Whalers Cove, Maria Island

Artist Gary Tonkin (Australian, born 1949)

Date2002

Object number00044973

NamePrint

MediumPaper

DimensionsOverall: 548 x 597 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds

Terms

DescriptionThis print is a reconstruction of the structures and layout of the whaling station at Maria Island in the 19th century. Depicted is a hut and slipway, whale boats with sails, tryworks, barrels and two whales which are being flensed. A local indigenous group is watching from the shore.HistoryDuring the 1800s whaling was a large scale commercial enterprise that was conducted across the globe. The main industry centred on the American north-east coastal town of New Bedford which saw hundreds of ships heading out to the Pacific Ocean on a weekly basis. Industry and households depended on whale products for which there was no substitute. Whale oil was used for lighting and lubrication until 1860 when kerosene and petroleum started to gain popularity. The pure clean oil from sperm whales was a superior source of lighting and the finest candles were made from the whale's wax-like spermaceti. Light and flexible, baleen - the bristle-fringed plates found in the jaws of baleen whales - had many uses in objects which today would be made out of plastic. In the 19th century American whalers sailed south to the rich Pacific whaling grounds in search of sperm whales. During the 1840s several hundred ships pursued whales off the coast of Australia. Many called into Australian ports for repairs or supplies after a voyage half-way around the world. Meeting a whaler was the first contact many colonists had with an American. Maria Island was named by Abel Tasman - the first European to sight the Island, in 1642 - after the wife of Anthony Van Diemen. In 1824 a shore-based whaling station was established at Maria Island and by 1835, the Colonial Government introduced a leasing system for all stations on Crown land at 5 shillings per year. Whaling continued to take place on the island until about 1842. Unlike deep sea whalers who towed the whale to the side of the ship to carrying out flensing, shore whalers - like those in this image - towed the whale to shore stations where they were flensed in the shallow waters prior to being processed on land. Initially, teams of flensers start from the head and striped the blubber and then hacked it into manageable blocks. Pressurised steam digesters separated the oil from the liquid product which was dried, ground into powder and sold as whale meal for animal feed. Great iron cauldrons called trypots were used for the stinking, greasy job of boiling down whale blubber. Pairs of trypots surrounded by bricks were called the tryworks. The blubber was heated and stirred until the precious oil separated out. It was then ladled into large copper coolers and later poured into casks for storage and shipment. SignificanceThis engraving shows the activity of whalers at Maria Island, one of the first shore-based whaling stations in Tasmania, established in 1824. By the middle of the 19th century, shore whaling was established at Twofold Bay in New South Wales, Portland Bay in Victoria, Cascade Bay in Norfolk Island and throughout Tasmanian waters.