Somerset Graves Site is a heritage-listed cemetery at Somerset, Northern Peninsula Area Region, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as Somerset Jardine Cemetery. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 25 January 2018.
History The Somerset Graves Site, on the northwest edge of Somerset Bay, Cape York, is known to contain seven marked interments, including the graves of Francis (Frank) Lascelles Jardine (1919), three members of his family (, 1923, 1962), two pearl divers (1890, 1909), and an unidentified grave; as well as a memorial to Frank and Sana Jardine (1924); and the Kennedy Memorial Monument (1948). The site is a remnant of the original settlement of the town of Somerset, established in 1864 as a joint venture between the Queensland Government and the British Government as a port of refuge and refuelling depot. The known burials date from 1890 to 1962. The site has the potential to contribute knowledge that will lead to a greater understanding of Somerset's inhabitants and burial practices. It has a special association with the Jardine family, early settlers of Cape York Peninsula.
With its separation from New South Wales on 10 December 1859, the new colony of Queensland acquired over of coastline extending as far north as Cape York Peninsula. The colony's first parliament passed a resolution in 1860 favouring direct connection with England via the Torres Strait. In December 1861, Sir George Ferguson Bowen (1821–99), Governor of Queensland (1859–67), described the necessity for a station in the far north of Queensland. From a naval and military point of view, a post at or near Cape York would be valuable, due to the establishment of a French colony and naval station in New Caledonia. Bowen informed Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State for the Colonies, that the government of Queensland would be willing to undertake the formation and management of a station at Cape York and to support a civil establishment there.C G Austin, "Early History of Somerset and Thursday Island", Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, Volume 4, issue 2, Brisbane 1949, p. 217.
On 27 August 1862, Bowen left Brisbane on HMS Pioneer to select an eligible site for the proposed settlement. The chosen site, opposite Albany Island, was named Somerset, in honour of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset.Austin, Early History of Somerset and Thursday Island, p. 218'Events for 1862', Theophilis Pugh, Pugh's Almanac and Queensland Directory, Brisbane, Australia, 1863, p. 166-67.
Tenders were called for the construction of government buildings in March 1863, a town survey was undertaken in July 1864 and the Town Reserve of Somerset was established on 8 July 1864.Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 3, 1863, p. 203Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 5, 1864, p. 470Queensland Government Gazette, vol.5, 1864, p. 470. A survey plan dated 13 March 1865 included Parcel 24, within which the graves are located. Parcel 24 comprised approximately .DNRM, Survey Plan LWO/A30, 1865. The first Somerset land sale was held in Brisbane on 4 April 1865 and a second sale took place on 2 May 1866. Land parcels sold at these auctions were about in size, so did not include parcel number 24.Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 6, 2 March 1865, p. 163-64Queensland Government Gazette, vol.7, 14 March 1866, p. 295-96.
Earlier, in February 1864, John Jardine (1807–74) was appointed Somerset's first Police Magistrate and Commissioner of Crown Lands and in July 1864 he was appointed District Registrar for the District of North Cook.Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 5, 1864, page 171Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 5, 8 July 1864, p. 469Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <>, accessed Oct 2017. An early sketch of Somerset by Jardine shows the Government Residence, Police Magistrate's House and Customs House on the southern side of Somerset Bay, and Marines' Barracks and the Medical Superintendent's House on the northern side.E J T Barton (ed), Jubilee History of Queensland, HJ Diddams & Co: Brisbane, 1909, p. 362. Henry Simpson succeeded Jardine as Police Magistrate in 1866.James Cook University, Material Culture Unit, Report on the Former Magistrate's Residence at Somerset, Cape York: Stage 1, 1986, p. 42. The Marines were withdrawn in 1867 and replaced with Native Police.S McIntyre, Conservation Plan Somerset Historic Site, Prepared on behalf of the Injinoo Aboriginal Community, 1994, p. 14.
John Jardine was the father of Francis (Frank) Lascelles Jardine (1841–1919) and Alexander (Alick) William Jardine (1843–1920) who, between May 1864 and March 1865, undertook an overland expedition from Rockhampton to Cape York which was described at the time as, geographically:F L Byerley. Overland Expedition of the Messrs. Jardine, from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland. J.W. Buxton, Bookseller and Stationer, Brisbane, 1867, p. 65 reproduced Project Gutenberg eBook 2004<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4521/4521-h/4521-h.htm£pic2 >, accessed Oct 2017Clem Lack, "Jardine, John (1807-1874)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, , published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 25 October 2017."solving the question of the course of the northern rivers emptying into the Gulf of Carpentaria of which nothing was known but their outlets. It has also made known...how much ... or rather, how little, of the 'York Peninsula' is adapted for pastoral occupation, whilst its success in taking the first stock overland, and forming a cattle station at Newcastle Bay, has ensured to the Settlement at Somerset a necessary and welcome supply of fresh meat...".The Jardine River was named after them by order of Governor Bowen.F L Byerley. Narrative of the overland expedition of the Messrs. Jardine from Rockhampton to Cape York. Brisbane, 1867, p. 65. (River name approved in 1865). For their pioneering exploratory efforts the Jardine brothers were made Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society and awarded the Society's Murchison Award, in 1886.Sydney Evening News, 8 July 1886 p. 8.
Several Indigenous groups occupied this region prior to European contact.State of Queensland 2016. Injinoo. Online: <>, accessed 19 October 2017. In an 1896 report to the Queensland Government, Archibald Meston estimated that in the 1870s the Indigenous population between Newcastle Bay () and Cape York was around 3000. At the time of writing his report, he believed that the population had fallen to around 300.Archibald Meston, Report on the Aboriginals of Queensland to the Home Secretary, QLD, Votes and Proceedings, vol.4, 1(1896) 724Queensland State Archives, Home Secretary's Office, HOM/J717, 1929/3999, list of Aboriginal reserves. This rapid decline was caused by a number of factors, including introduced disease, exclusions from traditional hunting grounds and frontier violence.N Sharp, Footprints Along the Cape York Sandbeaches (Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1992) 55-58J Richards, The Secret War: A True History of Queensland's Native Police (Queensland University Press, St Lucia 2008) 42. Reverend Frederick Charles Jagg, a missionary at Somerset appointed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,James Cook University, Material Culture Unit. Report on the Former Magistrate's Residence at Somerset, Cape York: Stage 1, p. 42Queensland Government Gazette, Vol. 7, 1867, p. 144. gave an indication of the relationship between European and Indigenous peoples when he reported in 1867 that "The aborigines have been described as the most degraded, treacherous and bloodthirsty beings in existence by the present Police Magistrate, and those whose only idea is to shoot them down whenever they were seen".David R Moore, Islanders and Aborigines at Cape York. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1979, p. 255-6.
Frank Jardine was appointed as a Magistrate in December 1867 and as Police Magistrate and Inspector of Police at Somerset in April 1868.Queensland Government Gazette: vol. 7, 1868, p. 1165Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 8, 1868, p. 334. In 1869 he held the positions of District Registrar for Somerset, Police Magistrate, Clerk of Petty Sessions, Inspector of Police and Postmaster.Blue Book of Queensland 1869, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1869, p. viii. In 1873 Jardine was District Registrar, Police Magistrate and Shipping Inspector at Somerset, but from the following year, held no official positions. In his capacity of Justice of the Peace he acted as "Guardian of Minors" for Somerset, a role he held from 20 March 1872 for many years. He married Samoan woman, Sana Sofala, in 1873 and the couple had four children: Alice Maule Lascelles, Hew Cholmondeley (Chum), Bootle Arthur Lascelles (Bertie) and Elizabeth Sana Hamilton.Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <>, accessed Oct 2017Queensland Death Certificate for Sana Jardine, 1923, Reg# C4567. Frank Jardine's tenure as a government officer in Somerset was not without controversy. The local Indigenous population was dispossessed and there was hostility between them and the Jardine family; both during Frank and Alick Jardine's expedition to Somerset, and during the years of the settlement. Jardine was also suspended for a time from his duties as Police Magistrate whilst being investigated in relation to using his position to obtain a pearl diving licence.Rodney Liddell, Cape York. The Savage Frontier. Rodney Liddell, Redbank, 1996, p. 98.
Somerset became redundant as a port once a safer shipping route to the Torres Strait was found and a settlement on Thursday Island was built from 1876.Barton, Jubilee History of Queensland, p. 361McIntyre, Conservation Plan Somerset Historic Site, pp. 13-14. Frank Jardine continued to live at Somerset, maintaining the police residence until his death there in March 1919.Brisbane Courier, 18 March 1919, p. 6. During this time, Jardine continued to maintain a beef cattle herd; was engaged in the pearling industry; and created a coconut/copra plantation at Somerset. Due to Somerset's isolated location the Jardine family provided assistance and hospitality to travellers and seafarers, for example, Jardine aided the survivors of the shipwreck of RMS Quetta in 1890.Liddell, Cape York, the Savage Frontier, pp. 125, 131, 145'Colonial News', Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 25 August 1877, p. 4'Wreck of the RMS Quetta. Terrible Loss of Life Among Europeans', The Week, 8 March 1890, p. 11.