History
Holbourne Island became well known in 1875, when 18 survivors of the shipwreck SS Gothenburg reached its shores. Four survivors arrived on a damaged port lifeboat on 25 February, where they survived by eating raw bird's eggs and drinking rain water that had pooled in the island rocks. The following day, 14 survivors from a starboard lifeboat also landed. Because rescue was uncertain, the survivors engraved their names on the concave side of a large turtle shell, which is displayed in the South Australian Museum, on North Terrace in Adelaide.
On Sunday, 28 February, 15 of them set off in the starboard lifeboat for an island about 20 miles (32 km) away to the south, which seemed to be more in the track of ships. A rescue ship sent looking for survivors of the Gothenburg, picked up the group and took them safely to Bowen. The ship subsequently returned to Holbourne Island and rescued the three remaining survivors.
Read more about this topic: Holbourne Island National Park
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“A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“False history gets made all day, any day,
the truth of the new is never on the news
False history gets written every day
...
the lesbian archaeologist watches herself
sifting her own life out from the shards she’s piecing,
asking the clay all questions but her own.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)