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Was the son of H. F.
Cadell, and was born in Scotland in 1822. He was educated at Edinburgh and
in Germany, and became a midshipman on an East Indiaman. He fought in the
Chinese war of 1840 and afterwards was given a ship by his father. He went
to South America, had experience of river navigation on the Amazon, and
visited Australia in 1849. He returned to Australia in 1852 and became
interested in the navigation of the Murray. In 1850 the South Australian
government had offered a bonus Of £4000 to the owners of the first two
steamers that should successfully navigate the Murray to the junction of
the Darling. Cadell gave orders for the construction of a steamer in
Sydney and, while it was being built, explored the Murray in a canvas
boat, in which, with four men, he travelled 1300 miles. In June 1853 his
steamer the Lady Augusta successfully passed through the breakers
at the mouth of the Murray, and on 28 August left Goolwa on a voyage up
the Murray with Cadell in command. Among the passengers were the governor,
Sir Henry Young (q.v.) and Lady Young. They returned on 14 OctOber having
reached a point 1500 miles up the river. A few months later it was
ascertained that the Murray was navigable as far as Albury, and the
Murrumbidgee to Gundagai. Cadell had carried a considerable quantity of
wool and much trade was expected with the Riverina squatters. A gold and
silver candelabrum was presented by the settlers to Cadell, with an
inscription that it had been presented to him "in cornmemoration of his
first having opened the steam navigation and commerce of the River Murray
1853". This was not quite accurate as J. G. and W. R. Randell (q.v.) had
constructed an earlier steamer which had traded on the Murray as early as
March 1853. It was, however, a much smaller vessel and not eligible for
the bonus offered by the government. Cadell was also presented with a gold
medal struck by the legislative council, and he joined with others in
forming the River Murray Navigating Company. The establishment of inland
customs houses and the refusal of the three colonies to join in the
snagging of the river, created difficulties for the company, and the
failure of Port Elliot as a harbour led to more than one steamer being
lost. The company which had at first made good profits failed and Cadell
lost everything he had. He went to Victoria, did exploring work in eastern
Gippsland, and in 1865 was in New Zealand in the employ of the New Zealand
government. In February 1867 the South Australian government sent Cadell
to the Northern Territory "to fix upon a proper site for the survey of
300,000 acres". His selection of a site on the Liverpool River was much
criticized at the time, and was eventually rejected. He had been able to
give the authorities much valuable information about the country, but the
climate of the territory and its great distance from other centres of
population made its development a problem which had not been solved more
than half a century after his visit. Cadell then took up trading in the
East Indies, and when sailing to the Kei Islands near New Guinea he was
murdered by a member of his crew, about March 1879.
Cadell was an adventurous
man of great courage whose work for a variety of reasons was not
sufficiently followed up by the authorities of his time. From the very
beginning of the founding of South Australia the desire for a harbour at
the mouth of the Murray was almost an obsession, and the failure of the
efforts made to found one caused much discouragement. But Cadell had shown
the value of inland trading in the rivers quite apart from the question of
taking cargoes to sea. |
