Back to Dennes Point Heritage Trail Play audio Kelly’s initial 100-acre grant does not include a portion of land on the western headland, this being reserved for eventual fortification. The land is never fortified, but prior to 1852, perhaps as...
Back to Dennes Point Heritage Trail Play audio 1846. Kelly convenes a meeting to inaugurate a horseboat ferry from Kelly’s Point to Tinderbox Bay. Approval is obtained the following year, and Anthony Denne, now the most prominent landowner hereabouts, is...
Back to Dennes Point Heritage Trail Play audio The most vivid description of an encounter between Baudin’s men and the Nuenonne is given by Péron. It took place right here. Péron is walking the shore alone when he sees a...
Back to Dennes Point Heritage Trail Play audio James Kelly’s commercial enterprises are many and varied, but sealing and, increasingly, whaling, are pre-eminent among these. The abundance of whales in the Derwent estuary and Storm Bay generates a flourishing local...
Back to Dennes Point Heritage Trail Play audio You stand on a windblown promontory – and that wind has played an important role in shaping this landscape. Its strength and constancy determines, in no small part, what plants can and...
Back to Dennes Point Heritage Trail Play audio You have just passed the replica headstone – but not the grave – of John Merrison, Kelly’s longest serving workman, and as you will see if you peer at the inscription (composed...
Back to Dennes Point Heritage Trail Play audio To your front and left is the site of Kelly’s original 1818 farm. In addition to the farm cottage, by 1829 there is a ‘barn, a servant’s house, a storehouse’, and ‘an...
Back to Dennes Point Heritage Trail Play audio To your west is the convergence of D’Entrecasteaux Channel and the Derwent River, here at the northernmost tip of Bruny Island. D’Entrecasteaux called this point Cap de la Sortie, which James Kelly...
Back to Dennes Point Heritage Trail Play audio It is 22 January 1802, and the Geographe and the Naturaliste drop anchor in the Channel. Their very names tell us why they are here, cruising the southern seas. Imagine yourself a...
Back to Dennes Point Heritage Trail Play audio For the pioneer islanders, the Channel is the road to anywhere else. Boats are a central factor of everyday life, and it is not surprising that this should also be the focus...