page_title: Robert Dixon (explorer)
section_title: Moreton Bay
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Dixon (explorer) / Moreton Bay
caption_attribution_description: Map of Moreton Bay part of Darling Downs and Clarence districts shewing the stations occupied by the squatters
context_page_description: Robert Harald Lindsay Dixon was an Australian surveyor and explorer, born in Darlington, England.
context_section_description: Having failed to gain reinstatement, Dixon moved to Moreton Bay. On 24 July 1839 he married Margaret Sibly, the daughter of James and Elizabeth Sibly of St Neot in Cornwall.
  During that year, Dixon, with assistant surveyors Granville Stapylton and James Warner, began a trigonometrical survey of Moreton Bay for the Government to facilitate free settlement. A baseline of 3 miles (4.8 km) was measured on Normanby Plains (today's Harrisville, south of Ipswich) as a foundation for the triangulation. Dixon was instructed to compile a plan of the district for land sales and town reserves.
  In January 1840, Dixon was promoted to surveyor in charge of the Moreton Bay district, but was suspended after an altercation with Lieutenant Owen Gorman, commandant of the Moreton Bay penal settlement (now Brisbane). Dixon's convict servant was arrested and Dixon's response saw him charged with attempting to incite a mutiny. Dixon denied the charges and lodged counter-charges of improper conduct against the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant was later relieved of his appointment as magistrate and the charges against Dixon were not progressed.
  Dixon, however, was not reinstated. He had again offended the Government by publishing his own map of Moreton Bay in 1841 without permission. This angered Governor Sir George Gipps, resulting in Dixon's disgrace and his replacement by James Warner.
  When Moreton Bay was opened to free settlement in 1842, Dixon applied for the lease over a number of government buildings. When this was refused, he moved to Toongabbie.
  Dixon found little available work and returned to England in 1846. He returned to Australia in 1852, spuriously claiming that he had been hired to manage a gold mine.
caption: Dixon's map of Moreton Bay, 1845 or 1846
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