Mount Barker Summit seen from Pop-
Star’s garden

English: Lower Lakes of South Australia as viewed from space in May 2004 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mount Barker in South Australia is not the only Australian township named in honour of Captain Collet Barker. The other one is in Western Australia, 50 kilometres north of Albany.   Both townships have similarly sized hills nearby from which they derive their names.

The  West Australian town has a population of about 3000, while the population of Mount Barker in South Australia was 12,000 at the 2011 census.  However with adjacent Nairne and Hahndorf  the population of the Mount Barker region is estimated at 26,434 and is one of South Australia’s main growth areas.

Captain Collet Barker was a well-regarded figure in Australia’s early colonial history. He is not so well-known now because after only three years of service in Australia he died rather tragically aged 47 exploring the outlet of the Murray River.He had been a career soldier who served in Sicily, in the Napoleonic Wars against France, and in North America at the Canadian frontier. He came to Australia in 1828 to take charge of the short-lived penal settlement at Fort Wellington on Raffles Bay (on the north coast of the Cobourg Peninsula). A year later his assignment was to the penal settlement in King George Sound in Western Australia; it  was under the command of the Governor of NSW and closed in March 1831 for transfer to Sydney. He gave distinguished service at both locations, maintaining the health of the prisoners, and establishing friendly relationships with the aborigines. He was evidently disappointed when they were ended.

The Governor of the Swan River settlement, Sir James Stirling, objected to the King George Sound penal colony; it was not under their administration. When the Governor of NSW (Sir Ralph Darling) decided to close it and transfer the inmates to Sydney, Collet Barker was asked to take them on the ship Isabella, and on the way to explore the eastern coast of St Vincent’s Gulf, and to determine whether Lake Alexandrina, noted by the explorer of the Murrary River Charles Sturt, had a channel to St Vincent’s Gulf.

He arrived at Cape Jervis on 13 April 1831. He first explored the coast north of Cape Jervix from the Isabella, but found no outlet in doing so.

He then returned to anchor Isabella at Port Noarlunga, and explored the interior defining the landmarks of the future Adelaide settlement. He noted the abundant fertility of the land, with “rich, fat chocolate coloured earth”. He correctly identified Mount Lofty Summit (727 metres) which had been climbed and named by Matthew Flinders in 1802 during his circum-navigation of Australia. He and his officers climbed Mount Lofty and from the Summit, where Matthew Flinders had left a cairn of stones, he was able to identify a bay now known as the Barker Inlet; this he had missed when exploring the coast from the Isabella. Adjacent was the mouth of the Port River, and location of the future Port of Adelaide. He also noted the mouth of a smaller river which he named Sturt River after his explorer friend Charles Sturt.

His remaining task was to extend his search towards Lake Alexandrina, and determine whether or not there was a channel to the Gulf. He sailed south from Port Noarlunga to anchor at Rapid Bay. He then set out overland on foot across the Fleurieu Peninsula to Encounter Bay. At the eastern extremity of the Bay on 30 April 1831, he came across the mouth of the Murray River, and outlet of Sturt’s Lake Alexandrina. Had he been content with this discovery, he would have survived to complete his assignment and to take up his next post to the troubled North Island settlement of New Zealand where his conciliatory attitude might have been invaluable in dealing with the Maori problem.

He made a decision however to extend his exploration to the southern side of the Murrary mouth, but since he was the only one in the party who could swim, he set out alone across the mile wide mouth with his compass strapped to his head. He was observed to reach the far shore, to take bearings with his compass, and to then walk up and over a sand dune. A short time later his men heard a sharp cry, and then nothing. He was never seen again. Eventually when they had given up all hope for his return, the party returned to the ship.

Before moving on, they contacted  Kangaroo Island sealers who requested their Aboriginal interpreter Sally to find out what had befallen Collet Barker. She and two of her relatives are reported to have met with the Ngarrindjeri people of the Coorong. They were told  that three of their number had speared the defenceless Captain Barker several times, and thrown his body into waters of Lake Alexandrina. Unfortunately the kindly Barker paid the price for the past brutality of the sealers and whalers of Kangaroo Island.

Mount Barker Summit, the peak Sturt saw from Lake Alexandrina and thought by him to be Mount Lofty, was named in his honour by Charles Sturt. There are two memorials to Captain Collet Barker, one at Mount Barker, and the other in St. James’s church in Sydney.

The information provided by Captain Barker’s exploration influenced the choice of Adelaide for the South Australian Settlement five years later in 1836 at Holdfast Bay.

http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/barker-collet-1740