Sir Augustus Charles Gregory
Sir Augustus Charles Gregory born 1 August 1819 Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire, England.
As a child, Sir Gregory migrated with his family to Western Australia. He trained as a surveyor and was a noted Australian explorer and doyen of Queensland surveyors. On 23 December 1859, he was appointed Queensland’s first Surveyor General and held this post until 11 March 1875.
During his time as Surveyor General, he surveyed part of the Queensland New South Wales border and in 1882 he was appointed to the Legislative Council. Sir Gregory remained active in public life as Chairman of the first Toowong Municipal Council, a leading Freemason, Anglican and member of scientific organisations. 
In 1876-99 he served as a trustee of the Queensland Museum.
In 1876 Sir Gregory helped establish the Institute of Surveyors and was the foundation President. The Institute was revived in 1899 and Sir Gregory became the first honorary member, in recognition of his achievements as both explorer and surveyor. Sir Gregory was knighted in 1903 and is honoured in the naming of the Gregory River, the Gregory North and South pastoral districts and the Gregory Highway, all in inland Queensland. On 25 June 1905 Sir Gregory passed away at his home, Rainworth and was buried in the Toowong Cemetery. 
Certificate enrolling Augustus Charles Gregory as a member of the Queensland Institute of Surveyors, established in 1876 courtesy of Mrs B. Gregory
Sir Augustus Charles Gregory's grave at the Toowong Cemetery
Involvement in exploration
In 1855 Gregory was appointed leader of the North Australia Exploring Expedition, an ambitious project organised by the British Government which included the noted botanist Ferdinand Mueller.
In June 1856, after extensive travels in the continent’s north-west, the party rode east to the Gulf of Carpentaria. In late September the same year they reached the Gilbert River where Sir Gregory observed a geological structure ‘wholly dissimilar’ to any other part of the north (here gold was later discovered). A.C. & F.T. Gregory 1884 1 Then retracing the steps of explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, they travelled down the Burdekin River, impressed by the ‘extent of the country suited for squatting purposes’. A.C. & F.T. Gregory 1884 2 Continuing south, the expedition reached Brisbane in December 1856. In 16 months they had journeyed over 5000 miles by land and 2000 miles by sea.
In 1858 Sir Gregory led another expedition sponsored by the New South Wales Government to search for traces of explorer Leichhardt. It was one of several such expeditions in the wake of the explorer’s disappearance in 1848 on his journey across Australia. On 27 March 1858 Sir Gregory’s party set out from Juandah Station on the upper Dawson River and travelled west. On 21 April at the Barcoo River near the future site of Blackall, they found a tree blazed by the missing explorer. Following the stream southward, they were halted by rain in the Channel Country. Sir Gregory later wrote:
… had the rain continued the party would have been annihilated, as our camp was between the deep channels which intersected the plain; and in attempting to extricate ourselves … found ourselves so completely entangled among the numerous deep channels and boggy gullies, in some of which the horses narrowly escaped suffocation in the soft mud, that … after three days of severe toil we had scarcely accomplished a distance of five miles. A.C. & F.T. Gregory 1884 3
Tree Gregory marked in Western Australia as part of his North Australia Exploring Expedition
Later the party ascended the Thomson River but by mid May 1858 they were forced by drought to abandon their search for Leichhardt, so they turned south to investigate the drainage system of central Australia. Proceeding down the Cooper and Strzelecki creeks, they passed through country so desolate that the horses were reduced to feeding on the thatch of old Aboriginal huts. In late June 1858 the intrepid explorers reached the flinders Ranges and subsequently Adelaide.
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Queensland's first Surveyor General
By the time Queensland became a separate colony in 1859, settlement had extended from the Maranoa in the south-west to coastal Capricornia in the north.
Presiding over all land matters in the new colony was Augustus Charles Gregory, Surveyor General and Chief Commissioner of Crown Land, who had the assistance of a small staff of surveyors, land commissioners, draftsmen and clerks. Despite his limited resources, Gregory was responsible for classifying and controlling an area of more than 670,000 square miles, only sparsely populated and of varying physical and climatic conditions.
A skilled surveyor, he attempted to strengthen the involvement of surveyors in land administration, insisting that all land should be surveyed before being opened for selection and advocating the appointment of surveyors as land commissioners. Gregory had a hand in drafting Queensland’s early land legislation which sought to achieve a balance between pastoral interests and the need to develop agriculture.
A.C. Gregory, Surveyor-General and Staff 1869
A.C. Gregory, office & staff George street Brisbane ca. 1868
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Queensland New South Wales border
The Queensland News South Wales border finally adopted in 1859 had three components including:
- watershed from Point Danger west to the Dumaresq River (required surveying)
- river section formed by the river known variously as the Dumaresq, Macintyre and Barwon
- 29th parallel of south latitude (required surveying)
In 1865 a survey to determine the approximate location of the final section of the Queensland News South Wales border was carried out by Queensland Surveyor General Sir Gregory and William Greaves, New South Wales District Surveyor (based at Armidale). The survey was to fix the position of the 29th parallel at the intersections of the Barwon, Moonie, Bokhara, Narran, Birrie and Culgoa Rivers, to give local landholders an indication of the extent of their leases in either colony.
Gregory's border survey plan.
Sextant used by Surveyor General A.C. Gregory in 1865 on his survey of the Queensland-New South Wales border. An ingenious surveyor, he took latitudes with this sextant using a pannikin of black tea to create an artificial horizon. This was necessary as he had spilt the mercury normally used for the purpose. Courtesy of University of Queensland
In The Surveyor of 7 January 1895, W.D. Campbell described the project:
…. In October b1865, these gentlemen met by appointment at Mungindi, on the Barwon. Each had a complete party and equipment. The instruments comprised a 12-inch sextant, with mercury trays for astronomical observations, and a 6-inch Theodolite for reference lines, etc. The position of the Observatory was selected for its local suitability and the difference of latitude to the 29th parallel was, when ascertained, measured off. The marking of the boundary line was done with steel pins one inch in diameter and 2 feet long, driven a few inches below the surface, radial reference bearings being taken to trees adjacent …. This process was repeated at each of the above named rivers, and the work was completed in five or six weeks.
Gregory's & Greaves iron pin on west bank of Culgoa river
Broad arrow W tree on the Culgoa River near Goodooga referencing the nearby iron rod placed on the 29th parallel of south latitude by Gregory and Greaves in 1865
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Last updated: 20 July 2009