Information

John Oxley, Surveyor-General to the Government of New South Wales, landed on the riverbank at Wacol on 3 December 1823. This discovery voyage up the river was guided by ship-wrecked cedar-cutter John Finnegan, who Oxley had recently rescued. Oxley’s Report to Governor Brisbane shows that they turned back here: ‘The boat’s crew were so exhausted by their continued exertions under a vertical sun, that I was reluctantly compelled to relinquish my intention of proceeding to the termination of tidewater at this time… (and) … (being 70 miles from the vessel and our stock of provisions expended, not having anticipated such a discovery), I landed on the south shore for the purpose of examining the surrounding country….’ Oxley, with others, ascended ‘a low hill’ which he named ‘Termination Hill.’ It was the next day that Oxley named this newly discovered river the Brisbane River and recommended that a village be established on the riverbank. Nine months later (September 1824) Oxley guided the establishment of the initial Moreton Bay Penal Settlement at Redcliffe. Then, with botanist Allan Cunningham, he returned to this location to continue the survey upstream. It was on this trip that Oxley abandoned his theory of an inland sea.

Citations

Vicki Mynott, ‘Wacol, Wolston, Woogaroo (1823-2014), Vol 1’, Inala Heights: Richlands, Inala and Suburbs History Group Inc., 2014; John G Steele, ‘The Explorers of the Moreton Bay District, 1770-1830’, St. Lucia, Qld; University of Queensland Press, 1972.

Image Citations

Portrait of surveyor John Oxley. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Record number. 41931.

Map References

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