Admiral Sir Benjamin Bathurst and Chief Minister Shane Stone
1995
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Benjamin Bathurst, GCB former First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff made a courtesy call on the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory the Hon Shane L Stone MLA. Chief Minister Stone presented Sir Benjamin with a memento of his visit to Parliament House, Darwin. Sir Benjamin travelled to the 'Top End' to visit Bathurst Island, part of the Tiwi Islands. The European history of Bathurst Island is that on 5 May 1623, Willem Jootszoon Van Colster (or Coolsteerdt), in the ship Arnhem named the island De Speult Eylandt, in honour of Herman van Speult, Governor of Ambon (directly north of what would become Darwin). Governor Speult had commissioned the voyage of exploration. In 1828. The island was named Bathurst Island by Scottish explorer John Clements Wickham, after the explorer Phillip Parker Kings ship which had explored the area in August 1821. He named the island during a voyage in March 1838 when he was second in command of HMS Beagle in Charles Darwin's expedition. The ship's name honours Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, (1762-1834), former British Secretary of State for the Colonies. Earl Bathurst was the great grandfather of Sir Benjamin. The Tiwi Islands had been inhabited by indigenous Australians for 40,000 years thereabout and had witnessed visits from the Indonesian archipelago and China predating European contact. Sir Benjamin traces his lineage in the British Peerage to Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst PC, 1712. Shane Stone is a descendant of a 1788 First Fleet convict.
- Document type: Photo
- Time period: Legislative Assembly NT
- People: Benjamin BATHURST, Allen BATHURST, Willem Jootszoon VAN COLSTER, Herman VAN SPEULT, John Clements WICKHAM
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