Thomas Mitchell (explorer)

Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell ( born June 16, 1792 in Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland, † September 5, 1855 in Sydney, Australia) was a Scottish explorer.

Mitchell joined at a young age in the British Army and earned during that time a reputation as a cartographer. After his military service, Mitchell was appointed assistant to the chief surveyor of New South Wales in Australia in 1827. A year later he himself became a Supreme surveyor. His task was to create plans of cities, bridges and roads as well as in conducting surveys. But his main focus was on the mapping of eastern Australia, the results of Mitchell published in 1835.

Mitchell conducted between the years 1831 and 1845 several expeditions in the unexplored Australia and was able to acquire large areas of the British colony. His most important expedition he undertook in 1836, which then led him through New South Wales to the Murray River to Victoria and Portland. Mitchell published in the years 1838 and 1848 two travel reports, further, he published The Australian Geography, a book for use in schools.

Mitchell enjoyed great popularity in Australia; this he acquired mainly through his dealings with the Australian conditions. This he showed on several occasions, as in the involvement of prisoners in research trips and preservation of place names of Aboriginal people.

Mitchell died on 5 September 1855 in Sydney.

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