Uniform relics of the 57th Regiment from the site of Fort Dundas, Melville Island, September 1826-1829

R 1074

fonds

September 1826-1829

910591

5 uniform accessories - iron, brass? - 60 x 60 x 6 mm. (depth) (heel plate); 40 mm. (diameter) x 10 mm. (depth) (2 chin-strap badges); 48 x 44 x 6 mm. (depth) (regimental badge); 11 x 10 x 5 mm. (depth) (button), with attached plate 18 x 22 cm.

Fort Dundas was a military settlement established in 1824 on Melville Island at Apsley Strait, and abandoned in 1829. During its four and a half year existence the population of about 100 included army and marine detachments, civilian employees, wives and children, and crews of various ships periodically attached to the settlement. The 3rd Regiment detachment under Captain Maurice Barlow were relieved by a detachment of the 57th Regiment under Major John Campbell in September 1826. The absence of commercial visitors, largely a result of the extreme awkwardness of the access to Aspley Strait, together with periodic harrassment by the Melville and Bathurst Islanders and their well-known hostility to trepang fishermen from the Indonesian area, combined as causes for moving the settlement. Reference: Crosby, E. Survey and Excavation at Fort Dundas, Melville Island, Northern Territory, 1975. The Australian Society for Historical Archaeology; via NSW Archaeology On-Line, University of Sydney Library and the Archaeology of Sydney Research Group (http://nswaol.library.usyd.edu.au). Accessed 22/11/2011

These relics were recovered from the site of Fort Dundas on Apsley Strait during a medical survey of the island in 1938. They were donated to the Mitchell Library in December 1972 by Sir Edward Ford OBE, Professor of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, University of Sydney. It is not known whether Sir Edward Ford was present at the survey.

Badge of 57th Regiment, heel plate, button, and pair of chin-strap badges (5 objects).

Regimental badge features numerals "57" on a plain background. Button and chin-strap badges feature a lion's head. Button has a flat plate attached by two clips on reverse; plate has a pair of holes for stitching.

In a box labelled by Sir Edward Ford: "Unearthed from Fort Dundas Apsley Strait Melville Island 1938. E Ford"

Pic.Acc. Upgrade Project - Information transferred from Pic.Acc.2696 as part of the eRecords project 2011-2012

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