George Boyle White surveyor, colonial citizen, diarist

In 1826, George Boyle White, then just twenty-four years old, arrived at Sydney Cove from Calcutta. He had served as navigator in the East India Company for seven years. While employed for a short time as a clerk in the Colonial Secretary’s office he learned the skills of a land surveyor. Appointed assistant surveyor in the Surveyor General’s Department he set out Maitland and other major towns in the Hunter Valley region. Surveyor General, Thomas Mitchell, appointed White second-in-charge of his first expedition into the interior. In his report on the expedition Mitchell judged White to be “an accurate and indefatigable surveyor”.