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Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki Print Page 
Two plaques commemorate Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki (1797 - 1873), an explorer and scientist, who was born on 20 July 1797 at Gluszyna, near Poznan, Western Poland.
In 1839 he was the guest of James Busby in New Zealand, and reached Sydney in April, with letters of introduction to Governor Gipps. He planned a geological survey of the country, and in December, after a visit to the Bathurst-Wellington district, stated to the geologists, W. B. Clarke and J. D. Dana, that the local mineralogy was 'very tame'.
Field-work for his geological map took him in zigzags across New South Wales, and to the Australian Alps, where alone he ascended what he considered the highest peak, calling it after the Polish democratic leader, Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
He and his party travelled through Gippsland, partially crossed previously by McMillan, and arrived at Westernport weary and starving. Strzelecki then went to Van Diemen's Land, where he became a close friend of the Franklins and did important work as explorer, geologist, and scientific farmer, and like the earlier Lhotsky made analyses of coal deposits. He left Sydney for Singapore in April 1843
Location
| Address: | 7 Turrana Street, Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Yarralumla, 2600 |
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| State: | ACT |
| Area: | Foreign |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -35.308726 Long: 149.113813 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Plaque |
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| Monument Theme: | People |
| Sub-Theme: | Exploration |
Dedication
| Actual Monument Dedication Date: | Saturday 17th February, 1940 |
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Plaque :
This commemorative plaque was unveiled by the Consul General of the Republic of Poland for Australia New Zealand and Western Samoa Ladislas Adam de Noskowski Esq on 17th February 1940.
Plaque :
From the valley of the Murray River the Polish explorer Paul Edmund Strzelecki ascended these Australian Alps on 15th February, 1840.
A "pinnacle, rocky and naked, predominatly over several others", was chosen by Strzelecki for a point of trigonometrical survey.
"The particular configuration of this eminence", he recorded, "Struck me so forcibly by the similarity it bears to a tumulus elevated in Krakow over the tomb of the patriot Kosciusko, that, although in a foreign country, on foreign ground, but amongst a free people, who appreciate freedom and its votaries, I could not refrain from giving it the name of Mount Kosciusko."
