Whaling in Australia
[2] Whaling went on to be a major maritime industry in Australia providing work for hundreds of ships and thousands of men and contributing export products worth £4.2 million by 1850.
[3] Modern whaling using harpoon guns and iron hulled catchers was conducted in the twentieth century from shore-based stations in Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
[8] There is no record of any traditional hunting of whales by the frail bark canoes or hollowed out logs used as fishing vessels.
by little Nanbaree and a party of men, went in a boat to Manly Cove, intending to land there and walk on to Broken Bay.
On drawing near the shore, a dead whale in the most disgusting state of putrification was seen lying on the beach, and at least two hundred Indians surrounding it, broiling the flesh on different fires and feasting on it with the most extravagent marks of greediness and rapture ... on being asked the cause of their present meeting Beneelon [i.e. Bennelong] pointed to the whale, which stank immoderately, and Colbee made signals that it was common among them to eat until the stomach was so overladen as to occasion sickness.
That was when the British maritime explorer, naturalist and buccaneer William Dampier (1652-1715) sailed along the coast of Western Australia.
Some came under charter as convict transports or store ships and after landing their passengers and cargo began whaling or sealing voyages from Port Jackson.
The first to return to Sydney after taking whales off the coast was Captain Thomas Melvill who commanded the Britannia owned by Samuel Enderby & Sons.
To mark the occasion Governor Arthur Phillip presented Captain Melvill with a Silver Cup which was later inscribed: The gift of His Excellency, Arthur Phillips [sic], Esq., Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of His Majesty's Territory of New South Wales and its Dependencies, to Thomas Melvill, Commander of the Britannia, for killing a Spermaceti Whale on the 26th October 1791.
[20] His vessel Speedy returned to London from New South Wales in 1801 with oil worth £13,600 which Enderby said was the most valuable such cargo brought back till then.
[25] The first whaling station on the Australian mainland was established by Captain Thomas Raine (1793-1860) at Twofold Bay, in southern New South Wales, in 1828.
Pelagic (deep-sea) whaling ships occasionally came in to compete with the shore-based whalers, especially toward the end of their cruise when they were trying to fill their oil casks before returning to port.
[37] The large crews on such vessels – necessary to man the whale boats – meant the trade was a major employer of maritime labour.
[42] Whaling was a significant commercial enterprise in colonial Australia, contributing export commodities worth £3.3 million between 1831 and 1845.
[44] These included a decline in productivity due to depleted whale stocks, the start of a major economic depression in 1840, a series of gold rushes on mainland Australia starting in 1851, the discovery that mineral oil could be made into petroleum the use of which superseded whale oil as a lamp fuel and a realisation that a better and more reliable return could be obtained from investment in fine wool production.
[45] Modern whaling using steam-powered vessels and bow-mounted harpoon guns with explosive heads developed in the second half of the nineteenth century and allowed larger and faster swimming species to be hunted.
The later introduction of factory ships with a stern ramp enabled captured whales to be dragged onto the deck and processed with greater speed and safety.
Norwegian businessman Henrik Johan Bull was living in Australia in the 1890s when he conceived the idea of using Melbourne as a base to whale in the Antarctic.
[46] Unable to interest local investors, he returned to Norway and approached Svend Foyn (1809-1894) generally regarded as the founder of modern whaling.
Renamed Antarctic, the vessel left Norway on 20 September 1893 and after sealing at Kerguelen Island en route arrived at Melbourne on 24 February 1894.
[47] Norwegian firms established shore-based whaling stations in Western Australia at Frenchman’s Bay near Albany in 1912 and at Point Cloates in 1913.
[49] Norwegian factory ships and catchers sailing to and from the Antarctic would call at Hobart for provisions, men and repairs.
[51] Another factory ship took just 480 barrels of oil off the coast of Australia but found a single piece of ambergris that weighed 1,003 lbs, the largest ever recorded till that time, which sold in London for £23,000.
Key members of the Whale and Dolphin Coalition, including Jonny Lewis and Richard Jones, then formed Greenpeace Australia.
[60] Australia is now a global anti-whaling advocate and has taken a strong stance against Japan's whaling program in the Antarctic Ocean.
[61][62] The return of southern right whales to the Derwent River and other parts of Australia in recent decades is a sign that they are slowly recovering from their earlier exploitation to near extinction.
