Peter Hedland originally Lars Peter Hedlund, 14 March 1829 (

Hudiksvall Hudiksvall () is a cities of Sweden, city and the seat of Hudiksvall Municipality, in Hälsingland, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 16,792 inhabitants as of 2024. Hudiksvall is also known as Glada Hudik (), a term that originated in the 19th centur ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

) – 1881 (

Lagrange Bay Lagrange Bay is located south of Broome, Western Australia in the Kimberley region. It is the site of the Catholic Pallottine ''La Grange Mission'', and the Aboriginal community of Bidyadanga Bidyadanga, also known as La Grange, is the lar ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

), was a significant figure in European settlement in North-West Australia. A mariner, explorer, and

pearler Pearl hunting, also known as pearl fishing or pearling, is the activity of recovering or attempting to recover pearls from wild molluscs, usually oysters or mussels, in the sea or freshwater. Pearl hunting was prevalent in India and Japan for tho ...

; he was widely known as "Captain Hedland". Some contemporary accounts and some of Hedland's descendants have spelt the surname Headland, although it is not clear that he ever used this spelling. In 1863, he and the

cutter Cutter may refer to: Tools * Bolt cutter * Box cutter * Cigar cutter * Cookie cutter * Cutter (hydraulic rescue tool) * Glass cutter * Meat cutter * Milling cutter * Paper cutter * Pizza cutter * Side cutter People * Cutter (surname) * Cutt ...

''Mystery'' he built and captained came to prominence after Hedland informed settlers of the existence of several landing places in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

region, including

Port Hedland A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inla ...

Life

After emigrating from Sweden to Western Australia in the 1850s, Hedland married Ellen Adams at

Fremantle, Western Australia Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

on 15 October 1858. Hedland built the 16-ton cutter ''Mystery'', at

Point Walter Point Walter (Noongar language, Noongar: ) is a point on the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River, Western Australia, notable for its large Shoal, sandbar that extends into the river. It is located on the southern shore of Melville Water, ...

on the banks of the Swan River. As its master, he was involved in shipping cargo for the earliest European settlers in the North-West. In early 1863, Hedland discovered the landing at Butcher Inlet (named after the harbour master at Albany) in

Tien Tsin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the 2020 Chinese census. Its metropoli ...

(known later as Cossack). That April, the ''Mystery'' ran aground in a natural harbour as Hedland searched for a suitable location for a port suitable for the pastoral industry. (While Dutch mariners had visited the area as early as 1628, there is no evidence that they saw the harbour.) Hedland also noted Mystery Landing, in the estuary of the

De Grey River The De Grey River is a river located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It was named on 16 August 1861 by the explorer and surveyor Francis Gregory after Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey, who was at the time the president of the Royal ...

, which was named after his cutter. He operated his small ship, named ''Mystery'', along the North-West coast and made frequent journeys to and from Fremantle to ship cargo for settlers. In January 1871, Hedland and three other mariners were tried on charges of forcing

Aboriginal people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

to work for them. They were acquitted following a trial at Geraldton in March. He was allegedly killed near Lagrange Bay in 1881, by Aboriginal people. His remains, and that of his companion were located on an island near Roebuck Bay. There was evidence to show that after his murder the Aboriginal people who attacked him sank his schooner and stole his dingy which they used to escape to the mainland. Hedland was survived by his wife and 11 children.

Memorials

The natural harbour and later town of

were named after Hedland, after he became the first European to describe the natural harbour, in June 1863. Port Hedland is known by the

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

Kariyarra and Nyamal people as Marapikurrinya, which either means "place of good water" (as told by a Nyamal language speaker) and makes reference to the three reliable fresh water soaks that can still be seen in and around the town, or as the town council's website says "refers to the hand like formation of the tidal creeks coming off the harbour (marra - hand, pikurri - pointing straight and nya - a place name marker)". According to

Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally u ...

legend, there was a huge blind water snake living in the landlocked area of water known as Jalkawarrinya. This landlocked area is now the

turning basin A turning basin, winding basin or swinging basin is a wider body of water, either located at the end of a ship canal or in a port to allow cargo ships to turn and reverse their direction of travel, or to enable long narrow barges in a canal to tur ...

for the ships that enter the port and as the story goes, "the coming of the big ships meant it was unable to stay".

References

External links

Western Australia - Now and then

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedland, Peter Swedish explorers Australian people of Swedish descent Explorers of Australia 19th-century explorers 1829 births 1881 deaths Pearlers People from Hudiksvall