The Blandowski expedition was an Australian scientific expedition that took place between 1856 and 1857 [1] to study the natural history of the region and acquire specimens for the Victorian Museum. The expedition departed from Melbourne on route to Mondellimin (now known as Merbein) the area of the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers in north-western Victoria following the Murray to Goolwa in South Australia.
It was led by William Blandowski, the Victorian government zoologist, and included his assistant, Gerard Krefft who maintained a diary of the field work.
Blandowski, who had come to Australia to compile a "natural history, botanical classification and geological arrangement" secured 2,000 pounds in funding from the Government of Victoria for the expedition.
In 1853 Blandowski applied to Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe for funding for an 'Illustrated Natural History of the Colony of Victoria'. He made the first of several excursions in 1854. In 1856 Blandowski was appointed leader of an expedition to the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers to collect specimens for the National Museum. [2]
Blandowski's party headed north from Melbourne to Lancefield, then following land the south of the Murray River north-west along Echuca, Gunbower, Pyramid Hill, Lake Boga, and Swan Hill. The party crossed the Murray briefly at Euston before visiting the areas of Mildura, Yelta, Mondellimin and Wentworth. He continued to follow the Murray River to South Australia establishing camps at Moorundee and Goolwa and arrived in Adelaide in August 1857 before returning to Melbourne.
The expedition collected 17,400 scientific specimens contained in 28 boxes. 19 new species of fish were discovered. [2] Accounts from the expedition were later illustrated by various artists including Gustav Mützel and Blandowski himself.
Despite not being a primary objective the expedition collected a large amount of information on the indigenous Australian tribes of the area, many of which were documented in illustrations and other artefacts. Blandowski presented ‘Superstitions, Customs and Burials of the Aborigines’ the first address of its kind to the Melbourne Mechanics' Institute in October 1856 arguing that the scientific value of the study of Aboriginal culture should not be ignored. [3]
Blandowski left Australia shortly following the expedition.
A monument was erected at Merbein in 2007 to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the expedition. [4]
The Murray River is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at 2,508 km (1,558 mi) extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest rivers of Australia. Together with that of the Murray, the catchments of these rivers form the Murray–Darling basin, which covers about one-seventh the area of Australia. It is widely considered Australia's most important irrigated region.
Georg Balthazar von Neumayer, was a German polar explorer and scientist who was a proponent of the idea of international cooperation for meteorology and scientific observation.
The Darling River is the third-longest river in Australia, measuring 1,472 kilometres (915 mi) from its source in northern New South Wales to its confluence with the Murray River at Wentworth. Including its longest contiguous tributaries it is 2,844 km (1,767 mi) long, making it the longest river system in Australia. The Darling River is the outback's most famous waterway.
Caulfield is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government area. Caulfield recorded a population of 5,748 at the 2021 census.
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia by Governor Charles La Trobe in 1853, and later director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. He also founded the National Herbarium of Victoria. He named many Australian plants.
Johann Ludwig (Louis) Gerard Krefft, was an Australian artist, draughtsman, scientist, and natural historian who served as the curator of the Australian Museum for 13 years (1861–1874). He was one of Australia's first and most influential zoologists and palaeontologists.
Some of [Krefft's] observations on animals have not been surpassed and can no longer be equalled because of the spread of settlement.
Mr. Krefft was probably the first man who thoroughly studied the reptiles of Australia.
Clement Hodgkinson was an English naturalist, explorer and surveyor of Australia. He was Victorian Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey from 1861 to 1874.
Chaeropus, known as the pig-footed bandicoots, is a genus of small marsupials that became extinct during the 20th century. They were the only members of the family Chaeropodidae in order Peramelemorphia, with unusually thin legs, yet were able to move rapidly. Two recognised species inhabited dense vegetation on the arid and semiarid plains of Australia. The genus' distribution range was later reduced to an inland desert region, where it was last recorded in the 1950s; it is now presumed extinct.
Merbein is a town just north of Mildura, Victoria, in the Sunraysia region of Australia. It is on the Calder Highway between Mildura and the Murray River crossing at the Abbotsford Bridge to Curlwaa. At the 2016 census, the town had a population of 1,981. Merbein is 12 kilometres from Mildura, 553 km from Melbourne and 389 km from Adelaide.
Marn Grook, marn-grook or marngrook is the popular collective name for traditional Indigenous Australian football games played at gatherings and celebrations by sometimes more than 100 players. From the Woiwurung language of the Kulin people, it means "ball" and "game".
Johann Wilhelm Theodor Ludwig von Blandowski, known as William Blandowski, was a German explorer, soldier, zoologist and mining engineer of Polish descent, famous for his exploration of the Murray and Darling Rivers in Australia.
Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage facility in Melbourne's City of Merri-bek.
Johann Freiderich Carl Wilhelmi (1829–1884) was a Dresden born seedsman who made large collections of botanical specimens in southern Australia.
Diedrich Henne was a German-born botanist and plant collector. He emigrated to Australia and was employed as an assistant to the colonial botanist Ferdinand von Mueller at the Melbourne Herbarium.
The Nyeri Nyeri is an indigenous Australian people whose traditional territory is in the Mallee region of Victoria.
The Rufus River Massacre was a massacre of at least 30–40 Aboriginal people that took place in 1841 along the Rufus River, in the Central Murray River region of New South Wales. The massacre was conducted by a large group of South Australian Police, who were sent to the region by the Governor of South Australia, George Grey, after Indigenous warriors carried out a series of effective raids against settler overland drives. The police were augmented by armed volunteers and a separate party of overlanders who were already battling with Aboriginal people in the Rufus River area. The colony's Protector of Aborigines, Matthew Moorhouse, accompanied the punitive expedition. He was unsuccessful in his efforts to mediate a solution before the massacre occurred.
The Avon River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Avon River flows north-westerly to reach its confluence with the Richardson River. The rivers of the Wimmera catchment drain into a series of ephemeral lakes that, whilst they do not directly empty into a defined watercourse, form part of the Murray River catchment of the Murray-Darling basin.
The Richardson River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Richardson River flows generally north and drains into Lake Buloke, one of a series of ephemeral lakes that, whilst they do not directly empty into a defined watercourse, form part of the Murray River catchment of the Murray-Darling basin.
Dr. Hermann Beckler was a German doctor with an interest in botany. He went to Australia to collect specimen for Ferdinand von Mueller and served as medical officer and botanist for the Victoria Exploring Expedition in 1860.
Woggabaliri is a traditional Indigenous Australian co-operative kicking volley game. Described as a kicking game similar to soccer played in a group of four to six players in a circle, the game has been encouraged in schools in New South Wales and Queensland.