Hamilton Hume Sketch Maps: Origins and Modern Treatment

Hamilton Hume and William Hovell made the first overland journey of exploration by Europeans from southern New South Wales into Victoria in 1824. The eyewitness accounts of this journey include original journals and writings by Hume and Hovell, a combination of the two journals edited by William Bland (first edition 1831), and three sketch maps attributed to Hamilton Hume. The three sketch maps have been the least studied of these indisputably primary sources and form the basis of this article. A re-evaluation of these maps offers remarkable new insights into the journey, showing that Hamilton Hume altered the original of the maps to indicate falsely that he knew that he had reached Port Phillip, while William Hovell also was less than honest when it suited him. The Hume and Hovell records were misquoted or ignored in the nineteenth century, but in the 21st century they suffered misinterpretation once again when, in 2015, the peak heritage protection authority in Victoria accepted flawed evidence to endorse the proposition that Hume and Hovell had been physically present at a particular central Victorian location-Monument Hill, Kilmore. This article demonstrates that this was not the case and that, had Hume and Hovell found themselves at that location in 1824, they would have been forced to abandon the expedition and return to New South Wales as failures.