Source: Transcripts for Matthew Flinders - Journal on the Investigator, July 1802 - June 1803 (Vol. 2) (S1_25/a056)​

Author: Matthew Flinders

In February 1803, explorer Matthew Flinders was sailing along the coast of Arnhem Land when he encountered six Macassan prau anchored near the shore. (A prau is a traditional wooden sailing boat used by Indonesian sailors). More arrived while Flinders was there.

Flinders recorded in his journal:

[1803 Feb: [Thursday] -17th. Investigator] [Friday] -18th Along the north coast - Cape Arnhem

"...Tacked and stretched southward into an opening. Saw six praos moored off a beach where we had proposed to [anchor]. Hoisted a pendant and ensign, which they answered by white flags. Tacked oc[c]asionally, working up to the praos, and sent an officer and boat well armed to them. They were two months from Macassar and were going onward into the gulph, having been here several times before. - Soon after, the Commanders of the six vessels came on board; we having then [anchor]ed

...The Commander and two gentlemen went on board the prao of the principal chief... The Commander returned and soon after the chiefs of the praos came again on boar[d]
Saw five praos under sail, coming from the south-westward; and they anchored near the others; this seeming to be a well-known watering place for these vessels.
At noon, moderate breezes and cloudy weather. Many canoes alongside.

1803 Feb. [Saturday] -19th. Investigator at [anchor] 3 under [island Y1, off Cape Arnhem, north side]

... The chiefs of the Malay praos on board, fired a six p[ound]er, shotted, at their request. - Several coconuts purchased from the Malays for knives etc.
...  Our communication with the praos and the cautious look-out which I thought necessary to keep upon them, preventing me from attending to anything else until this morning... Our conversation with these Malays was carried on throug[h] the medium of my cook, who was one of that people, from the island Java.

[1803 Feb. [Saturday] -19th. Investigator at [anchor] 3 under] island Y1, off Cape Arnhem, north side]

They were part of 60 praos which had sailed two months since from the town of Macassar, the whole of them belonging to Rajah Boni. They contained 1000 men, and were under the direction of Salloo whose rank was next to that of Rajah.
These sixty praos were lying in different places to the westward, in parties of five or six together
These first six were under the direction of Pobassoo, and he who had two small brass guns on board, which came from the Dutch, but the others had only musquets. Pobassoo had no bows or arrows on board, or the ippo poison on board for which the Macassar people are noted.
The object of their expedtion was to procure a certain marine animal which they called Trepang or Terrepang, of which they gave me two dried specimens. This animal resembles a cucumber in shape and had been hauled on shore abundantly by our seins in the two last bays, especially in Arnhem south bay. Its substance seems to be firm, and when trod upon the animal throws out a stream of water to some distance. The Malays procure the trepang by diving in from three to eight fathoms water; and where they are abundant a man can bring up [8] or 10 at a time. They preserve it as follows;- it is split down one side and boiled, then pressed with stones, and dried in the sun, and lastly dried with smoke, when it is fit to be put away; but it requires to be frequently exposed to the sun afterwards. A sho small piece of stick or bamboo is put into the split part, to keep it open. One thousand of these make up a pecul or bag, and 100 peculs are a cargo for each prao. They carry this to Timor...

1803 Feb: -19th. continued.

... There are two kinds of the Trepang, the white and the black; the latter is worth 40 dollars per pecul. - The Chinese name for the black kind is Baatoo; for the white, Koroo.

... The Malays of Macassar had been occasionally upon this coast during the last 20 years; and Pobassoo was amongst the first that came, having made six or seven voyages, but had never seen a ship here before.

... They had skirmishes sometimes with the natives and the old chief Pobassoo had been wounded by them. A man had been slightly speared at this place by the native[s] whom and they cautioned us to beware of them.

They were strangers to the settlement of the British on the east coast..."

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Source: Australian Town and Country Journal ~ 18 Dec 1897 - How I Spent Christmas in the Far North. - Trove ​

Author: Harry Stockdale, adventurer

"How I spent Christmas in the Far North" ~ 1897

"...On one of our boating excursions in pursuit of turtles and alligators we came upon a large party of Macassans from the Malay Peninsula, who had come over in their prahus to hunt the trepang or sea-slug, which is of a whitish-brown appearance, not unlike the prickly cucumber. Another species is almost black. These slugs (beche-de-mer) are found on the shoals or mud-banks. The Macassars engage the services of the aboriginals, and together wade about, their boats in close attendance, until they feel their feet has touched a slug, when they pick it up and put it in the boat; but at times, when the water is deep, the Macassars principally rely upon the aboriginals who are much more expert divers than themselves, to secure the fish…”

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Source: Arnhem Land Its History and its People - 1953​

Authors: Ronald M Berndt & Catherine H Berndt

"How .....

“…Probably no other A.…”

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Secondary sources

Source:  Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)​

Link: https://aiatsis.gov.au/crocodile-islands-northern-territory​

The Crocodile Islands, Northern Territory

“…Before Europeans came to Australia, fishers known as the Macassans from what is now Indonesia, came to Yurruwi to collect trepang (sea cucumber) every year. They paid Yolŋu for the right to access their sea country and take their trepang, and traded with the Yolŋu for other resources like pearl and turtle shell. Many Yolŋu also worked for them collecting trepang in return for pay.

After the Australian Government banned the Macassans from coming, others who did not respect the Yolŋu’s ownership of the seas arrived. In one famous incident in 1917, the Yolŋu at Rapuma killed two Filipino trepangers, and investigators were sent from Darwin..."

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Source:  National Museum Australia​

Link: Trade with the Makasar - National Museum of Australia 

Trade and transformation

... From at least 1700 until 1907, hundreds of fishermen sailed each year from Makassar on the island of Sulawesi (now Indonesia) to the northern Australian coast, an area they called ‘Marege’.

The fishermen arrived each December and camped along the Arnhem Land coast, catching, boiling and drying trepang. They met, traded and worked with local Aboriginal people.

The months that the Makasar spent harvesting in the coastal waters of northern Australia were busy ones. Fishermen speared the trepang from their praus (boats) or dived down to spike them with weighted harpoons.

On shore, trepang were gutted and boiled in sea water in iron cauldrons, then buried in hot sand to cool slowly. After some time, they were dug up and their chalky skin washed away with salt water.

Finally, the trepang were dried in the sun or smoked over a slow fire in temporary huts made of bamboo and mats.

Then, each April, as the monsoon winds began to blow, the fishermen departed, returning to Makassar with the holds of their boats carrying trepang to be traded north to China.

Influence on Yolŋu society and ritual

The Makasar did not settle in Arnhem Land but they did have an influence on Yolŋu society and ritual. They introduced calico, tobacco and smoking pipes, and words that are still in use today, such as rupia (money).

Most importantly they introduced an item of technology that transformed Yolŋu life – metal. Metal blades, knives and axes made everyday practices easier for Yolŋu, from cutting food to making large dugout canoes and complex wooden sculptures.

Trade with China

In China, trepang was considered a culinary delight and an aphrodisiac.

By the mid-19th century the fleet from Makassar that visited Arnhem Land each year was supplying about 900 tons of trepang – about one-third of the Chinese demand.

By the end of the 19th century visits from Makasar to northern Australia to gather trepang were declining.

After 1901 the newly formed Australian Government banned trepangers from Makassar in order to protect Australia’s ‘territorial integrity’ and to encourage a local trepang industry. In 1907 the last prau from Makassar visited Arnhem Land.

A note on spelling: Makassar is used when referring to the place and Makasar when referring to its people. Macassan and Macassar are historic forms, often used in the context of trepangers in northern Australia.

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Source: The Advocate (Tasmania) newspaper ~ 12 Dec 1953 - THE ABORIGINES OF ARNHEM LAND - Trove​

Authors: Ronald M Berndt & Catherine H Berndt

THE association of the Arnhem Landers with the people beyond these shores such as the Malays and the Macassans from the Celebes, as well as others from the adjacent islands - is ably traced and discussed in "Arnhem Land; Its History and Its People," by Ronald M.Berndt and Catherine H. Berndt.

"…Of much greater importance is the following period, that of the Macassan visits, which lasted from approximately the early sixteenth century 400 years until, these visits were eventually prohibited by the Commonwealth authorities in 1907.

The Malays, mainly from Macassar, used to visit the coast each year with a whole fleet of praus, not as prospective immigrants but for commercial purposes only, to collect trepang, pearls and mother-of-pearl and sandal wood.

They erected temporary settlements, or camps where contact with the aborigines was established and their co-operation secured.

The Macassans gave the Aborigines various types of goods as presents, whereupon the Aborigines reciprocated - by sending their women in exchange.

The Malays called the Australian coast and its Aborigines "Marega," and the Aborigines called the Malays "Mulwadies."

The Malay, or, respectively, Macassan period may be divided into' two phases; the first lasted until about the 1820s and was, generally speaking, peaceful. The influence on the primitive Aboriginal culture was considerable. The Malays introduced the dugout canoe, which soon replaced the original bark canoe.

The greatest effect of Malay influence is manifest in music and ceremonies. When the captains of the praus were short of labour, they took on board Aborigines who, in this way, travelled with the Macassans to various Indonesian islands and eventually to Macassar. In fact, in the great Malay-Macassan song cycle in commemoration of that period, we find a detailed description of Macassar, and as some Aborigines still remember the locality, the book has, among its numerous illustrations, a picture, in the cartographic style, showing the port of Macassar and environment, all drawn with crayons on paper by Munggeraui, an Aboriginal artist.

Other aboriginal pictures represent Melville Bay during the period of Indonesian contact, or a Macassan trepang site, etc. Unfortunately, once Aborigines had entered the Celebes, they were prohibited by the authorities from leaving the island to return to their homeland.

This was confirmed by Captain Cadell, who visited Macassar about 1878, when he saw Australian aborigines there. Some of these, however, married Malay girls and had children, and these men, naturally, preferred to stay.

For centuries, state the authors, Macassar was almost the Mecca of the north-east Arnhem Landers. The aborigines were again unable to improve their tribal culture by adopting any of the arts and crafts of the Malays, except the already mentioned dugout…”

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