuing on to Weymouth Bay they were just in time to rescue two survivors for the Natives were becoming ever more cheeky. Two other men had died only a few days before the rescue party arrived.

Kennedy monument at Mission beach

The ship sailed for Sydney to break the news of the disastrous expedition Some months later a party with Jacky Jacky as guide sailed for Cape York to search for Kennedy's remains and notebooks. Jacky Jacky was able to lead the party to where he had left Kennedy's body but no remains could be found. The notebooks however were found badly sodden with water When carefully dried much valuable information was deciphered.

This account by WM Carron provides a graphic account of this extraordinary expedition into country which even today defies entry. To take a wagon, horses and men into this mountainous rain forest is mind boggling.

This CD-ROM includes a full transcript of this book. Illustrated with period maps and drawings and photographs of the region.

Kennedy Valley

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All on CDROM and easily viewed on your PC in Adobe PDF format suitable for Windows PC or Apple Mac. No special software required.

US$19.99 incl postage

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