Augustus Charles Gregory

Sir Augustus Charles Gregory ( born August 1, 1819 in Farnsfield, Nottingham, England; † June 25, 1905 ) was an Australian explorer. Between 1846 and 1858 he undertook four major expeditions.

Childhood and youth

Gregroy Augustus was born as the son of Joshua Gregory and Frances Churchman on August 1, 1819 in Farnsfield, Nottingham in England. One of his brothers was Francis Thomas Gregory, who also became a famous explorers later. Gregory initially received private lessons; later he taught his mother. 1829 the family emigrated from to Western Australia. By boat Lotus they came in the Swan River Colony, only four months after its foundation.

Gregory's family originally owned land on the left bank of the Swan River, but the ground was low in nutrients and poor. Later they acquired two more properties, one in Maylands and one in the Upper Swan district. A large part of the 1830s improved Augustus Gregory on with different jobs, the income of the family. For a time he worked for a chemist and later, along with his brother, Joshua William, as a contract appraiser. In 1841 he moved to the "Government Survey Office ".

Discoveries

In the years 1846-1858 Gregory undertook four pioneering expeditions.

1 Expedition: Around Perth

In 1846 he undertook with his two brothers Gregory and FT HC Gregory his first expedition. With four horses and provisions for seven weeks they left on August 7, 1846, approximately 100 km northeast of Perth located TN Yule 's station. When they returned after 47 days, they had north of Perth explored much of the region and traveled 1534 km.

2nd Expedition: West Coast / Murchison River

Two years later, Gregory led an expedition to explore the course of the Gascoyne River and at the same time to find new pastures. The group broke on 2 September 1848 and crossed the Murchison River on 25 September, but the country was very dry, and it was very difficult to raise sufficient water for the horses. In early October decided Gregory to reverse to the south. On 6 October, when they had arrived again at the Murchison River, he decided here with the horses to take a break. On November 12, the expedition group returned to Perth after she had good pastureland found. Despite water shortage, the expedition laid back within ten weeks of 2414 km.

3 Expedition: Northern Australia / Victoria River

1854 Gregory was asked to lead an expedition into the interior. Gregory appointed his brother HC Gregory for the second expedition leader; the team was also the botanist Baron Ferdinand von Mueller. Together, they were 18 men, 50 horses and 200 sheep. The group left on 12 August 1855, the Moreton Bay in Brisbane by boat in northern waters. They arrived on September 1, Port Essington. The next day the ship ran aground on a reef, and it was ten days is not possible to move the ship from the spot. Then it was on to Pearce Point at the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf ( Timor Sea ), north of the estuary of a river, the Gregory later called Victoria River. At the end of the month the group split: while the Gregory led a section on the pasture lands, the Victoria River drove the other up with a saver. It was only on 20 October, the group reunited and established a camp about 20 km west of today's Timber Creek. While the team remained until July 1956 at the base camp, Gregory took a few companions for 8 months expeditions into the interior. They drove in the rainy season the Victoria River upstream, reached the Sturt Creek, which leads only in summer water, and followed this up to the edge of the Tanami Desert. An indication of the base camp to the returned Gregorys core team in the dry season in 1856, we find the so-called Gregory 's Tree, a Boab, in Gregory the date " 2 July 1856 " scratched as well as the reference to a letter, which he had stored ( for prospective search teams if the team would have been lost ). After leaving the base camp, the expedition members suggested then over six months parallel to the coast - different rivers discovering and taking advantage - through the interior to the southeast. On December 16, 1856 reached their origin Brisbane after they measure large parts of the country. In 16 months they had traveled a distance of 3219 km and 8047 km across the sea over land.

4th Expedition: South East: Search for Ludwig Leichhardt

In September of 1857 he was commissioned by the government of New South Wales, to search for traces of the lost on an earlier expedition explorer Ludwig Leichhardt. A nine-member group was formed, with Gregory and his brother CF Gregory as a leader. On March 24, 1858 left the expedition Juandah. On April 21, they discovered a tree in the 'L' was scratched. The group then followed the Barcoo River up to its confluence with the Thomson River. On May 15, the country was so dry that Gregory decided to move to protect the horses to the south. Then they followed the Cooper Creek until they reached the Strzelecki Creek on June 14. They continued their route to the south, to Gregory decided on 26 June, Adelaide to control, which they reached the end of July.

The expedition diary of Gregory was published in 1884.

The last years

Gregory made ​​no more expeditions more, but in 1859 the Surveyor - General of Queensland. He held this position until his retirement in 1879. He was awarded the 1858 Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. In the same year the Mount Augustus was named after him. From 1882 until his death he was a deputy in the Parliament. He was interested in science and was manager in the Queensland Museum. In 1884 he published with his brother FT Gregory Journals of Australian Exploration ( German: "Reports of Australian Explorations "). 1896 awarded the Royal Society of New South Wales him the Clarke Medal. In 1903 he was knighted. He died unmarried on 25 June 1905.