Mitchell, Thomas ___ 1792-1855 ___ British ___ surveyor

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Mitchell was born at Craigend in Scotland, the son of a harbour-master. He joined the British Army, and, with an apparent talent for drawing, trained as a surveyor. During the Peninsular War in Spain, Mitchell was promoted to major. In 1818, he married Mary Blunt with whom he had 12 children. In 1827, he was appointed deputy to the Surveyor-General of the Australian New South Wales colony. Thereafter, he became Surveyor-General himself and set about exploring the colony with the aim of establishing a major road system. He made four expeditions between 1831 and 1846, discovering the course of the Darling river among others, and being first to penetrate that area which became known as Australia Felix. On a visit to England in the late 1830s, Mitchell is said to have brought specimens of gold and the first diamond found in Australia. During the same visit he published the diaries of his expeditions, and was knighted. A second narrative was published in 1848. Towards the end of his life he investigated the Bathurst gold fields, visited England again, and patented a propeller system for steamers.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1831-1836 1845 ___ exploration geology Australia

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
etext

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Royal Geographical Society

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Three expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia
 

May 2005, July 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.