page_title: Fort Dundas
section_title: Establishment
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Dundas / Establishment
caption_attribution_description: English: 'View of the settlement of Fort Dundas - by HMS ship Tamar in Port Cockburn, Melville Island, N. Coast Australia 1 November 1824. Taken from Tamar (sign of anchor) in King's Cove -
context_page_description: Fort Dundas was a short-lived British settlement on Melville Island between 1824 and 1828 in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia. It was the first of four British settlement attempts in northern Australia before Goyder's survey and establishment of Palmerston, now known as Darwin. The three later attempts were at Fort Wellington, Port Essington and Escape Cliffs.
context_section_description: Captain J. J. Gordon Bremer set sail on HMS Tamar from Port Jackson on the 24 August 1824 to colonise the northern part of Australia. His ship was accompanied by HMS Lady Nelson, and Countess of Harcourt. The ships transported Captain Maurie Barlow, Lieutenant John Septimus Roe, Lieutenant Everard and 23 men of the 3rd Regiment, a subaltern and 26 men of the Royal Marine, a surgeon, three commissariat workers, three free men seeking adventure and 44 convicts.
  The construction of a settlement began upon arrival on 27 September 1824. It was officially proclaimed on 21 October 1824, on Trafalgar Day. It was named Fort Dundas and was named after Robert Dundas, the First Lord of the Admiralty.
  The intention was to commence and develop trade with the Malays. During the first two years, the settlers never saw a Malay. Furthermore, the settlers had not been able to penetrate more than 20 miles into the island's interior "due to the hostility of the natives – being in the most savage state of barbarism, and all attempts to conciliate them proving abortive"; such was the report to the British people.
  The establishment of the settlement caused the border of New South Wales to be moved west from the 135th meridian to the Western Australian border (129th meridian).
  Captain Bremer was relieved by a Scot, Major John Campbell in 1827. Campbell's party was the first to include women. The first marriage in the Northern Territory occurred shortly after at the fort. In his party was the wife of Lieutenant Hicks, who died shortly after.
caption: JS Roe sketch of Fort Dundas, 1 November 1824
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