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In April and May 1844 Governor George Grey led an expedition to the south-east of South Australia, an area of the colony that was known only from the reports of the men who had overlanded stock from Victoria. Accompanying him were among others, Thomas Burr, Deputy Surveyor General, and George French Angas, an artist, who had arrived in Adelaide in January of that year. Leaving some of the men at Rivoli Bay to survey it, Grey, Angas and Burr pushed inland to Mount Gambier and Mount Schank. They discovered that the mountains were extinct volcanoes, and George French Angas, in his book of lithographs South Australiaillustrated published in 1847, provides striking views of these well known features of the State's South East. In the map which accompanies Burr's account of the expedition, the route from Adelaide can be clearly seen. London based map maker John Arrowsmith also included two of Angas's sketches of Mount Schank, and profiles of the two volcanic cones.

The expedition also discovered and named Mount Burr, another extinct volcano in the region. Lake Victoria on the map is of course Lake Alexandrina, as it was named by Charles Sturt in 1830. There was an unsuccessful attempt to change it to Victoria in the early days of the colony. Victoria was the name the Princess Alexandrina assumed on ascending the throne in 1843.

Grey, George, Sir, 1812-1898

Burr, Thomas

Angas, George French, 1822-1886

Arrowsmith, John, 1790-1873

Angas, GF South Australia illustrated London : Thomas M'Lean, 1847

Rutherford, James Sir George Grey, K. C. B., 1812-1898: a study in colonial government London: Cassell, 1961

Tregenza, John, George French Angas, artist, traveller and naturalist, 1822-1886 Adelaide: Art Gallery Board of South Australia, 1980 p>

Burr, Thomas 'Account of Governor Grey's exploratory journey along the south-eastern seaboard of South Australia', Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. 15, 1845, pp.160-184

Williams, Gwenneth South Australian exploration to 1856 Adelaide: Board of Governors of the Public Library, Museum, and Art Gallery of South Australia, 1919

SA Memory, Taking it to the edge - exploration in South Australia: George Grey in the South East

George Edward Grey

Dictionary of Australian biography: Grey, Sir George

Dictionary of Australian biography: Angas, George French

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing. Taking it to the edge August 2004-