Peter Warburton

Peter Egerton Warburton CMG ( born August 16, 1813 in Norwich, Cheshire, England; † November 5, 1889 in Norley Bank, Beaumont near Adelaide in South Australia ) was one of the great European explorers, who explored the geographical center of Australia. Peter Warburton was the first European who crossed the Great Sandy Desert of Australia.

Life

Warburton was educated in French and appeared in 1826 at the age of twelve years in the British Navy. There he served on HMS Windsor Castle, and then from 1831 to 1853 in the British Indian Army, where he held the rank of Major. Since 1838 he was married to Alicia Mant. With her he had a son Richard. This accompanies him in the early 1870s on his important journey of discovery through Australia.

From 1829 he attended the East India Military School in Addiscombe, before he went to India in 1834. In the rank of Major, he left the East India Company in 1853 to Australia. Once there, he went to Adelaide; In the same year he visited his brother George in Albany in Western Australia.

Expeditions

In 1857 Warburton came to the Gawler Ranges and Lake Gairdner. In 1858 he explored the Lake Eyre and Lake Torrens and named the Davenport Ranges, Sir Samuel Davenport. In 1860 he discovered the Streaky Bay, four years later, he explored the north-west of Mount Margaret. In 1866 he followed the Cooper Creek to Lake Eyre and found the Warburton River.

On September 21, 1872, he left Adelaide to find a way to Perth. The expedition reached in the spring of 1873, Alice Springs and Warburton traveled further in April. Due to the large strains and the lack of water he went blind on this adventure in one eye and in the Great Sandy Desert, the expedition would be almost failed. However, she reached the De Grey station in a depleted state. From there he moved on 26 January 1874 and according to Roebourne, in order to subsequently embark with his surviving expedition members to Adelaide.

In 1874, he went because of his failing health state to Britain, but returned after a short time returned to Australia.

Honors

The British recorded from Warburton for his expedition success with the Order of St Michael and St George ( CMG). In addition, he was honored by the Royal Geographical Society. After Warburton are two mountain ranges, a river, two places named the Warburton Arts Project of the Aborigines and a beetle. In 1976, he was featured as one of the six greatest explorers of Australia on a postage stamp in Australia.