William Christie Gosse

William Christie Gosse was born in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, England in December 1842, and migrated to Australia with his father Dr. William Gosse in 1850. He entered the Government Survey Department in 1859, holding various positions including Deputy Surveyor-General.

In 1873 he let a major government expedition to map a route from Alice Springs to Perth, setting out on 23 April, 1873. It was on this expedition that Gosse was the first European to discover Uluru, writing of the wonderful sight of the immense rock in his journal. He named it ‘Ayers Rock’. The expedition was cut short in September due to the lack of available water and the party returned to Charlotte Waters. Although the expedition did not succeed in its original aim, it did provide detailed information of 60,000 square miles of country, paving the way for future expeditions.

William Christie Gosse died of a heart attack on 12 August, 1881, aged only 38. He is buried in Plot 661, Path 9 South. His son, William Hay Gosse was killed in action in France during the First World War and is commemorated on the family headstone. 

Charles Frederick Wells and George Lindsay Jones

Charles Wells and George Jones were members of the ill-fated Calvert Expedition which set out in 1896 to explore the still largely unknown inland area of Western Australia, mainly in the Great Sandy Desert. They perished after becoming lost when separating from the main party in search of water after they encountered shortages.

Charles Frederick Wells was the cousin of the expedition leader Lawrence Allen Wells, and second in command of the party. He was born in the Lake Colac district of Victoria in 1851. He entered the Survey Department of South Australia in 1866, and had been a member of several expeditions surveying the Coorong and the land around Lakes Albert and Alexandrina. In 1869 he joined a survey expedition into the Northern Territory. After a failed attempt at a private surveying business, he was appointed to the Lands Titles Office. It was at this point that he was asked to join the Calvert Expedition. 

George Lindsay Jones joined the expedition as a mineralogist and photographer. He was only 18 years of age, and had studied minerology and assaying at the School of Mines. He was keen cricketer and oarsman. On the expedition he acted as a photographer and collector, but unfortunately the whole of his photographs were ransacked by aboriginals. He had a promising future as a mineralogist. Shortly before his death he wrote a poignant farewell letter to his parents which was found with his body. 

There were many unsuccessful and repeated attempts to rescue the lost explorers, their bodies eventually being located six months later in June 1897. Their remains were transported to Adelaide, and they are buried together in Plot 2284, Path 8 North. 

Stephen King (Jnr.) 

Stephen King (Jnr.) was born at “Kingsford”, the family property near Gawler on 15 December, 1841. As a sketcher and surveyor, he was part of John McDouall Stuart’s last expedition in 1861-62 which successfully crossed the continent from south to north. He joined Litchfield’s party to the Adelaide, Reynolds and Finnis Rivers in 1865, and surveyed Port Darwin in 1868. Following this he was appointed Surveyor of the Overland Telegraph party sent out in 1870.

Stephen King died on 8 October, 1915 at the age of 74, and is buried in Plot 616, Path 9 South. 

Sir Charles Todd

Charles Todd, astronomer, meteorologist and electrical engineer, was born on 7 July 1826 at Islington, London. Initially employed at the Greenwich Observatory, he was selected as the Superintendent of the Electric Telegraph in 1955, arriving in Port Adelaide on 4 November of that year.

After completing telegraph lines between the major capitals of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, he commenced his most ambitious work, that of laying a telegraph line between Adelaide and Darwin.
This feat was achieved in a little under 2 years, between September 1870 and August, 1872. The Overland Telegraph Line was one of the greatest civil engineering feats in the history of Australia. Charles Todd planned, organized and supplied the eternal drive that carried the project through to its successful end. He also sent the first telegraphic message: "We have this

day, within two years, completed a line of communications two thousand miles long through the very centre of Australia, until a few years ago a terra incognita believed to be a desert..."
In June 1893 he was made K.C.M.G.
Sir Charles Todd died of gangrene on 29 January 1910 at Semaphore, and is buried in Vault EJ1, Path 5 South. 

John Vereker Lloyd

John Vereker Lloyd was born on Prince Edward Island, America, and arrived in Australia with his family at the age of 16.
He joined Mr. Litchfield’s exploration party of the Northern Territory and Adelaide Rivers in 1865, enlisting in the police force in order to carry arms. It was on this expedition that Mr. Lloyd discovered a river which was subsequently named after him.

On his return to Adelaide, he remained with the mounted police for some time, before going into business with Mr. A.W. Clutterbuck.
Later he took up land in the far north, and following the death of his wife in 1920, retired to Adelaide.

Mr. Lloyd died at the residence of his son at Mile End on 10 January 1927 aged 84 years. He is buried with his wife in Plot 3041, Path 17 North. 

Herbert Basedow

Herbert Basedow was an anthropologist, geologist, explorer and medical practitioner. He was also the Chief Medical Officer and Protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory.
Born in Kent Town, SA on 27 October 1881, he studied at the Universities of Heidelberg, Gottingen, Zurich and Breslau before returning to Australia with many qualifications in Medicine, Philosophy, Chemistry and Science. He was also a Fellow of the Geographical Society.

Herbert was involved with 10 expeditions into central and northern Australia, during which he collected many geological and natural history specimens and Aboriginal artifacts. He was one of the few people of his time who recorded

the traditional life of Aboriginals in both writings and pictures.
He actively lobbied the Government for better treatment of the Aboriginal people and campaigned for an improvement in Aboriginal health.
He published widely on anthropology, geology and natural history. He also published two major anthropological works on Australian Aboriginals: “The Australian Aboriginal” and “Knights of the Boomerang”.
Dr. Basedow died in 1933 at the young age of 51. He is buried in Plot 2938A, Path 16 North.
The SA Museum and University hold many of his geological and natural history specimens. His papers are held in the SA Museum and State Library.