Exploring the Swan River, 1827

• This asset depicts the exploration mission led by James Stirling (1791-1865) in March 1827 up the Swan River from its mouth - the 18 members of the party were not the first Europeans to travel up the river, but they were the first to go so far; according to the title of the painting, it shows the party 50 miles (80 km) upstream.
• It probably shows the exploration party at Ellen's Brook, now the township of Ellensbrook, north-east of Perth - Ellen's Brook, a small creek, was named by Stirling after his wife, Ellen, and is believed to be the furthest point up the Swan River reached by the exploration party; the party was unable to take the boats any further, so set up camp on the bank and spent two days exploring the area.
• It illustrates one of the areas that Stirling recommended when he urged the establishment of a British settlement on the Swan River - late in 1828, the British Government agreed to Stirling's proposal, and made him Lieutenant-Governor of the Swan River Colony, soon to be known as Western Australia; the headquarters of the new colony was Perth.
• It shows Indigenous Australians in the upper Swan River area, the Noongar (also Nyungar or Nyoongar) people - the painting is historically inaccurate because members of Stirling's party met no Noongar people in the two days they spent in the Ellen's Brook area; Stirling's party encountered amicable Noongar people lower down the river with whom they exchanged gifts.
• It features black swans ('Cygnus atratus') - during a 1697 expedition, the Flemish explorer Willem de Vlamingh (1640-?) named the waterway Zwaanenrivier (Swan River) because of the large number of black swans he found there; Stirling's party killed and ate a number of them, and on one occasion gave three to a party of Noongar people as part of a gift exchange.
• It illustrates a range of native vegetation in the upper Swan River area - some could be flooded gums ('Eucalyptus rudis'), and those in the foreground are small grass trees ('Xanthorrhoea preissii'); a resinous substance from grass trees was used by the Noongar people for fastening barbs onto spears and fastening sharp pieces of quartz or bone onto wooden handles to make knives or hatchets; the dead flower stalks of these plants were used as friction instruments to start fires.
• It is an example of the work of the English painter William John Huggins (1781-1845) - Huggins served several years at sea, employed by the British East India Company, before returning to London, where he painted many of the company's ships; in 1834, he was appointed Marine Painter to King William IV (1765-1837), and his royal commissions included paintings of the Battle of Trafalgar (1805).

4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9