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Hamilton
Hume The Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time, 1879,
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Hume, Hamilton, F. R.G.S., Explorer, born
at Parramatta, June 18, 1797, son of Andrew Hamilton Hume, of the
Commissariat department, whose wife was Elizabeth Moore, second daughter of
the Rev. John Kennedy, Vicar of Teston and Nettlestead, Kent, England. At the age of 17, Hamilton Hume,
accompanied by his brother, John Kennedy Hume, and a In July of 1816 Hamilton Hume led the
late Dr. Charles Throsby, of Glenfield, to the beautiful Toom-boong
country, which this gentleman afterwards occupied. In March, 1817, at the request of
Governor Macquarie, Hume accompanied Surveyor Meehan to the "new
country" for further, explorations, and they discovered the upper
portion of the Shoalhaven River Lake Bathurst, Goulburn Plains, &c. For these
services Hume was granted 300 acres of land near Appin, where he resided for
some years. In 1819, Hume accompanied Messrs.
Oxley and Meehan to Jervis Bay. Mr. Oxley returned by sea to Sydney, and
Messrs. Meehan and Hume travelled to Sydney overland by way of Toom-boong. In 1820 Hume, at the request of Throsby,
accompanied the latter, and pointed out to him the country he had discovered,
in conjunction with Surveyor Meehan, in 1817. In 1821 Hume, in company with Mr. G.
Barber, Mr. W. H. Broughton, and his brother Mr. J. K. Hume, discovered the
Yass Plains. In 1822, Hume accompanied Lieut. R.
Johnson, R.N., and Alexander Berry, Esq., in the cutter "Schnapper," down the east coast in search of rivers.
From the upper part of the Clyde River, Berry and Hume penetrated inland
nearly as far as the present site of Braidwood. The great service performed by Hamilton
Hume, accompanied by W. H. Hovell, was the first overland journey from Sydney
to Port Phillip. The party, besides the leaders,
consisted of assigned convicts named Claude Bossawa,
Henry Angell, James Fitzpatrick, Thomas Boyd, William Bollard, and Thomas Smith.
They left Appin, 42 miles from Sydney,
October 2, 1824; reached Yass Plains, October 18th; the Murrumbidgee, October
19th; discovered the Tumut, October 22nd; discovered and named the Hume
River, in compliment to his father, November 16th; discovered the Mitta Mitta, November 20th; discovered and named the Ovens River,
in compliment to Major Ovens, who was Private Secretary to the Governor of
New South Wales, November 24th; discovered and named the Hovell, December 3rd
(afterwards called the Goulburn, by Major Mitchell, in honour of the Colonial
Secretary of New South Wales); reached Port Phillip, about 10 miles west of
Geelong, December 16th; and December 17th reached the present site of Geelong
; the party then returned homewards , and reached Hume's Station, Lake
George, on January 18, 1825, and arrived in Sydney a few days afterwards. Hume was subsequently associated with Captain
Sturt (as second in command), in his great expedition to trace the Macquarie River.
Hamilton Hume was married to Miss Dight, but left no family. He died at his residence,
Yass, April, 19, 1873, aged 76 years. |