Major Thomas
Livingstone Mitchell
Explorer and Surveyor & Cartographer
Major Thomas Mitchell (1792-1855) was an explorer and a
surveyor. He was Surveyor-General of the colony and as such, was
responsible for laying out roads, bridges and towns. He was also
responsible for surveying much of the eastern part of Australia.
Born in Scotland, Mitchell joined the army where he learn't
to be a surveyor and in 1827, arrived in Australia where he took
over from John Oxley as Surveyor-General.
Mitchell was a hotheaded man and was the last person in
Australia to challenge anyone to a duel. Fortunately he only
shot a hole in the man's hat. Mitchell was a very talented
artist and also wrote poetry. He was also a geologist and botanist.
Mitchell wrote books about his journeys and these were very
popular.
In 1838, Mitchell was knighted and became Sir Thomas
Mitchell. He was responsible for exploring vast areas of
southeastern Australia and opening up new grazing lands in the
southern parts of Victoria. These he named "Australia Felix".
He led four main expeditions. During these expeditions he often
fought with the aborigines, sometimes killing them and also losing
some of his own men. He was widely criticized in the colony for his
treatment of the aborigines.
On his first expedition, Mitchell set off in 1831 to
explore a river to the north west of Sydney, reported by an escaped
convict. They passed a number of rivers and Mitchell
believed that they were all part of the Darling River system.
However, his path was blocked by a war party of natives who killed
two of his men and stole their supplies. As they had no fresh
supplies, Mitchell was forced to turn back and return to
Sydney.
On his second expedition, he proved that the rivers crossed
by Cunningham flowed into the Darling River. Mitchell
planned to trace the course of the Darling River to the sea. In
1835, he followed the Darling for about 500 kilometres. Again
aboriginals were sighted, and this time Mitchell's men
opened fire. Several natives were killed and again he was forced to
turn back.
On his third journey he followed the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee
and Darling Rivers to where they joined the Murray. Crossing into
what is now known as Victoria, Mitchell found the aborigines
were friendly and traded a tomahawk for a beautifully woven native
bag. The party killed 3 kangaroos and 2 emus. They also found a
number of emu eggs that they used for breakfast for several days.
Mitchell then mapped the western area of Victoria and named
the Grampian Mountains. It was the middle of winter and the peaks
were frozen. Across the mountains, Mitchell found excellent
grazing land - land richer than any grazing land he had found in
New South Wales and he named this country "Australia Felix".
Traveling southwest, they crossed mountains and rivers that no
white man had ever seen. They came to the Glenelg River and after
rowing down it, reached the sea at Portland Bay.
Mitchell was very surprised to meet here, the Henty
brothers, who had settled there in 1834. He was amazed to find a
thriving community complete with potato paddocks, roads and a ship
at anchor in the bay. The Henty brothers were raising sheep and
cattle as well as catching whales. They had been there for two
years without telling the officials and had built cottages and
sheds for their stock. The Henty brothers supplied food and other
materials to the whalers who sailed these waters.
On this expedition Mitchell had found excellent farming
land and when he returned to Sydney with the news, it started a
land rush. Mitchell was knighted for his discoveries in
1837.
Mitchell's fourth and last expedition was a 12 month
journey into central Queensland. His party consisted of 29 men. Of
these, 23 were convicts. There was a blacksmith, 2 carpenters and a
butcher. Most of them behaved very well except for 6 of them. They
took with them bullock drays and light carts. Mitchell also
took 2 iron boats that could be bolted together whenever they
needed them to cross rivers. They took enough supplies to last a
year, including 250 sheep. The men had straw hats, woollen jackets
and heavy coats for cold weather. They took with them 2 aboriginal
guides. If Mitchell had had the time and supplies, he could
have reached the Gulf of Carpentaria. After naming the Victoria
River, he returned to Sydney. This expedition led to the opening up
of rich pastoral areas of Central Queensland.
Mitchell had an unusual way of counting how far they had
traveled. He would count the stroke of his horse's hoof. When he
reached 100, he would put his hand into his pocket and remove a
counter, such as a bean or a pea and put it into his other pocket.
He claimed that 950 paces of his horse made up a 1.6 kilometre
distance and after this he would take a new compass reading and he
would start counting again.
(Does Derringer used this method on his more rural caches?)
Mitchell caught a chill while surveying a road and this
turned into pneumonia.
He died in 1855.
One of his sons also became a surveyor and mapped large areas of
New South Wales.
During his "Australia Felix" journey, on 11 October 1836, he passed
close to where the town of Euroa has been established. This
has been commemorated with the naming of parkland in his honour.
He documented all his journeys in a diary type format which can be
downloaded free from the internet and make fascinating reading not
only for the exploration side of the expeditions but in some of the
day to day living activities.
Also to see some of his illustrations and drawings go to these web
sites.
I found that HTML – Zip download the best for me but there are
alternatives
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9943
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12928
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13033
The Cache Site
The following is an extract for the day of his visit to his
subsequently named parkland.
Extract for 11 October 1836.
Having turned my course a little more towards the east in order to
keep the hills in view, chiefly for the more convenient continuance
of the survey, we passed through a country abundantly watered at
that time, the party having crossed eight running streams besides
chains of ponds in traveling only 14 miles.
Towards the end of the day's journey we found ourselves once more
on undulating ground, and I at length perceived on my right that
particular height which, at a distance of 80 miles back, I had
selected as a guiding point in the direction which then appeared
the most open part of the horizon, this being also in the best line
for reaching the Murrumbidgee below Yass. It was the elevated
northern extremity of a range connected with others still loftier,
which arose to the southeast. We crossed some undulating ground
near its base on which grew trees of stringybark, a species of
eucalyptus, which had not been previously seen in the forests
traversed by us in our way from the river. We next entered a valley
of a finer description of land than that of the level forest; and
we encamped on the bank of a stream, which formed deep reedy ponds,
having travelled 14 miles.
As soon as I had marked out the ground for the party I proceeded
towards a hill which bore east-southeast from our camp and was
distant from it about 5 1/2 miles. On our way an emu ran boldly up,
apparently desirous of becoming acquainted with our horses; when
close to us it stood still and began quietly to feed like a
domestic fowl so that I was at first unwilling to take a shot at
the social and friendly bird. The state of our flour however, and
the recollection of our one remaining sheep already doomed to die,
at length overcame my scruples, and I fired my carbine but missed.
The bird ran only to a little distance however, and soon returned
at a rapid rate again to feed beside us when, fortunately perhaps
for the emu, I had no more time to spare for such sport and we
proceeded to -
ASCEND A HEIGHT NEAR THE CAMP, AND OBTAIN A SIGHT OF SNOWY SUMMITS
TO THE EASTWARD.
The top of the hill was covered thickly with wood, but I saw for
the first time for some years snowy peaks far in the southeast,
beyond intermediate mountains, also of considerable elevation.
There was one low group of heights to the northward, but these were
apparently the last, for the dead level of the interior was visible
beyond them to the northwest.
Further eastward a bold range extended too far towards the north
to be turned conveniently by us in our proposed route; but under
its high southern extremity (a very remarkable point) its
connection with the mountains on the south appeared very low, and
thither I determined to proceed.
One isolated hill far in the northwestern interior had already
proved a useful point and was still visible here.
I also saw the distant ranges to the eastward beyond the proposed
pass just mentioned, and some of these I had no doubt lay beyond
the Murray.
The hill and range I had ascended consisted of granite, and the
country between it and our camp of grassy open forestland.
The Cache
The cache is a 1 litre Sistema container at the above
co-ordinates.