Pennefather River - Citizendia

The Pennefather River in Queensland, Australia, is located on western Cape York Peninsula at 12°13′S, 141°44′E. Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern corner of the mainland continent For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. This article is about the peninsula located in the Australian state of Queensland; it should not be confused with either Yorke Peninsula in South Australia The river is about 11 km long and up to about 2km wide.

The river is one of the most significant historical sites in Australia as it is probably the place where, in 1606, the Dutch yacht Duyfken, commanded by Willem Janszoon, after a voyage from the Dutch East Indies, made the first authenticated landing on Australian soil by a European ship. Voyages In 1596 a ship named "Duyfken" sailed in the first expedition to Bantam, the crew was captured by the islanders Not to be confused with Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638 a contemporary Dutch cartographer Willem Janszoon (c Willem Janszoon made the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent in 1606 in the Duyfken. See http//enwikipediaorg/wiki/WikipediaFootnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the tags and the template below

The European names formerly applied to the Pennefather River are confusing. Unfortunately the Duyfken journals have not been seen since the early seventeenth century so that information about the voyage and places visited must be obtained from observations by later Dutch explorers and later maps. In a chart found in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, which is a c. Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. 1670 copy from the original Duyfken chart, a surprisingly accurate outline of the north-western coastline of Cape York Peninsula is shown. Voyages In 1596 a ship named "Duyfken" sailed in the first expedition to Bantam, the crew was captured by the islanders The river now known as the Pennefather was clearly shown and its cartographer gave it the name Revier met het Bosch meaning river with trees or bush, perhaps referring to the coastal she-oaks at the mouth.

A later Dutch explorer, Jan Carstenszoon, who was in the area in 1623, gave the name Coen River to a river at latitude 13º 7' South. Jan Carstenszoon (also known by the abbreviation of his Patronym Carstensz or Carstensz The Coen River is situated in the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland ( Australia) in. However, geologist Robert Logan Jack examined the naming of the river in his 1921 history of Cape York Peninsula and came to the conclusion that Carstenzoon's Coen River was in fact Norman Creek which flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria about four kilometres south of False Pera Head at 13º 4' South. Robert Logan Jack (16 September 1845 – 6 November 1921 was Queensland Government geologist for twenty years Later research by Günter Schilder, however, suggests that it was the river now known as the Archer that empties into the Gulf just south of Aurukun. Aurukun is an Indigenous community situated approximately 100 km south of Weipa in far North Queensland, Australia. Carstenszoon seems to have ignored, or failed to observe, the river now known as the Pennefather.

Carstenzoon sailed past a large river which he named the Revier de Carpentier, probably Port Musgrave with the Wenlock River. The Carpentier River, on the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland was named in honour of Pieter de Carpentier, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Geoffrey Ingleton notes in a table in his account of Matthew Flinders visit to the area that Carstenzoon's 'Revier de Carpentier' was the Pennefather River, yet he contradicts this later in a note to the effect that the Carpentier River was later renamed the Batavia.

Abel Janszoon Tasman sailed along the western Cape York Peninsula coastline in 1644 and charted the Coen River as the Prince River and Matthew Flinders visited the Pennefather River on 7 November 1802 and assumed from the Dutch chart which he was using that the river was the Coen and henceforth the hydrographic chart of the area showed that name. Abel Janszoon Tasman ( 1603 - October 10 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and Merchant. Captain Matthew Flinders, RN (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814 was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age

In 1880 Captain Charles Edward de Fonblanque Pennefather in command of the Queensland Government Schooner (QGS) Pearl, sailed from Thursday Island to examine the coast and rivers on the eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Thursday Island, also known as TI or Waiben, is the administrative and commercial centre of the Torres Strait Islands. He took a whaleboat into the Coen River at latitude 12º 13' South and then sailed southwards to the Archer River then again back to the Batavia River. It became apparent that there were two Coen rivers in the Western Cape region: the Coen named by Flinders and the South Coen which rose in the eastern ranges and drained into the Archer River. In 1894 the Coen River was re-named the Pennefather to avoid confusion with the South Coen River and the South Coen was re-named the Coen River. The Coen River is situated in the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland ( Australia) in.

However, the British Admiralty Chart for the Gulf of Carpentaria retained the name 'Coen' until the 1960s, possibly because the Admiralty Hydrographic Office was not advised of the change by the Queensland government. Eventually a number of place names on western Cape York Peninsula which varied between those shown on Admiralty charts and other maps were renamed for the sake of uniformity and the name 'Pennefather River' appeared in the Australia Pilot in 1967.

One of the most famous cartographical depictions of the Gulf of Carpentaria, showing placenames bestowed by the Janszoon, Carstenzoon and Tasman expeditions, is the so-called Bonaparte map held by the Mitchell Library of the State Library of New South Wales. See Mitchell Library (Australia for that section of the State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales (also known as the Mitchell Library) is a large public library owned by the state of New South Wales, Australia Visitors to the Mitchell walk across a marble mosaic copy of the map installed at the entrance.

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