Charles Winnecke ( 1856 - 1902)

Winnecke was an Australian explorer and botanist best known for leading the Horn Expedition to Central Australia in 1894.

He was born at Norwood, South Australia on 18 November 1856 and educated at St. Peter’s College. Winnecke entered the Government Survey Office in Adelaide in 1873 under Surveyor-General George Goyder. He first accompanied the North Eastern Exploring Expedition to survey the border between South Australia and Queensland in 1877. He then travelled through northern South Australia in September 1884. In May 1894 he led the Horn Expedition to Central Australia. , a scientific exploration of the regions geology, zoology, botany and Indigenous people. He followed the Finke River as far as the James Range towards Tempe Downs Station and Kings Creek Station. the expedition included Baldwin Spencer, Edward Charles Stirling, Ralph Tate and J. A. Watt and drew on the expertise of Afghan cameleers and Aboriginal guides. During this expedition, Winnecke was responsible for the theft of a major repository of Aboriginal sacred objects in Central Australia, helped by an Aboriginal guide who was later killed by local elders for his crime in leading Winnecke to their hiding place. The objects were subsequently interpreted with the assistance of another guide, the sometime police tracker and Aboriginal resistance identity Arrarbi. When removing the objects he left ‘a number of tomahawks, large knives and other things in their place, sufficient commercially to make the transaction an equitable exchange’. Winnecke was made a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Astronomical Society.

He died on 10 September 1902 in Adelaide.