in Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria

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History Page

Sweers Island has an amazing history. The first European to sight the island was probably Abel Tasman in 1644, who thought the island was a headland and named the channel between Sweers and Bentinck:  “Maet Suykers River” after a member of the Council of Batavia who had sponsored his expedition.

When Flinders arrived in 1802, he found that no river existed so he named the island “Sweers Island” after another member of the Council. After searching for many years, we have finally found the descendants of Salomon Sweers, and have been able to exchange information and learn a lot more about the man after whom the island was named. Here are pictures of his parents - Arent and Alida Sweers. The pictures are kindly supplied by Carsten Berg Høgenhoff of Norway (a direct descendant of Sweers' niece Judith), and Annette Sweerts of the Netherlands (who still spells her name in the original way). 

Together with Carsten and Annette, and historian friend Bob Forsyth in Mount Isa, we have written a book detailing the history of the island relating to Salomon Sweers. This book 'Sweers Islands Unveiled' also documents some of the other places that were named after Sweers, though they no longer bear his name. For example, there was a Sweers Island off Tasmania! It even made it into 'Gulliver's Travels' but alas is no longer on the map. For more information on this exciting little book click here.

For more detailed information on the history of the Sweers family visit: http://siec.winnem.com/nsweers.htm#Salomon_Sweers 

Flinders spent almost a fortnight here recaulking his ship and surveying the island. He dug a well and marked a tree with the name of his ship “Investigator”. The tree is now in the Mapping & Survey Museum in Brisbane.

The next visitor was Stokes in the “Beagle” in 1841. He also dug a well which is probably one of those in use by the Resort today.

The next visitors were the members of the North Australian Expedition in 1856. These were followed in 1861 by “HMCS Victoria” and its tender “Firefly” who were searching for Burke and Wills.

On the left is the grave of Gunner James Frost,

of HMCS Victoria, who died after an accidental shooting in 1841.

The Victoria was searching for Burke and Wills.

On the right is the grave of Donald McLennan who

ran a pub in Carnarvon during the 1860's.  

In 1866 malaria hit Burketown so the administrator William Landsborough decided to move the survivors to Sweers Island. He established a settlement here known as Carnarvon which survived until approximately 1872. The remains of the paddlesteamer “Pioneer” which serviced Carnarvon lie on the beach near the resort.

Although Carnarvon was abandoned, the Customs House remained until 1884 and the Creffield family and others ran sheep, cattle & goats until the turn of the century.

Except for a lime burning operation from 1915 until 1922, the island was virtually uninhabited until the Resort started in 1987.

Check our Links Page for Peter Saenger's History Notes, and access to the Flinders Pages at the State Library of NSW and The Royal Geographical Society of Queensland.

"Windeward Bound" anchored in the same spot

as Matthew Flinders 200 years ago

Sweers Island Resort.    Mail:  PMB 1 Karumba QLD 4891   Phone: 07 4748 5544    Fax: 07 4748 5644    Email:  info@sweers.com.au

Website by Lyn using  This page last updated on 21 Apr 2008.  © 2003