John Oxley
 |
John Oxley |
John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (
January 1,
1785,
Kirkham,
Yorkshire -
May 26,
1828) was an early
English explorer of
Australia.
Oxley joined the navy and travelled to
Australia on the
Buffalo, arriving in October in 1802 and carried out coastal surveying including at
Western Port in 1804-05. In 1805
New South Wales Governor
Philip Gidley King appointed him acting lieutenant in charge of the Buffalo, and in 1806 he commanded the Estramina on a trip to
Van Diemen's Land (now
Tasmania). In 1808 he was put in charge of the
Porpoise and he visited Van Diemen's Land again in 1809, when carrying Governor
William Bligh, who had been deposed in the
Rum Rebellion.
He was appointed New South Wales Surveyor-General of in 1812.
In 1817, Oxley and
George Evans followed the
Lachlan River Oxley and discovered good grazing land west of
Bathurst. When swamps blocked his way, he tured north and returned to Bathurst, following the
Macquarie River.
He travelled to
Dubbo on June 12, 1818. He wrote that he had passed that day 'over a very beautiful country, thinly wooded and apparently safe from the highest floods...'
Later in 1818 Oxley and his men explored the Macquarie River at length before turning east. On August 26 they climbed a hill and saw before them rich, fertile plains, which they named the
Liverpool Plains. Continuing east, they discovered the
Peel River, near the present site of
Tamworth. Continuing further east they crossed the
Great Dividing Range and came upon the
Hastings River. Following it to its mouth, they discovered that it flowed into the sea at a spot which they named
Port Macquarie.
In
1819 Oxley sailed to
Jervis Bay but found it unsuitable for settlement.
In
1823 Oxley set out northwards along the coastline, in the
cutter Mermaid to explore Port Curtis (the site of
Gladstone) and
Moreton Bay. He continued to explore the region, which is now known as
South East Queensland.
In
1824 Oxley, accompanied by
Allan Cunningham, discovered the
Brisbane River and
Bremer River on
Moreton Bay, which has since developed into the city of
Brisbane.
Governor
Lachlan Macquarie granted him 600 acres (243 ha) near
Camden in 1810, which he increased to 1000 acres (405 ha) in 1815. He named this property Kirkam and raised and bred sheep. He was also briefly a director of the
Bank of New South Wales. He was one of five members of the original
New South Wales Legislative Council in 1824, but was not reappointed when the council was reconstituted in 1825. Oxley had two sons with Emma Norton (1798-1885), whom he married in 1821 and earlier two daughters by Charlotte Thorpe and one by Elizabeth Marnon.
The
Oxley Highway in
New South Wales, the
Federal electorate of Oxley (Queensland), the New South Wales
Electoral district of Oxley, the
Oxley Wild Rivers National Park and the suburbs of Oxley in
Brisbane and
Canberra are named after Oxley. The
John Oxley Library, part of the
State Library of Queensland, is dedicated to preserving and making available Queensland's documentary history.
*
Free ebook of John Oxley at
Project Gutenberg*
Online edition of his writing*
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
