Lawrence Wells
| Wells, Lawrence Allen | |
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| Born | 30 April 1860 Penola, South Australia, Australia |
| Died | 11 May 1938 (aged 78) Australia |
| Known for | Australian explorer |
Lawrence Allen "Larry" Wells (30 April 1860 – 11 May 1938), frequently spelled Laurence Allen Wells, was an Australian explorer.
Wells was born at Yallum Station near Penola, South Australia and grew up in the Mount Gambier, South Australia district, and after a short stint in a merchants office, joined the South Australian Survey Department in October 1878. In 1883 the surveyor General, G.W. Goyder, offered him the Assistant Surveyor position to the Northern Territory and Queensland Border Survey Expedition, under Augustus Poeppel. This task took almost three years to complete, the honours of driving in the last peg being shared with assistant John Carruthers. and Wells spent the next couple of years working in the far north of S.A. and the N.T., surveying pastoral boundaries.
In 1891 he was appointed surveyor to the Elder Scientific Exploration Expedition, under David Lindsay. Lindsay's instructions were to investigate the remaining "blanks on the map" of Australia, (essentially the Great Victoria, Little Sandy, Great Sandy, Tanami, and the Simpson Deserts. After a good start, the expedition suffered hardship and psychological problems, which saw Lindsay returning to Adelaide to explain the situation, leaving Wells in charge of the remants of the expedition. It was disbanded in March 1892, after Wells had discovered evidence of gold at what became Wiluna. Only Wells and the cook, Warren, came away with a "clean slate". Returning to the Survey Department, Wells married Alice Marion Woods (14 Feb 1870 – ) on 22 September 1892. Alice was a daughter of noted Adelaide architect E.J. Woods.
In 1896 Albert Calvert, a London mining engineer, proposed through his Adelaide Agent, A.T. Magarey, to finance an expedition to complete the task of the Elder Expedition, again supervised by the South Australian Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. Wells was selected to lead the Calvert Exploring Expedition of seven men and twenty camels, which left Lake Way, near present-day Wiluna, on 16 July 1896, and headed northeast into uncharted country.
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