Augustus Gregory

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Sir Augustus Charles Gregory (1903)

Sir Augustus Charles Gregory (born August 1, 1819 in Farnsfield , Nottingham , England , † June 25, 1905 ) was an Australian explorer. Between 1846 and 1858 he undertook four important expeditions.

Childhood and youth

Augustus Gregory was the son of Joshua Gregory and Frances Churchman. One of his brothers was Francis Thomas Gregory , who later also became a famous explorer. Gregory initially received private tuition; later his mother taught him. In 1829 the family emigrated to Western Australia . They arrived in the Swan River Colony on the Lotus ship just four months after it was founded.

Gregory's family originally owned land on the left bank of the Swan River , but the soil was poor and poor in nutrients. They later acquired two more properties, one in Maylands and one in Upper Swan District . For much of the 1830s Augustus Gregory supplemented the family's income with various jobs. He worked for a chemist for a while and later, with his brother Joshua William, as a contract appraiser. In 1841 he moved to the "Government Survey Office".

Discoveries

Gregory's voyages of discovery from 1846, 1855–56, and 1858
Gregory's Tree above the Victoria River, off the Victoria Highway about 20 km west of Timber Creek

Between 1846 and 1858 Gregory undertook four trend-setting expeditions.

1. Expedition: Around Perth

In 1846 he went on his first expedition with his two brothers FT Gregory and HC Gregory. With four horses and food for seven weeks they left on August 7, 1846, about 100 kilometers northeast of Perth Situated T. N. Yule's station . When they returned after 47 days, they had explored much of the region north of Perth, covering 1,534 km.

2nd Expedition: West Coast / Murchison River

Two years later, Gregory led an expedition to explore the course of the Gascoyne River and find new grazing areas at the same time . The group left on September 2, 1848, and crossed the Murchison River on September 25 , but the land was very dry and it was very difficult to get enough water for the horses. In early October, Gregory decided to turn south. On October 6th , when they arrived at the Murchison River again, he decided to stop here with the horses. On November 12, the expedition group returned to Perth after finding good grazing land. Despite the lack of water, the expedition participants covered 2,414 km within ten weeks.

3rd Expedition: Northern Australia / Victoria River

In 1854 Gregory was asked to lead an inland expedition. Gregory appointed his brother HC Gregory to be the second expedition leader; The team also included the botanist Baron Ferdinand von Mueller . Together they were 18 men, 50 horses and 200 sheep. The group left Moreton Bay near Brisbane on August 12, 1855 by ship for northern waters. They reached Port Essington on September 1st . The next day the ship hit a reef and it was not possible to move the ship for ten days. Then it went on to Pearce Point on the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf ( Timor Sea ), north of the estuary of a river that Gregory later called the Victoria River . At the end of the month the group split up: While Gregory led one part over the pasture lands, the others drove up the Victoria River in a schooner . Only on October 20, the group reunited and set up camp about 20 km west of today's Timber Creek . While the team stayed at the base camp until July 1956, Gregory went on expeditions inland for 8 months with a few companions. In the rainy season they drove up the Victoria River, reached Sturt Creek , which only has water in summer, and followed it to the edge of the Tanami Desert . A reference to the base camp to which Gregory's core team returned in the dry season of 1856 is found on the so-called Gregory's Tree , a boab in which Gregory the date “2. July 1856 “and a reference to a letter he had deposited (for potential search parties if the team were lost). After leaving the base camp, the expedition members fought their way parallel to the coast for six months - discovering and using different rivers - through the interior to the southeast. On December 16, 1856, they reached their starting point, Brisbane, after surveying large parts of the country. In 16 months they had covered a distance of 3219 km by sea and 8047 km by land.

4. Expedition: Southeast: Search for Ludwig Leichhardt

In September 1857 he was commissioned by the government of New South Wales to look for traces of the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt , who had disappeared on an earlier expedition . A group of nine was formed, with Gregory and his brother C. F. Gregory as leaders. On March 24, 1858, the expedition left Juandah . On April 21st, they discovered a tree with an L carved into it. The group then followed the Barcoo River to its confluence with the Thomson River . On May 15 the land was so dry that Gregory decided to move south to protect the horses. They then followed Cooper Creek until they reached Strzelecki Creek on June 14th . They continued their route south until Gregory decided on June 26th to head for Adelaide , which they reached in late July.

Gregory's expedition diary was published in 1884.

The last few years

Gregory's grave in Brisbane

Gregory did not undertake any further expeditions, but became Surveyor-General of Queensland in 1859 . He held this office until his resignation in 1879. He was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1858 . In the same year, Mount Augustus was named after him. From 1882 until his death he was a member of parliament. He was interested in science and was an administrator at the Queensland Museum . In 1884 he published together with his brother FT Gregory Journals of Australian Exploration (German: "Reports Australian Exploration"). In 1896 the Royal Society of New South Wales awarded him the Clarke Medal . In 1903 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George defeated . He died unmarried on June 25, 1905.

literature

Web links

Commons : Augustus Gregory  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 394.
personal data
SURNAME Gregory, Augustus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gregory, Sir Augustus Charles (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian explorer
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Farnsfield , Nottingham , England
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1905