History of Mermaid Reef Marine National Nature Reserve

Leopardfish (sea cucumber), Mermaid Reef. Photo: Naomi Wolfe

It is believed that the Kimberley Coast and the Rowley Shoals reefs have been visited by Makassan and possibly Bajo fishermen from Indonesia, from at least the mid-18th century onward. Trepang (holothurians or sea cucumbers), turtle shell, trochus shell and shark fin were other valuable commodities sought by these fishermen in waters south of the Indonesian archipelago.

These early visitors apparently knew the Rowley Shoals as Pulau Pulo Dhaoh. In later years, fishermen from Roti Island, south of Timor, also visited the Rowley Shoals, which they knew as Pulau Bawa Angin. The individual reefs were also given names, Mermaid being called Pulau Manjariti, Clerke Reef was Pulau Tengah and Imperieuse Reef was Pulau Matsohor.

Today, Indonesian fishermen continue to visit their traditional areas in Australian waters. This recognition of traditional rights is incorporated into a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Australian and Indonesian governments and permits fishing and the collection of marine species from the reefs of the Ashmore, Seringapatam, Scott and Browse areas, subject to certain regulatory requirements. However the Rowley Shoals area, incorporating Mermaid Reef Marine National Nature Reserve, is not included in the area open to Indonesian fishermen under the provisions of this Memorandum of Understanding and therefore no fishing or collecting is permitted.

The reefs were given their English names in 1818 by Captain Phillip Parker King. They were named after Captain Rowley, the master of the HMS Imperieuse, who had reported the presence of the most southerly reef in 1800. The northernmost reef was named Mermaid, after Captain King's vessel, a teak cutter of 85 tons, and the middle reef he named Clerke after the captain of a whaling vessel who had seen the reef while in the area between 1800 and 1809. The southernmost reef was named Imperieuse after Captain Rowley's vessel.

Only one historic shipwreck is known at the Rowley Shoals. It is believed to be that of the English whaler Lively, a three-masted, ship-rigged vessel of approximately 250 tons. This vessel was lost when it struck the western edge of Mermaid Reef in the early years of the 19th century. As a result of this shipwreck, from about 1829 a number of early charts of the area showed a Lively Shoal, but this was marked about 40 nautical miles north of Mermaid Reef. The two anchors and several iron knees from the wreck still lie on the reef flat on the western side. The trypots and cannon remain in an underwater gully off the edge of the reef near the anchors. None of the recovered material allows a positive identification of this wreck as being that of the Lively. For more information on shipwrecks in Australian waters visit the National Shipwreck Database.