Alfred William Howitt

Alfred William Howitt ( born April 17, 1830 Nottingham, England; † March 7, 1908, Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia ) was a geologist, anthropologist and naturalist. In Australian history it is known that he was the last surviving member of the expedition of Burke and Wills, John King.

Early life

He was a son of writer William Howitt married couple and Mary Botham. He visited during a multi-year stay in Germany, the parents, the school in Heidelberg and then the " University College School " in London. With his father and brother Charlton 1852 he followed the gold rush to Australia. 1854 father and brother went back to England, while he remained as a gold -seeking geologist in northern Gippsland. Charlton came again to New Zealand in 1860, but was killed there in June 1863 Lake Brunner in a way construction project. Alfred married in 1863 Mary, born Boothby, with whom he had five children. Mary was the daughter of Judge Benjamin Boothby, the Minister of Justice of the British colony of Victoria. Howitt received in 1863 a post as magistrate at the police station on the goldfields of Victoria. In 1889 he became secretary of state mining department and from 1905 to 1906 he was Chairman of the Royal Commission of the coal industry of Victoria.

Expeditions

In 1859 he led an expedition to Lake Eyre, from the previously on an expedition back Come Peter Warburton positively reported on arable landscapes and it led to the same purpose by an expedition from Adelaide through the Flinders Ranges to the Davenport Range. In both cases, he warned his client against incorrect decisions.

In 1861 Howitt was commissioned to carry out the search of the lost expedition of Burke and Wills. Howitt was only with a small crew of the most necessary equipment and go. He was the last survivor of the expedition, John King, on Cooper Creek. Howitt buried Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, before he took the return trip to Melbourne with King. In the next expedition to the Cooper Creek in 1862, he brought the bodies of Burke and Wills first to Adelaide and by ship to the state funeral on 21 January 1863 after Melbourne.

Howitt collected plants during his expeditions in the north- east of South Australia, southwest Queensland and western New South Wales. Its collections, which today are located in Melbourne, he handed Ferdinand von Mueller.

Howitt examined the cultural and social conditions of Aboriginal people, particularly the kinship and marriage arrangements. He was influenced by the evolution theory of Charles Darwin and modern anthropology. Howitt wrote with Lorimer Fison his main work Kamilaroi and Kurnai in 1879, which is internationally recognized to this day as a major work of modern anthropology. In this work takes, for example, Norman Tindale reference.

Honors

In 1903 Howitt was honored by the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales, 1904, he was the first in the Mueller Medal. The Mount Howitt in Victoria and the Howitt Hall at Monash University are named after him.

Works

  • Howitt, Alfred William, 1870, March 15, 1870. Experiences in Central Australia. Gippsland Times.
  • Howitt, Alfred William, 1878. Notes on the Aborigines of Cooper's Creek. In RB Smyth (ed.), The Aborigines of Victoria.
  • Howitt, Alfred William, 1889. Touch as to descent in the Dieri tribe. Journal of the Anthropological Institute. Vol 19, p. 90
  • Howitt, Alfred William, 1890. The Dieri and other kindred tribes of Central Australia. Journal of the Anthropological Institute. Vol 20, p 30-104.
  • Howitt, Alfred William, 1898. Reminiscences of Central Australia. Alma Mater. Vol 3 (No. 1).
  • Howitt, Alfred William, 1904. Native tribes of The south-east Australia. London: Macmillan.
  • . Howitt, Alfred William, 1907 Personal reminiscences of Central Australia and the Burke and Wills expedition: Presidents inaugural address. Journal of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. Adelaide 1907
  • Howitt, Alfred William, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, & Otto Siebert, 1904. Legends of the Dieri and kindred tribes of Central Australia. London: Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
  • Geological Survey of Victoria. Report of Progress by R. Brough Smyth, with Reports on the Geology, Mineralogy, and Physical Structure of varions parts of the Colony by Ferd. M. Krause Reginald A. F. Murray Alfred W. Howitt. (etc.) Ferres Melbourne, London 1876 ( in stock at the ANL )
John King (explorer) Mary Howitt Alpine-Nationalpark Gamilaraay people
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