Stepping Back in Time || Thomas Livingstone Mitchell was an early pioneer of Tamworth

He is certainly recognised throughout Australia, with nearly 150 things named after him throughout the continent - 49 plus geographical features; 16 plus roads; 53 monuments and memorials; 18 grass species and six animals, including the rather iconic Major Mitchell Cockatoo.

The majority of these are found in his main exploring areas - Victoria, NSW and Queensland, Mitchell being a town in the latter, but also a few Mitchell names in WA.

We do have a Mitchell Street in the Tamworth suburb of Westdale, and also perhaps another little known Westdale location - Thomas Mitchell Park, which I had the honour of naming in a Tamworth council competition about 20 years ago.

Not too far from us we have Mt Mitchell, a prominent feature in Kaputar National Park near Narrabri.

All of the original streets in East Tamworth were named by Mitchell in our first 1849 Town Plan, over which he presided as the NSW Surveyor-General.

With much of the groundwork done by local surveyor John Gorman (Gorman St) and draughtsman Louis Young, Mitchell named our first 19 streets east of the river, the western side being occupied by the Australian Agricultural Company since 1834.

His perimeter streets were North St and East St, Upper St and Lower St (now Kable Ave.)

Four parallel streets were named after NSW Governors - Darling, Bourke, Fitzroy and Brisbane, the first three of which he served under, with O'Connell also an Acting-Governor.

During his Surveyor-General tenure, he'd also served under Gov. Gipps and Denison, who had streets named after them later by others in West Tamworth.

Street names with personal Mitchell references were Roderick St (named after his young son who was Commissioner for Lands in Tamworth at the time, based where Eastpoint shopping centre is now located); White St (named after George Boyle White, second in command on his 1831 expedition that brought him near Tamworth); Murray St (named after George Murray, the England Secretary of State that got him in the job in Australia); Marius St (named after the Ancient Roman General, a hero of Mitchell); and Carthage St (named after Rome's great enemy across the Mediterranean).

Tamworth was not the only town for which Mitchell initiated a street plan, being one of over 200, including Maitland and Wagga Wagga.

Thomas's son Roderick was also a capable surveyor, following in his father's footsteps, serving for over five years in Tamworth before being transferred north to the far-flung outpost of the Maranoa.

Tragedy struck soon after when he was drowned at sea at age 28, when travelling from Moreton Bay to Sydney to organise an expedition to search for the explorer Ludwig Leichardt.

If you haven't already done so, walk up the pedestrian ramp from Roderick St to the corner of the Eastpoint carpark, where you can see the engraved plaque detailing Roderick's period in Tamworth.

So back to Thomas. He was born in 1792 in the village of Grangemouth in Scotland.

He was the oldest of four siblings - brothers born in 1796 and 1800, with a sister born in 1794.

His father was Harbour Master and Mitchell showed he was quite a smart lad at 9-y-o in writing the following poem -"Thomas Mitchell is my name - Scotland is my nation - Grangemouth is my dwelling place - A bonny habitation - My father he is shoremaster - And he stays at Sea-Lock - If they do not move ahead - He swears he'll cut the rope".

He was only 10 when his father died, being then raised by his uncle at his 'Parkhall' residence, the name being used by Thomas for his country estate when he eventually came to NSW.

A tribute to his intelligence and artistic ability was Thomas being accepted into Edinburgh University at 12, continuing on to 14.

He had a leading role in the local colliery from 16 to 17, then following his uncle's death he moved to London at age 18 to join the 2nd Light Rifle Brigade to fight in the Peninsular War against Napoleon. He modelled himself in many ways on his hero The Duke of Wellington, characteristics that were to serve him greatly on his Australian explorations.

He received a Military General Service Medal, and his military service brought him into contact with George Murray, who was later able to influence his selection as Assistant Surveyor General in NSW.

He married General Blunt's daughter in Lisbon in 1818.

The couple went on to have six sons and six daughters (including the previously-mentioned Roderick), with also two adopted children, one of them the aboriginal Ballandella.

After the war had ended, Mitchell's surveying skills and artistic ability were brought to the fore when he was employed in Spain and Portugal for four years doing comprehensive battlefield sketches, later published.

He was promoted to Major in 1826.

With George Murray's assistance, Mitchell got the call he'd been aspiring to, travelling to NSW in 1827 to act as Deputy Surveyor-General to John Oxley.

Welcomed by Oxley at Semi-Circular Quay upon arrival, he was taken to a rental residence in Pitt St - his first accommodation.

Later he had obtained an impressive establishment at Darling Point, with a country residence 'Parkhall' near East Bargo.

Oxley's health had deteriorated and he passed away at age 44 in 1828, leaving Mitchell now as Surveyor-General.

Often in conflict with Governor Darling, he showed his considerable surveying ability in the construction of roads and bridges, which eventually led to The Great South Road (Hume Highway), Great Western Road (Western Highway) and Great North Road (now Putty Road, etc, linking Windsor with Wollombi in the Hunter Valley).

Then came Mitchell's opportunity to follow his aspiration to explore inland, which leads us on to his other Tamworth connection.

With Darling recalled to England, and Governor Bourke yet to arrive, Mitchell was able to convince Acting-Governor Lindesay about the possibility of an inland river leading all the way to the N/W coast of Australia, something he greatly wanted to pursue.

The story of this "Kindur" river had come from recently ca

ptured convict George Clarke, who had spent a number of years as an initiated member of a Gomeroi tribe near Boggabri. Mitchell had interviewed Clarke at the jail at Bathurst, and was convinced there was truth in what he'd been told.

More like it:

And so, in 1831, the first of Mitchell's four inland expeditions commenced.

Calling in on his friend John Macarthur, he then made his way along the Great North Road into the Hunter Valley to meet up with his exploring party, organised by Deputy George White and head convict Andrew Burnett near today's Camberwell.

Making their way up the Valley and over the range at Murrurundi, they travelled via "Carrabobbila" (Currabubula), and then into the Peel Valley alongside "Turi" (Duri) Peak.

After camping near today's Bithramere they travelled on to the "Callala" (Peel) River, with Mitchell's journal on Dec.11, 1831 stating - "After a journey of thirteen miles, we reached the bank of the Peel at Wallamoul, the lowest cattle station upon the river. It was occupied by Mr Brown, who had there about 1600 head of cattle. I gave to 'Jemmy', our excellent guide, the promised tomahawk, also a knife to 'Monday' his brother, whom he met here. I met, at this place, with some intelligent natives, from whom I learnt, that the spot where Mr. Oxley crossed the Peel on his journey, was about two miles lower down."

A Tamworth Historical Society plaque currently marks where Joseph Brown's homestead was located, where Bowler's Lane reaches the river after crossing Wallamore Road.

After staying with Brown, Mitchell's party headed off on Dec.13 into what he termed "Terra Incognita" (The Land of the Unknown), hoping to locate Clarke's "Kindur" River.

They reached near today's Mungindi on the Barwon River before turning back after getting news that two of their convict party sent back for more supplies had been killed by the natives.

Thomas Mitchell had three other inland expeditions through to 1847, with his third in 1836 travelling through "Australia Felix" in today's Victoria getting him the most acclaim.

He passed away in 1855 at age 63, six years after naming our streets, after contracting pneumonia in his usual 'hands-on' surveying in wet conditions to construct a road to Braidwood.

He is buried in St Stephens Church Cemetery at Camperdown.

Several other Mitchell facts may be of interest - he was knighted by Queen Victoria in England in 1839; he fought the last duel with pistols in Australia in 1851 v Stuart Donaldson who became the first Premier of NSW four years later; he invented the canvas water-bag, copying the aboriginal kangaroo-skin water-bag; he published a school textbook ('The Australian Geography' in 1850; he was promoted in later years from Major to Colonel; he was a Member for Port Phillip in the Legislative Council for 1 year in 1844; he invented the Boomerang Steamboat Propeller, the best in the World at that time; he was the Foundation President of the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts (Mechanics Institute) in 1835/36.

Well done Sir Thomas! We'll remember you when we drive along one of the East Tamworth streets.