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A West Australian explorer, Gregory, reported he'd found luxuriant grassland in the north-west of Western Australia (1861). Watered country was found near the Glenelg River which is now near Derby. It was then called Camden Harbour.
Inspired by these reports men in Melbourne formed a company to farm the area. It was called the Camden Harbour Pastoral Association. At one meeting is was said the area was only 100 miles north of Perth, whereas a 1 000 mile further.
The first eager settlers arrived but before Christmas 1864 the summer dried of the feed and water was hard to find. Two more ships arrived with settlers but sheep were dying in droves. It was thought poisonous plants were the blame and 4 500 merino sheep perished.
Then the Western Australian Government sent Robert John Sholl and his son as Government Resident. They arrived in April 1865.Sholl turned his energies into exploring further inland and finding better pastures. Sholl suspected the area to have mineral deposits. He claimed to have found some gold.
Returning to Camden Harbour, he found seven large Malay proas flying the Dutch flag. They had 300 men and canoes. Sholl had gorunds to believe they were pirates. Sholl visited the boats but finding rusted cannons thought them no threat. Sholl put armed guards at the camp and kept watch on the visitors.
Local blacks were a menace and in September stole a boat. Accomanpied by his son, a Constable named Gee and others he searched the coast. They were lured ashore and Constable Gee injured in the shoulder by a spear. Younger Sholl was wounded in the arm. They killed some of the blacks before they took the boat.
The rush of the tide took the boat under and a man named Quinlan drowned.Treverton, the Sholl son managed to salvage some of the boat and its contents.
The party landed on shore ten miles from their camp. They had lost most of their clothing and boots which had been discarded when they were in the water. badly exhausted, cut by rocks and sunburnt they set off the go back to Camden Harbour.
Throughout the journey they were threatened by blacks and still suffered from the sunburn. Had they been unarmed they would have perished. Constable Gee died of exhaustion 12 days later.
The settlement failed. It hilighted the folly of establishing settlements soley on reports made from short visits to and area.
(The above exerpt is part of on page 4 of the Western Australian Newspaper: January 25, 1947.)
Mary Gee nursed her injured husband, Walter, till he died. Mary had several children and gave birth to another just after her husband died. She gave birth to a daughter.
Walter Gee was buried with full honours on Sheep Island. Mr Sholl wrote a good report of Constable Gee's service.
A boat, the Tien Tsin arrived from Fremantle with a surprise parcel for Mrs Gee. It was baby clothes and food supplies ordered by her dead husband. Mary visited her husband's grave before she and her children boarded the Tien Tsin for the three months voyage back to Fremantle.
Mary's son, Arthur, was my great grand dad. Mary married again five years after becoming a widow. She married John McKenna, uncle of of a well known Commissioner of Police in Perth.
Mrs Gee was given a farm….where Royal Perth Hospital now stands in compensation for the loss of Walter Gee. His name is on the honour roll which is in Perth Police headquarters.
Walter's eldest son Charles Walter and the other son, Arthur became policemen. They married the Lee sisters. Charles married Elizabeth Jane while Arthur married Mary Annie.
Arthur Gee was responsible for the capture a bushranger named Hughes. Arthur's son ( my Grand father) , Arthur Walter Gee, joined the police force. He was appointed bodyguard for the the Lieutenant Governor, Sir James Mitchell.
Arthur married Mary Matheson who came from Scotland. They had two children, Isabel and Geoffrey ( my father). My father died on 18th September, 2004.
