Macca History

The first recorded sighting of Macquarie Island was in July 1810 by Captain Hasselburgh of the Perseverance while searching for fur seals in waters south of New Zealand. On July 18 eight men were landed with nine months supplies before the Perseverance returned to Sydney for further men and equipment. Despite attempts to keep the location a secret, Captain Hasselburgh himself was tricked by an ex-convict in Sydney Cove into revealing the island's location. By December 1810 another three Sydney based sealing gangs had been landed on the island. In the first 18 months of operations around 120,000 fur seals were killed. By 1815 the population of an estimated 250,000 animals had dramatically declined, with only 5,000 skins being taken during the entire season.
At least one of the earliest gangs on the island had also turned to the exploitation of elephant seals for their oil. Permanent try works for the production of oil were certainly established by 1813 when a gang from the Mary and Sally was landed at the Isthmus to put the existing works in order. Within a decade sealing operations at Macquarie Island had turned exclusively to the exploitation of elephant seals. Huts and try works were located at the Isthmus, Sandy Bay, Lusitania Bay, Caroline Cove and Hurd Point.

By 1830 elephant seal numbers at Macquarie Island had been reduced by approximately 70%, making the operations of the sealing gangs no longer profitable. The decline in the seal population led to a "lapse" period when only three vessels were recorded as visiting the island between 1830 and 1874 including a sealing party in 1851/1852.
After 1874 there was a revival of interest in elephant seal oil production by New Zealand entrepreneurs Nichol and Tucker, and Cormack, Elder and Co. Although their activities were largely concentrated at the northern end of the island between the Isthmus and Sandy Bay, the sealing gangs made use of existing facilities along the eastern coast.
Cormack, Elder and Co. gradually extended their operations over a decade to include Lusitania Bay and Hurd Point before finally abandoning the island in December 1884. During this period the first small scale scientific studies of Macquarie Island were made by visitors accompanying the sealing gangs. In later years a number of polar expeditions also briefly stopped at Macquarie Island including Borchgrevink in 1898, Scott in 1901, and Shackleton in 1909.

Intermittent expeditions to the island continued until 1899 when New Zealander Joseph Hatch began to dominate operations by establishing extensive processing facilities and a more regulated pattern of seasonal work. Hatch had gangs of about eight men operating on Macquarie Island for the next 30 years.
During the Hatch period, oiling operations at Macquarie Island were extended to the exploitation of the island's resident penguin population of over three million birds. Initially, there was a concentration on the large king penguin rookery at Lusitania Bay. With the transfer of the centre of operations to the Nuggets, however, there was also a shift towards using the smaller but more numerous royal penguins. At the Nuggets.


Sealers landing boilers at the Nuggets 1911-1914 (photo courtesy of State Library of NSW)	Sea Elephant 1911-1914 (photo courtesy of State Library of NSW)

In 1911 Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) stopped at Macquarie Island en route to Antarctica. A wireless repeater station was established at what is now known as Wireless Hill and a hut was built on the Isthmus for a party of five who were to remain on the island.
Following the visit of the AAE to Macquarie Island, Douglas Mawson headed a campaign to declare the island a nature reserve, and condemned the royal penguin industry in particular. Despite continued public denials by Hatch, he was finally forced, through the cancellation of his licence in February 1920 to cease operations at Macquarie Island where the last load of oil had been taken off in April of the previous year. Even without this cancellation, Hatch might not have been able to continue because of increasing financial difficulties which resulted in the liquidation of his company in April 1920.


Sealers "catch of the day" Rock Cod - the result of three hours fishing 1911-1914 (photo courtesy of State Library of NSW)	Skeleton of sea-elephant & Hamilton (photo courtesy of State Library of NSW)

The masts on Wireless Hill Macquarie Island 1911-1914 (photo courtesy of State Library of NSW)	Sawyer and Sea Elaphant pup 1911-1914 (photo courtesy of State Library of NSW)