sketcher and naval officer, second son of Rev. George Porcher of Maiden Erlegh, Berkshire, and Amelia, née Chamier, was scientific observer and unofficial artist aboard the Royal Navy’s corvette Fly which, with the schooner Bramble , carried out the first hydrographic survey of the north-eastern Australian coast in 1842-45 under the command of Captain F.P. Blackwood . After stopping at Hobart Town in August-October 1842, Fly sailed to Sydney and began the survey. The ship circumnavigated Australia twice during the next three years and visited Java, New Guinea and the Torres Strait islands, but mainly concentrated on charting the channels of the Great Barrier Reef. Returning to Sydney via Western Australia, Fly left for England in December 1845.

The official record of the expedition, Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. Fly, Commanded by Captain F.P. Blackwood, in Torres Strait, New Guinea and Other Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, during the Years 1842-46… (vol.1, London 1847), was written by the naturalist on board, Joseph Beete Jukes, and illustrated by Harden S. Melville . However, between 1843 and 1846 Porcher also made watercolour views of places visited by the Fly , especially those along the northern coast of Australia; a collection survives with the official ship’s journal (3 April 1842-4 July 1846), with Porcher’s private diary (20 January 1841-October 1844) and with other papers of the voyage (NLA ms 4602). They include a view of Raine Island on the north-eastern tip of the Barrier Reef painted on 12 September 1844 to show the recently completed stone lighthouse tower erected by the crews of the Fly and the Bramble with the help of twenty convicts lent from New South Wales. Others are Booby Island in Torres Straits Where a Post Office Was Erected for the Use of Vessels Passing Through. August 14th 1843; Port Molle of the NE Coast, Where the Remains of a Wreck Was Discovered March 27th 1843; Australia, Wigwams at Gould [sic] Island, Being One of the Places Where the Boats of the Fly Were Attacked by the Natives. May 20th 1843 (thought to be a view of Goold Island in Rockingham Bay, North Queensland); and Settlement at Port Essington. June 1845 (the military outpost under the command of John Macarthur ).

Like Thomas Bock , Knud Bull , John Edward Davis and Simpkinson de Wesselow , Porcher drew a view of the Rossbank Observatory, the British Admiralty’s magnetic observation station at Hobart Town. His watercolour of December 1843 (NLA) is informative if relatively prosaic and includes the map house, the anemometer, the dipping needle, the magnetometer and the vibrating and transit instruments. Identifiable plants in the fledgling garden and some visiting sailors from the Fly are in the foreground. After returning home Porcher passed his naval examinations and was commissioned lieutenant on 9 November 1846. He then served in the Mediterranean on board the Sidon under Captain William Honyman.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011