The ethnographic recordings of Robert Hamilton Mathews in the late nineteeth and early twentieth centuries have preserved data about Aboriginal language, beliefs, customs, technology and social and family networks. This data has steadily gained increasing respect over more recent decades, and its quality is often attributed to Mathews’ previous career as a property surveyor. Nevertheless, detailed research in the records of the Lands Department of New South Wales held by State Archives of New South Wales reveals a different story—of a man driven to maximise his income using illegal and unethical methods. Official inquiries into Mathews’ conduct by experienced surveyors showed that he often flaunted professional guidelines and practices to such an extent that the influence of Mathew’s surveying career on his ethnographical work should be reconsidered.

罗伯特·汉密尔顿·马修斯（Robert Hamilton Mathews）在90年代末和20世纪初的人种志记录保留了有关土著语言，信仰，习俗，技术以及社会和家庭网络的数据。在最近的几十年中，该数据一直得到越来越多的重视，其质量通常归因于Mathews以前作为房地产测量师的职业。然而，新南威尔士州国家档案馆对新南威尔士州地政部门的记录进行的详细研究揭示了一个不同的故事-一个人被迫使用非法和不道德的方法来最大化其收入。