Discovery & Exploration - Explorers

Henri (aka Honore) Narcisse Gilbert was born in Nantes, France in 1865 and started his west to east walk around the world from Paris on a wager for £10,000 between friends, hoping to publish a book his adventures.

He arrived in Western Australia in 1897 and trekked across the Nullabor Plain to Adelaide, then onto Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, by December 1898. He remained in Queensland and 'married' Marie Estelle Barat in 1900, daughter of Mathieu Barat, a French wine grower living in Bungeworgorai, near Roma. In 1901 at Powell's Creek, Northern Territory, they had a daughter Marie Powell Henriette Gilbert and soon after they sailed for Hong Kong. It is understood that their daughter died sometime the next year and that Henri abandoned his wife at Port Said. Marie returned to Queensland and married Benjamin Bradon in 1904.

Sir Augustus Charles Gregory KCMG FRSGS was an English-born Australian explorer and surveyor, who between 1846 and 1858 undertook four major expeditions. 

• 1846, with his two brothers, Francis and Henry, he made his first exploration leaving Thomas Yule's station 60 miles north-east of Perth and explored a considerable amount of the country to the north, covering 1,534 km.
• 1849, with his brother Charles, he led an expedition to examine the course of the Gascoyne River and in particular to look for new pastoral land.
• 1854, while Assistant Surveyor of Western Australia, Gregory was asked to lead an expedition to the interior, from a rendezvous point at Moreton Bay near Brisbane. Gregory had his brother, Henry, as second in command and Baron von Mueller as botanist.
• 1858, Gregory was hired by the government of New South Wales to search for traces of explorer Ludwig Leichhardt whose party was last seen in April 1848.

William Oswald Hodgkinson was a sailor, explorer, journalist, miner, goldfields warden and politician. He was editor of the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin, and in 1866 gave Mackay its first newspaper, the Mercury.

In 1875 he led a government expedition to examine the area between the Etheridge and Cloncurry fields and new country in the south-west and to report on it for mining, pastoral and agricultural purposes. This last officially-sponsored expedition in Queensland opened up the last major unexplored area, taking him to the Diamantina, Mulligan and Herbert Rivers, north to Normanton and up the Cloncurry and Flinders Rivers to Brisbane.

Edmund Besley Court Kennedy (1818-1848) a trained surveyor, was appointed November 1845 second-in-command, under Sir Thomas Mitchell, of an expedition to find an overland route to the Gulf of Carpentaria, successfully returning to Sydney in January 1847.
 

In March 1847 Kennedy volunteered to lead an expedition to follow the course of the Victoria River with a party of eight men and an Aboriginal guide named Harry; he renamed the 'Victoria' the Barcoo, and discovered and named the Thomson River.
 

In 1848 on an expedition to further explore the northern part of the colony, from Rockingham Bay to Cape York accompanied by 12 men including Aboriginal guide Jackey Jackey [aka Galmahra]. Kennedy died in after being speared, unable to reach the recovery party, on the 'Ariel' at Shelburne Bay.

William Landsborough emigrated to Australia in 1842, following his brothers James and John. In 1854 he took up land in the Kolan River area, north of Bundaberg, it was from here, between 1856 and 1861 he began to explore unmapped lands, north and west, taking with him small groups, including Aboriginal guides. During Landsborough's explorations he made observations of country and climate, noting the type of vegetation, availability of water; he also described encounters with Aboriginal people, and the suitability of the land for settlement.

In 1861 he was commissioned to lead one of the parties to search for the lost explorers, Burke and Wills, starting from the Gulf of Carpentaria. They made several attempts to trace the men, but their search ended at Coongoola Station near Wyandra, where they learnt of the fate of the lost party. They continued their journey south, arriving in Melbourne, to be feted as the first people to cross Australia from north to south.

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt, was a German explorer and naturalist, most famous for his exploration of northern and central Australia.

In 1848 Leichhardt set out from the Condamine River to reach the Swan River. The party consisted of: Leichhardt, Adolph Classen, Arthur Hentig, Donald Stuart and Thomas Hands, two Aboriginal guides - Wommai and Billy Bombat from Port Stephens, seven horses, 20 mules and 50 bullocks.

The party was last seen on 3 April 1848 at Allan Macpherson's Cogoon run, an outlying part of Mount Abundance Station, west of Roma on the Darling Downs. Leichhardt's disappearance after moving inland, although investigated by many, remains a mystery

Leichhardt's accounts and collections are much valued and considered to be authoritative records of Australia's environment. He left records of his observations in Australia from 1842 to 1848 in diaries, letters, notebooks, sketch-books, maps, and in his published works, held in many institutes around the world.

John Oxley was an explorer and surveyor of Australia, who served as Surveyor General of New South Wales, and is perhaps best known for his two expeditions into the interior of New South Wales and his exploration of the Tweed River and the Brisbane River in what is now the state of Queensland.

Explore his story further - read earlier items on John Oxley, by State Library of Queensland staff

Arthur James Vogan was born in England and emigrated with his family to New Zealand where he trained as a surveyor and draftsman. He found employment as a journalist and illustrator with the 'Auckland Star' and 'Bay of Plenty Times'. In 1885 Vogan joined an expedition to New Guinea, sponsored by the Geographical Society of Australasia, as an illustrator, under the command of Captain Henry Everill.

Between 1886 and 1889 he undertook a number of journeys in his role as correspondent for the Town and Country Journal, The Australian Mining Standard, and the Illustrated London News, producing a number of illustrated accounts of outback life titled: A ride across Australia. In 1889 he journeyed from Sydney through Bourke on the Darling River, north through the Channel country of Queensland, visiting Sandringham Station near Boulia, returning via Adelaide.

Vogan was disturbed by the treatment of Aboriginals, particularly by the Native Police and in 1890 published a 'novel' on the subject titled 'The black police' based on the incidents he witnessed. Vogan went on to serve as a scout in the Boer War later moved to Western Australia where he worked in the mining industry, returning to Sydney where he continued to agitate for Aboriginal rights.