Edmund Lockyer
Edmund Lockyer (born January 21, 1784 in Plymouth , Devon , England , † June 10, 1860 in Woolloomooloo , Sydney , New South Wales , Australia ) was a British soldier and explorer in Australia.
Early years
Edmund Lockyer was the son of Thomas Lockyer, a sailmaker, and his wife Ann, nee Grose. Lockyer joined the army in June 1803, was promoted to lieutenant in 1805 , captain in the same year, and major in August 1819 .
In Galle on Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) he married Agatha Young on August 12, 1806, who died in Ceylon on September 13, 1816. On October 6, 1816, he married Sarah Morris.
Australia
Lockyer arrived in Sydney in April 1825 on military assignment with his wife and ten children .
In August 1825 he was commissioned to explore the upper Brisbane River . On September 7th, he arrived in Brisbane and went upriver in a small boat. He came twice as far on the Brisbane River as the discoverer John Oxley . He discovered the Stanley River and a large near-surface coal deposit near Ipswich , the first to be found in Australia. On October 16, 1825, he returned to Sydney and reported to Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane of his exploration.
The British feared that the French would establish and establish a settlement in what is now Western Australia . So Governor Ralph Darling gave Edmund Lockyer an order to forestall them. Lockyer sailed on November 9, 1826 on the brig Amity with 23 convicts, 20 soldiers and Lieutenant Festing to King George Sound , which he reached on December 25, 1826. With his staff he built up the Frederickstown military base, the first European settlement in what is now Western Australia, later Albany . Lockyer learned from two seal hunters who he arrested for violent acts against Aborigines that the French South Seas and polar explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville had already explored the sound in November 1826. Lockyer was planning an expedition to the Swan River for February 1827, but gave up when he learned that James Stirling had already explored the area. He handed the military base over to Captain Wakefield and when he returned to Sydney in April 1827, he resigned from military service and settled near Sydney.
On the land on which he settled and called Lockyersleigh, he ran cattle with little success. When iron was discovered on his site, he set up the first iron foundry in Australia. He was involved in politics and held various posts in public administration. In the Legislative Council of New South Wales he was appointed Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod in 1856 .
His second wife Sarah died on July 11, 1853, and on November 18, 1854 he married Eliza Colston (Coulson).
Aftermath
Ermington , a suburb of Sydney, is named after a property he built. In Albany he is recognized as the city's founder and a memorial has been set up. The Lockyer Creek , Lockyer National Park , the Lockyer Valley and the Lockyer Valley region in Queensland , and the suburb of Albany Lockyer bear his name.
Web links
- escape.library.uq.edu.au (PDF; 2.4 MB): Nicholas Lockyer: Exploration by Major Edmund Lockyer of the Brisbane River in 1825 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c adb.anu.edu.au : Lockyer, Edmund (1784–1860) , in English, accessed December 21, 2012
- ↑ trove.nla.gov.au ( Memento of February 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ): 1954, English, eng, Photograph edition: Major Lockyer memorial, Albany [picture] , in English, accessed on December 21, 2012
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lockyer, Edmund |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British-born explorer in Australia |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 21, 1784 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Plymouth , Devon , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 1860 |
| Place of death | Woolloomooloo , Sydney , New South Wales , Australia |