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Hamilton Hume was born in Parramatta,New South Wales on 18 June 1797. He had a good knowledge of bushcraft, and by the age of 17 was exploring, first to the Berrima district (between Sydney and Canberra), then with Surveyor Meehan to the Goulburn Plains and Lake Bathurst. Over the next few years he was a member of several exploring parties, to Yass Plains and the tablelands near Braidwood. He was the first Australian born explorer.
In 1824, Governor Brisbane
asked Hume to join forces with an English sea captain, William
Hovell, to go from Lake George to the Spencer Gulf (in what is
now South Australia). Hovell was older than Hume, with little
bush experience, but he was a good navigator.
They
left Lake George on 17 October 1824, with a party of 6, enough
supplies to last 16 weeks loaded onto bullock carts, horses and
dogs (which they used to hunt kangaroos).
The first two
weeks of the journey was through areas that had already been explored.
They reached the Murrumbidgee River to find it was in flood. They
waited for three days before they could cross it, using one of
the carts as a boat, and then found themselves in mountainous
country. Some slopes were so steep that they had to zig zag their
way up.They left the carts behind and loaded supplies onto the
bullocks, and continued on. 
It took some time to find a pass through
the ranges. However, when they reached the top, they gazed at
a sight that no white man had seen: the Australian Alps.
They had to travel to the west to avoid them. The weather became
warmer, and they were pestered by flies, mosquitoes, ticks and
leeches.
By 16 November
they reached another river, which they named the Hume, but which
was later renamed the Murray. 
They saw large numbers of water birds
such as pelicans and swans feeding, and seafood was plentiful.
The river was very wide and the water was clear and deep. In order
to cross this river, they made a boat from some poles and tarpaulins,
and pulled the animals across on ropes. Near the Murray, at the
place that is now Albury, the explorers carved their names on
a tree on 17 November 1824. The tree is still there, with a plaque
duplicating the carved words. The tree is called the Hovell Tree.
 right: A copy of the inscription that was carved in the tree on 17/11/1824 |
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They continued on to the southwest, travelling
through forest country. They saw a snowy peak to the east, and
named it Mt Buffalo.
Travelling through the Ovens Valley, Hovell wrote, 'there are fine hills and grassland...as pretty a spot and as valuable as any I have seen since leaving home.' Hume wrote, ' the honeysuckle and grass trees are growing here well - we find the land to be good.'
The party crossed the Eastern Highlands, passed Mt Disappointment and Mt Macedon and crossed the Werribee River. At last they reached the sea: they were at Corio Bay in Port Phillip, the place that is now the city of Geelong. Because their instruments had been damaged, their calculations were incorrect, and they thought they were in Westernport when in fact they were at Port Phillip. The Aboriginal people in the area called the bay 'Jillong' and the land 'Corio', or at least this is what Hume and Hovell understood from their attempted conversation. As supplies were running low, the expedition set off for home the next day.
The journey home
was easier. In summer, the flooded rivers had become shallow puddles.
They collected their carts from where they had left them, but
the ground was now too rough for the bullocks, which had to be
abandoned in the bush. They arrived at Lake George on 18 January.
The three month expedition had found much open land suitable for
farming and grazing between Sydney and Port Phillip. In 1828 Hume
joined Charles Sturt's expedition when he named the Darling River,
but because of ill health, he retired to his properties in Yass
and did no more exploring.
William Hovell was born at
Yarmouth, England, on 26 April 1786. He died on 9 November 1875,
at Goulburn, New South Wales
Find out more about the Hume
and Hovell expedition
If you use any part of this in your work, acknowledge it in your
bibliography like this:
Hume and
Hovell
(2002). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au
Explorers of Australia
Burke & Wills ... Blaxland,
Lawson, Wentworth ... Eyre ... Leichardt ... Mitchell
... Oxley
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Updated May 2002