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John Oxley (1785 1828)

y He was born in England and sailed to Australia in 1801 and wasappointed Surveyor General in 1812. He led three important expedition.

FIRST EXPEDITION

y Ordered by Governor Macquarie in 1817, led by Oxley with explorerGeorge Evans as second in command, this expedition followed Lachlan

River.

y Oxley mapped the river and discovered grazing lands west of Bathurst.SECOND EXPEDITION

y In 1818 Oxley again with George Evans led another expedition to tracethe course of Macquarie River.

y The explorers crossed the Great Dividing Range and discovered HastingsRiver and followed it to the coast where they named the coastal area Port

Macquarie, then returned to Sydney.

y These two rivers thatOxley had discovered, were blocked with swampy,marshy land, therefore they believed that the rivers may have flowed intoa great sea in the middle of Australia.

THIRD EXPLORATION

y In the 1820s it was decided that a new place was needed to be found torelocate the convicts.

y In 1823, ordered by Governor Brisbane, Oxley sailed to Moreton Bay. Hewas shown the mouth of a large river by some escaped convicts, and he

named this river the Brisbane River

y When he returned to Sydney, he sugg ested Moreton Bay for the relocationof the convicts.

y The convict settlement was established on the bay atRedcliffe in 1824.Later the colony was moved south on the Brisbane River to provide them

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with a steady water supply. This is now Brisbane City.

LAST DAYS John Oxley became a sheep farmer. He was also the director of the

Bank ofNew SouthWales and a Member of Parliament. He died in Sydney in

1828.

Thomas Mitchell (1792 1855)

y He was born in Scotland in 1792. He joined the army when he was 16 andwas promoted to Lieutenant when he was 19. Here his work mostly

included map making and surveying.

y In 1827 he was offered the job of assistant surveyor general to John Oxleyand when he died Mitchell became Surveyor General.

y His work was mostly building roads and bridges in the colony.y After hearing about a large river from an escaped convict, in 1831 he set

out to find it. He reached part of the Darling River but he was met by

conflict with the aboriginals, whom he did not have a good attitude

towards.

y In 1835, Mitchell explored the Bogong River and then followed theDarling for several hundred Km. He discovered that the Darling River

water was sweet and fit for drinking. He was again forced to turn back

due to fighting with aboriginals.

y At this time NSW was suffering from drought and they needed to find newgrazing land, which led Mitchell on another expedition.

y They were again involved in fighting with the natives, this time heordered his men to ambush and kill them while they tried to flee.

y He was criticized for this throughout the colony.y He then discoveredWestern Victoria, which he named Australia Felix.y In 1845, Mitchell led his fourth expedition in hopes to find the route from

Sydney to Port Essington but were unsuccessful.

y He discovered the Victoria River and rich and fertile land in Queensland.y Mitchell returned to England after his last expedition and published a

book on his travels. He died in 1855.

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