Gregory, Augustus Charles (1819 - 1905)

Summary

Augustus Gregory was one of Australia's most accomplished explorers. As a surveyor for the Western Australian Government he made a succession of expeditions in Western Australia searching for grazing lands and minerals, including major trips to the Irwin River (1846) and the Gascoigne River (1848). He was often accompanied by his brothers Francis and Henry, also surveyors. Gregory was leader of the North Australian Exploring Expedition (1855 - 1856), an expedition notable for the thousands of miles successfully traversed, the significant scientific discoveries, and the fact that all expedition members returned safely. In 1857 Gregory was engaged by the New South Wales Government to search for traces of Ludwig Leichhardt, departing in March 1858 and, having found some traces of the lost explorer, reaching Adelaide in July. His last major expedition was to survey the southern border of Queensland. In 1859 Gregory moved to Queensland where he was employed as Commissioner for Crown Lands and Surveyor General, and for over 20 years was a member of the Queensland Parliament. He was active in local scientific circles, serving two terms as President of the Royal Society of Queensland.

Details

Chronology

1829

Life event - Migrated to Western Australia with his family

1841 - 1855

Career position - Surveyor, Surveyor General's Department, Western Australia

1846

Career event - Explored Irwin River district, Western Australia

1848

Career event - Explored Gascoigne River district, Western Australia

August 1855 - December 1856

Career position - Leader of the North Australian Exploring Expedition

1857

Award - Founders' Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society, London

1858

Career position - Leader of New South Wales Government expedition in search of Ludwig Leichhardt

1859 - 1863

Career position - Commissioner for Crown Lands, Queensland Government

1859 - 1879

Career position - Surveyor General, Queensland Government

1874

Award - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)

1875 - 1879

Career position - Government Geologist, Queensland

1876 - 1883

Career position - Member, Aborigines Commission, Queensland

1876 - 1899

Career position - Trustee, Queensland Museum

1880 - 1905

Career position - Member of Council, Shire of Toowong, Queensland

1882 - 1905

Career position - Member of the Legislative Council, Parliament of Queensland

1883 - 1884

Career position - President, Philosophical Society of Queensland

1887 - 1888

Career position - President, Royal Society of Queensland

1893 - 1895

Career position - President, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1897

Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1903

Award - Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG)

1904

Career position - Mayor of Toowong, Queensland

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland

• Augustus Charles Gregory - Records, 1859 - 1869, OM72-78; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Augustus Charles Gregory - Records, 1842 - 1903, MS 191-8 and Q420-42; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Augustus Charles Gregory - Records, 1819 - 1905, ML MSS 291; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• Birman, W., Gregory of Rainworth: a man in his time (Perth: University of Western Australia Press, 1979), 296 pp. Details
• Cumpston, H. J. L., Augustus Gregory and the inland sea (Canberra: Roebuck Society, 1972), 146 pp. Details
• Glover, John; with Bevan, Jenny, The Forgotten Explorers: Pioneer geologists of Western Australia, 1826-1926 (Victoria Park, W.A.: Hesperian Press, 2010), 246 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Baigent, Elizabeth, 'Sir Augustus Charles Gregory, 1819-1905' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
• Waterson, D. B., 'Gregory, Sir Augustus Charles (1819-1905), explorer and surveyor-general' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 4: 1851 - 1890 D-J, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1972), pp. 293-295. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040333b.htm. Details

Edited Books

• Carruthers, Jane and Stiebel, Lindy eds, Thomas Baines: Exploring Tropical Australia, 1855 to 1857 (Canberra: National Museum of Australia Press, 2012), 177 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Burdon, A., 'Taking Stock', Australian Geographic (1997), 46-67. Details
• Cohen, Kay, 'Augustus Gregory, 'a Biased Civil Servant': an Administrative Perspective', Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 14 (1992), 393-402. Details
• Cohn, Helen M., 'Mueller and the North Australian Exploring Expedition', The Victorian naturalist, 113 (1996), 163-168. Details
• Gregory, A. C., 'Journal of the North Australian Exploring Expedition, under the command of Augustus C. Gregory, Esq.(Gold Medallist R.G.S.), with report by Mr Elsey on the health of the party', Journal of the Royal geographical Society, 28 (1858), 1-137. Details
• Martin, Richard J., '"Reading" the Leichhardt, Landsborough and Gregory exporer trees in northern Australia', Cultural studies review, 19 (2) (2013), 216-36. Details
• Shellam, Tiffany; and Paterson, Alistair, ' A historical stratum of geological collections from Western Australia in the Natural History Museum, London', Studies in Western Australian history, 35 (2020), 37-57. Details
• Shellam, Tiffany; and Paterson, Alistair, ' A historical stratum of geological collections from Western Australia in the Natural History Museum, London', Studies in Western Australian history, 35 (2020), 37-57. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q770431. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/18516767. Details
• Home, R. W.; Lucas, A.M.; Maroske, Sara, Sinkora, D.M.; Voigt, J.H.; and Wells, M. [eds], The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 2023, https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/search/?correspondent=Augustus+Gregory. Details
• 'Gregory, Augustus Charles (18190801-19050625)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-479371. Details

Theses

• Cole, Stevie, 'The art of fiction: fact, myth and new knowledge on the North Australian Expedition, 1855 - 1857', M.Phil. thesis, University of Notre Dame Australia, 2021, 117 pp. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/324/. Details

See also

• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_g.html. Details
• Etherington, John, 'Recovering the Imperial Context of the Mid-Victorian Exploration of Northern Australia, 1855-57' in European Perceptions of Terra Australis, Scott, Anne M., Hiatt, Alfred, McIlroy, Claire and Wortham, Christopher, eds (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2012), pp. 33-46. Details
• Feeken, Erwin H. J.; Feeken, Gerda E. E.; and Spate, O. H. K., The discovery and exploration of Australia (Melbourne: Thomas Nelson (Australia), 1970), 318 pp. Details
• Henderson, M. Helen; and Henderson, William G., The greater prize than gold: Augustus Oldfield, nineteenth century botanical collector and ethnographer (Perth, W.A.: The Book Reality Experience, 2018), 520 pp. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details