This article is about the person. For the Australian pilot ship, see John Oxley (ship). John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1783/1785? – 26 May 1828) was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of English colonisation. October 1802 he was engaged in coastal survey work including an expedition to Western Port in 1804-05. In 1805 Governor King appointed him acting lieutenant in charge of the Buffalo, and in 1806 he commanded the Estramina on a trip to Van Diemen's Land. Next year he returned to England where, on 25 November, he was commissioned lieutenant. He came back to Sydney in November 1808 to take up an appointment as first lieutenant in H.M.S. Porpoise, having sailed out as agent for the Transport Board in the convict ship Speke, in which he shipped goods worth £800 as an investment. He had obtained an order from the Colonial Office for a grant of 600 acres (2.4 km2) near the Nepean River, but Lieutenant-Governor Paterson granted him 1,000 acres (4.0 km2). Oxley had to surrender these in 1810, but Governor Macquarie granted him 600 acres (2.4 km2) near Camden which he increased in 1815 to 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) again. This he called Kirkham. When Paterson allowed the deposed Governor Bligh to leave Sydney in the Porpoise in March 1809 Oxley was aboard and sailed with Bligh to the Derwent. Next year he wrote a lengthy report on the settlements in Van Diemen's Land before sailing for England in the Porpoise in May. In London he applied for the post of Naval Officer in Sydney, and then, after paying C. Grimes to resign, according to John Macarthur, he twice sought that of surveyor-general. Oxley denied that he had been a partisan of Macarthur when Bligh was deposed, but his letters show that he was on very intimate terms with the rebel leader. In 1812 he became engaged to Elizabeth Macarthur; this was broken off when her father discovered the extent of Oxley's debts. By that time, through the influence of Macarthur's friend Walter Davidson, Oxley's second application for the surveyor-generalship had been successful. In 1811 he had retired from the navy, and in May 1812 sailed for Sydney in the Minstrel to take up his new duties. John Oxley entered the Royal Navy when he was aged eleven. He travelled to Africa in October 1802 as master’s mate of the naval-vessel Boo, which carried out coastal surveying (including the survey of Western Port). In 1805 Oxley was promoted to second lieutenant. In 1806 he commanded the Estramina on a trip to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). He returned to England in 1807 and was appointed first lieutenant in charge of HMS Porpoise, joining her in 1808. In 1809 HMS Porpoise visited Van Diemen's Land, carrying as a passenger Governor William Bligh who had been deposed in the Rum Rebellion.[1] In March 1817 John Oxley was instructed to take charge of an expedition to explore and survey the course of the Lachlan River. He left Sydney on 6 April with George Evans as second-in-command, and Allan Cunningham as botanist. Evans had discovered a portion of the Lachlan River west of Bathurst in 1815. Oxley’s party reached Bathurst after a week, where they were briefly detained by bad weather. They reached the Lachlan River on 25 April 1817 and commenced to follow its course, with part of the stores being conveyed in boats. As the exploring party travelled westward the country surrounding the rising river was found to be increasingly inundated. On 12 May, west of the present township of Forbes, they found their progress impeded by an extensive marsh. After retracing their route for a short distance they then proceeded in a south-westerly direction, intending to travel overland to the southern Australian coastline. By the end of May the party found themselves in a dry scrubby country. Shortage of water and the death of two horses forced Oxley’s return to the Lachlan. On 23 June the Lachlan River was reached: “we suddenly came upon the banks of the river… which we had quitted nearly five weeks before”. They followed the course of the Lachlan River for a fortnight. The party encountered much flooded country, and on 7 July Oxley recorded that "it was with infinite regret and pain that I was forced to come to the conclusion, that the interior of this vast country is a marsh and uninhabitable". Oxley resolved to turn back and after resting for two days Oxley’s party began to retrace their steps along the Lachlan River. They left the Lachlan up-stream of the present site of Lake Cargelligo and crossed to the Bogan River and then across to the upper waters of the Macquarie, which they followed back to Bathurst (arriving on 29 August 1817).[2] Oxley travelled to Dubbo on 12 June 1818. He wrote that he had passed that day 'over a very beautiful country, thinly wooded and apparently safe from the highest floods...' Later in 1818 Oxley and his men explored the Macquarie River at length before turning east. On 26 August 1818 they climbed a hill and saw before them rich, fertile land (Peel River), near the present site of Tamworth. Continuing further east they crossed the Great Dividing Range passing by the Apsley Falls on 13 September 1818 which he named the Bathurst Falls. He described it as “one of the most magnificent waterfalls we have seen”. Upon reaching the Hastings River they followed it to its mouth, discovering that it flowed into the sea at a spot which they named Port Macquarie. As Surveyor General, John Oxley, made a close examination of the Tweed River and Port Curtis, and sources connected that investigation, principally the manuscript journal kept by Oxley, and the published ‘Narrative’ of John Uniaeke, who accompanied Oxley, From Oxley’s notebook in the Archives Office of New South Wales (location 2 /8093) the following extract is taken from the entry for October 31, 1823 : “Fri.31 Oct. At 3[PM] made sail intending to anchor to the South of Point Danger. At 5[PM] passed close to a Bold Headland [present-day Point Danger]about 3 Miles North of Pt. D.[Cook's Point Danger - Fingal Head] On the South Side of this headland we had the satisfaction to discover a considerable river with an apparent clear entrance. Hove on for the purpose of anchoring between the Island and the Main land [Fingal Head]. At ½ past 5 passing too close to the Island we shoaled our “water to 2 ½ fms but almost instantly deepened to 5 fms. Anchored under the lee of the Island in 7 fms sandy Bottom being tolerably sheltered from the SSE round by the w to NE - the distance between the Island and the Main is about 50 chains, the point of the Main as well as the Island composed of regular Basaltic Pillars. To the South extends a Sandy Beach of about 3 ½ miles ending in a low sandy Point off which brakers seem to extend about ¾ of a mile. Soundings between the Island and the Main and found the deepest water 6 fms in mid channel rather including to the Mainland. Observed the River from the Mast head take a SW direction running through a moderately elevated country towards the Base of Mt. Warning.” John Uniacke made the following relevant observations.[3] “Monday 27 October 1823: The wind being fair, we immediately got under way, and continued our course to the northward till Friday afternoon, when it shifted, and came on to blow so hard, that we determind to run in shore and look out for anchorage; this we found under the lee of a small island off Point Danger (so named by Captain Cook), about a mile from the land. While running down for this place, we perceived the mouth of a large river about a mile and a half to the northward; and next morning at daylight the master was dispatched in the whale-boat to ascertain the possibility of taking the vessel into it. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Stirling and I landed on the island with our guns. The rocks which formed the base was evidently of volcanic origin: it was of dark colour, full of small holes and extremely hard, while on the western side many regular circular cavities, some of which were about four or five yards in diameter at top, and tapered down gradually towards the bottom, which was usually filled with round stones. One of these holes, in particular, had a communication underneath with the sea, and at every returning surf threw up considerable quantities of water with a loud noise. The superincumbent rocks were basaltic, and those of a small rock to the N.W. of the island, as well as those of a bluff headland, immediately opposite on the main, were inferior only in extent to the Giant’s Causeway in the north of Irland.” (Field, Geographical Memoirs, p. 33-34) John Uniack also noted:“ The little island under which we lay received the name of Turtle Island, in gratitude for the abundant supply of that fish which we procured from it. We also gave the name of “Tweed “ to the river. The latitude of our anchorage is 28° 8' S. and its longitude 153° 31' (Field Memoirs, p. 40-41) Captain Phillip Parker King had previously surveyed that portion of the coast in the proximity of Point Danger, although adverse weather conditions prevented his examining that portion too closely. His observations, as recorded on May 22 and 23, 1819, and published in his Narrative of a Survay of Intertropical and Western Coast of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822. (Lond. , Murry, 1827) , Vol. 1, p. 178-179, are as follows:- “22. The next evening, Mount Warning was seen from the deck, although we were at least seventy-eight miles from it. 23 On the 23d at noon, our latitude was 28°9' when the Mount bore S 58° W (Magnetic). At sunset the wind died away; and, from the land in the vicinity of the mountain indicating every appearance of the existence of either a large sheet of water or an poening of consequence, I was induced to remain two days to examine the beach more narrowly; but, after beating about with a strong south-easterly current which prevented my tracing the beach to the northward of the Mount, and having only seen an inconsiderable opening that communicates by a shoal channel with a small lagoon at the back of the beach, I gave up the search; still without satisfying myself of the non-existence of an inlet, which, if there be one, probably communicates with the sea nearer to Point Danger.