Robert Austin

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Robert Austin (born December 31, 1825 in Epping Forest , Essex , England , † February 24, 1905 in Thornborough , Queensland ) was an explorer and engineer. He led the Austin expedition of 1854, one of the first European voyages of discovery into the interior of Western Australia . He discovered Geraldton , Mount Magnet and the Murchison River .

Life

His parents, James Gardner Austin, an architect, and his wife Mary Ann emigrated to Australia with him and his brother. They arrived there in December 1840. On October 22, 1862, he married Catherine Douglas at St. John's Church in North Brisbane , with whom he had ten children. Austin died on February 24, 1905 in Thornborough, Queensland and was buried in the local cemetery. His wife, four daughters and two sons survived him. According to him, which is Lake Austin named in Western Australia, he discovered and named Great Inland Marsh and Lake Austin later was renamed. A place of the same name was founded on the shores of this lake in 1865.

Austin expedition

He worked in the department of the Surveyor General (chief surveyor) from 1847 for 15 years as a surveyor and was often on the road, mainly in the Murchison and Gascoyne districts in Western Australia.

When he started an expedition from Northam on July 10, 1854, it turned into a fiasco . On August 21st the horses ate poisonous plants; some died immediately, others a week later. He had to leave his equipment behind and the expedition's destination was abandoned. In this desperate situation, a member of the expedition shot himself in the arm and died a week later. As the temperatures continued to rise, water became scarce. On October 29th, they repented about 100 miles from the mouth of the Gascoyne River, as they only had water for another two days. Austin wrote of this situation:

“ The whole of the party stripped and buried in the sand under the shade of their blankets thrown over a bush, and our horses standing up with their heads under their masters' blankets, too thirsty to feed. . . the men were drinking their own and the horses' urine, and a native I captured and kept to find water, as he knew the country, did the same, saying we should all die if I persisted in pushing on. "
(German: The entire group undressed and buried themselves in the sand under the shade of their blankets, which they spread over a bush and our horses stood with bowed heads under their horse blankets, too thirsty to eat ... The men drank theirs own or the urine of the horses; an Aboriginal I had caught, I stopped to find water since he knew the land, did the same and said we will all die if I keep pushing the group like this).

They returned to their last watering hole, about 35 miles behind them, and then reached Port Gregory on November 25th. On the way back, they discovered Mount Magnet and Austin found traces of gold. However, Austin's claim brought nothing.

In April 1860 he was promoted to second class surveyor in the Surveyor-General's Department of Queensland and in January 1861 to first class surveyor. Eight months later he was appointed commissioner of the crown land and in May 1862 the road construction engineer of the southern district. In 1891 Robert Austin became sergeant in the Queensland Parliament in Brisbane. In the late 1880s he devoted himself to urban development planning and prepared reports.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lake Austin and the place of the same name. Retrieved June 27, 2009
  2. ↑ Glen McLaren: Austin, Robert (1825-1905) . In: Australian Dictionary of Biography . Retrieved June 27, 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Austin, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Governor of Western Australia
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Epping Forest , Essex , England
DATE OF DEATH February 24, 1905
Place of death Thornborough , Queensland