Document information

Physical location:

57.07.00

Preferred Citation:

John H. Browne to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1857-07. 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/57-07-00>, accessed September 11, 2025

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'An historical review of the explorations of Australia', Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, vol. 2 (B58.05.03), pp. 158-9, read before the Institute on 25 November 1857. The correspondent is given as both 'Browne' and 'Brown' in the source article, and also in 'Sturt's central Australian expedition', South Australian register, 9 November 1844. His details in the Australian Medical Pioneers Index ( http://www.medicalpioneers.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?detail=1&id=2184 , accessed 3 January 2019) confirm his name as John Harris Browne, and his position as surgeon to Sturt's expedition. See also his entry in ADB.
The letter is dated by reference to the discovery of fresh water, see n. 2.
[Captain Sturt further examined the N. E. part of Lake Torrens, and his companion Mr. Browne, in a letter to myself, affirms again after the late discovery of fresh water in the Torrens Basin,
2
By Goyder; see 'Important discoveries in the North', South Australian register , 29 June 1857: 'the water [of Lake Torrens] is perfectly fresh, and there are neither crustations of salt nor any of its usual accompaniments'. This unofficial report was widely reprinted, including in the Melbourne press (for example, Argus , 6 July 1857, p. 6). M was sent copies of the official report with E. Wildman to M, 14 July 1857, confirming the freshness of the water (p. 351). It is likely that M wrote to Browne seeking clarification of the passage in Sturt (1849), vol. 2, p. 66 that the water had a 'nasty taste', and Browne's reply is dated to July as the earliest likely date he could have responded.
Also see M's comment on the supposed fresh water in M to A Gregory, 3 October 1857, and his published reference in B58.05.03, p. 163:
I cannot with silence pass the last observations on Lake Torrens by Mr. Goyder. Not only because its waters where found to be fresh in the northern part of the lake, but also as a warning to travellers, — how little we can rely on the permanency of water, which in an open desert country so rapidly evaporates!
that it was where they tasted it indisputably salt.]