Amity (brig)

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Amity replica at Albany, Western Australia

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Brig Amity replica from The Residency

The Amity was a 148-ton brig used in several notable voyages of exploration and settlement in Australia in the early nineteenth century.

She was built in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1816 and for several years was used as a merchant trading vessel between America and Britain.

Van Diemen's Land

In 1823 she was purchased by the Scottish Ralston Family to be fitted out for their emigration to Van Diemen's Land. Under the command of Captain McMeckan she departed from Stranraer in southern Scotland on 15 November 1823, travelling via Dublin, across the Atlantic Ocean to Rio de Janeiro and arriving in Hobart exactly five months later on 15 April 1824. Twenty-one passengers made the journey, including Robert Ralston, his wife Elizabeth, two sons and six daughters, as well as cargo and livestock including two bulls and four cows from Scotland.

Ralston later sold the brig to the Government of New South Wales in Sydney where she was used for exploration and supply voyages.

Moreton Bay

The brig carried the first European settlers to Queensland after Redcliffe had been recommended as a suitable location for a penal colony by John Oxley in 1823. Lieutenant Henry Miller led a group of about 70 people including soldiers of the 40th Foot Regiment, 29 convicts, explorers and their families to Moreton Bay on 14 September 1824.

The locality of Amity Point on North Stradbroke Island near Brisbane, Queensland is named after the ship. The locality includes a Brig Street.

King George Sound

Under instructions from Governor Darling the brig sailed to Western Australia in 1826 under the command of Major Edmund Lockyer, who established the first European settlement there with a military garrison at King George Sound, now Albany. The settlement was initially called Frederick Town. The expedition included Major Lockyer, two military officers, 18 rank and file soldiers, 23 convicts and surgeon Isaac Scott Nind, as well as livestock and supplies for an expected stay of six months.

The group disembarked on Boxing Day, 1826.

Swan River Colony

On 22 September 1829 the Amity arrived at Fremantle from Singapore with passengers and crew totalling 15 people. She was the eighth shipping arrival in the fledgling Swan River Colony.

Wrecked

The Amity was wrecked after running aground on an uncharted sandbar now called Vansittart Shoals () near Vansittart Island, north of Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) on 18 June 1845.

Captain William Marr was sailing the Amity from Hobart for Port Albert in ballast on 14 June 1845, with a crew of nine, and one passenger. They encountered a gale while entering Bass Strait and ran aground on a sand-bank twelve miles off Shoaly Bay on the south-east coast of Flinders Island, presumably the Vansittart Shoals, 18 June 1845. As the ship broke up, she was abandoned, all making the island safely but in so doing, both boats were damaged. The castaways came across a party of sealers who loaned them another boat, and all except Captain Marr, who was later picked up by the schooner Letitia, headed for Cape Portland, Tasmania.

Replica

Discussions in Albany to construct a replica of the Amity commenced in Albany in 1972 with the view to completion for the town's 1976 sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) celebrations. After funding and research had been established, construction commenced in 1975, with local boat builder Stan Austin as project supervisor and Pieter van de Brugge as leading shipwright.

The full-sized, land-mounted replica (pictured above) is in the Stirling Historical Precinct on Princess Royal Drive, Albany, overlooking Princess Royal Harbour. It has been positioned to give an impression of it floating in the harbour. Guided tours are available daily.

External links

• The Brig Amity - Historic Albany official site