Charles Hunt

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Charles Cooke Hunt (* 1833 in England; † March 1, 1868 in Geraldton ) was one of the first European explorers to carry out four expeditions into the interior of Western Australia between 1864 and 1866.

Life

Hunt was baptized in Brighton , Sussex , England in 1833 and was the son of John George Hunt, an auctioneer, and his wife Mary Ann, née Cooke. It is believed that he graduated from Liverpool with a master's degree in navigator in 1851. He reached the Swan River Colony in Western Australia in 1863, around 1863 and he first lived with his uncle in Newleyine . He married Mary Ann, née Seabrook, in Beverley on December 27, 1864, and had a son and a daughter. In December 1865 he became very ill, in January 1868 he spent some time in the hospital; eventually he died of heart failure on March 1, 1868, at the age of 35.

Expeditions

He began working as an assistant surveyor in Fremantle before becoming a surveyor in the Nikol Bay area. Hunt explored the coast around Port Hedland . A pass between the De Gray River district and the Nikol Bay district was later named after him.

In 1864, he was asked if he would be exploring agricultural land and water resources along Henry Lefroy's earlier 1863 expedition route in the Coolgardie area. The Hunt expedition group consisted of six participants and Aboriginal tracker Tommy Windich . They left York on July 9th and reached Gnarlbine Rock on August 16th. From Gnarlbine they came to Lake Lefroy . Hunt made a report of good grassland that Lefroy had sighted. This area was later named after the governor Hampton.

His third expedition took place between January and October 1865 with six retirees as guides, ten convicts and George Mundial, an Aboriginal man. This expedition had been sent to dig a way and wells between York and Gnarlbine for cattle drives on the Hampton Plains . They installed a total of 23 wells.

In 1866, Hunt set out with another group to find a way with wells to Lake Lefroy and created a path that led northeast to the Coolgardie area. He wrote in his diary that there were many opportunities to stop and that he was "too ill to work today" (German: was too sick to work), but he stayed until the path was finished.

The prospectors 1891 Bayley and William Ford took advantage of the new way and the fountains along the way where they were successful in the discovery of gold. The trail was later used by Charles O'Connor to build the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme .

literature

  • Kim Roberts: Hunt, Charles Cooke (1833-1868), p. 446. Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, Melbourne University Press, 1972 Available online .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kim Roberts (1972): Hunt, Charles Cooke (1833-1868) , Australian Dictionary of Biography
  2. ^ A b c Hazel Biggs: Exploring in Western Australia . Western Australian Museum, Perth 1997, ISBN 0730983951 , pp. 37-38.
personal data
SURNAME Hunt, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hunt, Charles Cooke (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Governor of Western Australia
DATE OF BIRTH 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH England
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1868
Place of death Geraldton