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Australian Explorers
Australian Explorers covers the people who explored and charted Australia, opening up the inland and the waterways for settlement. Many returned from their journeys, a few did not; but they all contributed something to the knowledge of this vast continent.
465 Questions
Why did Blaxland Lawson and Wentworth cross the Blue Mountains?
The push to cross the Blue Mountains was led by Gregory Blaxland. Blaxland was a wealthy grazier who had come to Australia in 1806. He stood to gain much by finding a route to new grasslands on the other side of the mountain range, as expansion of the colony of New South Wales was severely restricted by the limitations of the Blue Mountains.
Blaxland approached Governor Macquarie about funding an expedition to cross the Blue Mountains. Though Macquarie found Blaxland to be troublesome and discontented, and felt his time would be better suited to growing grain to feed the colony (rather than raising stock animals), he granted approval for the expedition.
Blaxland took along two other men: William Lawson, who was also a landholder, and magistrate with surveying experience; and William Wentworth, the first Australian-born explorer.
What did Matthew Flinders discover?
Matthew Flinders was the one who circumnavigated the entire continent of Australia, discovering and naming many inlets, bays, rivers and land features along the way. In particular, he detailed the southern coastline more so than any previous sea explorer.
Together with George Bass, he also determined that Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) was an island, and not joined to the mainland.
Did Burke and Wills' achievement impact on the colony?
Not really, no, because there was no real achievement.
The Burke and Wills expedition had the potential to be very important to the state of Victoria. Burke and Wills, like John McDouall Stuart in South Australia, were seeking a suitable route for a telegraph line from the southern regions of Australia to the north. A telegraph link to the rest of the world was available off Java, but it had to be linked to a centre in the north, then an overland telegraph line constructed to carry messages down to the main cities in the south.
This would provide a very important link for Australia to the rest of the world, and Victoria wanted to be the first state to receive overseas news, as this would be a psychological advantage for the state. It also could have been the winning card to tip the authorities in favour of making Melbourne Australia's national capital in the future, over the larger and older Sydney (as it was, neither Melbourne nor Sydney was chosen).
Both South Australia and Victoria were vying to be the first to make a successful crossing of the continent, and both states offered sizable rewards. Burke and Wills represented the Victorian bid to cross the continent. In the end, due to their premature deaths, the Burke and Wills expedition sadly had no lasting importance or significance for Australia, except in history books.
How did Arthur Phillip learn about Aborigines?
Captain Arthur Phillip learned more about the Australian Aborigines by direct contact with them, which he achieved by kidnapping several Aborigines. Bennelong and Arabanoo were two of the Aborigines he kidnapped in an attempt to learn to understand them better, and to learn to communicate with them. He developed a strong relationship with Bennelong, who even travelled back to England with Arthur Phillip, where he was presented before the king.
Whilst this move assisted Arthur Phillip in leaning about the Aborigines, it did little for Bennelong. He found he could not integrate properly into white society, and his own people rejected him for adopting European ways. He found himself caught between two opposing worlds.
How did Ludwig Leichhardt disappear?
Ludwig Leichhardt was on his third and final expedition when he disappeared. Leichhardt's final expedition began in March 1848. The last sighting of Leichhardt, six other men, fifty bullocks, twenty mules and seven horses was made as they departed Roma, Queensland, on 4 April 1848. Somewhere in Australia's vast outback, the entire party vanished.
Many theories have abounded as to what happened, and many claim to have found evidence of the remains of the expedition, but what really happened remains one of Australia's enduring mysteries. The strongest evidence, which has recently come to light and been thoroughly investigated, is that the party was killed by hostile natives one night as they slept around their campfire.
Several expeditions were mounted in an attempt to determine Leichhardt's fate. In 1852, Hovenden Hely and a party of seven white men set out north, then west from Leichhardt's starting point. Hely located trees that had been marked, as well as camp sites, and encountered natives who had seen Leichhardt. These aboriginal men told stories of white people being killed in the night, as reprisal for ill-treating some native women. Hely developed the theory that Leichhardt was killed in a massacre.
In 1871, JM Gilmour headed up an expedition to follow up on claims that Leichhardt's party was murdered. At Cooper Creek, they met an Aborigine who claimed a party of white men were killed at Wantata waterhole. When Gilmour found the location, he noted unburied skeletons, indicating high likelihood that they were the remains of white men. He also found other evidence of the party that confirmed the finding.
Where did they bury Ludwig Leichhardt?
Ludwig Leichhardt was never buried because his remains were never found.
Ludwig Leichhardt was on his third and final expedition when he disappeared. His final expedition began in March 1848. The last sighting of Leichhardt, six other men, fifty bullocks, twenty mules and seven horses was made as they departed Roma, Queensland, on 4 April 1848. Somewhere in Australia's vast outback, the entire party vanished.
Many theories have abounded as to what happened, and many claim to have found evidence of the remains of the expedition, but what really happened remains one of Australia's enduring mysteries.
Edward Madden Lyricist is Australian?
edward madden was an American songwriter born in New York in 1878 and died in California in 1952
Did Gregory Blaxland make any achievements?
Gregory Blaxland's best known achievement was, of course, being one of the first three men to cross the Blue Mountains in 1813, thereby opening up the western plains for settlement.
Apart from that, as the son of the mayor at Fordwich, Kent, England, whose family owned large estates, he was considered a highly respectable person. He farmed profitably once in New South Wales, and undertook various trading ventures. However, there was little of note beyond his pastoral and farming interests.
More information about his life can be found at the related weblink below.
What benefits did the Burke and Wills Expedition have on Australia?
Sad to say, the Burke and Wills expedition did not bring any notable benefits to Australia. It could be said that their expedition added to the knowledge of the Australian interior, but more knowledge was gained by the many search parties sent out to find them. It was, unfortunately, a large and expensive expedition that, in the end, proved quite futile.
Who were Matthew Flinders parents?
Matthew Flinders' parents were Matthew (senior), who was a surgeon, and Sussanah (nee Ward).
What is the Theory of the Portuguese discovery of Australia?
It is believed that the Portuguese were the first to sight the Australian continent, but there are no records within Portugal itself to substantiate the claim. The source for this claim are the Dieppe Maps, which date between 1542 and 1587, and which were drawn up by a group of French cartographers using a Portuguese source. These maps name a large land mass believed to be the Australian continent as Java-la-Grande. There is some speculation that the maps, not being to scale, actually represent an exaggerated western Java, possibly even Vietnam.
How are Burke and Wills remembered?
Burke and Wills are remembered for their expedition across Australia, which was one of the largest to ever be undertaken in Australian history - and one of the most tragic.
Robert O'Hara Burke, with William Wills appointed second-in-command, led the 1860-61 expedition to try to cross Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north - and back again. Their party was very well equipped and, because of its size, was split at Menindee so that Burke could race ahead to the Gulf of Carpentaria with a smaller group. Part of this smaller group established a depot at Cooper Creek to stock provisions for when the explorers returned from the Gulf. Burke chose the wrong tim,e of year to make the push for the north, leaving in December 1860 - Australia's summer. He took with him Wills, Charles Gray and John King.
The expedition to the Gulf took much longer than Burke expected: when he returned to Cooper Creek, he found that the relief party had left just seven hours earlier, which was actually less than how much time it had taken to bury Gray, who had died on the return journey. Through poor judgement, lack of observation and a series of miscommunications, Burke and Wills never met up with the relief party. They perished on the banks of Cooper Creek. King alone survived to lead the rescue party to the remains of Burke and Wills, and the failure of one of the most elaborately planned expeditions in Australia's history.
There are numerous memorials to Burke and Wills in Victoria, the state that commissioned the expedition. A large statue of the two men stands in Swanston Street in Melbourne. In addition, there are memorials at the Mechanics Institute in Fryerstown; at Back Creek Cemetery in Bendigo; the Explorers Fountain at Ballarat; and the Explorers Memorial in Swan Hill.
Other places by which Burke and Wills are remembered can be found in Queensland because Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills were the first to travel through western and northern Queensland. Places named after them in that part of Queensland are
- Burketown
- Burke River
- O'Hara's Gap in the Selwyn Ranges
Burke and Wills were both from Victoria, so there are numerous sites around the state commemorating the two men.
- Burke Museum, Beechworth (where Burke was Superintendent of Police for some time) and a monument to Burke in Castlemaine, where he was also Superintendent
- A monumental bronze statue, currently in the centre of Melbourne, but which has previously been in various other locations around Melbourne
- A memorial cairn in Melbourne's Royal Park, the point of Burke and Wills' departure
- A monument in the main Bendigo Cemetery
- The Dig Tree, the Burke Tree and other monuments at Cooper Creek, where the men spent their final weeks awaiting rescue
- A huge memorial in Melbourne General Cemetery
- The Victorian electorate of Wills is named after William Wills.
In addition:
The Haast Pass area of New Zealand was being explored about the time of the searches for Burke and Wills. Julius von Haast named several features after them, There is the Burke River, and the Wills River, both extraordinarily different from the country of their patronym's exploration country.
Why did Gregory Blaxland cross the Blue Mountains?
Gregory Blaxland was a wealthy grazier who had come to Australia in 1806. He stood to gain much by finding a route to new grasslands on the other side of the mountain range, as expansion of the colony of New South Wales was severely restricted by the limitations of the Blue Mountains.
Blaxland approached Governor Macquarie about funding an expedition to cross the Blue Mountains. Though Macquarie found Blaxland to be troublesome and discontented, and felt his time would be better suited to growing grain to feed the colony (rather than raising stock animals), he granted approval for the expedition.
Blaxland took along two other men: William Lawson, who was also a landholder, and magistrate with surveying experience; and William Wentworth, the first Australian-born explorer.
What did the first sailors think about Australia?
Captain James Cook described botany bay/Sydney Cove as looking similar to that of south Wales, hense he named the area of Sydney Cove/Botany Bay NEW South Wales.
What problems did Wentworth Lawson and Blaxland have on their journey?
The major problem that the three explorers had was continually confronting dead ends. When they followed river gullies, they ended up against impassable cliff faces. When they followed the mountain tops, they often found themselves on the edge of sheer cliffs too steep to take down their horses.
Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth were also going through countryside where there were no roads or tracks. They travelled through thick, impenetrable bushland which had to be hacked away with machetes.
Mosquitoes were a constant problem. Another fear was aboriginal attack: little was really known about the Aborigines, and it was not really understood that they were just as keen to avoid Europeans as Europeans were keen to avoid them.
Where did Alexander Forrest travel to?
Alexander Forrest was an explorer and surveyor of Western Australia. Like his famous brother John, he explored and charted unknown regions of the western state.
Travelling with his brother John in 1874, Alexander departed Geraldton and discovered the Weld River and the pastureland land around it.
In 1879 Alexander Forrest led an expedition from the DeGrey River north to Beagle Bay, then headed east inland into the area which is now known as the Kimberley. On this journey, he discovered the Fitzroy River.
How did William Lawson go about discovering the Blue Mountains?
William Wentworth did not discover the Blue Mountains. These mountains were known from the time of the first European settlement in Australia, and had prevented Sydney from expanding as a colony, because they could not be crossed.
William Wentworth was one of the first men to successfully cross the Blue Mountains. He explored with Gregory Blaxland and William Lawson in May 1813. The three men and the convicts who assisted them achieved the crossing by following the ridges over the tops of the mountains.
How did Ludwig Leichhardt travel?
Ludwig Leichhardt travelled alternately on foot and on horseback. He lost several horses during his first expedition, so he and his men were forced to walk more often, in order to preserve the energy of the horses.
What hardship did Major Thomas Mitchell face in his journey to Australia?
Major Thomas Mitchell did not face any hardships on his journey to Australia. However, while he was exploring through Australia's interior, he encountered some difficulties. His main problems centred around encounters with hostile Aborigines, and he lost several men in these, not to mention the aboriginal men who were also killed.
Thomas Mitchell was a highly intelligent and disciplined man, but he was also very arrogant, and tended to think his way was superior to that of others. He ran his expeditions like he planned to conquer the country - not just explore it. As a result he had very high expectations of his men and of himself, and he was constantly frustrated by not being able to find any good land of substance, until he came across the fertile western Victoria region.
What parts of Australia did Ernest Giles explore?
Ernest Giles made several expeditions in the Australian desert. The first, lasting four months, commenced in August 1872 and resulted in discoveries such as Palm Valley, Gosse's Bluff, Lake Amadeus, and the first sighting of Mount Olga.
Giles's next expedition departed in August 1873. On this expedition, Giles was able to approach closer to the Olgas, but his attempts to continue further west were thwarted by interminable sand, dust, biting ants, Aboriginal attack and lack of water. The loss of one of Giles's companions, Gibson, in April 1874 ended this second expedition, and the party arrived back at Charlotte Waters in July.
Giles was determined to explore the unknown country south of where Warburton and Forrest had explored, reaching Perth in the attempt. On 13 March 1875, Giles departed from Fowlers Bay, heading north first before crossing the western deserts. Although a short expedition, it was a difficult one, initially marked by severe water shortages until the discovery of permanent water holes.
Giles's fourth expedition departed from the homestead of his sponsor Thomas Elder at Beltana on 6 May 1875. On this journey, Giles was supplied with camels. From Ooldea on the northeastern edge of the Nullarbor Plain, he travelled west through the Great Victoria Desert, reaching Perth with no loss of life among his party. He then promptly turned around, re-crossing the desert back to the Overland Telegraph Line. Although he did not find good land, his main claim to fame was being the first to make the main western crossing from both directions.
Did Blaxland Wentworth and Lawson go to school?
Yes.
Gregory Blaxland and William Lawson were both born and educated in England. Blaxland attended The King's School, Canterbury, while Lawson was known to have been educated in London.
William Wentworth, despite being the son of a convict woman, received a good education, being sent back to England to attend school, firstly in Bletchley, then later the Greenwich school of Dr Alexander Crombie.
