Early exploration As a teenager, Hume set out from his father's farm near
Appin, New South Wales in 1814 and guided by a young local Indigenous man named
Duall, they explored the southern highlands region as far as what is now the town of
Berrima. In 1819 and 1821, Hume conducted further journeys of overland exploration with Duall and other Aboriginal guides and British colonists to
Jervis Bay and
Lake Bathurst. In 1822, he journeyed with
Alexander Berry down the south coast of New South Wales. He travelled as far south as the Clyde River, and inland nearly as far as
Braidwood. Berry came to settle in the Shoalhaven, and in June 1822 he left Hume and a party of convicts to cut a 209-yard canal between the
Shoalhaven River and the Crookhaven River to allow passage of boats into the Shoalhaven. This canal was Australia's first navigable canal, and the work was completed in 12 days. The canal today forms the main water flow of the Shoalhaven River.
Hume and Hovell expedition In any event, the hoped-for government funding of the expedition was not forthcoming. The party had to cross the major
Murrumbidgee River,
Murray River,
Mitta Mitta River,
Ovens River, and
Goulburn River. Hovell had named the Murray River after Hume during the trip but
Charles Sturt altered it to its current name in 1830. Four days after crossing the Goulburn impassable country was reached. The party spent three days attempting to cross the
Great Dividing Range at Mt Disappointment but were thwarted. Hume shifted direction to the West then reached lower land at the future township of
Broadford on 12 December where they camped. Hume headed towards low ranges to the South and found a pass in that direction next day. He led the party across the Dividing Range at
Hume’s Pass,
Wandong and on 16 December 1824 reached
Port Phillip Bay at Bird Rock, Point Lillias adjacent to the future
Geelong. Hovell claimed that he measured their longitude on the same day but in reality he read it off the sketch map that he and Hume had drafted themselves during the trip. Hovell admitted in 1867 that he did not take any longitude measurements and blamed Hume for it. Prior to this admission, Dr William Bland, who wrote the first book on the journey in 1831, invented the myth that Hovell made an error of one degree in longitude in order to protect him. The party turned back towards
New South Wales on 18 December. Hume chose to travel more to the west to avoid the mountainous country and save considerable time. On 16 January 1825, just as their flour ran out, then two days later the safety of Hume's station at
Gunning. This expedition was the first to discover an overland route from southern New South Wales to
Port Phillip, on whose shores
Melbourne now stands.
Blue Mountains and Lithgow Valley In 1827, accompanied by Lieutenant
George M. C. Bowen, then an assistant surveyor, Hume explored the western part of the Blue Mountains—around the landform that he named the Darling Causeway, after
Governor Ralph Darling—and found three passes through the western escarpment that would have avoided the steep
Mt York route. During this period, he named the
Lithgow Valley, after
William Lithgow, who, at the time, was the Auditor-General of New South Wales.
Exploration of the Darling River In November 1828, Hume journeyed with
Charles Sturt into western New South Wales, where they found the
Darling River, the
Murray River's longest tributary. == Later life ==