THE HUME & HOVELL EXPEDITION
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In November 2024 the 200th anniversary of the Hume & Hovell Expedition will be commemorated. This page will be developed further.
On October 3, 1824, Hamilton Hume and William Hovell and six fellow expeditioners set off from Hume’s property at Appin, south of Campbelltown. The aim of the expedition was to find new grazing land south-west of Sydney and to find an overland route to Bass Strait and the south coast of what was then all part of the colony of New South Wales.
Land south of Appin as far as the Yass plains had already been explored by Europeans including by Hamilton Hume himself, with his younger brother John. Once Lake George was reached, no European had ventured any further. On October 17 they set off from Lake George.
The land that later became the site of Albury was reached on November 16. The men of the expedition party were the first Europeans to sight the river that they named the Hume. After first heading downstream looking for a suitable crossing place, they returned and headed upstream, finding a place to cross beyond the confluence of the Hume and Mitta Rivers. They crossed the Hume on November 20 in a makeshift raft at a spot that is now under the waters of Lake Hume.
In January 1830, Charles Sturt’s party, travelling down the Murrumbidgee River, arrived at a much larger river. Sturt named the river the Murray, not realising that he had met the same river that the Hume and Hovell expedition had crossed further upstream and named the Hume.
From the Hume River, the Hume & Hovell expedition trekked south, keeping west of the Great Dividing Range and reached Port Phillip on December 16, 1824.
After thousands of years of indigenous habitation and care for the region that Albury is now part of, the future of the region was soon to be dominated by Europeans.
Border Mail articles
The Border Mail has started to publish a series of articles submitted by A&DHS relating to the Hume & Hovell Expedition. The articles will continue to be published every four weeks up to the November bicentenary. The first five articles can be accessed below:
Hamilton Hume
William Hovell
Other Expedition Members
The Murray River Crossing
Remembering Hume & Hovell
Hume & Hovell and the pathfinders
Hamilton Hume and William Hovell explored country that was neither unknown nor uninhabited. Hamilton Hume’s friendship with, and assistance from, local Aboriginal groups throughout the journey enabled the opening up of some of the most pristine land in New South Wales and Victoria (note that Victoria was not a separate and independent colony until 1851).
Fellow explorer Charles Sturt, in his report to the Colonial Secretary after his 1828/29 expedition in which he was supported by Hamilton Hume, said that he had “received the most ready and valuable assistance from Mr Hume on all occasions and that his intimate acquaintance with the manners and customs of the natives, enabled him to enter into discourse with them, and chiefly contributed to the peaceable manner in which the party journeyed.”
Listen to the ABC audio file at Hume & Hovell – pathfinders
“Stuff You Missed in History Class”
It’s interesting to listen to the version of the Hume & Hovell Expedition from two American podcasters, Holly Frey and Tracy V Wilson. They give us a different perspective in an interesting and fun recording.
Listen to the 37 minute recording by clicking on the file below: