Why did Sir Thomas Mitchell explore?

Answer 1

One of Sir Thomas Mitchell's primary motivations was pride. Mitchell was determined to prove Sturt was wrong when he said that the Darling River flowed into the Murray. He felt it was a great indignity that Sturt, whom he regarded as inexperienced, was sent on the important expedition of charting the NSW interior. Mitchell was also a very skilled surveyor and accurate map-maker. If the new country was going to be explored and charted, he wanted to be sure it was done accurately.

Answer 2

Thomas Mitchell undertook three major expeditions to explore in eastern Australia because that was where the majority of European settlement was. People continually sought fertile land for stick and crops. As Surveyor-General of New South Wales, it was logical for Thomas Mitchell to explore the regions of what was then still New South Wales.

His first expedition was to investigate rumours of a north-flowing river situated in northern New South Wales: a river that did not exist, but stories of which were spread by an escaped convict.

Mitchell's second journey set out from Boree Station, to follow and map the course of the Darling River which Sturt had discovered some years earlier.

On his third journey, Mitchell discovered the rich farming country of western Victoria, which he named "Australia Felix", or "Happy Australia".

Mitchell departed on his fourth and final expedition with Edmund Kennedy as his second in command, in search of a great river that he believed must flow from southern Queensland to the Gulf of Carpentaria.