Edward Bate Scott (3 April 1822 – 2 July 1909) was a pioneering colonist of South Australia who accompanied Edward John Eyre on several journeys and had a later career with the South Australian Police Force.
History
E. B. Scott was born in Gillingham, Kent, of a well-to-do family. His father was James Scott, of the Royal Navy. At the age of 16 years, he emigrated on Duke of Edinburgh to New South Wales, where he had a letter of introduction to John Macarthur, alas dead by the time Scott arrived. After a short time in Sydney he joined his brother John Mansel Scott, Master of the Revenue Cutter Ranger, at Port Phillip, then went to a station at Mount Macedon to experience sheep and cattle farming. This did not last long, as the station owner and his family were all drowned in a voyage from Sydney to Port Phillip, and the station was sold. In 1839 he joined his friend George Hamilton (later to be appointed Commissioner of the South Australia Police), droving a herd of cattle from Port Phillip to South Australia for William Mundy and Captain Smythe, reaching Adelaide in 1839.
With Edward John Eyre
In Adelaide he met Edward John Eyre and Alfred M. Mundy, (who became Colonial Secretary in the first South Australian Legislative Council under Governor Grey, and was to marry Jane, the eldest daughter of John Hindmarsh). He was invited to join them in an expedition to Western Australia with sheep and cattle, which were shipped from the North Arm of the Port River to Albany, Western Australia, then drove them overland to Perth. To conserve water most of the travelling was done by night. The trip was highly profitable. Back in Adelaide in 1840, Eyre was organising an expedition to find an overland route to Western Australia, and invited Scott to join him as travelling companion and second in command, sharing in all expenses (apart from a £100 grant from the Government). Eyre wrote in his journal: "Mr. Scott, who ever since the commencement of our preparations had been most indefatigable and useful in his exertions, was even still more severely tasked on this day. At night, however, we were all amply rewarded by seeing everything completely and satisfactorily arranged; the bustle, confusion, and excitement over; and our drays all loaded and ready to commence on the morrow a journey of which the length, the difficulty, and the result were all a problem yet to be solved."
The party left Government House, Adelaide, on 18 June 1840. Somewhere past Crystal Brook, he wrote: "My own time, when not personally engaged in conducting the party, was occupied in keeping the journals and charts and in taking observations in the daily register, of the barometer, thermometer, winds, and weather, and in collecting specimens of flowers or minerals. My young friend Mr. Scott was equally busy, for in many of these duties he assisted me, and in some relieved me altogether. ... He was the only sportsman of the party, and upon his gun we were dependent for supplies of wallabies, pigeons, duck, or other game to vary our bill of fare and make the few sheep we had hold out as long as possible. As a companion I could not have made a better selection — young, active, and cheerful— I found him ready to render me all the assistance in his power."