Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/william-landsborough

Birth Place

Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK

Biography

sketcher and explorer, was born at Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland on 21 February 1825, son of Rev. Dr David Landsborough, a clergyman, naturalist and artist, and Margaret, née McLeish. Encouraged by his father Landsborough took an early interest in natural history, while a 12-mile daily trek to and from school at Irvine prepared him for the arduous physical life of the explorer. He migrated from Scotland to Port Phillip (Victoria) in 1841 and immediately proceeded to the New England district in northern New South Wales where his two elder brothers had properties. By 1850 he had leased a nearby run. The following year he joined the gold-rushes near Bathurst, remaining on the goldfields for two years and having some success. From 1856 Landsborough undertook various exploratory expeditions, mainly seeking good country for stock (which he found and took up), but including an unofficial search for Leichhardt in 1859 and an official search for Burke and Wills on behalf of the Queensland and Victorian governments in 1861. On the latter expedition he travelled from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Melbourne and was celebrated as the first explorer to cross the continent from north to south. He also brought news of excellent land, publicly revealed in the Journal of Landsborough’s Expedition from Carpentaria, in Search of Burke & Wills (Melbourne 1862) and in Landsborough’s Exploration of Australia from Carpentaria to Melbourne (London 1866), which resulted in a rush to the gulf country. The Melbourne editions of his book were illustrated only with a map and a frontispiece group portrait of the party after a photograph while the London edition, compiled from official reports and other material by James Stuart Laurie, contained the map only. Landsborough, however, is known to have sketched. In March 1866 the Illustrated Sydney News published an engraving of The Bowen Downs after one of his drawings, Bowen Downs being one of the places he had named (after the then governor of Queensland) on his 1861 expedition. An engraving after another of his sketches was published in the same journal in February 1867: a view of Donor Hills, situated near the bight of the Gulf of Carpentaria between the Albert and the Flinders Rivers, Queensland, and named by him in honour of a donation of £1000 to the Victorian Burke and Wills search fund. After Landsborough married Caroline Hollingworth Raine in Sydney on 30 December 1862, they left for Britain. Returning to Brisbane in 1865, he was appointed police magistrate and commissioner of Crown lands at the Gulf of Carpentaria and lived in the wild and lawless Burketown (which he tamed but which finally destroyed his career). Left with three young daughters when his wife died, Landsborough moved to Toowong, Brisbane. There, on 8 March 1873, he married the widowed Maria Theresa Carr, née Carter, a gifted musician and occasional sketcher. In the second exhibition of the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland, held at Brisbane in 1877, both Mr and Mrs Landsborough were reported as showing 'admirable’ Indian ink and oil sketches. William Landsborough died on 16 March 1886 at Loch Lamerough, Caloundra, a property on the coast north of Brisbane which he had purchased with the £2000 awarded to him in 1882 by the Queensland government in belated recognition of the value of his explorations. He was survived by Maria Theresa, three daughters and three sons. Landsborough’s journals are in the John Oxley Library (State Library of Queensland). Writers: Staff Writer Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 21 February 1825

Summary

Sketcher, explorer and resident of NSW and Qld. Celebrated as the first explorer to cross the continent (Australia) from north to south.

Gender

Male

Died

16 March 1886

Age at death

61