The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Melbourne ¶ 3/12/73 ¶ ¶ Not without apprehension, dear Mr Barlee, do I think of poor Giles ¶ Ernest Giles, who was undertaking his second exploration west of the overland telegraphline, following up ...

Document information

Physical location:

Colonial Secretary's Office - letters received, acc. 36, vol. 730, f. 214, State Records Office of Western Australia, Perth. 73.12.03

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Frederick Barlee, 1873-12-03. 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/1870-9/1873/73-12-03-final.odt>, accessed May 15, 2026

Melbourne

3/12/73

Not without apprehension, dear Mr Barlee, do I think of poor Giles

Ernest Giles, who was undertaking his second exploration west of the overland telegraph line, following up what he had found in his aborted 1872 expedition. He departed from the overland telegraph line on 4 August 1873 (Giles (1875), p. 596). For a summary of Giles's routes see M ap showing the routes travelled and discoveries made by the exploring expeditions equipped by Thomas Elder and under the command of Ernest Giles: between the years 1872-6 published by the SA Surveyor General, Adelaide, digitized by the National Library of Australia, https://nla.gov.au/nla . obj- 2 32133673 .

especially on a hot day like this. I trust that his surmise is correct in reference to the Mount Olga Ranges extending far W.; then the space between him and the sources of the Murchison may not be so very wide.

Murchison River, WA. In his journal of his 1872 expedition, quoted in the abstract published in the Advertiser (Adelaide), 5 February 1873, Giles wrote: 'I have great hopes that when I can once set my foot on Mount Olga my route to the west will be unimpeded'. The full journal was included in E. Giles (1875), where this passage is on p. 62, entry for 5 November 1872.

It will also be all right, if his prudence and caution are as great as his perseverance and his courage. Colonel Warburton and also Mr Gosse have the advantage over him in as much as they command the use of Camels & got a start in the earlier part of the cool season, where as poor Giles got only away, when the better part of the cool season was gone. I have not yet sent off the ammunition for him, but would remark, that I intend to forward them to Mr Clifton, if the next mail-steamer should go to the Sound;

King George Sound, WA.

otherwise they will be sent to your kind care to Perth then. —

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller

The little photogram (for a stereoscop

stereoscope? Photograph not found.

) of the Victoria regia waterlily, which you saw at my garden may interest you.

Barlee attended the Intercolonial Conference in Sydney in January 1873. He arrived in Melbourne from WA on RMSS Baroda on 19 January 1873, listed as a passenger for Sydney, and departed the following day. He remained in the eastern colonies as a WA Commissioner to the Sydney Exhibition which opened on 22 April. Before the exhibition began, he re-visited Victoria, arriving in Melbourne on 1 March 1873 and also visiting some country areas before clearing out for Launceston, Tas, on 18 March. It was presumably during this period, and thus while M was still Director, that he visited the Botanic Garden. From Tas he returned to Sydney to see the exhibition under way, before eventually leaving for home on 18 May; a case of smallpox on board meant that the ship carrying him got no closer to Melbourne than the quarantine station at Queenscliff, Vic. (Passenger lists and general news items from WA, Vic and NSW newspapers, January to May 1873.)

Victoria regia