Henry Hacking

Henry Hacking (1750–1831), seaman and explorer, was an early settler in New South Wales, Australia.^[1]

Hacking was quartermaster of Sirius, the flagship of the First Fleet that established the first European colony in New South Wales, Australia in 1788. He probably returned to England after the loss of the Sirius in 1790, as he returned to Sydney in the Royal Admiral in 1792.

Hacking became a skilled, adventurous bushman, who led many hunting expeditions to supplement meat rations for Australia’s first settlers. He was amongst the party that found the lost government cattle at Cowpastures in 1795.^[1] He was also the man who in 1802 killed Pemulwuy an Aboriginal resistance fighter and a Bediagal man who had killed and harassed settlers and who since 1790 had been a wanted man.

In 1800 and 1801 he piloted the Porpoise into and out of Port Jackson. In 1802 he was appointed first mate of the Lady Nelson.

In 1803 he was found guilty of stealing naval stores from Investigator and sentenced to death, then reprieved on condition that he was transported to Van Diemen's Land.

In 1804 Hacking was appointed coxswain to the lieutenant-governor at Hobart. In July 1806 he was appointed pilot at Hobart at £50 a year. He died at Hobart on 21 July 1831.

Port Hacking, south of Botany Bay, was named in his honour by Matthew Flinders in 1796.^[2][3]

References

Further reading

• Forsyth, Leslie Charles (1982), Henry Hacking, 1750-1831 : an early Australian at Sydney and Hobart, Willoughby Municipal Library, ISBN 978-0-9599654-4-5