Joseph Hawdon & Charles Bonney Print Page

The monument commemorates the camping place of Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney, the first Europeans who camped by Goulburn River while overlanding cattle from Albury to Adelaide in 1838.

Hawdon had taken stock overland from New South Wales to Port Phillip Bay before deciding that he would take a herd to Adelaide. On 4 January 1838 he invited Charles Bonney to join an expedition taking cattle to South Australia. Bonney accepted at once and joined the party at the Goulburn River on 17 January. They travelled down the Goulburn to the Murray, which they followed until they saw the Mount Lofty Range and then turned west to Adelaide where they were enthusiastically welcomed by the colonists, many of whom were living on kangaroo meat. This would be the impetus for a succession of parties making the long journey, and for pioneering alternative routes.

Cairn Unveiling 1936

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