Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
John Oxley
1784 – 25 May 1828
John Oxley
John Oxley was born in 1784 at Kirkham Abbey near Westow in Yorkshire, Great Britain. He was baptised at Bulmer in Yorkshire on 6 July 1784.
In 1799, he entered the Royal Navy when he was aged 16 as a midshipman on the Venerable. He travelled to Australia in October 1802 as master’s mate of the naval vessel Buffalo, which carried out coastal surveying (including the survey of Western Port). In 1805 Governor King appointed him acting lieutenant in charge of the Buffalo. In 1806 he commanded the Estramina on a trip to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania). He returned to England in 1807 and was appointed first lieutenant of Porpoise. He came back to Sydney in November 1808 to take up an appointment as first lieutenant in HMS Porpoise, having sailed out as agent for the Transport Board in the convict ship Speke, in which he shipped goods worth £800 as an investment. In 1809 Porpoise visited Van Diemen’s Land, carrying as a passenger Governor William Bligh, who had been deposed in the Rum Rebellion.
He had obtained an order from the Colonial Office for a grant of 600 acres (240 ha) near the Nepean River, but Lieutenant-Governor Paterson granted him 1,000 acres (400 ha). Oxley had to surrender these in 1810, but Governor Macquarie granted him 600 acres (240 ha) near Camden which he increased in 1815 to 1,000 acres (400 ha) again. This he called Kirkham.
In 1810 he wrote a lengthy report on the settlements in Van Diemen’s Land before sailing for England in Porpoise in May. In London he applied for the post of Naval Officer in Sydney, and then, after paying Charles Grimes to resign, according to John Macarthur, he twice sought that of Surveyor-General. Oxley denied that he had been a partisan of Macarthur when Bligh was deposed, but his letters show that he was on very intimate terms with the rebel leader. In 1812 he became engaged to Elizabeth Macarthur; this was broken off when her father discovered the extent of Oxley’s debts. By that time, through the influence of Macarthur’s friend Walter Davidson, Oxley’s second application for the surveyor-generalship had been successful. In 1811 he had retired from the navy, and in May 1812 sailed for Sydney in the Minstrel to take up his new duties.
In March 1817 John Oxley was instructed to take charge of an expedition to explore and survey the course of the Lachlan River. He left Sydney on 6 April with George Evans as second-in-command, and Allan Cunningham as botanist. Evans had discovered a portion of the Lachlan River west of Bathurst in 1815. Oxley’s party reached Bathurst after a week, where they were briefly detained by bad weather. They reached the Lachlan River on 25 April 1817 and commenced to follow its course, with part of the stores being conveyed in boats. As the exploring party travelled westward the country surrounding the rising river was found to be increasingly inundated.
On 12 May, west of the present township of Forbes, they found their progress impeded by an extensive marsh. After retracing their route for a short distance they then proceeded in a south-westerly direction, intending to travel overland to the southern Australian coastline. By the end of May the party found themselves in a dry scrubby country. Shortage of water and the death of two horses forced Oxley’s return to the Lachlan River.
On 23 June the Lachlan River was reached: “we suddenly came upon the banks of the river… which we had quitted nearly five weeks before”.
They followed the course of the Lachlan River for a fortnight. The party encountered much flooded country, and on 7 July Oxley recorded that “it was with infinite regret and pain that I was forced to come to the conclusion, that the interior of this vast country is a marsh and uninhabitable”.
Oxley resolved to turn back and after resting for two days Oxley’s party began to retrace their steps along the Lachlan River. They left the Lachlan up-stream of the present site of Lake Cargelligo and crossed to the Bogan River and then across to the upper waters of the Macquarie River, which they followed back to Bathurst (arriving on 29 August 1817).
Oxley travelled to Dubbo on 12 June 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 26 August 1818 they climbed a hill and saw before them rich, fertile land (Peel River), near the present site of Tamworth. Continuing further east they crossed the Great Dividing Range passing by the Apsley Falls on 13 September 1818 which he named the Bathurst Falls. He described it as “one of the most magnificent waterfalls we have seen”.
He discovered and named the Arbuthnot Range, since renamed the Warrumbungle Range. Upon reaching the Hastings River they followed it to its mouth, discovering that it flowed into the sea at a spot which they named Port Macquarie.
As Surveyor General, Oxley made a close examination of the Tweed River and Port Curtis, and sources connected that investigation, principally the manuscript journal kept by Oxley, and the published Narrative of John Uniack, who accompanied Oxley.
Oxley sailed northwards from the Tweed Area in the 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. With the assistance of some shipwrecked sailors he discovered and named the Brisbane River, the site of the city of Brisbane.
In 1824 Oxley, accompanied by Allan Cunningham returned to the Brisbane River and travelling further up, discovered the Bremer River.
Governor Lachlan Macquarie granted him 600 acres (240 ha) near Camden in 1810, which he increased to 1,000 acres (400 ha) in 1815. He named this property Kirkham 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 1824 New South Wales Legislative Council, but was not reappointed when the Council was reconstituted in 1825.
In August 1822, Oxley married Emma Norton, the youngest sister of James Norton who had followed her brother out to New South Wales from Sussex after he had established himself as an attorney in the colony.
Oxley and Emma Norton had two sons. The elder, John Norton Oxley and the younger son, Henry Oxley. Oxley also had two daughters out of wedlock before his marriage: one with Charlotte Thorpe and another with Elizabeth Marnon.
Oxley suffered with illness throughout his service, caused by the difficulties of his expeditions. He finally succumbed to his illness and died on 25 May 1828 at Kirkham.
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