INDEX

WHO DID DISCOVER AUSTRALIA?

COLONIAL EXPLORATION


Colonial Exploration: 1846 - Augustus Charles Gregory (1819-1905)


Augustus C. Gregory was the most distinguished of three exploring brothers. Born in Farnsfield, Notts, on 1st August 1819, he was the second son of a retired army officer and joined the Western Australia Survey Department in 1841.

In 1846, with his brothers Francis and Henry, he explored the area to the north of Perth, discovered and named Lake Moore and found coal in the River Irwin. Two years later, while examining the pastoral potential of the country inland from Shark Bay, he discovered lead in the Murchison River. On his expedition of !855-6 through Queensland and Northern Territory, he discovered and named Sturt's Creek which he traced for 300 miles.

The North Australian Expedition of 1855 - 1856

The expedition was an indirect descendant of a decision to reallocate convicts to a new colony that might profitably employ them in development of the Far North. It also had its roots in the Great Northern Dreaming which was nourished by thoughts of '...linking the new cities of the "Southland" of mystery with the "Spice Islands", India, China, and Japan that lay to the North, and also the link to the Americas and Europe, and also in the strong hints of mineral wealth to be had there, particularly - gold. '

At the Royal Geographic Society in London on 23rd May 1853 the eminent geologist Sir Roderick Murchison addressed its members'...on the future of a continent now doubly interesting to scientist and speculator, its "gold" came before "its geographical exploration" in the title of its paper. Yet as befitted the occasion, listener's minds were brought back to the mystery of the continent's heart. Whatever lay there - pasture, desert, inland sea or gold - remained unknown, more than sixty years after first European settlement. Exploration was still the cry, and the societies' main business was to rally support for the expedition being planned.'

At that point the Northern Expedition was launched; but it was May 21st 1855 before two members of it, Thomas Baines, artist and storeman, and J. Wilson, geologist, disembarked in Sydney to meet their leader, Augustus Gregory. Other members included Joseph Elsey, a doctor, Dr Ferdinand von Mueller, botanist, and James Flood, assistant gardener.

The plan was to proceed by ship up the east coast, round Cape York and disembark men, supplies and horses at the mouth of the Victoria River. Then to explore the northwest region about its delta and head waters. Gregory had chartered two vessels, the Monarch and the Tom Tough; the first to transport livestock and the latter as tender to the expedition. They sailed from Sydney on 18th July 1855. Gregory had also agreed to seek signs of Dr Leichhardt, missing in that area since April 1848.

The Monarch grounded twice in the Brisbane River, once travelling up to berth, the second time on leaving. Both vessels arrived off the Victoria by 15th September, and the Monarch proceeded to Singapore. On 21st June 1856, his work for the North Australian Expedition completed, Gregory set out to find a way back to the Albert River and the east coast settlements. The Tom Tough under Mr Baines set sail for Coepang to resupply and then head for the mouth of the Albert to meet him.

Gregory and his companions set out on June 21st. For the next sixty days '... water was scarce, ravines were numerous, plants and snakes were poisonous, and Gregory's main concern was for his thirty four horses.' They found no gold nor any trace of it. Gregory explored the region of the Victoria River with great thoroughness, and made the crossing from the Victoria River to the Gulf of Carpentaria with unexpected speed.

A little downstream from the two creeks that jointly formed the Albert River and 'in accordance with arrangements made with Mr Baines, I marked a tree ... wrote a note ... informing him that we intended leaving other memoranda at the junction of the salt water arm of the river, and then continuing without delay on our route to Moreton Bay.' Mr Baines chartered another boat in Coepang, the Messenger, but arrived too late at Sweers island and after some time returned to Sydney. An officer sent by the British Government, as they had not heard from Gregory since the departure of the Monarch, chartered the Torch, a paddle steamer, in Sydney and headed for the Albert River. The Torch eventually returned to Sydney without finding Gregory.

Meanwhile Gregory had continued his journey, concluded on his arrival in Brisbane on 5th December 1856. A truly historic expedition for a great explorer. The information recorded by Gregory on this journey was, however, of great value. Gregory demonstrated that many rivers drained into Lake Eyre and thus solved the puzzle of Australia's inland drainage. It also revived South Australia's interest in the country north of Lake Torrens.

 

In search of Leichhardt

In March 1858, Gregory led an expedition to search for Ludwig Leichardt's party which had disappeared without trace in 1848. The party set out from Euroomba Station on the Dawson Ranges. After travelling for four weeks he found the letter 'L' cut into a tree and thus encouraged, he followed the Barcoo River to its junction with the Thomson River, and then proceeded along Cooper's and Stzelecki Creeks as far as Lake Blanche. He arrived in Adelaide without finding the missing expedition.

Gregory became Surveyor-General of the newly established state of Queensland in 1859, serving in several official postions until his death in Brisbane in 1905. He was knighted in 1903 for his contribution to Australian exploration.

Biography

Gregory was born in England and arrived in the Swan River Colony (Perth) in 1829. He became a surveyor and, in 1855, lead a major expedition of exploration and scientific study across northern Australia from the Victoria River to Brisbane. In 1858 he led an expedition to try to find some trace of the Leichhardt expedition. After travelling for four weeks he found the letter "L" cut into a tree, but subsequently found no further trace of the expedition.

Gregory became Queensland's first Surveyor-General and the first Commissioner for Crown Lands. His Journals of Australian Exploration, 1884 was published in 1884, covering his journeys and those of his brother, Francis Thomas Gregory (1821-1888).


RELATED WEBSITES

Journals of Australian Exploration, 1884