Place Names Register Extract

Emery Point

Extract date: 19/05/2024

Name Emery Point
Type Designation Point
Place Id 12658
Place Type Feature
Status Recorded
Date Registered
Location (Datum GDA94)  
Latitude: -12° 27' S (Decimal degrees -12.453249)
Longitude: 130° 48' E (Decimal degrees 130.815585)
Locality / Suburb  
  Larrakeyah
Local Government Area  
  Darwin City Council
History/Origin Lieutenant John Lort Stokes RN (1811-1885) reported on 12 September 1839 that the point was named Point Emery 'to commemorate Lieutenant Emery's success in finding water by digging'.

Lieutenant James Barker Emery RN (c1794-1889) served under Captain John Clements Wickham RN (1798-1864) on the HMS Beagle expeditions and hydrographic survey along the Australian coast from 1937-1941. A talented naturalist and artist, Emery recorded fishes from the north and northwest Australian coast in colourful sketches.

From the time Palmerston (now Darwin) was settled in 1869 until World War II, the point was generally recorded as Point Emery. Army mapping (1:25,000 and Inch to the Mile series) and Navy charts of the early to mid 1940s show the point as Emery Point, by which it is known today.

[Sources:
Stokes, John Lort Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2 : Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen. Project Gutenberg, [Place of publication not identified]
Emery, J. B. (James Barker), Sketches of Australian fishes, etc. (ca. 1840). State Library of South Australia, accessed 21/02/2023, https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/533]

Register & Gazettal information

Date Gazettal Comment
  (None Found)  

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GPO Box 1680, Darwin NT 0801. Ph 08 8995 5333.
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