Education
He was educated at J.L. Young"s Adelaide Educational Institution and in 1859 he entered the Government service of South Australia.
He was educated at J.L. Young"s Adelaide Educational Institution and in 1859 he entered the Government service of South Australia.
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 and was able correctly to lay down the position of some of the discoveries of Ernest Giles.
On 19 July 1873 he reached Uluru and gave it the name Ayers Rock. His second-in-charge, Edwin South. Berry (another Associated Electrical Industries alumnus) was probably the first white man to climb "The Rock".
(Hay"s second wife, Agnes Grant née Gosse, was William"s sister) William and Aggie had three children:
William Hay Gosse Military Cross (1875-1918) was killed in action in France. Their son George Gosse (1912-1964) was awarded the George Cross in 1946;
Edith Agnes Gosse (since 1878).
Other descendants include former Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer.
In 1931, the Hundred of Gosse, a cadastral division located on Kangaroo Island in South Australia was named in Gosse"s memory. In 1976 he was honoured on a postage stamp bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post.