Beagle Voyages
and Port Darwin

The voyage of the Beagle that transported Darwin around the globe was the 2nd of 3 surveying voyages. The 1st voyage from 1826-1830 was a hydrographic survey of Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America. The survey was under the overall command of Captain Phillip Parker King, who was later to make several voyages to Australia in the HMS Mermaid.

The 2nd voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836) traversed South America and the Pacific Ocean under the captaincy of Robert Fitz Roy, who was accompanied by a young gentleman by the name of Charles Darwin. During this voyage Darwin shared his cabin below the poop deck with John Lort Stokes (surveyor) and Philip Gidley King (midshipman). The only sites visited in Australia during the 2nd voyage were Sydney (Port Jackson), Hobart (Tasmania or Van Diemen's Land) and King George's Sound (near the present town of Albany in south-western Australia).

The 3rd voyage, commencing in 1837, traversed various parts of the coastline of Australia, including portions of the west coast, Bass Strait (between Tasmania and the mainland), the Kimberley in the north-west, and the north coast of what was later to become the Northern Territory. The crew also made journeys up the Victoria and Adelaide Rivers while in northern Australia. The Beagle was under the command of Captain John Clements Wickham, who had been second-in-command on the previous voyage and was Darwin's favourite officer aboard. The command of the Beagle was passed over to J.L. Stokes in 1841 after Wickham became ill.

Of the Australian shores, the North-western was the least known, and became, towards the close of the year 1836, a subject of much geographical speculation. Former navigators were almost unanimous in believing that the deep bays known to indent a large portion of the coast, received the waters of extensive rivers, the discovery of which would not only open a route to the interior, but afford facilities for colonizing a part of Australia, so near our East Indian territories, as to render its occupation an object of evident importance.

His Majesty's Government therefore determined to send out an expedition to explore and survey such portions of the Australian coasts, as were wholly or in part unknown to Captains Flinders and King.

Stokes (1846) Discoveries in Australia (p. 2)

One of the objectives of the voyage, as outlined by the Admiralty, was to "return to the Northern coast of New Holland, and selecting such parts of it as may afford useful harbours of retreat, or which may appear to comprise the mouths of any streams of magnitude, you will employ your spare time in such discoveries as may more or less tend to the general object of the expedition." (Stokes, 1846; Vol. I., p.15)

Although it was inhabited by aboriginal people (clans on the north coast included the Larrakia, Woolna, Gagudju, Gunbalang, Nakara, Yolngu and Tiwi peoples) and was visited periodically by Macassan sailors, the north coast of Australia was relatively unexplored and had not been settled by Europeans at this time.

And so it was that in September 1839, after a visit to the tiny settlement at Port Essington, the Beagle passed along the south side of Melville Island, into Clarence Strait and through the Vernon Islands.

Having cleared Clarence Strait, and found it to be perfectly navigable with common precaution, ... our course was directed for a bay to the southward, which Captain King had not examined. A very refreshing cool north-westerly sea breeze had just succeeded a short calm.

(Stokes, 1846; Vol. II., p.3)

Stokes and a Mr. Forsyth investigated Hope Inlet before they "pushed on to explore another opening above fifteen miles to the westward." They explored this opening at the head of a bay and found a mangrove-lined coastline with many "alligators" (saltwater crocodiles), a good population of mosquitos and sandflies, and a fine harbour.

On the morning of September 9 they viewed: "A wide bay appearing between two white cliffy heads, and stretching away within to a great distance .. Far to the southward, between the heads, rose a small table-topped hill."

They climbed a cliff, and from the summit "had a good view of the bay, and were delighted to find large openings in the south-east and south-west corners of it." (Stokes, 1846; Vol. II., p.5)

They then crossed to a point on the opposite side of the harbour, which they named Talc Head. Nearby J.L. Stokes noted rocks of "a fine-grained sandstone: - a new feature in the geology of this part of the continent", and in reference to Charles Darwin the geologist "an old shipmate and friend" named the area Port Darwin. On the nearby Cox Peninsula (to the west of Port Darwin) Charles Point was also named after Darwin.

The locality where the town was built was known as Port Darwin for many years, and for a period the settlement was named Palmerston, but the name was changed officially to Darwin in 1911. Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory.

The University in Darwin was previously known as Northern Territory University (NTU). It was formed by a merger of the Darwin Institute of Technology and the University College of the Northern Territory. In 2004 the name was changed to Charles Darwin University (CDU).

The Beagle is also the name of the scientific journal produced by the Northern Territory Museum in Darwin.