Harmonious Kunak Part 4: Derivation Of Names for Pengkalan, Mostyn and Kunak

Bahasa Melayu

Until 1980s Kunak was seldom found on maps of Sabah, and marked on in its location was Mostyn. 

Map of North Borneo drawn W.M. Crocker

and presented to the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1881

Sir Arthur Mostyn Field (1855-1950) surveyed the area around Lahad Datu Bay (formerly Darvel Bay) in 1891. He was then commander of HMS Egeria commissioned to survey British North Borneo between 1890 to 1894. Much of inland Borneo was uncharted then, including the area of (now called) Kunak District, so it was named Mostyn after the middle name of the commander. One might wonder why not use the surname instead.

In my opinion, it was not named Field to avoid oral communication perplexities as the word 'field' stands for many aspects of an area, including meadow, pasture, grassland, area, playground and etcetera. 

Imagine the confusion when someone is to mention about the abundance of timber in a place called Field: "There are many valuable timbers in Field". The respond could be: "Which field?"

H.M.S. Egeria

In the 1950s logging activities in Mostyn were already in vigorous operation. The timbers were sent to wharfs in Darvel Bay where ships would take them to other parts of the world. 

The locals call the place where a vessel docks for quite some time as the 'pengkalan' for that vessel. So, if that vessel is HMS Dampier, they will call the place where she docks as Pengkalan Dampier. Since a number of ships took turn to load the precious timbers at that particular wharf, the local people simply referred to it as Pengkalan. 

The shipping services were provided by The Straits Steamship Company (SSC), a shipping company founded in Singapore on January 20, 1890.

Before the war, SCC ships were of 2,000 tonners but in 1960 the company bought two 5,000 tonner ships from a Dutch shipping company, Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij (KPM). One of the ships was Baud 3, constructed by Wilton Fijenoord in 1949. After the acquisition, SCC renamed the ship, Kunak. 

The Ship Kunak

The rise of another wharf in the vicinity gave the necessity to come up with partcular terms to distinguish the two wharfs. The presence of the big ship, Kunak, at the first wharf had been the talk among the local people. So, to refer to the wharf where Kunak frequently docked, they called it Pengkalan Kunak. The other wharf was named Pengkalan Madai as it was located not far from the famous (for its bird nests), Madai Cave.

After North Borneo gained independence with the formation of Malaysia on September 16, 1983, Pengkalan Kunak was put under the administration of Lahad Datu District.

In Januari 1965 a sub-district office was set up in the locality of Pengkalan Kunak. The office was named Pejabat Daerah Kecil Kunak (The Sub-District Office of Kunak) after the wharf, Pengkalan Kunak. An assistant district officer was put in charge of the office and the first was Thomas Koroh.

On Julai 1, 1981, the sub-district  was upgraded to a full district and named as Daerah Kunak (Kunak District). Salleh Bin Ajak was appointed as the first District Officer of Kunak.