During the nineteenth century it was popular for explorers to keep a record of an expedition, where things such as distances travelled, weather, observations and encounters were recorded. One surviving diary records the travels of the Mathew’ s around the Hawkesbury.

Felton Mathew was born in England in 1801 and became a surveyor as a young man. He travelled to NSW arriving in 1829, with a position as Assistant Surveyor of Roads and Bridges. Shortly after his arrival he was joined by his cousin, Sarah Louisa Mathew, born in 1805, who had previously been employed as a governess.

Felton and Sarah were married in Sydney in 1832 and then resided in Windsor. Felton spent most of his time out in the field north and northwest of Sydney, mapping the land and its owners. He travelled by horseback and sometimes by foot. On one trip he recorded that he carried several days provision, slept in his cloak and had his small desk strapped on his back like a knapsack.

Sarah accompanied her husband on most of his field trips and expeditions, often camping out and enduring rough and primitive conditions. Louisa also owned a tame emu which she called Jack. The pair worked as a team, writing reports and recording survey details, which was most unheard of at that time. Both he and Sarah wrote a series of diaries of their travels although it is thought Sarah was

responsible for most of the entries.

They were both impressed with the Hawkesbury landscape and wrote the“ scenery is wild, romantic and beautiful beyond description.” Many of Felton’ s plans survive today including the survey of the township of Wilberforce and the plan of Windsor’ s Catholic Chapel and Burial Ground.

In 1835 Felton was given a promotion and became the Town Surveyor but the position was abolished in 1839 and he had to find other employment.

He was offered the position as Acting Surveyor General in New Zealand by William Hobson, the Lieutenant-Governor, one of the officials who negotiated The Treaty of Waitangi. Felton attended the official ceremony of the Treaty and wrote“ the whole scene was one that I would not have lost for the world, and which I shall never forget. The manner of the chiefs is exceedingly noble and dignified …”

Sarah did not make the journey with her husband but joined him a few months later. In New Zealand, Felton’ s job was to select the site of the proposed capital. Auckland was chosen with Felton conducting most of the exploratory survey work. In 1845 they returned to England to confirm Felton’ s position but on their return to New Zealand in 1847, they experienced complications with the Governor so returned to England.

On the journey home, Mathew aged

forty-six, died in Peru in 1847. Newspaper reports suggested it was a“ protracted illness produced by exertion in the discharge of his duty in New Zealand.”

After Felton’ s untimely death, Sarah returned to England but revisited Auckland between 1858-1861 to see to her land holdings. Some excerpts from the journal were distributed as‘ Stray Leaves from the Journal of a Wanderer in Australia’ and compiled by Sarah. They were written in the first person of her husband. She compiled her autobiography in the 1870s and died when she was 85 in 1890 in Kent, England. Here are some snippets: 18th January 1830 We are now approaching the Hawkesbury and have had occasional peeps of this beautiful stream, and the fertile flats on its banks. We are not 50 miles from Sydney, yet we have travelled a country as wild, and a solitude as profound as if no human beings existed in these desolate Forests; or the enterprize( sic) and industry of the white man had never reached these shores. But now the scene changes, descending by a rocky and precipitous pass, and emerging from the Forest, the river appears some 50 feet below, winding round a point comparatively low, and the Farm and Inn called Wiseman’ s, judiciously placed in the bend of the river, on a fine alluvial flat, all in rich cultivation, affords quite a relief to the eye and mind, almost wearied with

the monotony of chaotic rock and primeval Forest … The scenery is so magnificent, so wild; the actors in the scene such a contrast: the wide and rapid river. The heavy flat Ferry boat with our baggage is slowly crossing … 20th January 1830 … Approaching“ Wiseman’ s” there are some pretty and romantic peeps of the Hawkesbury, winding through the valley; and there is the first good land I have seen in the Colony. It consists of prime but not extensive tracts of alluvial land; but it bears a miserably small proportion to the ranges of useless rock, which here rise perpendicularly to an immense height, clothed with timber and brush from base to summit and giving an irregularly wild and romantic affect to the Scenery. 23rd January 1830 Heavy rain at intervals throughout the day which has prevented our working in the field. Accompanied by McLeod and Larmer, crossed the River to Wiseman’ s to procure some corn etc. Shot( at one shot) two birds of the Cockatoo Species … 27th- 28th January 1830 Finished Smith’ s and began measuring Rose’ s Farm. Finished Rose’ s Farm – and returned to the Camp – from the difficulties I met with in measuring these two Farms, I was deterred from commencing Grono’ s which is of the same description and much more extensive, fearing that if I remained to finish it, I should not reach the camp by the time the bullocks returned from Sydney …