(Surveyor) George Evans

George Evans (1780 – 1852)

George Evans arrived in Sydney on 16th October 1802. He was initially given the position of store-keeper in charge of the receipt and issue of grain at Parramatta, but in August 1803 was appointed Acting SurveyorGeneral because the incumbent, Charles Grimes, was on leave in England. In September 1804 he discovered and explored the Warragamba River, penetrating upstream to the present site of Warragamba Dam.

In March 1812, accompanied by an Aboriginal called Bundle, he surveyed the area between Jervis Bay and Appin. This journey, which took two weeks, was particularly arduous. On two occasions the party were required to construct bark canoes, with Bundle’s assistance, to enable creek and river crossings. The first crossing was at Currambene Creek, just north of what is now Huskisson village, the second at the Shoalhaven River, at Cabbage Tree Flat, just west of current day Nowra.

Faced with the almost impenetrable bush and cliffs of the Cambewarra Range, near the present-day village of Berry, the party spent 10 hours navigating their way through dense undergrowth that nearly destroyed their clothing. (‘I am at loss for words to describe what we have gone through, we are all blood from the bites of Leeches, the Vines and Briers, have almost striped us Naked, been obliged to decend from Perpendicular clefts on the Mountain 30 & 40 feet high, by Trees and lower our baggage down by the Chain with lines fastened to it’). Realising that it was impossible to continue climbing the Range, the party then retreated back into the valley and proceeded north along the coast through areas that are now covered by the towns of Gerringong, Kiama and Wollongong.

Turning inland on 13th April, the party commenced their climb near Mount Keira heading in a north-westerly direction towards the nearest European settlement at Lachlan Vale, near Appin. Having run out of food three days before, and with Evans suffering from cracked ribs after a fall in a river, they must have been greatly relieved to finally arrive at the Appin settlement on 15th April. Evans’ pioneering exploration and survey of the area soon resulted in the settlement of the Illawarra district.

Evans’ diary (now in the State Library of NSW) records details of that expedition, including this note about meeting some Aboriginals near Jervis Bay: ‘on landing saw several Natives who were very friendly, they presented me a Number of fine Oysters, I gave away two Tomahawks, a Blankett, some Tobacco, and Fish Hooks. (The next day) on taking my departure an Old Man to whom Bundle gave his Shirt cried very much, I shortly after left them.’

Evans went on to become the first European to cross the Great Dividing Range, undertook a great amount of surveying in the interior of NSW, the went to Van Diemen’s Land where he became Deputy Surveyor of Lands.

He was also an artist of some note and, after he retired from surveying, he became the drawing master at The King’s School. His then (second) wife conducted a finishing school for young ladies.