1792 - 1855

Colonial explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell is linked to early Bondi via a street name. Mitchell was born in Scotland in 1792 and honed his survey skills in the Napoleonic Wars. He landed in NSW in 1827. As Surveyor-General, he soon began exploration of the Namoi, Gwydir and Barwon rivers.

Mitchell quickly learned the value of indigenous guides. While their portraits feature in his expedition logs, history has overlooked their contribution. One guide, Bultje, joined Mitchell on his second expedition in 1835, helping find water and animal feed. Ten years later, he joined Mitchell’s fourth expedition to the Bogan River, for which he was paid a tomahawk, pipe and tobacco.

Another, Tackijally, also saved an expedition from drought, which had reduced the Bogan River to waterholes. Mitchell wrote of his admiration for Tackijally's diplomacy when negotiating access to water.

Piper, from Bathurst, is Mitchell’s best-known guide. He was born about 1815 and spoke some English. He negotiated passage through clan lands, eliciting names for rivers and topographical features. Piper returned to Sydney with Mitchell and stayed at his Darling Point home.

Piper travelled with his new wife, Kitty, a tall, strong woman. The couple persuaded a widow, Turandurey, to join the journey along the Murrumbidgee with her daughter Ballandella. Turandurey knew the country well and was adept at finding water. Mitchell admired her confident authority speaking to river clans. She helped Mitchell confirm the river joined the Murray. Turandurey later entrust an injured Ballandella her to Mitchell's care. She was adopted into his family, educated in Sydney and later married.

Yuranigh was guide for the fourth expedition, to the Gulf of Carpenteria. Mitchell called him “guide, companion, councillor and friend”. He too returned to Sydney with Mitchell. Yuranigh died at Molong in 1850. Mitchell paid for his headstone, which reads: “To Native Courage, Honesty and Fidelity.” Mitchell was knighted for his services to surveying.

The Bondi street that bears his name was surveyed the same year he died, 1855. The previous year he wrote to authorities: “I have learned the public are wholly excluded from the beach at Bondi Bay … this is indispensable, and … should be resumed … for the health and recreation of the inhabitants of Sydney." Thirty years later, it was.

Images courtesy the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.