A View at Anamooka.

Title

A View at Anamooka.

Description

View shows the island of Nomuka on Captain James Cook's voyage to the Pacific from 1776 to 1780. This belongs to the Kingdom of Tonja, French Polynesia. From Baldwyn's New System of Universal Geography.

ca. 1784

Artist

Webber (1752-1793)

John Webber R.A. (c.1752-1793), the son of a Swiss sculptor, living in London, submitted his work to the Royal Academy Schools, one of the first to admire his paintings was Dr Daniel Solander, the Swedish naturalist who had accompanied Cook and Banks on the first voyage. Knowing that no artist had yet been selected for Cook's voyage, Solander recommended Webber to the Admiralty and Royal Society. His appointment was made just days before the departure. Webber was lucky enough to escape the massacre in Hawaii, where Cook met his death, and returned to London in October 1780.

Historical Description

Andamooka is a town about 600 km north of Adelaide in the far north of South Australia on the land of the Kokatha people. Andamooka is the largest town administered by the Outback Communities Authority. The name is derived from a salt lake that was called “Andemorka” by the Aborigines and was already known to Europeans in 1866, long before the discovery of opal. At that time it was also known as “Swinden's Country”, after Charles Swinden from Riverton, the leader of the small riding party that discovered it in 1857.