Hume, Hamilton (1797-1873), was an Australian explorer. In the 1820’s, he opened up an overland route from Sydney to Port Phillip, the present site of the city of Melbourne.
Hume was born at Toongabbie, near Parramatta, New South Wales, on June 19, 1797, and was educated by his mother. His father, Andrew Hume, was a superintendent of convicts in New South Wales. At that time, New South Wales was a penal (prison) colony.
Hume developed an interest in exploration as a young man. In 1814, he explored the region around what became Berrima and Bong Bong along the Wingecarribee River in southeastern New South Wales with his brother and a young Aboriginal man. In 1819, he joined an expedition to Jervis Bay on the southern coast of the colony. The expedition was organized by the colony’s surveyor general, John Oxley. A surveyor general is an official responsible for surveying land.
Hume made his celebrated journey to Port Phillip and back in 1824 and 1825. A former sea captain named William Hovell accompanied Hume and shared the expenses. The explorers set out on Oct. 17, 1824, from Hume’s property near Lake George. They used a surveyor’s perambulator, a device with a wheel mounted on handles that measured distance by counting the wheel’s rotations as a person pushed it. To cross the flooded Murrumbidgee River, Hume used an ingenious method he had learned from a surveyor. He removed the wheels from a cart and converted the cart into a boat by wrapping it in a tarpaulin. He used it to ferry supplies to the far bank. Soon afterward, the explorers abandoned their carts and, moving south, noted the snow-capped peaks of the Australian Alps. Later they came to a broad stream, which Hume named Hume’s River after his father. (The river is now known as the Murray.) Hovell marked a tree beside the Murray River at present-day Albury. The tree is now a memorial. The Hume Reservoir now covers the spot where the explorers crossed the river.
On Dec. 3, 1824, Hume and Hovell crossed another river, naming it in honor of Frederick Goulburn, the colonial secretary of New South Wales. The explorers climbed a mountain, but the heavy scrub blocked them, and they were forced to go westward. The peak they climbed, Mount Disappointment, is near Melbourne. On December 16, Hume’s party reached the western shore of a large bay, now known as Corio Bay. Local Aboriginal people called the bay Geelong.
The expedition’s return journey was uneventful. Thanks to Hume’s bushcraft—that is, knowledge of how to make his way through the bush—they made many shortcuts and arrived back at Lake George on Jan. 18, 1825. Hume discovered vast areas of good farmland. Governor Thomas Brisbane granted Hovell and Hume land in recognition of their work, but both men had to sell their grants to pay off expenses from the trip.
In November, Hume married Elizabeth Dight. The couple had no children.
In 1827, Hume traced a new route over the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, earning himself a further grant of land. In 1828, he joined Charles Sturt on the expedition that discovered and named the Darling River. After this expedition, Hume was granted additional land on the Yass Plains, in southern New South Wales. In 1829, with his health failing, he turned his attention to developing his lands. He raised sheep and pigs. In his last years, Hume served as a magistrate. He died on April 19, 1873.
