John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation.
36 Facts About John Oxley
2.
John Oxley served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps best known for his two expeditions into the interior of New South Wales and his exploration of the Tweed River and the Brisbane River in what is the state of Queensland.
3.
John Oxley was born at Kirkham Abbey near Westow in Yorkshire, Great Britain.
4.
John Oxley travelled to Australia in October 1802 as master's mate of the naval vessel Buffalo, which carried out coastal surveying, and this first stay in the Colonies would last for five years.
5.
In 1805, Oxley became acting lieutenant of the Buffalo and traveled to Van Diemen's Land the following year in charge of the Estramina.
6.
When Bligh was deposed, John Oxley denied he supported Macarthur but his letters showed that he was close to him.
7.
John Oxley retired from the Navy in 1811 and was briefly in an engagement to Elizabeth Macarthur the following year.
8.
In 1812, John Oxley travelled to Sydney as Surveyor-General of the Minstrel.
9.
John Oxley's appointment was at the time of Lachlan Macquarie's Governorship.
10.
John Oxley tried hard to proceed through them but couldn't do so.
11.
John Oxley returned to the encampment of the rest of his party now convinced that these westward flowing rivers terminated in an inland sea, and he had been on the swampy edge of it.
12.
In March 1817 John Oxley was instructed to take charge of an expedition to explore and survey the course of the Lachlan River.
13.
John Oxley left Sydney on 6 April 1817 with George Evans as second-in-command, and Allan Cunningham as a botanist.
14.
John Oxley's party reached Bathurst after a week, where they were briefly detained by bad weather.
15.
Shortage of water and the death of two horses forced John Oxley's return, passing near Rankins Springs to the Lachlan River.
16.
John Oxley resolved to turn back and after resting for two days the exploring party began to retrace their steps along the Lachlan River.
17.
John Oxley departed from Bathurst on 28 May 1818 with an exploration party that comprised Deputy Surveyor General George Evans, Oxley's friend Dr John Harris, a botanist named Charles Frazer, and twelve convict men.
18.
On 12 June 1818 John Oxley was near the site that would become Dubbo.
19.
John Oxley wrote that he had passed that day 'over a very beautiful country, thinly wooded and apparently safe from the highest floods.
20.
John Oxley described it as "one of the most magnificent waterfalls we have seen".
21.
John Oxley proceeded down the coast by sea to the Shoalhaven.
22.
John Oxley stated, "We saw no place on which even a Cabbage might be planted with a prospect of success" and that "perhaps a more miserable sterile Country was never traversed by man".
23.
John Oxley sailed northwards from the Tweed Area in the Mermaid.
24.
John Oxley recommend this place for the site of the convict settlement, which became Moreton Bay, and later the city of Brisbane.
25.
John Oxley then travelled further north to explore Port Curtis and continued to explore the region, which is known as South East Queensland.
26.
In 1824 John Oxley, accompanied by Allan Cunningham returned to the Brisbane River and, travelling further up, then located the Bremer River.
27.
John Oxley named this property Kirkham and raised and bred sheep there.
28.
John Oxley was briefly a director of the Bank of New South Wales.
29.
John Oxley 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.
30.
John Oxley had three daughters out of wedlock with two women, before he married a third woman.
31.
John Oxley had another daughter, Louisa b 1821, with Elizabeth Marmon.
32.
In October 1821, John Oxley married Emma Norton, the youngest sister of the solicitor James Norton.
33.
John Oxley sponsored the Broad Gauge Act which encouraged the use of wagons with broad wheels instead of narrow-tired drays in order to cause less wear on public roads; this measure made him unpopular with the farmers and carriers in his electorate and he lost his seat.
34.
The younger son, Henry John Oxley, became a Member of the Legislative Assembly, representing the Electoral district of Camden between 1859 and 1860.
35.
John Oxley suffered with illness throughout his service, caused by the difficulties of his expeditions.
36.
John Oxley finally succumbed to his illness and died on 25 May 1828 at his Kirkham property, Kirkham, New South Wales, outside Camden, aged 44.