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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki (1797–1873

Strzelecki, Sir Paul Edmund de (1797–1873), explorer in Australia, was born on 20 July 1797 at Gluszyna, near Poznań, in (Prussian) Poland, the son of Francis Strzelecki, of a family of Polish knights which can be traced back to 1391, and his wife, Anna, née Raczynski. Between 1810 and 1814 he was educated probably at the Piarist Fathers college, Warsaw. He became the plenipotentiary of Prince Francis Sapieha's estates, but following a legal dispute an embittered Strzelecki left his native country, never to return. Being a Polish nobleman or szlachcic he was often referred to as ‘the Count’, although he did not use the title himself. He was in England from 1831 until 1834 and then travelled extensively through North and South America, where he engaged in geological and mineralogical investigations as well as recording his chemical analyses of soils and of wheat growing.

In 1838 Strzelecki visited the Marquesas, Hawaii (where he made a scientific appraisal of the crater of Kilauea), Tahiti, and New Zealand before arriving in Sydney on 25 April 1839. It was Strzelecki's aim, and his achievement, to formulate a Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. His book of that title was published in London in 1845, the result of research throughout the colony over a period of four years in which he walked thousands of miles pursuing his subject. At the same time he produced a giant geological map of the area of his travels.

Strzelecki's first excursion was westward over the Blue Mountains. During September to November 1839 he visited Mount Hay and its vicinity and the country further west to Bathurst and the Wellington caves. In these travels he discovered the first authenticated specimens of silver and gold. One of his letters records that, when he handed specimens of the gold to Sir George Gipps, the governor of New South Wales—‘specimens both representing the metal as attached to the rock, and as disintegrated from it’—the governor considered its discovery more a mineralogical curiosity than an economic asset. He entreated Strzelecki not to say anything about its existence, for fear of creating an ‘unnecessary perturbation’ in the colony.

Strzelecki's second excursion was to the area south of the Monaro, still blank on the map. He joined with James McArthur (the son of Hannibal McArthur) to explore it—both men sharing the expenses. Strzelecki left Sydney on 22 December 1839. On 2 March 1840, from Hannibal McArthur's station Ellerslie, west of Tumut, the combined party set off to the south. A side excursion took Strzelecki and McArthur, on 12 March 1840, to the roof of Australia, and Strzelecki to its highest point. He named it and the massif Mount Kosciusko after the Polish patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko. The party then journeyed into the area Strzelecki named Gippsland. The portion between the Tambo and Macalister rivers had been probed by Angus McMillan weeks before, but Strzelecki broke new ground through rugged country from the Macalister to Western Port, the last section through the Strzelecki Ranges causing the party considerable distress.

On reaching Melbourne the results of the exploration were announced and, after recuperating, Strzelecki left for Van Diemen's Land on 10 July 1840. There he was well looked after by Governor Sir John Franklin and his wife, Jane. He spent two years exploring the island to great scientific effect, making three excursions and cruises to adjoining areas before returning to New South Wales in October 1842. Following a further excursion from Port Stephens, he left Sydney on 22 April 1843 to arrive in London on 24 October 1843, after visiting the Orient and Egypt.

A naturalized British subject from November 1845, Strzelecki received many honours—the founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society on 25 May 1846, a CB on 21 November 1848, FRGS in May 1853, FRS in June 1853, the honorary degree of DCL from the University of Oxford on 20 June 1860, and KCMG on 30 June 1869. He was a friend of Florence Nightingale, Lord Sidney Herbert, Antony Panizzi, and W. E. Gladstone. Some of his fame rested on philanthropical work of this later period, including that as central agent of the British Relief Fund formed for the great famine in Ireland in 1846–9. He is honoured too by some dozen geographical names, including the Strzelecki Ranges in Victoria and the Strzelecki Peaks on Flinders Island, off Tasmania. He died of cancer at his home, 23 Savile Row, London, on 6 October 1873 and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery.

Alan E. J. Andrews

Sources

L. Paszkowski, ‘Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki: explorer and scientist’, Poles in Australia and Oceania, 1790–1940 (1987) [Polish orig., Polacy w Australii i Oceanii, 1790–1940 (Sydney, 1962)] · L. Paszkowski, Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki: reflections on his life (Melbourne, 1997) · P. E. de Strzelecki, Physical description of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land (1845) · A. E. J. Andrews, ‘Kosciusko ascended’, Kosciusko: the mountain in history (Canberra, 1991) · A. E. J. Andrews, ‘A flower and a giant map’, Kosciusko: the mountain in history (Canberra, 1991) · D. F. Branagan, ‘Strzelecki's geological map of southeastern Australia: an eclectic synthesis’, Historical Records of Australian Science, 6 (1984–7), 375–92 · A. E. J. Andrews, ‘Strzelecki's ascent of Mount Kosciusko: another view’, Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and Proceedings, 74 (1988), 159–66 · A. E. J. Andrews, ‘Strzelecki's route 1840 from the Murray River to Melbourne’, Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and Proceedings, 77 (1992), 50–62 · W. L. Havard, ‘Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki’, Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and Proceedings, 26 (1940), 20–97 · G. Rawson, The Count: Paul Edmund Strzelecki; explorer and scientist (1953) · L. Paszkowski, Social background of Sir Paul Strzelecki and Joseph Conrad (1980) · W. Slabczynski, Pawel Edmund Strzelecki: Pisma Wybrane (1960) · Gladstone, Diaries · DNB

Archives

BGS, geological map of New South Wales · Mitchell L., NSW · State Library of Victoria, Melbourne |  BL, corresp. with W. E. Gladstone, Add MSS 44385–44440 · LUL, corresp. with Lord Overstone

Likenesses

photograph, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, La Trobe picture collection · photograph, Mitchell L., NSW [see illus.]

Wealth at death

under £10,000: probate, 15 Oct 1873, CGPLA Eng. & Wales