Somerset is the northernmost locality on the
Cape York Peninsula and also of the Queensland mainland with
Cape York at the northernmost point. It is not the northernmost locality in Queensland, as there are numerous island localities to the north in the
Torres Strait.[4]
Pajinka Road connects Cape York to the town of Bamaga to the west of the locality
Somerset Road connects from Pajinka Road to the historic Somerset settlement and Fly Point
Narau Beach Road connects from Somerset Road to Narau Beach
Airport Road connects the town of Bamaga with the Northern Peninsula Airport
There is very limited land use within the locality.[4]
Coastal features
The locality has many coastal features, some on the mainland and others on the islands. The northern coast of the locality is comprised on headlands and beaches, while the southern coast is marshland without many features.
Several Indigenous groups occupied this region prior to European contact.[49] In an 1896 report to the
Queensland Government,
Archibald Meston estimated that in the 1870s the Indigenous population between Newcastle Bay (10°53′09″S142°36′05″E / 10.8857°S 142.6014°E / -10.8857; 142.6014 (Newcastle Bay)) and Cape York was around 3000. At the time of writing his report, he believed that the population had fallen to around 300.[50][51] This rapid decline was caused by a number of factors, including introduced disease, exclusions from traditional hunting grounds and
frontier violence.[52][53] Reverend Frederick Charles Jagg, a missionary at Somerset appointed by the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,[54][55] 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".[56][57]
Gudang (Gootung) is one of the languages of the tip of Cape York. The Gudang language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council, particularly the localities of Somerset,
Albany Passage and Newcastle Bay extending north to the Tip.[58]
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.[59][57]
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.[62][63][64] 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 (0.405 a) in size.[65][66][57]
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.[67][68][69] 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.[70] Henry Simpson succeeded Jardine as Police Magistrate in 1866.[71] The Marines were withdrawn in 1867 and replaced with
Native Police.[72][57]
"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...".
Frank Jardine was appointed as a Magistrate in December 1867 and as Police Magistrate and Inspector of Police at Somerset in April 1868.[77][78] In 1869 he held the positions of District Registrar for Somerset, Police Magistrate, Clerk of Petty Sessions, Inspector of Police and Postmaster.[79] 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.[80][81] 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.[82][57]
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.[83][84] Frank Jardine continued to live at Somerset, maintaining the police residence until his death there in March 1919.[85] 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.[86][87][88][57]
The pearl diving industry was important 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 7,000 Japanese who left their country to become pearl divers.[89][90][91][57]
The Kennedy Memorial Monument was unveiled on 13 December 1948 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of
Edmund Besley Court Kennedy's unsuccessful exploration of Cape York Peninsula.[92] The monument comprises a concrete slab on a concrete footing with a bronze commemorative plaque on its eastern face.[57][93]
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 (1,694,260 acres). The determination was handed down on 30 October 2014.[94][57]
Demographics
In the
2011 census, Somerset had a population of 0 people.[95]
In the
2016 census, Somerset had a population of 0 people.[96]
In the
2021 census, Somerset had a population of 0 people.[1]
Attractions
There is an historical ruin of Somerset homestead, a station established by John Jardine (father of
Frank Jardine) in 1863 and is 35 km north of
Bamaga on
Cape York in
Queensland,
Australia. It is a good camping area and day trip with facilities for barbecues. It is situated near a beach.
^C G Austin, "Early History of Somerset and Thursday Island", Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, Volume 4, issue 2, Brisbane 1949, p. 217.
^Austin, Early History of Somerset and Thursday Island, p. 218
^'Events for 1862', Theophilis Pugh, Pugh's Almanac and Queensland Directory, Brisbane, Australia, 1863, p. 166-67.
^Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 3, 1863, p. 203
^Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 5, 1864, p. 470
^Queensland Government Gazette, vol.5, 1864, p. 470.
^Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 6, 2 March 1865, p. 163-64
^Queensland Government Gazette, vol.7, 14 March 1866, p. 295-96.
^Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 5, 1864, page 171
^Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 5, 8 July 1864, p. 469
^Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <
"Jardine, John (1807–1874)". Biography - John Jardine - Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
Archived from the original on 14 December 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2013.>, accessed Oct 2017.
^E J T Barton (ed), Jubilee History of Queensland, HJ Diddams & Co: Brisbane, 1909, p. 362.
^James Cook University, Material Culture Unit, Report on the Former Magistrate's Residence at Somerset, Cape York: Stage 1, 1986, p. 42.
^S McIntyre, Conservation Plan Somerset Historic Site, Prepared on behalf of the Injinoo Aboriginal Community, 1994, p. 14.
^F L Byerley. Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine, from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland. J.W. Buxton, Bookseller and Stationer, Brisbane, 1867, p. 65 reproduced Project Gutenberg eBook 2004<
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4521/4521-h/4521-h.htm£pic2Archived 19 November 2011 at the
Wayback Machine>, accessed Oct 2017
^Clem Lack, "Jardine, John (1807-1874)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,
"Jardine, John (1807–1874)". Biography - John Jardine - Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
Archived from the original on 22 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018., published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 25 October 2017.
^F L Byerley. Narrative of the overland expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to Cape York. Brisbane, 1867, p. 65. (River name approved in 1865).
^Queensland Government Gazette: vol. 7, 1868, p. 1165
^Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 8, 1868, p. 334.
^Blue Book of Queensland 1869, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1869, p. viii. In 1873 Jardine was District Registrar, Police Magistrate and Shipping Inspector at Somerset, but from the following year, held no official positions. In his capacity of Justice of the Peace he acted as "Guardian of Minors" for Somerset, a role he held from 20 March 1872 for many years.
^Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <
"Jardine, John (1807–1874)". Biography - John Jardine - Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
Archived from the original on 14 December 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2013.>, accessed Oct 2017
^Queensland Death Certificate for Sana Jardine, 1923, Reg# C4567.
^Rodney Liddell, Cape York. The Savage Frontier. Rodney Liddell, Redbank, 1996, p. 98.
^n.a., Kushimoto: The Public Information Magazine, No. 116, December 2014, p. 3.
^Photographs of Kennedy Memorial Monument taken at site visit in September 2017.
^"Edmund Kennedy". Monument Australia.
Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
^In "Exclusive Areas" of exercise of the native title rights and interests, those rights and interests are, other than in relation to Water, the rights to possession, occupation, use and enjoyment of the area to the exclusion of all others. AustLII 2014. Woosup on behalf of the Northern Cape York Group #1 v State of Queensland (No 3)[2014] FCA 1148 (30 October 2014),
Federal Court (Australia).