Mount Kosciuszko: how Australia’s highest peak came to be named for a freedom fighter against Russian aggression

By Darius von Guttner Sporzynski, Historian, Australian Catholic University

Most Australians could name this country’s tallest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko. But how many could tell you where it got its name?

Paul Strzelecki (1797-1873) named Mount Kosciuszko after his compatriot in 1840. A friend of the third US president, Thomas Jefferson, Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746-1817) was a graduate of the Royal Military Academy in Warsaw, engineer, freedom fighter and statesman.

A self-didactic geologist, Strzelecki left Poland in the late 1820s and travelled extensively throughout the world.

He explored North and South Americas, studying mineral…

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