The Cummings family of Australia, 1843-1983

by Avis Colbert, 1932-

Paperback, 1984

Status

Available

Call number

PF CUM

Local notes

Joseph Francis Cummings left a whaling ship in the vicinity of Fowler's, Bay with a Samuel Harris in August 1843. .S.A. Register Dec. 20 & 22 reports that the above two set out to walk to Port Lincoln. Their glowing report of the area led to the exploration of the region by John Charles Darke in Sept. 1843.

Joseph Francis Cumming, aged 16 and a 14 years old friend Samuel Harris were working on a whaling ship when they jumped ship in August 1843 at Fowlers Bay in the Great Australian Bight intending to walk to Port Lincoln. They actually walked 500km as far as Point Drummond before joining the survey ship "Governor Gawler" (a 16 ton cutter) that took them to Port Lincoln, where they arrived about 9 December 1843. Both eventually ended up on farms in the Sheringa area that lies just to the north of Point Drummond. Only one whiteman had traversed that country before the boys, explorer Edward John Eyre, who had set up a base camp in 1840 at Fowlers Bay that was well known to whalers for his crossing of the Nullarbor. However, a report in the Port Lincoln Times of 20 March 1936 indicates that they were not boys but adult sailors, one a mate, who initially gave their names as George Cummings and Richard Harris. A descendant advised that Richard's real forename was Samuel and surname Fones, but reverted to Samuel Harris, and was an American whaler, who eventually returned to his home country. [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cummings-4251]

Publication

Adelaide : Lutheran Publishing House, [1984]

Barcode

431
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