HM Brig The Lady Nelson 4
In June 1801 Captain James Grant had orders to take Colonel Paterson to the Hunter River which was discovered by John Shortland Junior in 1797. Grant's job was to make a survey of the Hunter River and obtain information as to what natural resources could be exploited for profit to the colony. Most of the coast had been mapped by Captain Cook but there were still parts that had not been charted. Governor King also wanted the Lady Nelson to find a passage at Port Stephens.
The schooner Francis was fitted out to go with the Lady Nelson and return at once with a cargo of coal. Dr Harris and Ensign Barrallier were the surveyors who were appointed to carry out the survey under the command of Colonel Paterson.
The Lady Nelson left Sydney on June 10 1801 and on the next day Broken Bay. The following day the pilot mistook the entrance to Lake Macquarie for the Hunter. Dr Harris was sent off in a boat to explore the entrance and reported heavy surf breaking over the bar as it still does today. They then set sail north and arrived at the Hunter River entrance later that afternoon. They climbed to the top of Nobbys island, then they went to the the headland and examined the coal strata there. They loaded the Francis with forty tons of coal and sent her on her way back to Sydney on June 26th, 1801.
The surveyors Harris and Barrallier went inland , found aborigines , put in their fishing net, catching plenty of fish. They found good supplies of timber at Ash Island set about to saw quantities to send back to Sydney. On June 22 Grant, Barrallier, and Harris sounded the entrance of the harbour. Paterson surveyed up to seventy miles up the Hunter River and on July 22 1801 they left to sail back to Sydney Cove, arriving back there on the 25th. Six weeks after his return to Sydney, Grant resigned because he felt he just wasn't a very good surveyor. His successor was Murray but he was not a very good surveyor either.
Lady Nelson Resources
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