Robert Austin (explorer)

Robert Austin ( born December 31, 1825 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 to the inland 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 with him and his brother to Australia. They arrived there in December 1840. On October 22, 1862, he married at St. John 's Church in North Brisbane Catherine Douglas, with whom he had ten children. Austin died on 24 February 1905 in Thornborough, Queensland and was buried in the local cemetery. His wife, four daughters and two sons survived him. According to him, the Lake Austin is named in Western Australia, which he discovered and Great Inland Marsh called Lake Austin and later was renamed. On the shores of this lake is a place of the same name was founded in 1865.

Austin expedition

He worked in the Department of the Surveyor - General ( chief surveyor ) from 1847 for 15 years as a land surveyor and was often off-road traveling, mainly in the Murchison and Gascoyne district in Western Australia.

When he launched from Northam from an expedition on 10 July 1854, this resulted in a fiasco. On 21 August, the horses were eating poisonous plants; some died immediately, another a week later. He had his equipment and leave the expedition goal was abandoned. In this desperate situation, an expedition shot in the arm and died a week later. As the temperatures continued to rise, the water was scarce. On October 29, they returned about 160 kilometers from the mouth of the Gascoyne River to removed as they only had two more days for water. About this Location Austin wrote:

They returned to their last water hole, which was about 59 miles behind them and then reached Port Gregory on November 25. On the way back they discovered the Mount Magnet and Austin found traces of gold. However, Austin's slogan brought a nothing.

In April 1860 he was promoted to second-class surveyor in the Surveyor General's Department of Queensland and in January 1861 a surveyor first class. Eight months later, he was Commissioner of the crownland and in May 1862 for road construction engineer for the Southern District. In 1891 Robert Austin Sergeant in the Queensland Parliament in Brisbane. In the late 1880s, he devoted himself to large urban development planning and manufactured to report.