Somerset is a coastal locality split between the Shire of Torres and the Northern Peninsula Area Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Somerset had "no people or a very low population".
Geography Somerset is the northernmost locality on the Cape York Peninsula and also of the Queensland mainland with Cape York at the northernmost point. It is not the northernmost locality in Queensland, as there are numerous island localities to the north in the Torres Strait.
The Great Dividing Range commences just south of Cape York and extends through to Victoria.
The Northern Peninsula Airport is in the south of the locality (). It is operated by the Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council. It is south-east of the town of Bamaga to the west of the locality of Somerset.
There are relatively few roads in the locality:
Pajinka Road connects Cape York to the town of Bamaga to the west of the locality Somerset Road connects from Pajinka Road to the historic Somerset settlement and Fly Point Narau Beach Road connects from Somerset Road to Narau Beach Airport Road connects the town of Bamaga with the Northern Peninsula Airport
There is minimal land use within the locality.
Coastal features The locality has many coastal features, some on the mainland and others on the islands. The northern coast of the locality is comprised on headlands and beaches, while the southern coast is marshland without many features.
On the mainland (clockwise from north):
Punsand Bay () Bay Point () York Island () Cape York () Eborac Island () Evans Point () Evans Bay () Ida Point () Ida Island () Muddy Bay ()
Bishop Point () Shallow Bay () Osnaburg Point () Stover Bay () Somerset Bay () Sheridan Point () Fly Point () Putta Putta Beach () Freshwater Beach () Freshwater Bay () Vallack Point () Nanthau Beach () Narau Beach () Chandogoo Point () Saldogoo Beach () Cliffy Point () Kilbie Beach () Newcastle Bay () Congora Beach () Kennedy Inlet () Albany Passage () separates the mainland from Albany Island (). The island has the following coastal features (clockwise from north):
Frederick Point () Tree Island ()
Bush Islet () Arethusa Point () Pioneer Bay ()
Alfred Point () Mai Islet () Charlotte Point () Vicary Bay () Ulrica Point () Lyons Point () Although not within the locality, the Adolphus Channel separates the mainland from Mount Adolphus Island, also known as Mori ().
Mountains Somerset has the following mountains:
Mount Bremer near the northern tip of the mainland () Mount Roma in the north-west of the locality ()
History 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.
Gudang (Gootung) is one of the languages of the tip of Cape York. The Gudang language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council, particularly the localities of Somerset, Albany Passage and Newcastle Bay extending north to the Tip.
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. 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 one acre (0.405 a) in size.Queensland Government Gazette, vol. 6, 2 March 1865, p. 163-64Queensland Government Gazette, vol.7, 14 March 1866, p. 295-96.
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. 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.