John Oxley 1783-1828

John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley , born in Yorkshire in 1783.

When he was seventeen John Oxley joined the British Navy. He first visited New South Wales in 1802. In 1812, at the recommendation of Matthew Flinders, he was appointed Surveyor General even though he didn't know much about surveying.

Our century in it's teen beheld

Brave Oxley's dauntless move,

Through road's uncut and trees unfelled,

The 'inland sea" to prove;

The forest left, he ploughed through plain

On plain of dreary swamp;

Till 'Oxley's furthest' marked the strain

That called for homeward tramp.

But still with sprit apt for change,

And followers brave and true,

He struck north-east through plain and range,

And climbed the great 'Sea View'.

By 'Hastings' to the ocean tide

In 'Port Macquarie' fair,

The gallant Oxley homeward hied,

Again to do and dare.

In 'twenty-three' his ardent gaze

Is on a noble stream,

That glints beneath its tropic haze

'Mid silence of a dream,

For fifty miles new beauties rise,

To charm the toil away;

The picture in his thoughtful eyes,

The 'Brisbane' of today!

- Eliza Berry

From Australian Explorers in Rhyme (1892)