Colonel Peter Egerton-Warburton

Peter Egerton-Warburton

" In 1872 Warburton left South Australia as leader of an expedition that included his son Richard and J. Lewis. It was financed and provided with seventeen camels and six months supplies by (Sir) Walter Hughes and (Sir) Thomas Elder, and sought to link the province with Western Australia. After leaving Alice Springs in April 1873, they endured long periods of extreme heat with little water, and survived only by killing the camels for meat. They reached the Oakover River with Warburton strapped to a camel. On 11 January 1874 they were brought to Charles Harper's de Grey station in northern Western Australia. They had conquered the formidable Great Sandy Desert to become the first to cross the continent from the centre to the west. Warburton was emaciated and blind in one eye; at a public banquet in Adelaide later he attributed their survival to his Aboriginal companion Charley. "

" Warburton was awarded the patron's medal of the Royal Geographical Society, London, and in 1874 he visited England for six weeks. He received the C.M.G. and the South Australian government granted him £1000. He had contributed much useful information to the colony and to later explorers about some of the driest and most difficult areas of the continent; his journal was published as Journey Across the Western Interior of Australia (London, 1875)."

• Wikipedia contributors. "Peter Warburton." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via brother George Edward Egerton-warburton by SmartCopy: Dec 21 2014, 13:26:58 UTC