Alex Forbes and John Nye

On 25 April 1829, with the arrival of the Sulphur and the Parmelia, Captain Charles Howes Fremantle, of the HMS Challenger, declared the Swan River Colony a free settlement of military, civilian tradesmen and entrepreneurs, with a promise of land grants and permission to establish businesses, farms and workshops. Albany had been settled three years before.

Six months after the initial boats landed at the Swan River Colony, after a four-month sea voyage from England, John Nye (born 1801) and his brother William (born 1787) from West Sussex, arrived on the Callista on 5 August 1829. Also aboard was Alexander Forbes (born 1809). John and Alexander were the first commercial fishermen of the Swan River Colony.

Peter Augustus Lautour had purchased a significant amount of land in the Tasmanian colony.He funded the voyages of the Calista and the Marquis of Angelsea to the Swan River Colony with settlers, goods and servants in exchange for 113,000 acres of prime land. Lautour never visited Australia, and there is some mystery around how he came into his wealth. His investments were managed by Richard George Wells, who emigrated to Australia on the Calista. The settlers aboard the Calista were indentured to Wells.

It was apparent upon their arrival that the colony was struggling to feed its increasing population. The entrance into the estuary was blocked by a rocky bar, which rendered the river mouth impassable, except for certain high tide times and wind conditions. The south westerly squalls blew boats across the rocky bar.

John and Alexander set their seine nets in the inlet, catching fish that were common to the area. Between January and May, mullet were plentiful. At other times snapper, whiting, herring and kingfish were caught. Fish was sold as a fresh food, and people salted, or cured, any excess for the winter months when fishing was perilous and for travel inland to discover new areas for farming and grazing land.

Both John and Alex’ fishing days in the new colony were short-lived. Both young men fished for only a year in the new colony before dying there. On 24 June 1830, Alexander’s boat overturned in a winter squall in Freshwater Bay. He drowned at the age of 21 years.

On 28 November the same year, John’s boat was swept onto the rocky bar at the inlet by a squall, and he drowned. His brother William helped drag the river to recover the body. William lived to be 53 and was buried in 1840 in Guildford.

The rocky bar at the Swan River inlet caused many losses in the early days of the colony. In 1897, C.Y. O’Connor oversaw blasting of the rocky bar and sand shoals, and dredging to deepen the harbour to allow boats to enter the area, and Fremantle harbour has kept the same basic structure ever since.