Somerset Graves Site
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| Somerset Graves Site | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Jardine Graves, facing south-east, 2017 | |
| Location | Somerset, Northern Peninsula Area Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 10°44′27″S 142°35′33″E / 10.7409°S 142.5925°E |
| Official name | Somerset Graves Site; Somerset Jardine Cemetery |
| Type | state heritage |
| Designated | 25 January 2018 |
| Reference no. | 650072 |
  Location of Somerset Graves Site in Queensland | |
Somerset Graves Site is a heritage-listed cemetery at Somerset, Northern Peninsula Area Region, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as Somerset Jardine Cemetery. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 25 January 2018.[1]
The 2,379-square-metre (25,610 sq ft) Somerset Graves Site, on the northwest edge of Somerset Bay, Cape York, is known to contain seven marked interments, including the graves of Francis (Frank) Lascelles Jardine (1919), three members of his family (c. 1901, 1923, 1962), two pearl divers (1890, 1909), and an unidentified grave; as well as a memorial to Frank and Sana Jardine (1924); and the Kennedy Memorial Monument (1948). The site is a remnant of the original settlement of the town of Somerset, established in 1864 as a joint venture between the Queensland Government and the British Government as a port of refuge and refuelling depot. The known burials date from 1890 to 1962. The site has the potential to contribute knowledge that will lead to a greater understanding of Somerset's inhabitants and burial practices. It has a special association with the Jardine family, early settlers of Cape York Peninsula.[1]
With its separation from New South Wales on 10 December 1859, the new colony of Queensland acquired over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) of coastline extending as far north as Cape York Peninsula. The colony's first parliament passed a resolution in 1860 favouring direct connection with England via the Torres Strait. In December 1861, Sir George Ferguson Bowen (1821–99), Governor of Queensland (1859–67), described the necessity for a station in the far north of Queensland. From a naval and military point of view, a post at or near Cape York would be valuable, due to the establishment of a French colony and naval station in New Caledonia. Bowen informed Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State for the Colonies, that the government of Queensland would be willing to undertake the formation and management of a station at Cape York and to support a civil establishment there.[1][2]
On 27 August 1862, Bowen left Brisbane on HMS Pioneer to select an eligible site for the proposed settlement. The chosen site, opposite Albany Island, was named Somerset, in honour of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset.[1][3][4]
Tenders were called for the construction of government buildings in March 1863, a town survey was undertaken in July 1864 and the Town Reserve of Somerset was established on 8 July 1864.[5][6][7] A survey plan dated 13 March 1865 included Parcel 24, within which the graves are located. Parcel 24 comprised approximately five acres (2.0 hectares).[8] The first Somerset land sale was held in Brisbane on 4 April 1865 and a second sale took place on 2 May 1866. Land parcels sold at these auctions were about one acre (0.40 hectares) in size, so did not include parcel number 24.[1][9][10]
Earlier, in February 1864, John Jardine (1807–74) was appointed Somerset's first Police Magistrate and Commissioner of Crown Lands and in July 1864 he was appointed District Registrar for the District of North Cook.[11][12][13] An early sketch of Somerset by Jardine shows the Government Residence, Police Magistrate's House and Customs House on the southern side of Somerset Bay, and Marines' Barracks and the Medical Superintendent's House on the northern side.[14] Henry Simpson succeeded Jardine as Police Magistrate in 1866.[15] The Marines were withdrawn in 1867 and replaced with Native Police.[1][16]
John Jardine was the father of Francis (Frank) Lascelles Jardine (1841–1919) and Alexander (Alick) William Jardine (1843–1920) who, between May 1864 and March 1865, undertook an overland expedition from Rockhampton to Cape York which was described at the time as, geographically:[17][18]
"solving the question of the course of the northern rivers emptying into the Gulf of Carpentaria of which nothing was known but their outlets. It has also made known...how much ... or rather, how little, of the 'York Peninsula' is adapted for pastoral occupation, whilst its success in taking the first stock overland, and forming a cattle station at Newcastle Bay, has ensured to the Settlement at Somerset a necessary and welcome supply of fresh meat...".
The Jardine River was named after them by order of Governor Bowen.[19] For their pioneering exploratory efforts the Jardine brothers were made Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society and awarded the Society's Murchison Award, in 1886.[1][20]
Several Indigenous groups occupied this region prior to European contact.[21] In an 1896 report to the Queensland Government, Archibald Meston estimated that in the 1870s the Indigenous population between Newcastle Bay (10°53′09″S 142°36′05″E / 10.8857°S 142.6014°E) and Cape York was around 3000. At the time of writing his report, he believed that the population had fallen to around 300.[22][23] This rapid decline was caused by a number of factors, including introduced disease, exclusions from traditional hunting grounds and frontier violence.[24][25] Reverend Frederick Charles Jagg, a missionary at Somerset appointed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,[26][27] gave an indication of the relationship between European and Indigenous peoples when he reported in 1867 that "The aborigines have been described as the most degraded, treacherous and bloodthirsty beings in existence by the present Police Magistrate, and those whose only idea is to shoot them down whenever they were seen".[1][28]
Frank Jardine was appointed as a Magistrate in December 1867 and as Police Magistrate and Inspector of Police at Somerset in April 1868.[29][30] In 1869 he held the positions of District Registrar for Somerset, Police Magistrate, Clerk of Petty Sessions, Inspector of Police and Postmaster.[31] He married Samoan woman, Sana Sofala, in 1873 and the couple had four children: Alice Maule Lascelles, Hew Cholmondeley (Chum), Bootle Arthur Lascelles (Bertie) and Elizabeth Sana Hamilton.[32][33] Frank Jardine's tenure as a government officer in Somerset was not without controversy. The local Indigenous population was dispossessed and there was hostility between them and the Jardine family; both during Frank and Alick Jardine's expedition to Somerset, and during the years of the settlement. Jardine was also suspended for a time from his duties as Police Magistrate whilst being investigated in relation to using his position to obtain a pearl diving licence.[1][34]
Somerset became redundant as a port once a safer shipping route to the Torres Strait was found and a settlement on Thursday Island was built from 1876.[35][36] Frank Jardine continued to live at Somerset, maintaining the police residence until his death there in March 1919.[37] During this time, Jardine continued to maintain a beef cattle herd; was engaged in the pearling industry; and created a coconut/copra plantation at Somerset. Due to Somerset's isolated location the Jardine family provided assistance and hospitality to travellers and seafarers, for example, Jardine aided the survivors of the shipwreck of RMS Quetta in 1890.[1][38][39][40]
Jardine was buried in the south area of the Somerset Grave Site in 1919, and his grave protected by a timber fence. His wife, Sana, who died in 1923, was buried nearby.[41] A memorial to Frank and Sana Jardine was installed in 1924 by their family. In 1935 the graves of Frank and Sana Jardine were described as lying side by side, surmounted by tombstones and surrounded by a fence made out of old ship's timber and anchor chains.[42][43] Buried in close proximity is Frank Jardine's grandson, (Cholmondeley) Gordon Vidgen (1903–1962).[44][45][46] Other graves in this part of the Somerset Grave Site are said to be of Sana's mother (c. 1901) and possibly two children.[1][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]
Jardine was not the first to be buried in the Somerset Grave Site (labelled section one when the parcel of land was leased as Special Lease 2894 in early 1920 by Frank's son, Bertie Jardine).[57] The earliest known burial was that of Cancan, a pearl diver, dating to 1890. Japanese pearl diver Kobori Itchimatsu was also buried there in 1909.[58][59][60] Both graves are situated in the north area of the site. The pearl diving industry was important in Torres Strait and to the Queensland economy, and came to be dominated by Japanese divers after 1891. Kobori Itchimatsu came from the village of Nishi Mukai in Wakayama prefecture, an area that provided 80 per cent of the 7000 Japanese who left their country to become pearl divers.[1][61][62][63]
The Kennedy Memorial Monument, also within the Somerset Graves Site, located beside the path between the north and south areas of the site was unveiled on 13 December 1948 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Edmund Besley Court Kennedy's unsuccessful exploration of Cape York Peninsula.[64] The monument comprises a concrete slab on a concrete footing with a bronze commemorative plaque on its eastern face.[1]
There is limited evidence about other burial sites at Somerset. The principal source for information about them is Frank Reid (1884–1947) who gives conflicting information about the number and location of burial sites. His book, based on a visit to Somerset c. 1917 and published in 1954, provides a map of the cemetery sites at Somerset and on Albany Island - showing that the lone grave of Captain Archibald McAusland (22 Mar 1874) is located on high ground to the east of Somerset Bay, while about 40 European graves exist in a hill-side cemetery outside the boundary of the township, to the west of Frank Jardine's residence and south of the Somerset Graves Site. However, the text accompanying this map and a newspaper article from 1937 quoting Reid, talk of only one other cemetery site at Somerset in addition to the Somerset Graves Site, and imply that McAusland was buried with the other Europeans. Reid states the interments in the second cemetery are: two Royal Marines, several Burketown residents, who were brought to Somerset to recover from fever, but who died soon after arrival, and Madame Boisse, wife of a commandant at New Caledonia.[65][66] Public records show other deaths occurred at Somerset, including the two infant daughters of Somerset's medical officer, Dr Timotheus John Haran, RN.[1][67]
Following the death of their parents, sons Bertie and Chum leased section 12 (on which the former Police Magistrate's house was located) and section one under special lease arrangements. In 1948, the area under Special Lease 2984 (section one) was described as having been leased by Bertie Jardine for "sentimental purposes, where his father and mother were buried...".[57] At this time, section one was incorporated into R.10, a Reserve for the Benefit of Aboriginals, which also included the Somerset town reserve. In 1973, R.10 was reduced in size and become two lots, including Lot 43 Plan SO65 (which included the Somerset Graves Site). Finally, in July 1999, Lot 43 Plan SO65 was cancelled and the current lot, Lot 7 SP104552 was created. This newly created lot captured all known or marked graves.[1]
In 2011 the Angkamuthi Seven Rivers, the McDonnell Atampaya and the Gudang/Yadhaigana groups made an application for native title determination over the Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council and Cook Shire areas, covering an area of approximately 685,642 hectares. The determination was handed down on 30 October 2014. Lot 7 SP104552 is contained within the exclusive areas of the determination.[1][68]
In 2017, the Somerset Graves Site remains as a remnant of the once-important regional centre of Somerset. It is the burial site of Frank Jardine, a well-known far north Queensland identity, members of his family, and other identified and unidentified members of the isolated Cape York community.[1]
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