William Christie Gosse explorer, was born in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and migrated to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 with his father in 1850. He was educated at J.L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution and in 1859 he entered the Government service of South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

. He held various positions in the survey department, including Deputy Surveyor-General. He died of a heart attack on 12 August 1881, aged 38, after a long illness.

Although Gosse's exploration was not groundbreaking, he filled in many details in the central map. He named the Musgrave Ranges

Musgrave Ranges

Musgrave Ranges is a mountain range in Central Australia, straddling the boundary of South Australia and the Northern Territory , extending into Western Australia. It is between the Great Victoria Desert to the south and the Gibson Desert to the north...

 and was able correctly to lay down the position of some of the discoveries of Ernest Giles

Ernest Giles

William Ernest Powell Giles , best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer who led three major expeditions in central Australia.- Early life :...

. On 19 July 1873 he reached Uluru

Uluru

Uluru , also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park....

 and gave it the name Ayers Rock.

Gosse married Agnes "Aggie" Hay (1853-1933), a daughter of Alexander Hay

Alexander Hay (South Australian politician)

Alexander Hay was a South Australian merchant, pastoralist and politician.-Early career:Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, as a young man he gained free passage to South Australia when working as a "wharfer", arriving in May 1839. After working for only two years for the South Australia Company, he...

 and his first wife Agnes née Kelly (1818-1870) on 22 December 1874. (Hay's second wife, Agnes Grant née Gosse, was William's sister.) William and Aggie had three children:

• William Hay Gosse MC (1875-1918) was killed in action in France. He married Muriel, née Davidson, who died in 1920. Their son George Gosse
  George Gosse
  George Gosse GC, a mine clearance specialist in the R.A.N.V.R was awarded the George Cross for the heroism he displayed between the 8 May and 19 May 1945 in Bremen Harbour in Germany...
  
   (1912-1964) was awarded the George Cross
  George Cross
  The George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom, and also holds, or has held, that status in many of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations...
  
   in 1946;
• Sir James Hay Gosse (1876-1952) married Joanna Lang, daughter of Tom Elder Barr Smith
  Tom Elder Barr Smith
  Thomas Elder Barr Smith was a South Australian pastoralist and philanthropist, and the son of Robert Barr Smith.In 1917 his estate was subdivided to form the Adelaide suburb of Torrens Park....
  
   - they had a daughter and four sons; and
• Edith Agnes Gosse (1878-).

A brother-in-law, and also nephew, William Gosse Hay (1875-1945) was an author.

A sister-in-law, and also niece, Helen (1877-1909), and her mother (William's sister), were lost at sea on the ill-fated SS Waratah.

Other descendants include former Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer

Alexander Downer

Alexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...

.

In 1976 he was honoured on a postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

 bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post

Australia Post

Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...

.