Extracts from the Report of Captain Lipson on Port Elliot.
“Harbour Master’s Office, Port Elliot.
“I know, from long experience of this coast, that the strong winds, which prevail during the winter, are from south-west, west, and north-west, and that when the wind shifts to south it invariably moderates; and being assured, by all the masters of whalers in that district, that the south or south-east winds were only during the summer months, and that the shelter from the Murray beach prevented any fetch into Port Elliot, I feel assured that, after a time, it will be found quite safe to extend the anchorage for large ships further out. * * * * * * *
“Port Elliot lies in lat. 35° 32′ 45″ south, and long. 138° 43′ 15″ east, and is about six miles from Rosetta Head. The new lighthouse on Cape Willoughby, Kangaroo Island, is situated in lat. 35° 49′ 20″ south, long. 138° 43′ 15″ east; and, with respect to it, Port Elliot bears north 55 east, twenty-nine miles. I do not consider it necessary to give any particular sailing directions for making this port, as there is nothing remarkable with regard to headlands, &c., to point out to the attention of mariners. As a port of refuge from south to north-west, which are our usual winter winds, I have never met a person who did not acknowledge the safety and ease of riding under the island. In proof of this, ever since the Colony has been founded, our coasters have been in the habit of going in and out at all seasons of the year, whenever freights have offered, and no accident has ever happened, or has any vessel ever been driven on shore, although furnished, as they generally are, with very inferior ground tackle.”
Referring to the eligibility of Port Elliot as a mail-station, Captain Lipson’s report thus concludes:—
“It must be well known to those who are in the habit of trading between Adelaide and the different ports along the coast, that, now there is a good light on Cape Willoughby, with the west and northwest gales which blow so frequently during the winter season, they may go into Port Elliot, and oftentimes back again, either to Van Diemen’s Land or Port Phillip, in less time than they could beat through Backstairs Passage; besides the difficulty of returning down the Gulf against the south-west gales. I have no hesitation in saying, that two mails may easily be delivered at Port Elliot, for one at Port Adelaide, during the winter months, &c.
“I have, &c., “THOS. LIPSON, “Naval Officer and Harbour Master.
“Hon. the Colonial Secretary.”
NAVIGATION OF THE MURRAY.
Message No. 24, from His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor to the Legislative Council.
Lieutenant-Governor Sir Henry Young has the gratification to announce to the Legislative Council the arrival, at the Goolwa, of the first river-borne wool, the produce of the vast basin of the Murray.
In congratulating the Council on this auspicious commencement of the steam navigation and commerce of the great River Murray, the Lieutenant-Governor is happy to state that Captain Cadell’s voyage reached to one hundred and fifty miles beyond Swan Hill, a distance of about fourteen hundred and fifty miles from the sea; and was also extended to sixty miles up the Wakool—an important branch of the Murray. The first cargo comprises wool of the Murray, the Darling, the Murrumbidgee, and the Wakool Rivers.
H. E. F. YOUNG, Lieutenant-Governor.