Sunday History Photo / Au

"Australia Felix"

Sir Thomas Mitchell was responsible for exploring vast areas of south-eastern Australia and opening up new grazing lands in the southern parts of Victoria. These he named "Australia Felix".
A beautiful concept of enduring influence, “Australia Felix” or "fortunate" or "happy" Australia was conceived of by Sir Thomas Mitchell during his Third Expedition into the Interior of Australia. Australia Felix has become part of our popular lexicon, morphing into related concepts such as "The Lucky Country" and has inspired artists, commentators and writers up to the present day.




When we speak of agricultural development in south-eastern Australia and how it was enabled, one of the most important expeditions in the white history of exploration was the third expedition of the New South Wales Surveyor-General Major Thomas Livingstone Mitchell in 1836.
It's 176 years since Mitchell and his team of 25 white explorers and convicts, and six Indigenous guides, set out from Canobolas, near Orange in NSW, to complete the survey of the Darling River he had failed to finish in 1835.



Mitchell set out from Canobolas in NSW in March 1836, heading towards Menindee, but soon abandoned the direction he was travelling to follow the Lachlan River, while attempting all the time to move westward.
He moved across the Murray on June 13, losing a bullock in the flow, and proceeded to travel south and south-west through Swan Hill and Cohuna inland over Pyramid Hill and down through St Arnaud to Casterton and Portland Bay, where Mitchell discovered the Henty brothers has already established a station and were doing well, having sailed from Launceston previously.
Along the way he named the Grampians and Pyrenees ranges, and various points such as Mt Arapiles, for his experiences in the Peninsular Wars with Wellington.




From this vicinity Sir Thomas Mitchell's second expedition proceeded on April 7, 1835 to the Darling River His third expedition on March 19, 1836 to Australia Felix (Western Victoria) and his fourth expedition December 15, 1845 to Central Queensland.

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