William John Wills
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William John Wills
William John Wills (5 January 1834 – ) was a British surveyor who also trained as a surgeon. Wills achieved fame as the second-in-command of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from the settled areas of Victoria to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Early years William John Wills was born on 5 January 1834 in Totnes, Devon, England, and he was the second of seven children born to William Wills (died 28 September 1889) and Sarah Mary Elizabeth Wills (née Calley, born 23 December 1800, baptized 12 March 1801 in Totnes, and died 19 February 1880). Wills lived at the family home at Ipplepen, and as a young child he contracted a fever which left him with "slow and hesitating speech". He was home-tutored by his father until the age of 11, and from 1845 to 1850 attended St Andrew's Grammar School in Ashburton. He was then articled to his father's surgical practice, and h ...
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Totnes
Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and about east-northeast of Plymouth. It is the administrative centre of the South Hams District Council. Totnes has a long recorded history, dating back to 907, when its first castle was built. By the twelfth century it was already an important market town, and its former wealth and importance may be seen from the number of merchants' houses built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Today, the town has a sizeable alternative and "New Age" community, and is known as a place where one can live a bohemian lifestyle. Two electoral wards mention ''Totnes'' (Bridgetown and Town). Their combined populations at the 2011 UK Census was 8,076. History Ancient and medieval history According to the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' written by Geoffr ...
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Dartmouth, Devon
Dartmouth () is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the western bank of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes. It lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and South Hams district, and had a population of 5,512 in 2001, reducing to 5,064 at the 2011 census. There are two electoral wards in the ''Dartmouth'' area (Townstal & Kingswear). Their combined population at the above census was 6,822. History In 1086, the Domesday Book listed ''Dunestal'' as the only settlement in the area which now makes up the parish of Dartmouth. It was held by Walter of Douai. It paid tax on half a hide, and had two plough teams, two slaves, five villagers and four smallholders. There were six cattle, 40 sheep and 15 goats. At this time Townstal (as the name became) was apparently a purely agricultural settlement, centred around the church. Walter of Douai rebel ...
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Charles Whybrow Ligar
Charles Whybrow Ligar (1811–1881) was an Ordnance Survey surveyor, Surveyor General of New Zealand and Surveyor General of Victoria (then a colony, now a state of Australia). Early life Charles Ligar was born on 24 July 1811 in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, where his father was stationed. From the age of 13 years he was educated at the Royal Military College (1825–1828). Career Reputedly commissioned in the Corps of Royal Engineers, Ligar is said to have resigned shortly afterwards to join Ordnance Survey. He was employed as a civil assistant on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland until 1840. In 1839 he married Grace Hanyngton, daughter of Thomas Hanyngton of Dungannon, County Tyrone, and grand niece of the Earl of Charlemont. In London, on 16 February 1841, the Queen was pleased to appoint Ligar to be Surveyor General of the Colony of New Zealand. Together with the survey staff Lord John Russell had commissioned Captain Robert Kearsley Dawson, RE, to select, Ligar and family dep ...
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Clement Hodgkinson
Clement Hodgkinson (1818 – 5 September 1893) was a notable English naturalist, explorer and surveyor of Australia. He was Victorian Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey from 1861 to 1874. Exploration in New South Wales Qualified as a civil engineer, Hodgkinson left England in 1839 intending to become a pastoralist.Wright, R., (2002), ‘Hodgkinson, Clement, in R. Aitken and M. Looker (eds), ''Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens'', South Melbourne, Oxford University Press, p. 306. After his arrival, he bought into a cattle station near Kempsey, north of Sydney. A year later, the New South Wales colonial government hired Hodgkinson to survey and explore the northeastern areas of New South Wales as far as Moreton Bay. In March 1841 he explored the upper reaches of the Nambucca and Bellinger rivers, becoming in the process the first European to make contact with the local Aborigines there. He then followed the Macleay, Clarence, Hastings, Richmond and Tweed rive ...
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St Arnaud, Victoria
St Arnaud is a town in the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia, 244 kilometres north west of the capital Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Northern Grampians local government area. At the , St Arnaud had a population of 2,318. It is named after French marshal Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud, commander-in-chief of the army of the East. It is one of quite a number of towns, streets etc. named after people and places of the Crimean War. History St Arnaud is a former gold mining town, situated on the main route between Ballarat and Mildura. The town was settled in the mid-1850s, the post office opening on 1 February 1856. Traditional ownership The formally recognised traditional owners for the area in which St Arnaud sits are the Dja Dja Wurrung people who are represented by the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation. Demographics As of the 2021 census, 2,318 people resided in St Arnaud. The median age of persons in St Arnaud was 52 years. Children aged 0–14 year ...
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Inglewood, Victoria
Inglewood is a township in Victoria, Australia, located on the Calder Highway in the Shire of Loddon. History Inglewood was an important gold mining centre during the Victorian Gold Rush of the 1850s and 1860s. Gold was first discovered in 1859 by Alexander, Joseph and Thomas Thompson and Joseph Hanny. On notification of the discovery some 16,000 diggers flocked to the area. By January 1860 a new field a few miles south of the original was opened up by Potter, Irvine and McKean and dubbed "New Inglewood". This is the site of the present township. By mid-1860 the population on the field was estimated to be greater than 40,000, ranking among the biggest rushes in Victoria's history. The population soon dwindled as the easily won alluvial deposits became exhausted but, as early as 1859, quartz reefs had been discovered which resulted in the permanent settlement of a few thousand miners and businessmen.Inglewood 150 Years of Gold Celebrations 2009, David Rose The initial return ...
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Kingower, Victoria
Kingower is a rural locality in Victoria, Australia, located on Inglewood-Rheola Road, in the Shire of Loddon. History The Kingower goldfield was discovered in August 1853 by Captain John Mechosk and his party of 11 hired men. The discovery resulted in a rush of about 4000 diggers as the field became famous for unearthing monster nuggets. In August 1857, Robert and James Ambrose and Samuel and Charles Napier discovered the Blanche Barkly nugget, at that time the world's largest gold nugget, weighing in at 1743 ounces. The Blanche Barkly remains the third largest gold nugget ever discovered to this day. The discovery of the nearby Inglewood goldfield drained Kingower of most of its population in 1859. From then onward, only a small number of diggers continued "working the field," despite large nuggets still being unearthed from time to time. In 1980, Kevin Hillier was fossicking in the forest behind the old Kingower school house when he came across the 875 ounce ' Hand ...
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Surveying
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is called a land surveyor. These points are usually on the surface of the Earth, and they are often used to establish maps and boundaries for ownership, locations, such as the designed positions of structural components for construction or the surface location of subsurface features, or other purposes required by government or civil law, such as property sales. Surveyors work with elements of geodesy, geometry, trigonometry, regression analysis, physics, engineering, metrology, programming languages, and the law. They use equipment, such as total stations, robotic total stations, theodolites, GNSS receivers, retroreflectors, 3D scanners, LiDAR sensors, radios, inclinometer, handheld tablets, optical and digital levels, subsurface locat ...
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Hamilton, Victoria
Hamilton is a large town in south-western Victoria, Australia, at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway. The Hamilton Highway connects it to Geelong. Hamilton is in the federal Division of Wannon, and is in the Southern Grampians local government area. Hamilton claims to be the ''"Wool Capital of the World"'', based on its strong historical links to sheep grazing which continue today. The town uses the tagline "Greater Hamilton: one place, many possibilities". History Early history Hamilton was built near the border of three traditional indigenous tribal territories: the Gunditjmara land that stretches south to the coast, the Tjapwurong land to the north east and the Bunganditj territory to the west. People who lived in these areas tended to be settled rather than nomadic. The region is fertile and well-watered, leading to an abundance of wildlife, and no need to travel far for food. Physical remains such as the weirs and fish traps found in Lak ...
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Wannon River
The Wannon River, a perennial river of the Glenelg Hopkins catchment, is located in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. Name The name of the river "is believed to have been obtained by Major Mitchell from the local Jardwadjali people". Location and features The Wannon River rises below Mount William, part of the Grampians Range in the Grampians National Park. The river flows generally south, initially towards , and then north by west and then west, through the town of before heading south to the settlement of Wannon. From here the river flows west towards where it reaches its confluence with the Glenelg River. The Wannon is joined by twelve tributaries including the Dundas River. The river descends over its course. The Henty Brothers found that the river played a significant role in the early settlement of the area surrounding the Wannon River. Also of note was the situation of the Mokanger Station, in Cavendish, purchased by Thomas and Andrew Chirnside in 1 ...
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Ballarat, Victoria
Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. Within months of Victoria History of Victoria#Separation from New South Wales, separating from the colony of New South Wales in 1851, gold was discovered near Ballarat, sparking the Victorian gold rush. Ballarat subsequently became a thriving boomtown that for a time rivalled Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, in terms of wealth and cultural influence. In 1854, following a period of civil disobedience in Ballarat over gold licenses, local miners launched an armed uprising against government forces. Known as the Eureka Rebellion, it led to the introduction of male suffrage in Australia, and as such is interpreted as the origin of democracy in Australia, Australian democracy. The rebellion's symbol, the Eureka ...
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Deniliquin
Deniliquin () is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, close to the border with Victoria. It is the largest town in the Edward River Council local government area. Deniliquin is located at the intersection of the Riverina and Cobb Highway approximately south west of the state capital, Sydney and due north of Melbourne. The town is divided in two parts by the Edward River, an anabranch of the Murray River, with the main business district located on the south bank. The town services a productive agricultural district with prominent rice, wool and timber industries. At the , the urban population of Deniliquin was 6,833. History Prior to European settlement, the Aboriginal inhabitants of the Deniliquin area were the Barababaraba people. In 1843, the entrepreneur and speculator Benjamin Boyd acquired land in the vicinity of present-day Deniliquin (probably via his agent Augustus Morris). The location was known as The Sandhills, but Boyd (or Morris) named ...
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