Place Names Register Extract
Cape Wessel
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Print Extract | Search Again| Name | Cape Wessel |
|---|---|
| Type Designation | Cape |
| Place Id | 11566 |
| Place Type | Feature |
| Status | Recorded |
| Date Registered | |
| Location (Datum GDA94) | |
| Latitude: -11° 00' S (Decimal degrees -11.0022) | |
| Longitude: 136° 45' E (Decimal degrees 136.7602) | |
| View Map | View in NT Atlas | View in Google Earth | |
| Locality / Suburb | |
| East Arnhem | |
| Local Government Area | |
| East Arnhem Shire Council | |
| History/Origin | PP King is the first to use the name for the north east Cape of the Wessel Islands on 27 July 1819, writing in his journal "The point, which is named Cape Wessel, is the extremity of the northernmost island of the group and is separated from that to the southward of it by a narrow and apparently a rocky strait." Matthew Flinders prescribed on 6 March 1803 the name Wessel Island and recorded in his journal - "Doubtless what is marked in the Dutch chart as one long Island, and in some charts called Wessels Eylandt, which name I retain with slight modification." As two Dutch expeditions Carstenszoon in 1623 and Tasman in 1644 are known to have sailed along the north western coast of Arnhem Land it is unknown who named the "island" shown on the chart that Flinders had. The island could have been named after the vessel "Wesel" which in 1636, under the command of Pieter Pietersen with the "Klein Amsterdam" sailed south from New Guinea to what is known today as Cobourg Peninsula and Melville Island, or after the town of Wesel, after which the boat is named. |
Register & Gazettal information
| Date | Gazettal | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| (None Found) |