The reputation of Robert Hamilton Mathews as a skilful and sensitive ethnographer recording Aboriginal language, beliefs, customs and technology has risen based on the works of A P Elkin, Janet Mathews and Martin Thomas. All have focused on his collecting activity, establishing him as a recorder of rare empathy. His surveying career has been regarded as a valuable prelude providing skills of precision and drawing that assisted recording plus giving him many contacts across New South Wales and wide spatial knowledge. Previous assessments of his surveying career have been based on Mathews’ papers held in the National Library of Australia that show him in a positive light. But, official records of Mathews’ surveying career reveal a man guilty of fraud, deceit and malice.