James Larmer (b. 1808 or 1809 – d. 1886) was a government surveyor in the colony of New South Wales. Between 1830 and 1859, he surveyed land, roads and settlements in New South Wales. He was an Assistant Surveyor to the Surveyor-General, Sir Thomas Mitchell, from 1835 to 1855. In 1835, he was second in command of Mitchell’s second expedition. He is also noteworthy for his recording of Aboriginal words from various parts of New South Wales. Early life Larmer was born in Reigate, Surrey, England and arrived in Sydney in October 1829 to take up his appointment as a survey draftsman. Title deed information, from his time in Australia, shows his full name as James Gulley Larmer. Career Between 1830 and early 1835, James Larmer surveyed land, roads, streets, coastlines, creeks, rivers, and ridges in what is now greater Sydney, in nearby areas including Broke and Branxton in the Hunter, Brooklyn, Mangrove Creek, Broken Bay and Pittwater around the Hawkesbury River, and in more distant parts including the Abercrombie, Campbells, Belubela, Bell, and Macquarie Rivers. During 1835, Larmer was second-in-command of Thomas Mitchell’s second expedition, which attempted to follow the Darling River downstream to its confluence with the Murray. Larmer, in command of the main party, left Parramatta and met Mitchell at Boree, east-north-east of modern-day Cudal. The expedition first went overland, then followed the Bogan River, then the Darling from the location of modern-day Bourke. While near the Bogan, the expedition's botanist, Richard Cunningham, went off in search of plants and became lost. It was Larmer who led a party that searched for him for a number of days, finding his dead horse and other evidence of his likely demise. Larmer produced a map sketch showing Cunningham's probable route. The expedition stopped to the north of the Menindee Lakes, due to the risk of attack by hostile Aborigines, falling short of their objective—but in no doubt that the Darling continued to the Murray—and then retraced their route to return. The connection of the Murray and the Darling, would be confirmed for settler colonists, in 1844, when Charles Sturt's third expedition, following a river upstream from its confluence with the Murray, reached the site of Mitchell's last camp. In 1837, Larmer had reserved a village site for Ulladulla. In 1837, he laid out the town plan of Bungendore, in 1838 Queanbeyan, and, in 1839, the town plans of Broulee