Edward John Eyre
Edward John Eyre (
5 August,
1815 -
30 November,
1901) was an
English land explorer of the
Australian continent and a controversial Governor of
Jamaica.
Lake Eyre and the
Eyre Peninsula, both in
South Australia, and the
Eyre Highway (the main highway from South Australia to
Western Australia) are named in his honour, as are the villages of
Eyreton and
West Eyreton in
Canterbury,
New Zealand.
Eyre was born in
Whipsnade,
Bedfordshire, shortly before his family moved to
Hornsea,
Yorkshire, where he was christened
. His parents were Rev. Anthony William Eyre and Sarah (nee Mapleton)
. After completing grammar school at
Louth and
Sedbergh, he moved to
Sydney rather than join the army or go on to university. He gained experience in the new land by boarding with and forming friendships with prominent gentlemen and became a flock owner when he bought 400 lambs a month before his 18th birthday
. When
South Australia was founded, Eyre brought 1000 sheep and 600 cattle overland from
Monaro, New South Wales to
Adelaide and sold them for a large profit.
With this money, Eyre
set out to explore the interior of South Australia, with two separate expeditions north to the
Flinders Ranges and west to beyond
Ceduna.
Eyre, together with his Aboriginal companion
Wylie, was the first European to traverse the coastline of the
Great Australian Bight and the
Nullarbor Plain by land in
1840-
1841, on an almost 1000 mile trip to
Albany, Western Australia. He had originally led an expedition with
John Baxter and three aborigines. Two of the aborigines killed Baxter and left with most of the supplies, and Eyre and Wylie were only able to survive because of a lucky meeting with a French whaler in
Rossiter Bay.
In addition to exploring inland South Australia and
New South Wales, Eyre was instrumental in maintaining harmony between white settlers and
aborigines along the
Murray River.
He later served as Lieutenant-Governor of
New Zealand (from
1846 under
Sir George Grey) and later Governor of several
Caribbean island colonies. Whilst Governor of Jamaica he ruthlessly suppressed the
Morant Bay Rebellion, and had many black peasants killed. He also authorised the judicial murder of
George William Gordon, a mixed-race member of the colonial assembly who was suspected of involvement in the insurrection.
These events created great controversy in Britain, leading to calls for Eyre to be arrested and tried for Gordon's murder.
John Stuart Mill organised the
Jamaica Committee, comprising leading members of the Victorian intelligentsia, calling for his prosecution. The Committee included liberals, such as
John Bright,
Charles Darwin,
Thomas Huxley,
Thomas Hughes and
Herbert Spencer. A rival committee was set up by
Thomas Carlyle for the defence, arguing that Eyre had acted decisively to restore order. His supporters included
John Ruskin,
Charles Kingsley,
Charles Dickens and
Alfred Lord Tennyson. Twice Eyre was charged with murder, but the cases never proceeded.
*
Short biography*
Eyre's Journals from his 1840/1 expedition*
Free ebook of Edward John Eyre at
Project Gutenberg* Geoffrey Dutton,
Edward John Eyre: the Hero as Murderer, Penguin, 1977.
*
European Exploration of Australia
