(Surveyor) Robert Hoddle

Robert Hoddle (1794 – 1881)

Robert Hoddle became a cadet-surveyor in the British army in 1812. He arrived in Sydney in July 1823 and was appointed an assistant surveyor, working for Surveyor General John Oxley. His first major task was to survey the newly-discovered Bells Line of Road route over the Blue Mountains.

In 1824 he accompanied Oxley to Moreton Bay, assisting with an initial survey and the establishment of the site of Brisbane.

For the next 12 years he then worked in rural areas of NSW.

Hoddle's surveying in the Southern Highlands (he laid out the township of Berrima) and on the South Coast provided an important contribution to Mitchell’s map of the 19 Counties within the ‘Limits of Location’.

Basically, he worked in the rugged country around the Shoalhaven River and its many tributaries, then extended his surveys from the Shoalhaven Heads, St George's Basin and Sussex Inlet down to the Clyde River at Bateman's Bay and to the Deua River at Moruya. He was possibly the first white man to climb both Pigeon House and Mt Budawang. He is also credited with naming Ulladulla in 1828, his interpretation of the Aboriginal name Ngulla-dulla meaning ‘safe harbour’. (However, surveyor Thomas Florance is also credited with having named the town.)

In 1830 he was given the task of blazing a road from the Southern Highlands to Kiama. With a team of 20 convicts, pack horses, bullock teams and drays, he found that the rainforest in the area to be the most formidable brush I have seen since I have been in this colony. It abounds with every species of prickly bush, vine, bramble, and nettle. The vines so thickly entwined around the huge trees and as to render the sun obscure at the time it shone with great brilliancy. However, he was to leave a record of his journey in a number of valuable paintings, including ‘En Route to Kiama’ that depicted portion of the Illawarra Escarpment. ('Hoddle's Track' was too rugged for it ever to become a practical route from the rich 'Cow Pastures' (Camden) to the coast at the Kiama 'boat harbour'. Some of Hoddle’s track, however, can still be walked, from the western end of the car park on Saddleback Mountain to Barren Grounds. The return trek takes around 4 hours.)

Governor Sir Ralph Darling described Hoddle as 'one of the most competent men in the department’. However, Thomas Mitchell later described him as a man who 'can scarcely spell … this man can only be employed as he has always been, at the chain'.

Hoddle went on to plan (or, at least, contributed to) the planning of Melbourne. He is credited with insisting the town’s major streets should be at least 99-feet wide (the standard was then 33 feet). And, in 1851 he was appointed as Surveyor General of the new colony of Victoria.