Editing Hamilton Hume

{{Short description|Australian explorer (1797–1873)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| pre-nominals       = 
| name               =  Hamilton Hume
| post-nominals      = 
| image              =  Wr Studio portrait of Hamilton Hume, explorer, ca. 1869.jpg<!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] -->
| alt                = 
| caption            = Studio portrait of Hamilton Andrew Hume, ca. 1869
| native_name        = 
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| pronunciation      = 
| birth_date         =  {{Birth date|1797|06|19|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Seven Hills, New South Wales|Seven Hills]], [[Sydney]], [[New South Wales]], [[Australia]]
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| death_date         =  {{Death date and age|1873|04|19|1797|06|19|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Yass, New South Wales|Yass]], [[New South Wales]], [[Australia]]
| body_discovered    = 
| resting_place      = [[Yass, New South Wales|Yass]], [[New South Wales]], [[Australia]]
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| monuments          = 
| nationality        = 
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| citizenship        = 
| education          = 
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| occupation         = [[Explorer]]; [[Magistrate]]
| years_active       = 1814−1873
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| agent              =  <!-- Discouraged in most cases, specifically when promotional, and requiring a reliable source -->
| known_for          = [[Hume and Hovell expedition]]
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| spouse             = {{marriage|Elizabeth Dight<br />|1825}}
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'''Hamilton Hume''' (19 June 1797 – 19 April 1873<ref>{{cite news |url= http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70478485 |title= The Late Mr. Hamilton Hume. |newspaper= [[Australian Town and Country Journal]] |location= NSW |date= 17 May 1873 |access-date= 27 April 2012 |page= 9 |publisher= National Library of Australia}}</ref>) was an early explorer of the present-day Australian states of [[New South Wales]] and [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]].  In 1824, along with [[William Hovell]], Hume participated in an expedition that first took an overland route from [[Sydney]] to [[Port Phillip]] (near the site of present-day [[Melbourne]]).  Along with [[Charles Sturt|Sturt]] in 1828, he was part of an expedition of the first Europeans to find the [[Darling River]].

==Background==
Hume was born on 19 June 1797 in [[Seven Hills, New South Wales|Seven Hills]], near [[Parramatta, New South Wales|Parramatta]], a settlement close to (and now part of Greater) [[Sydney]]. He was the eldest son of Andrew Hamilton Hume and his wife Elizabeth, ''née'' Kennedy. Andrew Hume got the appointment of [[Commissary general|Commissary-General]] for New South Wales, and came out to the [[Colony of New South Wales|colony]] in 1797. Hamilton Hume received most of his education from his mother.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63230598 |title= THE LATE MR. HAMILTON HUME. |newspaper= [[Empire (newspaper)|Empire]] |location= Sydney|date=21 May 1873 |access-date= 27 April 2012 |page= 4 |publisher= National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==Exploratory career==
[[File:Andrew Hamilton Hume oil portrait by Joseph Backler a928568h.jpg|thumb|upright|left|His father – Andrew Hamilton Hume, painted by [[Joseph Backler]]]]

===Early exploration===
When Hume was only 17 years of age, he began exploring the country beyond Sydney with his younger brother John and an Aboriginal boy as far to the south-west as Berrima, and soon developed into a good bushman. In 1817, Hume went on a journey with [[James Meehan (surveyor)|James Meehan]], the deputy surveyor-general, and [[Charles Throsby]] during which Lake Bathurst and the Goulburn Plains were sighted. Subsequently, in 1818, he went with [[John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley|John Oxley]] and Meehan to [[Jervis Bay]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60446913 |title=HUME, THE EXPLORER. |newspaper=[[Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers]] |location=Melbourne |date=20 May 1873 |access-date=29 April 2012 |page=1 Supplement: SUPPLEMENT TO THE ILLUSTRATED AUSTRALIAN NEWS |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

In 1822, he journeyed with [[Alexander Berry]] down the south coast of New South Wales. He travelled as far south as the Clyde River, and inland nearly as far as [[Braidwood, New South Wales|Braidwood]].  Berry came to settle in the Shoalhaven, and in June 1822 he left Hume and a party of convicts to cut a 209-yard canal between the [[Shoalhaven River]] and the Crookhaven River to allow passage of boats into the Shoalhaven. This canal was Australia's first navigable canal, and the work was completed in 12 days. The canal today forms the main water flow of the Shoalhaven River.<ref>{{cite web |author=Shoalhaven City Council |title=On this day |url=http://www.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au/region/History/OnThisDay.pdf |access-date=23 October 2009 |archive-date=17 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617074908/http://www.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au/region/History/OnThisDay.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Hume and Hovell expedition===
{{Main|Hume and Hovell expedition}}
In 1824, Hume was seen by [[Thomas Makdougall Brisbane|Governor Brisbane]] with reference to an expedition to [[Spencer Gulf]]. Brisbane was also in touch about this time with [[William Hovell]] on the same subject, but it is not quite clear which of the men was the first to be approached. In any event, the hoped-for government funding of the expedition was not forthcoming, so that eventually the two men decided to make the journey at their own expense, except for some packsaddles, arms, clothes and blankets, which were provided from government stores.

Hume, in a letter dated 24 January 1825, (immediately after the return of the explorers), practically claimed to have been the leader of the party. He refers to ''"the expedition your Excellency was pleased to entrust to my care"''. But Brisbane did not accept this view of it, as in a letter to the secretary, Wilmot Horton, dated 24 March 1825 he mentions the ''"discovery of new and valuable country . . . by two young men Messrs Hovell and Hume . . . they were directed by me to try and reach Spencer's Gulf"''. It may also be pointed out that in the letter to Brisbane of 28 July 1824, Hovell signed first. These facts are of interest in view of the controversy which broke out many years later.

Each of the explorers brought three assigned servants with him and between them they had five bullocks, three horses and two carts. Much of the journey was through difficult mountain country, and the party had to cross the major [[Murrumbidgee River]], [[Murray River]], [[Mitta Mitta River]], [[Ovens River]], and [[Goulburn River]]. Hovell had named the Murray River after Hume during the trip but [[Charles Sturt]] altered it to its current name in 1830.

Four days after crossing the Goulburn impassable country was reached. The party spent three days attempting to cross the [[Great Dividing Range]] at Mt Disappointment but were thwarted. Hume shifted direction to the West then reached lower land at the future township of [[Broadford, Victoria|Broadford]] on the 12 December where they camped.<ref>Hovell, William H., Remarks on a journey from Lake George, Lat. 35 deg. 5 min., Long. – towards Western Port, 2 October – 21 December 1824, Safe 1/32b, IE3447307, 1825, p. 143, SLNSW.</ref>
Hume headed towards low ranges to the South and found a pass in that direction next day. He led the party across the Dividing Range at [[Hume’s Pass]], [[Wandong]] and on the 16th December, 1824 reached [[Port Phillip Bay]] at Bird Rock, Point Lillias adjacent to the future [[Geelong]].<ref>Williams, Martin. Hamilton Hume Sketch Maps: Origins and Modern Treatment, Victorian Historical Journal, Vol. 92, No. 1, June 2021, p. 21.</ref>
Hovell claimed that he measured their longitude on the same day but in reality he read it off the sketch map that he and Hume had drafted themselves during the trip.<ref>Williams, Martin. Hamilton Hume Sketch Maps: Origins and Modern Treatment, Victorian Historical Journal, Vol. 92, No. 1, June 2021, p. 13.</ref>
Hovell admitted in 1867 that he did not take any longitude measurements and blamed Hume for it.<ref>William H. Hovell, Answer to the Preface to the Second Edition of Mr. Hamilton Hume’s ‘A Brief Statement of Facts’ in Connection with an Overland Expedition from Lake George to Port Phillip, in 1824, Sydney, J. Ferguson, 1874, p. 8.</ref>
Prior to this admission, Dr William Bland, who wrote the first book on the journey in 1831, invented the myth that Hovell made an error of one degree in longitude in order to protect him.<ref>William Bland, Journey of Discovery to Port Phillip, New South Wales; by Messrs. W. H. Hovell, and Hamilton Hume in 1824 and 1825. W. Bland, Sydney, A.H. Hill, 1831, Facsimile Edition, Adelaide Libraries Board of South Australia, 1965, p. iii.</ref>

The party turned back towards [[New South Wales]] on the 18 December. Hume chose to travel more to the west to avoid the mountainous country and save considerable time. On 16 January 1825, just as their flour ran out, they reached the carts they had left behind them, and then two days later the safety of Hume's station at [[Gunning, New South Wales|Gunning]].<ref>Bland 1831 p. 86.</ref>

Hume and Hovell each received grants of {{convert|1200|acre|km2}} of land, an inadequate reward for discoveries of great importance made by an expedition which, practically speaking, paid its own expenses. This expedition was the first to discover an overland route from southern New South Wales to [[Port Phillip]], on whose shores [[Melbourne]] now stands.

=== Blue Mountains and Lithgow Valley ===
In 1827, accompanied by Lieutenant [[George Bowen (colonial settler)|George M. C. Bowen]], then an assistant surveyor, Hume explored the western part of the Blue Mountains—around the landform that he named the Darling Causeway, after [[Governor Ralph Darling]]—and found three passes through the western escarpment that would have avoided the steep [[Mount York|Mt York]] route.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1827-12-14|title=TO THE EDITOR OF THE SYDNEY GAZETTE.|pages=3|work=Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2189574|access-date=2021-08-07}}</ref> During this period, he named the [[Lithgow, New South Wales|Lithgow Valley]], after [[William Lithgow (auditor-general)|William Lithgow]], who, at the time, was the Auditor-General of New South Wales.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Tourism|first=Lithgow|date=2017-09-22|title=Bowenfels Railway Station {{!}} Lithgow Tourism Information|url=https://lithgow-tourism.com/bowenfel.htm|access-date=2021-08-07|language=en-AU}}</ref>

===Exploration of the Darling River===
[[Image:CoomaCottageYassNSW.JPG|thumb|right|Hume's home: Cooma Cottage at Yass]]
In November 1828, Hume journeyed with [[Charles Sturt]] into western New South Wales, where they found the [[Darling River]], the [[Murray River]]'s longest tributary. Hume was able to communicate with some Aboriginals they met early in their journey who consented to act as guides, and later, when the Aboriginals left them, Sturt speaks with appreciation of Hume's ability in tracking their animals which had strayed. Being a drought year, it was a constant struggle to find water, and only good bushmanship saved the party. Sturt would have liked Hume to go with him on his second expedition, which started at the end of 1829, but he had a harvest to get in and was unable to make arrangements. Hume had finished his work as an explorer, and spent his remaining days as a successful pastoralist.

==Later life==
[[File:HamiltonHume.jpg|thumb|left|200 px|Hume in later life]]
Hume married Elizabeth Dight on 8 November 1825 at [[St Philip's Church, Sydney|St Philip's Church]] in Sydney.<ref>{{ cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2184707 |newspaper=The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser |date=17 November 1825 |page=5 |title=Family Notices}}</ref> She survived him but had no children.

Hume served as a [[magistrate]] in [[Yass, New South Wales|Yass]] until his death at his residence, Cooma Cottage in Yass on 19 April 1873. A double seater buggy once owned by Hume and used by him in Yass is in the [[National Museum of Australia]] collection in [[Canberra]].<ref>[http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=141154 Double seater buggy once owned by the explorer Hamilton Hume, National Museum of Australia]</ref>

==Honours==
[[File:Hume's Grave at Yass NSW.jpg|thumb|right|200 px|Grave and memorial of Hume and his wife Elizabeth, Yass Cemetery]]
Hume is commemorated by the [[Hume Highway]], the principal road between Sydney and Melbourne. Hume and Hovell were also commemorated by having their portraits printed on the Australian one-[[Australian pound|pound]] [[banknote]] between 1953 and 1966. [[Hume Dam]] and the impounded reservoir, Lake Hume, were named in his honour in 1996.<ref name="GMW1">{{cite web|url=http://www.g-mwater.com.au/water-resources/storages/humedam|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720022258/http://www.g-mwater.com.au/water-resources/storages/humedam|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 July 2008|title=Hume Dam|work=Water Resources: Water Storages: Murray|publisher=Goulburn-Murray Water|year=2013|access-date=19 April 2013}}</ref><ref name=gnb1>{{NSW GNR|id=KWwGWyZTMn|title=Lake Hume|date=2 August 1996|access-date=19 April 2013}}</ref> The [[Canberra]] suburb of [[Hume, Australian Capital Territory|Hume]] was named after him, as was the federal electoral [[Division of Hume]]. The [[City of Hume]], an outer metropolitan council in Melbourne formed in 1994, is named in his honour.

In 1976 a postage stamp bearing the portraits of Hume and Hovell was issued by [[Australia Post]]. The [[Hume and Hovell Track]], a {{convert|440|km|mi|adj=on}} [[trail]] between Yass and [[Albury, New South Wales|Albury]], also bears their joint names.

==See also==
* [[Hume and Hovell expedition]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
The Story of John Byrne, ''Freeman's Journal'' Thursday 11 June 1908, p.&nbsp;32

==References==
*{{Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=Hamilton|Last=Hume|shortlink=0-dict-biogHi-Hu.html#hume2|access-date=11 August 2009}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050311031304/http://www.nsw.nationaltrust.org.au/cooma.html Cooma Cottage, Yass – Hume's home from 1839]
* [http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/results?search=adv&type=Horse-drawn+vehicles National Museum of Australia] Hume's double-seater buggy.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hume, Hamilton}}
[[Category:1797 births]]
[[Category:1873 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Australian explorers]]
[[Category:Explorers of Australia]]
[[Category:People from Sydney]]
[[Category:Australian people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:Hume Highway]]
[[Category:Colony of New South Wales people]]