ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to rescue the Gregory expedition from relative obscurity by recovering its context, which was intimately connected to the economic and geopolitical ambitions of an expanding British Empire. During that decade David Livingstone became a household name in Britain, Fernand de Lesseps formulated his scheme for building a Suez Canal, Sir John Franklin died searching for a Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean, and the source of the Nile in Lake Victoria was identified by John Hanning Speke. Augustus Gregory's expedition to Northern Australia in 1855-56 occupies a very small place in the annals of Australian exploration. Admiral F. W. Beechey, Royal Geographical Society (RGS) president when news came of Augustus Gregory's successful return from northern Australia in 1856, had served with Lieutenant John Franklin on a voyage of Arctic discovery in 1818. At one level the RGS was a private philanthropic organization devoted to the advancement of knowledge for its own sake.
