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57.01.00

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Ferdinand von Mueller to Augustus Greeves, 1857-01. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1850-9/1857/57-01-00-final.odt>, accessed May 15, 2026

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Letter not found. The text given here is from  ‘Parliamentary intelligence. Transportation’. Argus, 24 January 1857, p. 5 (B57.01.02). In a discussion in the Legislative Assembly of Victoria on 22 January 1857 on the proposed resumption of transportation of British convicts, Augustus Greeves in opposing the sending of convicts to any part of Australia near Victoria, said: ‘At the same time it would probably tend to the settlement of the question if they could point out to the British Government any means for the disposal of criminals where they might not have a prejudicial effect upon any community, but might be usefully employed’. In this connection, he sought the permission of the House ‘to submit a memorandum on the foundation of a new penal settlement which had been placed in his hands by one of the members of the recent Northern Expedition, Dr Müller, the Government botanist, who he was happy to say had returned home in the possession of robust health.’ Greeves then read the above memorandum.
In the Star, Ballarat, 26 January 1857, p. 2, Greeves was reported as introducing the memorandum as follows: ‘When he first proposed to bring this subject before the House, he did not see his way clear of sending British criminals to any part of Australasia; but circumstances had occurred which obviated the necessity of making the resolutions as stringent as he originally intended them to be. ... He did not consider it to be any part of the duty of this House to point out to the Home Government what ought to be done with British criminals. But it was a question that very materially interested this country. He would, with the leave of the House, read a short memorandum which had been given to him by one of the members of the Northern Expedition, Dr. Mueller, the Government botanist. That gentleman states that the country upon the Victoria river, which is situated on the north-western corner of Australia, with Swan river on the opposite corner, deserves the gravest attention, should the formation of a new convict colony be contemplated by the Home Government. (Cries of Oh, oh) He really did not understand why hon. members cried Oh oh. He had already explained to the House, how he became possessed of this information. He had asked Dr. Mueller to furnish him with some information relative to that portion of the country, and he sincerely hoped that the House would lend him its attention. The hon. member proceeded to read the memorandum.’
1. The Victoria River is the most extensive water-course on the north coast, its length being about 300 miles.
2. The river is, nearly as far as Curiosity Peak, accessible to vessels of great burden, although higher up the navigation is only possible, for some extent, for small vessels, on account of shoals. Lighters may pass the mud-banks at high tides, and proceed as far as Steep Head, up the river, a distance of about forty miles further. None of the rives of the Gulf of Carpentaria hitherto explored from the seaside seem to have afforded access to vessels of moderate size.
3. The land on the Victoria River is, for the greater part, well grassed: and on the upper part, as also for some distance along an extensive inland creek (Sturt’s Creek), the basaltic plains are clothed with grass and herbage of extraordinary variety, great luxuriance, and the best quality.
4. Although the Victoria River is salt as far as Palm Island in the dry season, and as far as Sandy Island in the wet season, yet even that part of it is supplied with some springs and tributaries of fresh water. At the upper part the water supply is abundant.
5. Notwithstanding from September till March the heat becomes so intense that physical labour could for any length of time but be exercised during the early and late hours of the day, yet the climate was found very salubrious, being essentially an Australian and not an Indian climate, since the rainy season seems to be of short duration, and jungles scarcely exist, which almost universally in other parts of the tropics are the sources of fevers and other diseases. As a proof of the salubrity of the country it may be adduced that Mr. Gregory’s party slept generally in the open air whilst travelling, which in these latitudes could not be ventured elsewhere.
6. This part of the country participates in the advantage of the greater part of tropical Australia therein that the rainy season sets in during the hottest part of the year, by which means a grassy verdure clothes the generally open ground at the very time when our southern colonies are scorched by the summer heat. The soil thus protected gets also not heated to such a degree as to cause hot winds. When in March, April, or May the grass fades the weather becomes cooler, and we saw on burnt ground there after occasional rain-showers the grass springing anew, and even without this the dry grass afforded a sufficiency of food for our horses and sheep.
7. The climate, as a dry one, seems to be a very favourable for rearing sheep, although it remains to be ascertained whether the wool grows there in equal quantity to that produced in the cooler latitudes. Sheep stations, however, it may be observed, extend already as far as 22 deg. S. on the east coast, and the results of this progress have been most satisfactory to the squatters.
8. It is most probable that the available country stretches between 16 deg. and 19 deg. S., over a much greater area than the expedition of Mr. Gregory was able to explore, although three millions of acres of good land have been actually traversed by him in N. W. Australia.
9. Dr. Leichhardt discovered many tracts of splendid country in Arnheim’s Land,
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Arnhem Land, NT.
which would favourably add to the extent of the new colony.
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After reading the memorandum, Greeves said that he ‘thought it important that information of this character should be circulated at as early a period as possible, and before its entry into the “Circumlocution Office” prevented the public receiving it for at least twelve months to come’. He therefore ‘proposed to move that the Speaker present a copy to the Government, with the view of its being forwarded to the Secretary of State’. The Argus noted: ‘During the hon. member’s remarks frequent interruptions were caused by a knot of gentlemen who had assembled on one of the cross-benches, where an animated conversation was kept up with a result equally satisfactory to Mr. Greeves and to the reporters. On the attention of the Speaker being called to the circumstance, he called the hon. members to order.’