Clement Hodgkinson

In March 1841 he explored the upper reaches of the Nambucca and Bellinger rivers, becoming in the process the first European to make contact with the local Aborigines there.

He then followed the Macleay, Clarence, Hastings, Richmond and Tweed river valleys, visiting Port Macquarie, Brisbane and Moreton Bay.

In it he included observations about the Aboriginal tribal life he had witnessed and the natural history of the areas he had explored, such as this description of rainforest: ... the peculiar appearance of the brush is principally caused by the countless species of creepers, wild vines, and parasitical plants of singular conformation, which, interlaced and intertwined in inextricable confusion, bind and weave together the trees almost to their summits, and hang in rich and elegant flowering festoons from the highest branches.

The luxuriant and vigorous character of the brush, on alluvial land, in the northern part of the territory of New South Wales, cannot be surpassed in any tropical region.

When this brushland is cleared, and cultivated, its fertility seems inexhaustible ...Hodgkinson concluded the chapter on his encounter with the Aborigines with the following observation: ... indeed I think that all endeavours to make them adopt more settled habits will be useless, for what great inducement does the monotonous and toilsome existence of the labouring classes in civilized communities offer, to make the savage abandon his independent and careless life, diversified by the exciting occupations of hunting, fighting, and dancing.He described the Bellinger River valley as "contain[ing] the finest cedar and rosewood I have ever seen" and noted the fierce defence local Aboriginal tribes would put up against encroachment from timber cutters.

After exploring the southwest region of Sydney, He was able to secure a foothold in the Kirkham Rise Estate, to which, after a long drawn out tender process construction of a Bazyaric home will begin.

In 1860 responsibility for the government reserves was exercised by Clement Hodgkinson, the new administrative head of the Lands Department, who took a detailed interest in the planning and development of the city parks, including Fitzroy Gardens.

[1] During Hodgkinson's final years as Victorian Assistant-Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey he established a programme of reservation, regulation, administration and education to control the use of Victoria's forests.