PastMasters

The Guardian of HMAS Patricia Cam Survivors Beach - Gurraka Bay - Wessel Islands NT

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Jensen Bay sunrise - Djinjan - Marchinbar Island 16/7/2013 - where Morrie Isenberg, the finder of the Kilwa coins, had put a 'Cross on a Mud Map'

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;" {Matthew 7:7}

Matthew neglects to mention that what 'ye seek' seldom bears much resemblance to what 'ye find'. In 2013, seven of us went looking for tiny Medieval African coins in the sands of the Wessel Islands - after seven day we could only honestly say we'd 'found the haystack'. However, we did find much interesting stuff - art & artefacts whose stories have taken us from WW2 back to a 110,000 year old beachfront which, in turn, is but a fifth the age of Mission Beach on Elcho Island, at the bottom of the Wessels, where we've also made significant finds.

Though Cape Wessel is closer to Borneo than it is to Brisbane and nearer to Sumatra than Sydney - these are Australian stories - it is Australia's story.

Welcome to the PastMasters website

In 2012 the co-founders of PastMasters, Ian McIntosh & Mike Owen, attended the Macassan History Symposium at ANU in Canberra and decided that, as nobody had bothered to investigate the find site of Australia's oldest foreign artefacts - then we would just have to do it ourselves.

With a couple of Ian's archaeological friends from Territory Days - Tim Stone & Michael Hermes - as well as help from Minelab Metal Detectors & Australian Geographic - amongst many others - within 18 months we had boarded the Hama Pearl, at last light, in Gove to awake in the Wessels Islands and begin the quest for the Kilwa Coins.

Since then, we have pursued research into Australian Contact History through workshops, publications, expeditions and collaborations which - with much else besides - is detailed in the following web pages.

This is work 'in progress' by people easily distracted - suggestions, corrections, sources - especially image sources and insights are all most welcome.

East Arnhem Land - a Google Earth image

Major Expeditions

Ancient Coins in Arnhemland Expedition 2013

Ancient Coins in Arnhemland 2013

Two Island Bay - Marchinbar Island 2013

Ancient Coins in Arnhemland Expedition 2013
Day 1. Hosts Dhimurru Rangers - visit & advise on management of Wurrwurrwuy Stone Pictures - demo metal detectors.
Day 2. Workshop at Dhimurru Ranger Station - Field demonstration for Rangers & Norforce at Melville Bay.
Day 3. Arrive Djinjan at Jensen Bay in Wessel Islands
Day 4. Move up to Jensen's Camp - rock art and metal detector survey - seaward landing - Rocks Awash Reef
Day 5. Survey Jensen Bay creeks and foreshore.
Day 6. Cape Wessel - Cau Can 2 - Jensen Island - Trafalgar Bay & Double Island Bay.
Day 7. OSL beach dating - Japanee Creek.
Day 8. At Gove - Denouement & Debrief with Dhimurru Rangers & TO at Gove.

Significant finds - ship's knee that led to HMAS Patricia Cam - evidence of export of iron ore - long nails brought by Macassans - OSL beach dating - copper screw made into Oyster knife - WW2 redoubt & .55 Boys Rifle cartridge and rock art imager that later examination using D'Stretch software would reveal perhaps the earliest vessels to visit Australia being the whale hunters of Yolngu oral history.

The wreck of the Cua Can 3 - Rimbija Island Cape Wessel

Elcho Island Past Muster
2014

Past Muster 2014

Takkerena - The Music Room - the permanent freshwater spring on Mission Beach Elcho Island on dusk

Elcho Island Past Muster 2014 - How much history can we muster on Elcho Island in 7 days?
Day 1. Metal Detector survey Mission Beach spring - fish cold store - kids metal detecting by church.
Day 2. Adjustment Monument - boat building & fish processing site - kids metal detecting on beach - chain from Naphtha Mine engine - Shepherdson sawmill blade - beam engine wheel & site of Naphtha Mine.
Day 3. Gawa Outstation - school presentation to staff - MD demo at school and beach survey - WW2 fuel tank in sand dune - 22 Days site.
Day 4. Barge Landing - Black Rocks with Marthakal Rangers - Shepherdson College presentation & MD demo in sandpit.
Day 5. Mission Beach Chinese Cash Coin, 1st found on the islands - Fossil Beach - Macassan Site.
Day 6. Last remaining early 'Native' mission house documented - Pleistocene Dune discovered.
Day 7. Shoal Bay - Boustead Jar discussions with finder Billy Boustead

Looking south from Elcho Island - across entrance to Cadell Strait to Howard Island & the Napier Peninsular

Shoal Bay & Dundee Beach Expedition
2015

Shoal Bay 2015

Shoal Bay 2016 - Boustead boat ramp - dusk over Shoal Bay - MH phone home.

Shoal Bay & Dundee Beach Expedition 2015
Day 1. Nightcliff stone fish traps in Port Darwin.
Day 2. Rapid Creek cyclone landfill & 19th century mission weir.
Day 3. Ancient Shorelines and Shell Mounds in Shoal Bay.
Day 4. Find site of the Boustead Jar with Billy Boustead - 3 piece 19th century wine bottles.
Day 5. Dundee Beach find site of the 2nd Swivel Gun - subsequently lost.

MH scale demonstrating the first stage of the natural beach mound development process.

Tiwi Islands Expedition
2016

Tiwi Islands 2016

Carslow Beach - Melville Island - potentially a 1705 Dutch Well - July 2016

Macassan Fish Trap - Snake Bay Melville Island

Government Barracks Fort Dundas

Tiwi Islands Expedition 2016
Day 1. Public Presentation at Museum & Art Gallery of NT
Day 2. Bathurst Island - mission precinct
Day 3. Carslow Beach with Milikapiti Rangers - 1705 Dutch landing & well site.
Day 4. Macassan Weir & fish trap with Land Council Chairman Gibson Farmer and TO's - WW2 jetty - Taracumbi Falls polished axe.
Day 5. Fort Dundas 1824-29
Day 6. Dundee Beach community presentation at club - Doukas bronze swivel gun - invite locals to bring finds.
Day 8. Presentation at Dundee Beach foreshore - community engagement & sensitising to presence of archaeology.

Gibson Farmer & Ian McIntosh at the Macassan Weir - Snake Bay - Melville Island

Port Essington & Escape Cliffs Expedition
2017

Port Essington 2017

Port Essington & Escape Cliffs Expedition 2017
Day 1. Escape Cliffs - plot coastal erosion - identify bricks as recovered from Victoria Settlement.
Day 3 & 4. Record Point - discover location of well where 'coins' scattered by JS Roe in 1824.
Day 5. Victoria Settlement - locate Macassan site - plot cemetery - identify Lambrick family in UK.
Day 6. Seven Spirit Bay & Black Point Ranger Station - Macassan anchor and ballast - discuss finds with Rangers.
Day 7 & 8. Trepang Bay - extensive Macassan presence - middens - graves - find mid 19th century uniform buttons x Fort Victoria.

Wessels Islands Rock Art & Radar Expedition
2018

Wessels Rock Art & Radar 2018

The camp at Hopeful Bay, Marchinbar Island on sunrise 2018

Wessels Rock Art & Radar Expedition with Flinders University 2018

Day 1. Elcho Island - meeting of TO's at Marthakal Rangers Station
Day 2. Hopeful Bay - rock art survey locates rock shelter containing image of axes and Flinders' ship HMS Cumberland
Day 3. Australians Bay - record Indonesian flotsam - affix plaque commemorating Flinders meeting Yolngu & gifting axes to 'the Australians'.
Day 4. Pat Cam beach in Gurraka Bay affix plaque commemorate where survivors came ashore & where Percy Cameron & Milirrma Marika were buried.
Day 5. Jensen Bay - TV show 'Coast' - Elder Cave rock art
Day 6. With 'All 4 Adventure' & Rangers discover location of 312RS Radar Station camp where Isenberg was serving when he found the Kilwa coins in 1945.

The Cave of The Axes

Senior Marthakal Ranger Marcus Lacey & IM at the affixing of the plaque to Matthew Flinders & The Australians.

Wet Season 'Wessels on the Wildcard' Expedition
2019

Wildcard 2019

Wessels on the Wildcard Expedition 2019
Day 1- 4. Magnetometry search for the wreck of HMAS Patricia Cam.
Day 5. Detailed survey survivor island in Gurraka Bay and environs.
Day 6 & 7. Through Cumberland Strait up to Triple B Bay
Day 8 & 9. Burston Bay - discover previously unrecorded 109ka beach front.
Day 10 & 11. English Company Islands - discover Macassan watering site where Flinders met Pobassoo in 1804 & shared a bottle of red.

Capt. Bruce Wildcard Davey PM

L>R MH, MO, TS & Tiger Davey with magfish

HMS Beagle aka Watch Vessel No. 7
A Beagle Anchor
2019

HMS Beagle aka Watch Vessel No. 7

The Beagle's ingo - her grave by the River Roach at Paglesham, Essex

The Beagle Anchor discovered by Rodney Choppin

Ann Boulter with Beagle treasure

UK & Mauritius in search of Matthew Flinders & HMS Cumberland
2019

Matthew Flinders - The Long Way Home

Mauritius looking south west

1st Roman Villa Discovered in Australia
2020

Roman Villa Found in Darwin

A Covid inspired Google Earth Expedition, at home in Darwin, revealed a rare coastal villa in SE England. On-line LIDAR & a range of other tools enabled a landscape to emerge that was ideal to supported the 43AD Roman landing as this area integrates a number of key strategic advantages. An earlier villa and later Saxon agricultural centre overly irregular ~Iron Age features, suggesting a 'multi-transitional' site - independent of a market economy. The villa site & supportive landscape, offer a palimpsest of archaeology, in a rural location, less than 40m from Tower Bridge & 5 minutes from an country pub - Dig HQ.