The Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition took place in central and northern Western Australia in 1896 and 1897, using camels as the principal means of transport.
The Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition took place in central and northern Western Australia in 1896 and 1897, using camels as the principal means of transport.
The expedition was financed by Albert Frederick Calvert (1872–1946), a London-based mining engineer and author, [1] and conducted under the auspices of the South Australian Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. Its main aim was to build on the achievements of the 1891 Elder Expedition in exploring a still largely unknown inland area of Western Australia, mainly in the Great Sandy Desert. Other aims included, as well as the collection of scientific specimens, finding evidence of the fate of the lost Leichhardt expedition of 1848, and opening a stock route between the Northern Territory and the Western Australian goldfields. [2] Expedition personnel included Larry Wells (leader); Charles Wells (his cousin and the second in command); George Jones (mineralogist and photographer); George Keartland (naturalist); James Trainor; with Dervish Bejah and Said Ameer (camel drivers) and 20 camels. [3]
The expedition departed Mullewa in Western Australia on 13 June 1896, heading north towards the Fitzroy River in the West Kimberley. By 21 July, they had reached the limits of previously explored territory and known water supplies. In early August, they were advancing into the Great Sandy Desert and having problems with the availability of water and with camels falling sick through the consumption of poisonous plants. In October, Charles Wells and Jones left to make a side journey towards the north-west, intending to rejoin the others later. On 9 November, the main party reached the track from Derby to the Fitzroy Crossing, and Quanbun Station on 13 November. Concern for the two missing members of the expedition led to a series of search parties, with their mummified bodies eventually being found on 27 May 1897. Jones' diary, found with his body, indicated that they had died from extreme heat and lack of water on about 21 November 1896 while following in the tracks of the main party. The bodies were returned to Adelaide, where a state funeral was held for them on 18 July 1897. [3]
Albert Calvert was unable to meet the full costs of the expedition and the subsequent search parties, with the shortfall made up by the South Australian and Western Australian governments. Larry Wells’ leadership was heavily criticised in the media, though some two years later a Parliamentary select committee cleared him of any blame. [3]
A stained glass window commemorating Wells and Jones was unveiled by the Governor on 27 June 1937 in North Adelaide Congregational Church. [4] The expedition was dramatised in the radio serial Bejah Plants a Date Seed .
The Canning Stock Route is a track that runs from Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia to Wiluna in the mid-west region. With a total distance of around 1,850 km (1,150 mi) it is claimed to be the longest historic stock route in the world.
Karlamilyi National Park lies in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, 250 kilometres (160 mi) northeast of Newman and 1,250 kilometres (780 mi) north-northeast of Perth. Proclaimed an A Class Reserve on 13 April 1977, it is the largest national park in Western Australia.
William Ernest Powell Giles, best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer who led five major expeditions to parts of South Australia and Western Australia.
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David Wynford Carnegie was an explorer and gold prospector in Western Australia. In 1896 he led an expedition from Coolgardie through the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts to Halls Creek, and then back again.
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Australian feral camels are introduced populations of dromedary, or one-humped, camel. Imported as valuable beasts of burden from British India and Afghanistan during the 19th century, many were casually released into the wild after motorised transport negated the use of camels in the early 20th century. This resulted in a fast-growing feral population with numerous ecological, agricultural and social impacts.
Colonel Peter Egerton-Warburton, often referred to as Major Warburton, was a British military officer, Commissioner of Police for South Australia, and an Australian explorer. In 1872 he sealed his legacy through a particularly epic expedition from Adelaide crossing the arid centre of Australia to the coast of Western Australia via Alice Springs.
Desert exploration is the deliberate and scientific exploration of deserts, the arid regions of the earth. It is only incidentally concerned with the culture and livelihood of native desert dwellers. People have struggled to live in deserts and the surrounding semi-arid lands for millennia. Nomads have moved their flocks and herds to wherever grazing is available, and oases have provided opportunities for a more settled way of life. Many, such as the Bushmen in the Kalahari, the Aborigines in Australia and various Indigenous peoples of the Americas, were originally hunter-gatherers. Many trade routes have been forged across deserts, especially across the Sahara Desert, and traditionally were used by caravans of camels carrying salt, gold, ivory and other goods. Large numbers of slaves were also taken northwards across the Sahara. Today, some mineral extraction also takes place in deserts, and the uninterrupted sunlight gives potential for the capture of large quantities of solar energy.
Lawrence Allen "Larry" Wells, frequently spelled Laurence Allen Wells, was an Australian explorer.
David Lindsay was an Australian explorer and surveyor and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London.
Afghan cameleers in Australia, also known as "Afghans" or "Ghans", were camel drivers who worked in Outback Australia from the 1860s to the 1930s. Small groups of cameleers were shipped in and out of Australia at three-year intervals, to service the Australian inland pastoral industry by carting goods and transporting wool bales by camel trains. They were commonly referred to as "Afghans", even though the majority of them originated from the far western parts of British India, primarily the NWFP and Balochistan, which was inhabited by ethnic Pashtuns and Balochs. Nonetheless, many were from Afghanistan itself as well. In addition, there were also some with origins in Egypt and Turkey. The majority of cameleers, including cameleers from British India, were Muslim, while a sizeable minority were Sikhs from the Punjab region. They set up camel-breeding stations and rest-house outposts, known as caravanserai, throughout inland Australia, creating a permanent link between the coastal cities and the remote cattle and sheep grazing stations until about the 1930s, when they were largely replaced by the automobile. They provided vital support to exploration, communications and settlement in the arid interior of the country where the climate was too harsh for horses. They also played a major role in establishing Islam in Australia, building the country's first mosque at Marree in South Australia in 1861, the Central Adelaide Mosque, and several mosques in Western Australia.
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On 22 June 1883, the Geographical Society of Australasia started at a meeting in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. A branch was formed in Victoria in the same year. In July 1885, both the Queensland and the South Australian branches started.
Dervish Bejah Baloch (c.1862–1957), also known as Bejah Dervish, or simply Dervish, was a camel driver who played a significant role in the exploration and development of outback Australia, before settling in Marree, South Australia and growing date palms.
European land exploration of Australia deals with the opening up of the interior of Australia to European settlement which occurred gradually throughout the colonial period, 1788–1900. A number of these explorers are very well known, such as Burke and Wills who are well known for their failed attempt to cross the interior of Australia, as well as Hamilton Hume and Charles Sturt.
Richard Thelwell Maurice was an explorer from South Australia who made eight or nine expeditions from his home base of Fowlers Bay, South Australia between 1897 and 1904.
Albert Frederick Calvert (1872-1946) was an English author, engineer and explorer active in Australia.
The Carnegie expedition of 1896 was led by David Carnegie. It covered territory in the centre of Western Australia, including the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts.
Bejah Plants a Date Seed is a 1952 Australian radio serial drama by Megan Machin about the Calvert Expedition in Western Australia.