Ferdinand von Mueller

Letter not found. For the text given here, see report of a meeting in the Ballarat West Fire-brigade room on 24 February 1863 to discuss emigration to 'Albert Land'. The correspondent is suggested as David Thomas, as a person of that name was elected to a committee to prepare proposals (Ballarat star, 25 February 1863, p. 2).

'Albert Land' was a name used for various schemes of settlement in the north of Australia. For a proposed settlement on the Gulf of Carpentaria, see 'The colonisation of North Australia', Age, 14 June 1862, p. 5; for the willingness of the government of Western Australia to grant leases on favourable terms in the north-west of Australia see 'Topics of the day', South Australian advertiser, 13 May 1863, p. 2; for critical comment on the proposed boundaries of one scheme in north-west Australia, including land (the present Northern Territory) recently added to SA, see a South Australian advertiser editorial, 27 January 1863, p. 2. There was also a Nonconformist settlement around Kaipara Harbour in the North Island of New Zealand called 'Albertland' ('The Nonconformist settlement, New Zealand', Daily southern cross , 26 August 1862, p. 4), and there were proposals to rename 'South Australia' as 'Albert Land', or 'Albert' (see reports of the debate in much of the South Australian press in July and August 1863, for example the editorial in the Adelaide observer, 25 July 1863, p. 6).