Sir Thomas Livingston Mitchell And His World 1792-1855 Surveyor General N.S.W
Australian History Local History Biography Non-Fiction Colonial History Geography Exploration Cartography
Sir Thomas Livingston Mitchell And His World 1792-1855 is the definitive 593-page hardcover biography of the controversial Surveyor-General who mapped much of eastern Australia. Published in 1985 and now a sought-after vintage Australian history volume, this richly illustrated first edition traces Mitchell’s career from Scottish-born soldier to the ambitious explorer whose 1831-1846 expeditions opened the interior for colonial settlement. Readers discover how his precise surveys of the Great North Road, the Darling River system and the route that would become the Hume Highway still shape modern travel across New South Wales and Victoria.
William Foster’s meticulous research brings to life Mitchell’s rivalry with other surveyors, his battles with governors, and the human cost of his discoveries on Aboriginal nations. Contemporary sketches, fold-out maps and colour plates show the earliest views of the Australian Alps, the Bogan and Murray Rivers, and the fertile “Australia Felix” country Mitchell proudly named. Because the book is printed on high-quality art paper and bound in sturdy cloth with its original dust jacket, it doubles as both a scholarly reference and a handsome display piece for collectors of colonial Australiana.
This copy is clean, tight and free of inscriptions, dog-ears or underlining—only light page-edge foxing and a small water mark on the rear jacket betray three decades on a shelf. For family historians, bushwalkers, surveyors and anyone tracing early settler routes, Foster’s narrative is still the most detailed account of how Mitchell’s chains and theodolites turned unknown bush into measured roads and parishes. Secure this scarce 1985 edition now and own the authoritative portrait of the man whose maps guided Australia’s greatest internal migration.
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