Bleasdale, Reverend Father Dr. John Ignatius. (1822 - 1884)
Catholic clergyman and member of the Exploration Committee and the Fund Raising Committee. Born in 1822 in Lancashire, Bleasdale was a Catholic clergyman interested in science. He arrived in Melbourne in 1850 and was appointed vice-president of seminary, St Patrick's College at Eastern Hill in 1855. He worked on the committee to establish a public museum of natural history in Melbourne in the 1850s, and pushed for the founding of schools of chemistry and mineralogy. Bleasdale was a foundation member of The Melbourne Microscopical Society, Fellow of the Geographical and Linnean societies and Honorary Member of Medical Society of Victoria. He was an active member of the Royal Society of Victoria and in 1865 became the society's President. He Migrated to California in 1877 and died in San Francisco in June 1884.

Cadell, Captain Frances (1822-1879)
Early navigator of the Murray.
Reference from Bright Sparcs. www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/bsparcshome.htm
The son of H. F. Cadell, and was born in Scotland in 1822. He was educated at Edinburgh and in Germany, and became a midshipman on an East Indiaman. He fought in the Chinese war of 1840 and afterwards was given a ship by his father. He went to South America, had experience of river navigation on the Amazon, and visited Australia in 1849. He returned to Australia in 1852 and became interested in the navigation of the Murray. In 1850 the South Australian government had offered a bonus Of £4000 to the owners of the first two steamers that should successfully navigate the Murray to the junction of the Darling. Cadell gave orders for the construction of a steamer in Sydney and, while it was being built, explored the Murray in a canvas boat, in which, with four men, he travelled 1300 miles. In June 1853 his steamer the Lady Augusta successfully passed through the breakers at the mouth of the Murray, and on 28 August left Goolwa on a voyage up the Murray with Cadell in command. Among the passengers were the governor, Sir Henry Young (q.v.) and Lady Young. They returned on 14 OctOber having reached a point 1500 miles up the river. A few months later it was ascertained that the Murray was navigable as far as Albury, and the Murrumbidgee to Gundagai. Cadell had carried a considerable quantity of wool and much trade was expected with the Riverina squatters. A gold and silver candelabrum was presented by the settlers to Cadell, with an inscription that it had been presented to him "in cornmemoration of his first having opened the steam navigation and commerce of the River Murray 1853". This was not quite accurate as J. G. and W. R. Randell (q.v.) had constructed an earlier steamer which had traded on the Murray as early as March 1853. It was, however, a much smaller vessel and not eligible for the bonus offered by the government. Cadell was also presented with a gold medal struck by the legislative council, and he joined with others in forming the River Murray Navigating Company. The establishment of inland customs houses and the refusal of the three colonies to join in the snagging of the river, created difficulties for the company, and the failure of Port Elliot as a harbour led to more than one steamer being lost. The company which had at first made good profits failed and Cadell lost everything he had. He went to Victoria, did exploring work in eastern Gippsland, and in 1865 was in New Zealand in the employ of the New Zealand government. In February 1867 the South Australian government sent Cadell to the Northern Territory "to fix upon a proper site for the survey of 300,000 acres". His selection of a site on the Liverpool River was much criticized at the time, and was eventually rejected. He had been able to give the authorities much valuable information about the country, but the climate of the territory and its great distance from other centres of population made its development a problem which had not been solved more than half a century after his visit. Cadell then took up trading in the East Indies, and when sailing to the Kei Islands near New Guinea he was murdered by a member of his crew, about March 1879. Cadell was an adventurous man of great courage whose work for a variety of reasons was not sufficiently followed up by the authorities of his time. From the very beginning of the founding of South Australia the desire for a harbour at the mouth of the Murray was almost an obsession, and the failure of the efforts made to found one caused much discouragement. But Cadell had shown the value of inland trading in the rivers quite apart from the question of taking cargoes to sea.

Eades, Richard. (1809 - 1867)
Physician and Mayor of Melbourne 1859-60. Vice-president of the Royal Society 1860.Born in Dublin in 15th August 1809 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1832, MB 1836 and MRCS in London 1834). Went to Paris to study botany and chemistry. Became FRCS in Ireland in 1844. Arrived in South Australia in 1848 where he practiced from 1849 to 1852, then moved to Melbourne. A founder of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1855. Physician to the Melbourne Hospital 1859-66, official visitor to the Lunatic Asylum 1856-67. Appointed health officer for Melbourne in 1865 upon the death of Macadam. He lectured on materia medica in the Government Analytical Laboratory and began an extra-mural course for medical students, which hastened the establishment of the University of Melbourne Medical School. First lecturer in therapeutics at the University of Melbourne Medical School, 1862-67. He was a founder member of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1855 and vice-President of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1860. He died at his Windsor home on 12th October 1867 and is buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Elliott, Sizar. (1814-1901)
Wholesale ironmonger, merchant and innovator. Member of the Exploration Committee. Born at Burnham, Essex, Elliott mother took him to Canada at the age of four after the death of his father. In 1835 he left to join his uncle at Van Diemen's Land and moved to Sydney in 1839 where he set up a grocers shop. He went to the Bathurst diggings then to Victoria and then established a general retail business in Melbourne. He was interested in agricultural innovations and won medals for wine fermentation, butter pats and milk churns. He was a councilor of Melbourne City Council and a magistrate. He died at home in Prahran in 1901 and is buried at Cheltenham Cemetery.

Embling, Thomas. (1814-1893)
Medical practitioner and parliamentarian.
Embling was born in Oxford in 1814, he and his wife decided to migrate to Melbourne in 1851 to ease the symptoms of their pulmonary affections from which they both suffered. He became the first resident medical officer of the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum and in 1855 became Member for North Bourke. In 1856 he became Member for Collingwood. He was a keen advocate of the use of camels in desert exploration. Landells approached Embling with regard to buying camels and Embling supported him enthusiastically. Embling remained in politics until 1868 when he returned to medicine. He died in Hawthorn in 1893.

Gilbee, William. (1825-1885)
Surgeon and vice-president of the Royal Society. Born in Hackney, London, his mother moved to Van Diemen's Land in 1836 after the death of his father. Gilbee was educated in Edinburgh and London before sailing to Hobart in 1849. His family reunion was not good and he left for the Californian diggings before returning to England. Gilbee returned to Australia in 1852, opening a medical practice in Collins Street East. He became a noted surgeon and sat on many boards and committees. He was Vice-President of the Royal Society of Victoria. In 1883 he traveled to New Zealand and England and six weeks after his return in 1885, he died. He is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery. He left a bequest of £1000 to the National Gallery of Victoria, which resulted in Phillip Fox's Landing of Captain Cook and Longstaff's The Arrival of Burke and Wills at Coopers Creek.

Hodgkinson, Clement.
Naturalist and surveyor. Born in England, Hodgkinson was the Victorian Assistant-Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey 1861-74. He established a program of reservation, regulation, administration and education to control the use of Victoria's forests, a model for the future forestry profession

Hodgson, John.
Merchant, Mayor of Melbourne, 1853-4 and elected to the Legislative Council. Hodgson died of bronchitis on 2 August 1860 aged 61, and consequently never saw the departure of the Expediition.

Iffla, Dr Solomon.
Surgeon

Ligar, Charles Whybrow.(1811-1881)
Soldier, surveyor and grazier. Vice-president of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1861.Born in Ceylon, Ligar joined the Royal Engineers and then the Royal Ordnance Survey. He went to Ireland to carry out mapping surveys, before being appointed Surveyor-General of New Zealand in 1841. From 1858 to 1869 he was Surveyor-General of Victoria, but trying to reduce costs made him unpopular. He was a councilor of the Royal Society of Victoria from 1859 to 1868 and vice-president in 1861. He resigned his post in 1869 and lived on the Mediterranean coast before moving to Texas. He died in Texas and was buried at Willow Springs, Parker County.

Macadam, John. Hon Secretary. (1827-1865)
Analytical chemist and medical practitioner and politician.Born in Glasgow, Macadam was appointed lecturer in chemistry and natural science at Scotch College, Melbourne. He arrived aboard the Admiral in 1855 and held the post for ten years. He became a member of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1855 and was honorary secretary from 1855 to 1860. He was active in the move to obtain a royal charter, which the society achieved in 1860. He served as vice-president in 1863. He was appointed Victorian Government analytical chemist in 1858 and health officer for the City of Melbourne in 1860. In 1862 he became lecturer in chemistry for the Medical School of the University of Melbourne. In ill-health in 1865, he sailed to New Zealand to give evidence in a murder trial. He fractured his ribs on the return voyage and complications set in. On his next trip to New Zealand in September 1865, for the postponed trial, he died at sea and his body was returned to Melbourne where it is buried in Melbourne General Cemetery. The macadamia nut was named after him by Mueller, (however, macadamized roads were named after a Scottish engineer).

McCoy, Sir Frederick. (1817 - 1899)
Professor, paleontologist, naturalist and museum curator. Born in Dublin, McCoy was worked at the Dublin Geological Society, mapping Ireland and cataloguing shells and organic remains. He then went on to work in Cambridge and Belfast, before being nominated as one of the first professors of Melbourne University, a position he held from 1854 to 1899. He was Director of the National Museum of Victoria from 1858 and vice-president of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1861 and 1870 and president in 1864. He died whilst at work, aged 73, on 13th May 1899 and is buried in Brighton Cemetery.

Mackenna, Dr J William.
Surgeon.

McMillan, Angus.
Pastoralist.

Mueller, Baron Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich von (1825 - 1896)
Botanist and Director of the Victorian Botanic and Zoological Garden and influential member of the Exploration Committee. Born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, Mueller and his two sisters sailed to Adelaide in 1847 seeking a warmer climate due to ill-health. He worked as an assistant chemist before moving to Melbourne in 1852 when La Trobe appointed him the first Government Botanist of Victoria - a post he held for 43 years from 1853 until his death. From 1853-73 Mueller was Director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens and in 1855-56 was naturalist to the North Australian Exploring Expedition under A C Gregory. He was instrumental in absorbing the Victorian Association for the Advancement of Science into the Philosophical Institute of Victoria and he was chairman of the Philosophical Institute in 1859 and a founder of the Royal Society of Victoria. He made an immense contribution to the study of botany, much of his work has still not been superseded. He died in South Yarra in 1896.

Neumayer, Georg Balthasar von. (1826-1909)
Magnetician, hydrographer, oceanographer, meteorologist and Director of the Melbourne Observatory. Born Bavaria, Germany, 1826, von Neumeyer, was a Bavarian Ship's Officer who had obtained his doctorate at Munich in 1849. He first arrived in Melbourne in 1852. Convinced of the importance of meteorology, he returned to Europe in 1854 and obtained the instruments necessary to establish an observatory in Melbourne. Initially working as a private citizen, he established a number of observing stations throughout Victoria, mainly at lighthouses. Neumayer set up the Flagstaff Observatory, Melbourne in 1858, employing Wills as a surveyor. He completed a detailed magnetic survey of Victoria 1858-1864 and in 1859 he was appointed as Government Astronomer. Neumayer was as councilor of the Royal Society in 1859 and vice-president in 1860. He played a leading role in the early scientific life of Melbourne before returning again to Europe in 1863. He died at Neustadt in 1909.

Selwyn, Alfred Richard Cecil. (1824-1902)
Geologist. Reference from Bright Sparcs. www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/bsparcshome.htm
The son of Rev. Townsend Selwyn, canon of Gloucester cathedral, and his wife, Charlotte Sophia, daughter of Lord George Murray, bishop of St David's, and grand-daughter of the fourth Duke of Athol. He was born on 28 July 1824 and was educated by private tutors and afterwards in Switzerland. At the age of 21 he joined the English geological survey under Sir Henry de la Beche and (Sir) A. C. Ramsay. He had invaluable experience in the preparation of geological maps of western England and north Wales, and earned great commendation from Ramsay. In 1852 he was appointed director of the geological survey of Victoria, where he built up an excellent staff including R. Daintree (q.v.), C. D. H. Aplin, C. S. Wilkinson (q.v.), R. A. F. Murray (q.v.), H. Y. L. Brown (q.v.) and R. Etheridge (q.v.), with (Sir) F. McCoy (q.v.) as palaeontologist. He was a strict disciplinarian and from the beginning set up a very high standard of work in his department. During his 17 years as director over 60 geological maps were issued which were among the best of their period; they were models of accuracy which established a tradition of geological mapping in Australia. Selwyn was also responsible for several reports on the geology of Victoria, and added much to the knowledge of gold-bearing rocks. He discovered the Caledonian goldfield near Melbourne in 1854 and in the following year reported on coal seams in Tasmania. In 1869 the geological survey was terminated by the government of Victoria on economical grounds. In the same year, on the recommendation of the retiring director, Sir W. E. Logan, Selwyn was appointed director of the geological survey of Canada. Selwyn took up his duties on 1 December 1869. There was an immense area to be covered, and though the staff was increased, it was necessarily inadequate. His period of 25 years as director was full of activity and a large amount of work was done. In 1870 he made a valuable report on the goldfields of Nova Scotia, in the following year he was on the other side of Canada exploring in British Columbia, and in the next year he was working between Lake Superior and Winnipeg. All the time he was keeping in mind that however interesting problems might be from a scientific point of view, a government survey must be able to collect the facts and bring them to bear on questions of public utility. Every year he presented a Summary of the geological investigations made by his staff. He retired from his directorship on 1 December 1894 and died at Vancouver, British Columbia, on 19 October 1902. He married in 1852 Matilda Charlotte, daughter of the Rev. Edward Selwyn and was survived by three sons and a daughter (Dict. Nat. Biog. 2nd Supp). He was elected a fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1871, of the Royal Society of London in 1874, and received the Murchison medal from the Geological Society in 1876, and the Clarke medal from the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1884. He was made chevalier de la légion d'honneur, Paris, in 1878, and C.M.G. in 1886. A list of his publications and maps will be found in the Proceedings and Transactions, Royal Society of Canada, vol. X, section IV, pp. 191-205. A list relating to his work in Australia will be found in Bulletin No. 23 of the geological survey of Victoria. Selwyn was tall, quick and alert, and somewhat highly-strung. His writings are scholarly and extremely well composed. He had great force of character with a gift for seeing what was really important in any problem, and no care was too great if it led to the solution. He belonged to the highest class of structural geologists and his work was of the greatest value wherever he was employed.

Stawell, Sir William Foster Stawell. (1815 - 1889)
President of the Royal Society, Chairman of the Exploration Committee and Chief Justice of Victoria. Born at Old Court, Mallow Parish, County Cork, Ireland in 1815, Stawell read law in Dublin and London before migrating to Australia in 1842. He became a Member of Parliament and a Judgeand in 1857, became Chief Justice of Victoria. He was president of The Philosophical Institute of Victoria from 1858-9, and chairman of the Exploration Committee. Burke bequeathed his watch and papers to Stawell, who was the chief mourner at Burke's funeral. He died in Naples in 1889 and was buried in the English Cemetery there.

Smith, Alexander Kennedy. (1824-1881)
Engineer and member of the 25 man Exploration Committee of 1857. Born in Hawick, Scotland he worked as an engineer for his fathers company in Galashiels before working in Exeter for the Great Western Railway. In 1853 he was awarded a five year contract to build and manage the Melbourne Gas and Coke Co. He set up his own foundry at Carlton and built gas works at Ballarat, Castlemaine, Sandhurst and Newcastle. He contracted for many other companies, designing railways and gas and water supply networks. He was a keen advocate of understanding the power of nature and was a member of the Institute for the Advancement of Science and the Philosophical Institute of Victoria. Smith was elected to the Legislative Assembly as Member for East Melbourne and remained in politics until his death in 1881. He died at home in Studley Park and is buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Watson, John.
Publican and author. Contributed to Punch.

Wilkie, Dr David Elliot (1815 - 1885)
Physician, leading member and treasurer of the Exploration Committee. Born in Edinburgh 1815, Wilkie studied in Edinburgh and Paris before sailing for Adelaide in 1838. He was disappointed at the state of the colony, so moved to Melbourne where he practiced medicine. In 1858 he became editor of the "Australian Medical Journal". Wilkie was prominent in founding the Melbourne Mechanics Institute in 1839, where he became treasurer. With Mueller and Macadam he formed a national collection of natural history specimens under the Philosophical Society of Victoria. He became a council member of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria and active member of the Exploration Committee. He died suddenly in Paris in 1885.

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