Home

Erwin and Gerda Feeken emigrated to Australia from Germany in 1954, the year they were married, in order to pursue their interest in geography and the history of exploration. They lived first in Sydney and then moved to Hobart where Mr Feeken began his career in cartography. In order to explore the country (and accompanied by a fourteen month old daughter) the Feeken family then embarked on a bicycle trip from Hobart through the Central Highlands of Tasmania to the north coast, then from Melbourne via Orbost on the Princes Highway and Canberra to Sydney: this pilgrimage is a good indication of their dedication to the cause of Australian Exploration! After three years in Darwin, they moved to Canberra in 1960 and Grafton in 1961, in 1962 returning to Canberra, where Mr. Feeken became colour designer for geological maps with the then Bureau of Mineral resources, now Geoscience Australia. Erwin and Gerda Feeken became interested specifically in Australian place names in 1960 when they began reading the published journals of Sir Thomas Mitchell. They found that the origins of many place names were hidden in these and other journals and that no gazetteer of them existed. Research into the origin of Australian place names, thus begun, became so absorbing that it took up most of their leisure time and grew in the course of time into the book “Discovery and Exploration of Australia”, in time for Captain Cook’s bi-centenary for discovering the east coast of Australia, in 1970. This book, “European Discovery and Exploration of Australia” is a revised edition.