David Lindsay

David Lindsay (20 June 1856 – 17 December 1922) was an Australian explorer and surveyor and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London.

Early life Lindsay was born in Goolwa, South Australia, a son of Captain John Scott Lindsay (ca.1819 – 29 June 1878), master mariner formerly of Dundee, Scotland, and his wife Catherine, née Reid (ca.1822 – 28 May 1884). John Lindsay commanded the brig Europa and Sir James Fergusson's yacht Edith before a career on Murray River steamers which included a pioneering trip to Brewarrina with W. R. Randell in 1859. Young Lindsay was educated in Goolwa and under Rev. John Hotham at Port Elliot. At age 15 Lindsay went to work in a chemist shop and then with an Adelaide mining agent. In 1886 Lindsay was exploring in the region of the MacDonnell Ranges and discovered so-called rubies. The 1885–86 expedition traced the Finke River to its mouth. of the Sydney Museum and Streich, a German geologist and mineralogist. Starting from Warrina, South Australia, with 42 camels

The scope of the Elder Scientific Expedition, funded by Sir Thomas Elder, included recording fauna, flora, geological structures and climate, mapping the territory, potential for pastoral development, recording original indigenous place names, languages and pronunciation, avoiding conflict with indigenous tribes and to investigate the disappearance of Ludwig Leichhardt.

rightThe expedition occurred during a period of extensive drought. Aided by indigenous people, water was not only sourced but evidence of water harvesting and management of evaporation through shoring up water sources with rocks and branches was observed. Lindsay records a 'solitary mia-mia (temporary shelter) formed of bamboo thickly thatched with grass, 6 ft high 10 ft in diameter ..with one entrance...so small I had the greatest difficulty in squeezing through it...the natives told me that when occupied, the entrance was stopped up with grass to keep out mosquitoes. It was used at the beginning of the wet season (to gather) wild fowls eggs and a stopping place from one route to another during the wet season' Lindsay notes the use of fishing: 'saw a native fishtrap made of “ supple jack" woven like a basket, 18 ft long and gradually tapering from 3 ft wide at its mouth, leaving at one side a hole to which the mouth of the reap is fixed. As the ride goes in or out the fish coming with it find a barrier, then with a rush, they go through what they suppose to be an opening, but which is in reality a trap, with a blackfellow at the other end ready to pop them into his basket as they come through the hole'. She survived him with four sons and a daughter.

Lindsay was tall and broad-shouldered of a genial disposition, a typical and capable bushman.