150th Anniversary of William Blandowski`s ExpeditionPrint Page

The cairn commemorates the 150th Anniversary of William Blandowski’s Expedition to the Murray River which documented the region’s ecology, history and anthropology in 1857. The cairn is located at their campsite. 

Blandowski came to Australia in 1849 and, following his appointment as Victoria’s state zoologist, headed an expedition along the Murray River to the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers with 2,000 pounds’ funding. The exhibition returned having named a number of new species and brought back more than 8,000 specimens, many of which had never been seen by Europeans; and been a part of one of the most significant collaborative efforts between indigenous Australian and Europeans in the 1800s.

Despite these feats, Blandowski left Australia shortly after the expedition’s end, having found himself alienated following a decision to name the Silver Perch after Melbourne Hospital physician and Melbourne Philosophical Institute Co-founder Dr Richard Eades, noting that the fish was nothing more and, indeed, nothing less than “a fish easily recognised by its low forehead, big belly and sharp spine”.

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