Charles Bonney and the Fertile Kilmore Plains

Charles Bonney was a pioneer of overland routes from New South Wales to Port Phillip and South Australia from 1837 but was also a leading figure in politics and public administration in Adelaide for the rest of his life. From 1871 he wrote that his most important achievements included the discovery for European use of the fertile district of Kilmore and the route of the Sydney Road, both seemingly obscure to modern eyes. This article will present the lost evidence for Bonney's primacy in Kilmore's foundation and reveal exactly when Bonney's importance was erroneously erased by later historians.