1 86 Barnard, Journeys of Dr. Neiimayer in Victoria. [voKxxxVv. 



vocation. In CDnnncmoration of those days I called this point 

 ' Navigation Point.' " From these remarks it is quite evident 

 Sutherland is wrong, and that Neumaycr arrived in Victoria 

 about 185J. Of course, there is the possibility that he 

 returned to German}^ and was sent out again by his king. 

 Sutherland goes on to say that Neumayer applied for a site 

 in the Botanical Gardens reserve on which to erect a magnetic 

 observatory at the expense of the King of Bavaria, but was 

 refused ; however, later the application was granted for a site 

 on the Flagstaff Hill. The (ieodetic Survey had at the time 

 a small observatory, under Mr. R. F. J. Fllery (afterwards 

 Government Astronomer of Victoria), in the Royal Park. 

 These were afterwards combined, and Neumayer appointed 

 director, Mr. Ellery retaining the direction of the Nautical 

 Observatory at \Villiamstown, afterwards removed to the 

 Domain. The Flagstaff Observatory occupied a small building 

 in the western portion of what is now the Flagstaff Gardens, 

 West Melbourne, adjacent to King-street, where in the early 

 fifties the inhal>itants of the growing city were wont to gather on 

 Sundays, &c., to learn the latest news of the shipping in the bay. 

 which was transmitted thence by signal flags. On Neu- 

 mayer's return to Germany he was appointed nautical 

 astronomer at Hamburg, where he died in 1908, in his eighty- 

 third year. 



The quarto volume from wliich I have taken the information 

 I purpose placing before you to-night is entitled " Results of 

 the Magnetic Survey of the Colony of Victoria, Executed 

 During the Years 1858-1864," by George Neumayer, Ph. 1)., 

 late Director of the Flagstaff Observatory, Member of Various 

 Scientific Societies, and was published at Mannheim (Germany), 

 1869. From the preface it seems that Dr. Neumayer left 

 Victoria before the money necessary for publishing his results 

 had been voted, hence the publication in Germany. A para- 

 graph is worth quoting. He says : — "A considerable portion 

 of the book is devoted to the narrative of my travels. In it 

 I give a short account of the manner in which the work was 

 carried through, including the mode of travelling and living, 

 as also a short description of the country ])assed through, its 

 general features, water-courses, and mountain ranges. \i such 

 an abridged account as the diary I was in the haliit of keeping 

 while in the field must necessarily be replete with interest at 

 the present time, it will naturally be still more so in future 

 times, when the primitive state of the greater part of the south- 

 eastern extremity of the Australian Continent will have passed 

 out of recollection." 



At the commencement of his work he used a springcart with 

 one horse, for he soon found th.it the jolting and knocking 



