In glancing over the Morning Herald of 1st instant, I was extremely sorry to see the loss of the schooner Perseverance, at Moreton Bay, which had become a total wreck, in consequence of running for the old channel, it be unfortunately filled up, (the same place presume, where the Shamrock, steamer, grounded).

Now, I beg leave to state for the information of the public, that such a channel never existed since the Government establishment was formed (boat channels excepted.) The only safe channel is at the extreme eastern sand bank; from the bank which forms the channel you leave on the starboard hand is a continuation of sand to Moreton Island, not more than nine feet at low water spring tides, which will be seen by my chart in the Surveyor-General's Office. This channel is safe, although not more than three hundred feet broad, and not less than fifteen feet at low water spring tides, rise and fall six feet six inches. The soundings where you enter between the sand banks are as follows, viz.- 5, 4, 3�; 3, 2�, 3,- 3, 3�, 4, and ??? fathoms ; and your course W.N.W. by ??? until you bring Amity Point to bearing? W � S., then haul up for it; vessels ??? burthen may beat up to Amity Point after they get through the outer channel.

When HMS Rainbow, the Honorable Captain Rouse, conveyed His Excellency Sir Ralph Darling to Moreton Bay, he had a copy of my chart, which he stated was very correct ; also the ship Waterloo, that carried troops and prisoners to that settlement. I would recommend to all commanders of vessels trading to Moreton Bay, after passing Flat Rock, to go on the fore-topsail yard or crosstrees, where they can con their vessel through the channel. In fine weather you can see the channel and sand banks quite plain; the channel appears dark, and the sand banks of a light colour, resembling pipe clay. In blowing weather you can see the breakers on the sand banks to windward and leeward, and the channel quite smooth. When I first entered the channel in the year 1825, it was blowing a strong gale from the southward with double reef topsails set; after passing Flat Rock, I could see the sea breaking heavy on the sand banks, apparently no passage. I kept standing into the bay until I brought the outer breakers to bear N.W. by compass, I then discovered a channel quite smooth, bearing W.N.W. by compass, which channel I ran for, the sea breaking to windward and leeward of the vessel.

SG 23 Mar 1844 ; p 3

H.M. schooners Bramble and Castlereagh are lying in the Bay, the officers of them, assisted by Captain Wickham, our talented Police Magistrate, being busy in the survey of the northern passage into the Bay. From what I have heard, Lieutenant Youle, the commander of the Bramble has expressed his astonishment that so splendid a harbour should have remained so long overlooked, or rather neglected. The Bramble had at no time less than five fathoms coming in, and to their anchorage off the mouth of the Brisbane seldom less than seven fathoms, with a channel at no time less than one to two miles wide.

I have no doubt so soon as the survey is completed, and a small chart lithographed under the authority of the colonial government, that Moreton Bay will become a most important port for all vessels requiring refreshments or to refit whilst prosecuting the sperm fishery off these shores. A vessel running in and anchoring under Cape Moreton will be secure from all easterly or south-east gales, and find on Moreton Island abundance of beautiful water close to the beach, and immense quantities of Cypress pine, admirably adapted for billet and firewood ; fish is also abundant in all seasons about the island ; and the distance to the river bar, with a fair way to run up, not more than fifteen to twenty miles, consequently supplies in any quantity could be taken down in a few hours, without the vessel leaving her first anchorage. The pilot at present stationed at Amity Point will, I have no doubt, be speedily , removed to Cape Moreton, and the southern entrance be only used by steamers, or those vessels commanded by masters conversant with that intricate channel. - Correspondent.

SG & SGTL Page 31 - Jan 1846

Moreton Bay 14 June [1846]. The Hunter River Steam Navigation Company are about making some extensive additions and improvements to the stores and wharf at South Brisbane: the wharf is to be carried along the whole face of the river frontage into deep water ; the wool stores are to be floored, an agent's house and offices erected, and the whole of the property securely fenced in.

This measure will no doubt set at rest any further rumour of the opening of another township at Cleveland Point : for whilst every facility will now be afforded in the river for the quick transit of goods and merchandise to and from Sydney, years must elapse before means can be found to make the roadstead at Cleveland secure, for the loading and discharging shipping ; half the money that it would cost to make any township in the Bay at all approachable, would, with the assistance of the dredging machine, deepen the entrance to this noble river, sufficient for the free navigation of vessels of 300 tons burthen. Correspondent. SG 27 Jun 1846

Moreton Bay - June 30 [1846] - The schooner William went down the river on the 25th instant with a cargo of tallow, hides, &c. The brig Skerne was loaded at the heads on Friday last with cedar, pine, &c., waiting a slant of wind to get out. The Coolangatta is discharging and refitting in the river ; she leaves the day after to-morrow for the Tweed. The little steamer Experiment has been running daily since her arrival to Ipswich, making the trip, 55 miles, in from six to seven hours ; there is no doubt but that she will be a source of profit to her enterprising and worthy owner ; his efforts to please the public of Moreton Bay are unceasing. and from present ; appearances that patronage will be afforded him which his spirited undertaking deserves. She went down the river on Sunday last on a pleasure excursion ; but from the shortness of the notice given, but a small number availed themselves of the opportunity offered to witness the steam ship Tamar at the entrance of the river, where she had grounded on her way up to Brisbane. The Experiment ran alongside and took on board the mail from Sydney, and such passengers as wished to get to their journey's end as soon as possible.

The Tamar came up the following afternoon, and has been despatched again to-day. It had been officially notified by the Custom House authorities stationed here, that on the Tamar's next trip it will be requisite for all parties receiving goods by her to pass entries of them at the Custom House ; as the good folks of Brisbane have hardly had time to digest the benefits arising from the establishment of a Customs Department at this port, considerable grumbling has arisen in consequence ; because it is maintained that as the goods arriving per steamer or any other vessel from Sidney have already passed through the Custom House ordeal, paying the ad valorem and other duties and fees of entering, &c., it is a tax to make the consignees here of goods arriving in coasting vessels pay a second fee to clear them inwards. One would almost suppose that an entry of the vessel at the Custom House here, with a copy of the manifest, if coastwise, would be all that is required by law ; however time will teach us the proper mode of conducting our commercial operations in this particular.

The country about the Boyne still continues to excite considerable attention amongst the squatting portion of our community requiring new runs for their stock ; the names of nine or ten gentlemen have been mentioned to me as being already on the banks of that yet unexplored river. It has been suggested by several gentlemen that the Experiment should be engaged by those interested in the welfare of the district to go to Port Curtis, accompanied by a couple of good whale boats, with a few black fellows, for the purpose of seeking the outlet of the Boyne River, supposed to embouche thereabouts. The owner, Mr. Pearce, I believe, is willing to make the trip should sufficient encouragement offer to induce him to go ; and when it is taken into consideration the favourable time. of the year for coasting along the land, and the very satisfactory manner this little craft made her run from Sydney, the voyage would be a complete pleasure trip, particularly as the season is a leasure one to most of the flockmasters. A more interesting expedition I opine could scarcely be contemplated than this of opening out the northern coast for the transmission of supplies to the various stations forming to the northward of this place.

At the annual meeting of the District Association, this day, held at the Victoria, it was intimated by one of the gentlemen composing the Committee of Management, that the finishing stroke was about being put to the safe navigation of the northern entrance of the Bay. Captain Wickham, under whose directions the survey had been partly conducted, had completed the bearings &c., so far as to admit of his drafting a sketch of the harbour, and so soon as he could get a vessel to go down the channel to take the necessary steps to lay down the sailing directions, the whole would be published in a lithographed chart of the Bay, whereby shipmasters of all nations might frequent this port with safety for supplies and cargoes. The brig Skerne has been laid on for Hobart Town on her return. from Sydney, for the purpose of importing labour from that place. A party will proceed in her as agent for those requiring domestics or farm servants. Correspondent.

May 21.-Scarcely a mail from your busy metropolis but brings us the welcome intelligence having gained anther step towards our social improvement. By the Thistle this trip the fact has become known to us that a Mr. Duncan has been appointed a sub-collector. of customs, and a Mr. Thornton Head landing waiter, for this port - those gentlemen forming the nucleus of a Customs Department, about for the first time to be brought into operation. The same mail also revives the rumour of the opening up of a new township in the vicinity of Cleveland Point, in order to afford increased facility to shipping to receive and discharge cargo in the Bay, and whose draft of water may preclude the possibility of going up the Brisbane.

This latter report has rather alarmed the good folks of Brisbane, fearing that a rival township being established on the Bay will militate against the future improvement of this rapidly rising settlement; however, a little consideration on their part will soon dispel any fears on that score : from the commanding position the town of Brisbane holds for communication with the interior of the country, and other natural advantages, it must ever possess over any town or towns that may be formed in the bay. there can be no doubt of our being benefitted by any movement of that nature. It is a well known fact, that the present townships of North and South Brisbane were not located by the Government during the time this portion of the colony was a penal settlement, until other sites had been looked at and occupied ; but after fruitless attempts to form a settlement in the Bay, the design was abandoned. From various imperative causes should !

Cleveland Point, or any other locality be sanctioned by the Government as a township to command the shipping interests in the bay, time will show that such an arrangement will only cause the town so established to become what Geelong is to Melbourne, Newcastle to Maitland, and numberless other instances, tending to show that sea-port towns cannot in any way injure inland townships situated on a splendid navigable river like this of Brisbane.

We have also received the pleasing intelligence that one of our enterprising squatters has become the purchaser of a small steamboat to ply between this town and the rapidly increasing town of Ipswich, and that we may expect in a month to see the Experiment tried to facilitate the communication between the two townships : that the undertaking will pay no two opinions are necessary ; the traffic is daily increasing, and the placing of a steamboat in communication with the two points daily, will add fifty-fold to the present. Our exports of wool to the present time, for the season, has been 3200 bales, valued at say �50,000, besides beef, tallow hides, sheepskins, and timber, to an additional amount of say �8000 to �10,000 more, consequently we may calculate that the forthcoming clip, coupled with the fact that an immense accession of stock is being gained in the district by the formation of new stations, and the natural increase, together with the large quantity of beef now curing, and cattle boiling down for the tallow, that we shall by this time in the year 1847 make our exports reach to a value of at least �100,000, a pretty considerable sum, considering we have been scarcely four years in existence as a colony.

Now that the Government seems disposed to admit of our growing importance, it would be only an act of justice on the part of the Executive, to at once bring into the notice of the commercial world the safe and commodious harbour we possess, for the reception of shipping of any tonnage, by the northern passage into Moreton Bay ; but whilst the Government are supine in surveying and laying down sailing directions for that route, we are likely to remain in statu quo for some time longer.

Captain Wickham who, fortunately for us, has been called to Sydney upon a trial, will, I have no doubt, place the matter before His Excellency in a manner that I trust will admit of no further delay. That gentleman has already, at great personal inconvenience, lent his talents towards accomplishing so desirable an object as the safe approach to, and navigation of the Bay in all weathers. So little has been done for us as yet in this respect, that up to the present moment, the pilot at Amity Point has not a rag of bunting to fly on the approach of a vessel, it certainly cannot put the Government to a very serious expense to provide the pilot station with a set of signals similar to those used at Newcastle and Port Macquarie. The Petrel is loaded at the Tweed with cedar for Sydney, she was rather unfortunate in going over the bar to enter the river, having been taken all aback when just over the bar, which caused her to lose her steerage way and fall broadside on the spot. Fortunately there was not much sea on, and by running an anchor out she was hove into smooth water inside. The damage sustained was, I am happy to say, but trifling. Correxpondent. SG 30 May 1846

Moreton Bay - 14 July 1846. The Tamar brought us a welcome addition to our population in the shape of labourers, some thirty or forty working men having been introduced by her ; they were never more welcome, even if they had been as many scores. A number of vessels are reported by her as being wind bound along the coast from the south-east weather. The Golden Fleece has been lying loaded in the Tweed with cedar unable to get over the bar at that river. The cutter Catherine is also in the same predicament. The schooner Jane was lying under Point Danger, where no doubt she would raft off her load of cedar. The schooner Coolangatta is also going there, her cedar being ready to raft off on her arrival off the Point.

We had a few showers of rain on the 6th and 7th inst., but not enough to damp the earth scarcely: it is a matter of surprise, considering the length of the drought, how the cattle and stock keep in such fair condition ; the bullocks brought down to Kangaroo Point for the tallow market show very fair averages. The proprietor of the boiling-down establishment at the point has erected two iron vats in place of the two wooden ones hitherto in use; he can now steam down twenty head of cattle per diem, the primer parts of the beast undergoing the process of salting, and as no pains are spared to have the meat properly cured and packed, we may expect to see our Moreton Bay cured beef in brisk demand in other parts of the colony.

The season for turtle catching is now at its height, and I wonder none of your enterprising citizens have not thought it worth while to commence the West Indian process of converting them into portable soup on the spot ; the Bay is actually teeming with these luxurious animals, and the catching of them is very easy with a crew of aboriginals ; the black fellows accustomed to coast fishing dive and turn them over with the speed of thought, fellows weighing from four to six cwt. are laid hold of by the flipper and slewed on their backs as easy as a pancake. The islands with which this magnificent bay is studded are admirably adapted for the purpose of boiling down and preparing the soup ; plenty of wood and water, the turtle swarming all round their shores, and as to mullet and other choice fish, the darkies can net in an hour as many as would last half a dozen tribes a week, whilst us poor Brisbanltes, for the lack of means to get at them, keep to the same wholesome fare of beef and mutton, varied to mutton and beef.

The rumour of the formation of a settlement to the northward has put us all on the qui vive as to its whereabouts ; the bare fact of such a step being in contemplation by the home authorities is very cheering to the go-a-head folks of Moreton Bay. We have the means and appliances to boot, to administer to their wants, in the shape of stock ; and whether the new colony will be of a penal nature or not, still the demand for our beef and mutton must be all the same ; it will be also an excellent opening for the establishment of a coasting trade - a trade that will speedily bring into active employment numbers of shipwrights, boat builders, sailors, and others connected with our maritime prosperity ; in fact, a Mr. Sutton, of the brig Skerne, has a vessel of about 60 tons, in a state of forwardness at this place, adapted to load with a light draft of water, suitable for the bar harbours on this coast. A short time will no doubt witness others of a similar build in progress here. Correspondent.

Moreton Bay - 30 July 1846 - The arrival and departure of the steamer Tamar upon fixed days between this port and Sydney, namely, upon every alternate Thursday, will give every satisfaction to the inhabitants of Moreton Bay. The unavoidable delays hitherto experienced by parties from the interior en route to Sydney, will be in a great measure avoided by their now knowing the exact day on which the steamer is supposed to start from Brisbane ; and the time advertised between each departure is amply sufficient to ensure certainty.

The labourers imported by her last trip and this have all been engaged at very remunerating wages ; those by the steamer this time being accustomed to the bush, readily obtained �25 per annum as shepherds, with an abundant ration ; in fact, from the lambing season being so near, there is plenty of employment for at least from three to four hundred men in the district ; the present supply is scarcely felt internally - a continued stream of labour is absolutely required by all parties to carry out the go-a-head principle, adopted by the enterprising squatters of this northern district.

In speaking in my last communication of the fine opening now exhibited for the prosecution of the turtle fishery in this harbour, I ought also to have mentioned that an excellent opportunity is afforded to some enterprising man or ship-owner to fit a vessel out from this port to prosecute the whale fishery - the season for catching the sperm whale being during the winter months off this coast ; in fact some of the Sydney whaling masters can bear testimony that off this port the largest fish have been tried out and stowed down, ever fastened to by a sperm-whaler on any cruising ground in the world ; and when in addition to these advantages it is taken into consideration that a vessel putting in here for supplies is within four days communication per steamer to Sydney, it will be nothing too much to hope that some of the whaling craft will give us a look in, particularly when the forthcoming chart of the harbour, by the northern entrance is published. Correspondent

SG 8 Aug 1846

Moreton Bay - 12 September 1846 - The schooner William made a most expeditious trip from Sydney, being only four days from wharf to wharf, including the river navigation. The Tamar. steamer, which left Sydney the same day, did not reach here until Thursday, having been compelled to put into Port Stephens to repair some damage to her machinery. The schooner Gipsy arrived on the 8th, discharged cargo, and dropped down the river yesterday on her way to the Tweed for a cargo of cedar. The brig Skerne and William are loading and will sail for Sydney in a day or two.

A poor fellow, named George Moir, a native of Otahite, has been within the last few days discovered by Mr. Surveyor Burnett amongst the blacks on the coast to the northward of this - and by that gentleman brought to Brisbane. The man's account is as follows :

"That about fourteen months ago, whilst on a whaling voyage in the barque Nimrod, of Sydney, Sullivan, master, he, with five other men, three Otahiteans and two New Zealanders left the vessel in pursuit of whales ; that towards sundown they fastened to a fish, but night corning on, they lost sight of the vessel, and although they cut from the whale, they were unable again to obtain sight of the ship. Knowing they were not far from this coast, Moir, who had charge of the boat as third mate, determined to stand into the westward. In four days they made land, he supposed near Wide Bay ; upon landing (upon an island) the three Otahiteans went ashore for water, leaving the New Zealanders in the boat. Whilst Moir and his mates were in the bush seeking water, the New Zealanders made off with the boat, leaving the poor fellows to shift for themselves. When discovered by the aborigines they had been some time on the island, living on shell fish, &c. The natives treated them kindly, offering them no violence whatever ; but sharing their food with them as one of themselves. Moir says one of his companions, named Tom, died about two months since the other Otahitean, named John. is still with the blacks, attached to another tribe from that in which he had been living. He states the blacks did not want him to leave them, and it was only by stratagem he at length got to where Mr. Burnett was camping. Moir states the Nimrod was ten months out when he lost the vessel, and had in her 250 barrels of oil. (From our Correspondent)

SG 19 Sep 1846

Moreton Bay.- August 13 [1846] - The steamer Experiment has been employed, the last week, by Captain Wickham, R.N., assisted by Mr. Surveyor Burnett, in the Bay, completing the chart and sailing directions for the northern entrance. The William, in consequence of the strong westerly gales she experienced on her way down from Sydney, got off the land, and made the coast to the northward of Cape Moreton; Captain Freeman. however, being well acquainted with the splendid opening into the Bay by the northern passage, ran in on the flood, and brought up, at high water, off the river bar. A gentleman, a few days since, whilst amusing himself in the Bay with a crew of black-fellows catching turtle, succeeded in harpooning and killing one of those singular animals frequently captured by the aborigines in the Bay, called by them a youngen or seapig; the fish is highly prized by the natives as an article of food, and is often found to measure in the girth a larger circumference than a puncheon ; the fat or blubber cuts out exactly similar to pork, to the depth of 4 to 5 inches, and the lean meat found underneath is considered by connoisseurs in those matters far more delicious than a turtle steak ; upon opening the fish (if the animal can be classed as such,) a very fine embryo one was taken out of it, and which, I believe, has been forwarded to the Museum in Sydney; it is the first one I believe that has ever been preserved here, and will probably be considered a curiosity by the naturalist.-Correspondent.

SG 22 Aug 1846

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