Australia Philately: John Oxley

John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 -1828) was an explorer and surveyor of New South Wales (NSW) in the early period of British settlement. In 1799 (aged 15), he entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman. In October 1802 he travelled to NSW as master’s mate of the naval vessel Buffalo, which carried out coastal surveying. By 1805, Oxley became acting lieutenant of the Buffalo and traveled to Van Diemen’s Land the following year in charge of the Estramina.

He returned to England in 1807 and from there he was appointed first lieutenant of HMS Porpoise, a British sloop of war that was stationed at NSW. He arrived in NSW in November 1808. In 1809 Porpoise visited Van Diemen’s Land, carrying as a passenger Governor William Bligh, who had been deposed in the Rum Rebellion. When Bligh was deposed, Oxley denied he supported Macarthur but his letters showed that he was close to him.

In 1810, Oxley returned to England. During this period, Oxley sought the positions of Naval Officer and Surveyor-General. He retired from the Navy in 1811 and was briefly in an engagement to Elizabeth Macarthur the following year. Governor Macquarie granted Oxley 600 acres (240 ha) near Camden in 1810, which he increased to 1,000 acres (400 ha) in 1815. He named this property Kirkham and raised and bred sheep there.

In 1812, Oxley travelled to Sydney as Surveyor-General of the Minstrel. Governor Macquarie encouraged exploration. Successively, in 1817 and 1818 Governor Macquarie appointed John Oxley in charge of two expeditions to investigate the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers. In 1819 he led an expedition to Shoalhaven and Jervis Bay. In 1823, Governor Brisbane sent Oxley by boat in search of a site for an alternative penal settlement for the most difficult convicts.

In 1824 he was one of five members of the original New South Wales Legislative Council, but was not reappointed when the council was reconstituted in 1825.

Oxley suffered with illness throughout his service, caused by the difficulties of his expeditions. He finally succumbed to his illness and died on 25 May 1828 at his Kirkham property, Kirkham, New South Wales, outside Camden, aged 44.