Risdon Cove
Risdon Cove is a cove located on the east bank of the Derwent River, approximately north of Hobart, Tasmania. It was the site of the first British settlement in Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, the island state of Australia. The cove was named by John Hayes, who mapped the river in the ship "Duke of Clarence" in 1794, after his second officer William Bellamy Risdon. In 1803 Lieutenant John Bowen was sent to establish a settlement in Van Diemen's Land. On the advice of the explorer George Bass he had chosen Risdon Cove. While the site  was a good one from a defensive point of view, the soil was poor and water scarce. The 49 people aboard the "Lady Nelson" and Albion made a curious party of soldiers, sailors, settlers and convicts. In 1804 Lieutenant Colonel David Collins arrived in the Derwent from Port Phillip on "Ocean". Within a few days he rejected Risdon Cove as a suitable settlement site, for its inadequate source of fresh water, and moved his party across the river to Sullivans Cove. The military and convicts disembarked from "Ocean" near Hunter Island on 20–21 February 1804 and thus beginning what is  now Hobart. "Lady Nelson" landed the free settlers at New Town Bay on 22 February. One of the first land grants at Risdon Cove was made to Dr William F A I'Anson, the chief surgeon who arrived with Lieutenant-Governor Collins in 1804. 3 May 1804. The original records show that a large group of Aborigines walked into the fledling settlement. The settlement's guards mistakenly thought they were under attack and killed some of the intruders. About 300 aboriginals, men, women and children, who had banded together approached the Risdon Cove settlement whilst occupied on a kangaroo hunt. The  Aborigines had arrived at the settlement and some were justifiably upset by the presence of the colonists. There had been no widespread aggression, but if their displeasure spread and escalated, Lt. Moore, the commanding officer at the time, and his dozen or so soldiers, could not be expected to be able to protect the settlement from a mob of such size. The soldiers were therefore ordered to fire a carronade (a short-barrel, heavy calibre naval cannon known to sailors as "the smasher") in an attempt to disperse the aboriginals; it is not known if this was a blank round , although some allege grape shot was used to explain an alleged but uncorroborated high figure of deaths. In addition, two soldiers fired muskets in protection of a Risdon Cove settler being beaten on his farm by aboriginals carrying waddies (clubs). These soldiers killed one aboriginal outright, and mortally wounded another, who was later found dead in a valley. Moore's account lists three killed and some wounded. It is therefore known that in the conflict some aboriginals were killed, and that the colonists "had reason to Suppose more were wounded, as one was seen to be taken away bleeding". It  is also known that an infant boy about 2–3 years old was left behind in what was viewed as a "retreat from a hostile attempt made upon the borders of the settlement". "There were a great many of the Natives slaughtered and wounded" according to the Edward White, an Irish convict who later spoke before a committee of inquiry nearly 30 years later in 1830, but could not give exact figures. White alleged to have been an eyewitness, although he was working in a creek bed where the escarpment prevented him from viewing events. Claiming to be the first to  see the approaching aboriginals, he also said that "the natives did not threaten me; I was not afraid of them; (they) did not attack the soldiers; they would not have molested them; they had no spears with them; only waddies". That they had no spears with them is questionable, and his claims need to be assessed with caution. His contemporaries had believed the approach to be a potential attack by a group of aboriginals that greatly outnumbered the colonists in the area, and spoke of "an attack the natives made", their "hostile Appearance", and "that their design was to attack  us". A macabre postscript to the story was an allegation that the bones of some of the Aborigines were shipped to Sydney in two casks. There is no documentary evidence of this. 20th century. The site at Risdon Cove was farmed until 1946. By the 150th anniversary celebrations (September 1954) land had been acquired by the State Government to add to the reserve. Angela McGowan excavated the site in 1978-80. The hand-over of the Risdon Cove site, which includes the Bowen Memorial, was part of the Aboriginal Lands Act 1995. The transfer occurred on 11 December 1995, and  since then Aboriginal Tasmanians have maintained and developed the site as a cultural and an educational facility.