The Macassans: a study of the early trepang industry along the Northern Territory coast

Abstract

In 1769, Alexander Dalrymple, still young in his career of schemes, acrimony and hard work, was recommending to the Court of Directors of the English East India Company the advantages to be gained by establishing a settlement in the island of Balambangan, off the north point of Borneo. … Two points only will be noted here: the voyaging of these renowned sailors to Australia is set in the context of their activity throughout the archipelago, and the fact that they do come to Australia occasions no surprise. These two comments can, in a general way be applied to virtually all the many descriptions of the industry left by those who observed it in operation over the next century and more. … However by the end of the century, enthusiasm for northern Australia had been tempered by repeated failures in the task of development. Interest was centred on those more favoured regions in the south where an ideology was being developed that would claim a whole continent for one people. … Today the position is changing as interest in the area slowly rekindles and as the work of the scholars who have concerned themselves with the area becomes more widely known. … One aim of this thesis is to consolidate, combine and in some matters extend the historical and ethnographical knowledge already available. .. It is no accident that the visit of Golson and Mulvaney to the Gove Peninsula in 1963, which marks the beginning of the present phase of work on the subject, was in conjunction with a proposed mining project.