Raffles Bay - Culture and History

Raffles Bay was named by the explorer Phillip Parker King in 1818 after the famous Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the lieutenant governor of Java and founder of the colony of Singapore.

In 1826, after unsatisfactory reports of the settlement at Fort Dundas on Melville Island had filtered through to the Colonial Office in London, it was decided to set up a second military outpost on the northern coast of Australia. On 19 May 1827 Captain James Stirling was despatched from Sydney to establish an outpost at Raffles Bay. The outpost was to be known as Fort Wellington. The crew consisted of some convicts and some members of the 39th Regiment. They arrived at Raffles Bay on 17 June and the settlement was built on the eastern side of the bay.

The settlement suffered the inevitable problems of disease, pestilence, tropical lethargy, attacks from unfriendly Aborigines, and isolation. In 1828, with the arrival of Collet Barker, it looked as though the settlement might succeed. Barker established good relations with the Aborigines and started encouraging settlement from the East Indies. However Barker had arrived too late. The settlement was closed down in 1829. Today little remains of the settlement.