Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Complete

Purpose of this Chapter--Name of Australia--Impressions of its early Visitors--Character of the Australian rivers--Author's first view of Port Jackson--Extent of the Colony of New South Wales--its rapid advances in prosperity--Erroneous impressions--Commercial importance of Sydney--Growth of fine wool--Mr. M'Arthur's meritorious exertions--Whale-fishery--Other exports--Geographical features--Causes of the large proportion of bad soil--Connection between the geology and vegetation--Geological features-- Character of the soil connected with the geological formation--County of Cumberland--Country westward of the Blue Mountains--Disadvantages of the remote settlers--Character of the Eastern coast--Rich tracts in the interior--Periodical droughts--The seasons apparently affected by the interior marshes--Temperature--Fruits--Emigrants: Causes of their success or failure--Moral disadvantages--System of emigration recommended--Hints to emigrants--Progress of inland discovery--Expeditions across the Blue Mountains--Discoveries of Mr. Evans, Mr. Oxley, and others--Conjectures respecting the interior.

EXPEDITION DOWN THE MACQUARIE RIVER, AND INTO THE WESTERN INTERIOR IN 1828 AND 1829.

State of the Colony in 1828-29--Objects of the Expedition--Departure from Sydney--Wellington Valley--Progress down the Macquarie--Arrival at Mount Harris--Stopped by the marshes--Encamp amidst reeds--Excursions down the river--Its termination--Appearance of the marshes--Opthalmic affection of the men--Mr. Hume's successful journey to the northward-- Journey across the plain--Second great marsh--Perplexities--Situation of the exploring party--Consequent resolutions.

Prosecution of our course into the interior--Mosquito Brush--Aspect and productions of the country--Hunting party of natives--Courageous conduct of one of them--Mosquitoes--A man missing--Group of hills called New-Year's Range--Journey down New-Year's Creek--Tormenting attack of the kangaroo fly--Dreariness and desolation of the country--Oxley's Table Land--D'Urban's Group--Continue our journey down New-Year's Creek-- Extreme Disappointment on finding it salt--Fall in with a tribe of natives--Our course arrested by the want of fresh water--Extraordinary sound--Retreat towards the Macquarie.

Intercourse with the natives--Their appearance and condition--Remarks on the Salt or Darling River--Appearance of the marshes on our return-- Alarm for safety of the provision party--Return to Mount Harris--Miserable condition of the natives--Circumstances attending the slaughter of two Irish runaways--Bend our course towards the Castlereagh--Wallis's Ponds-- Find the famished natives feeding on gum--Channel of the Castlereagh-- Character of the country in its vicinity--Another tribe of natives-- Amicable intercourse with them--Morrisset's chain of Ponds--Again reach the Darling River ninety miles higher up than where we first struck upon it.

Perplexity--Trait of honesty in the natives--Excursion on horseback across the Darling--Forced to return--Desolating effects of the drought--Retreat towards the colony--Connection between the Macquarie and the Darling-- Return up the banks of the Macquarie--Starving condition of the natives.

General remarks--Result of the expedition--Previous anticipations-- Mr. Oxley's remarks--Character of the Rivers flowing westerly-- Mr. Cunningham's remarks--Fall of the Macquarie--Mr. Oxley's erroneous conclusions respecting the character of the interior, naturally inferred from the state in which he found the country--The marsh of the Macquarie merely a marsh of the ordinary character--Captain King's observations-- Course of the Darling--Character of the low interior plain--The convict Barber's report of rivers traversing the interior--Surveyor-General Mitchell's Report of his recent expedition.

Concluding Remarks--Obstacles that attend travelling into the interior of Australia--Difficulty of carrying supplies--Importance of steady intelligent subordinates--Danger from the natives--Number of men requisite,--and of cattle and carriages--Provisions--Other arrangements-- Treatment of the natives--Dimensions of the boat used in the second expedition.

APPENDIX.

No. I. Letter of Instructions No. II. List of Stores supplied for the Expedition No. III. Sheep-farming Returns No. IV. List of Geological Specimens No. V. Official Report to the Colonial Government, (Jan. 1829.) No. VI. Ditto (April 1829.)

ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE FIRST VOLUME (Not included in this etext)

Native Burial Place near Budda Vice Admiral Arthur Phillip Cataract of the Macquarie A Selenite Chrystallized Sulphate of Lime

Preliminary Chapter

Purpose of this Chapter--Name of Australia--Impressions of its early Visitors--Character of the Australian rivers--Author's first view of Port Jackson--Extent of the Colony of New South Wales--its rapid advances in prosperity--Erroneous impressions--Commercial importance of Sydney--Growth of fine wool--Mr. M'Arthur's meritorious exertions--Whale-fishery--Other exports--Geographical features--Causes of the large proportion of bad soil--Connection between the geology and vegetation--Geological features-- Character of the soil connected with the geological formation--County of Cumberland--Country westward of the Blue Mountains--Disadvantages of the remote settlers--Character of the Eastern coast--Rich tracts in the interior--Periodical droughts--The seasons apparently affected by the interior marshes--Temperature--Fruits--Emigrants: Causes of their success or failure--Moral disadvantages--System of emigration recommended--Hints to emigrants--Progress of inland discovery--Expeditions across the Blue Mountains--Discoveries of Mr. Evans, Mr. Oxley, and others--Conjectures respecting the interior.

PURPOSE OF THIS PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

When I first determined on committing to the press a detailed account of the two expeditions, which I conducted into the interior of the Australian continent, pursuant to the orders of Lieutenant General Darling, the late Governor of the Colony of New South Wales, it was simply with a view of laying their results before the geographical world, and of correcting the opinions that prevailed with regard to the unexplored country to the westward of the Blue Mountains. I did not feel myself equal either to the task or the responsibility of venturing any remarks on the Colony of New South Wales itself. I had had little time for inquiry, amidst the various duties that fell to my lot in the ordinary routine of the service to which I belonged, when unemployed by the Colonial Government in the prosecution of inland discoveries. My observations had been in a great measure confined to those points which curiosity, or a desire of personal information, had prompted me to investigate. I did not, therefore, venture to flatter myself that I had collected materials of sufficient importance on general topics to enable me to write for the information of others. Since my return to England, however, I have been strenuously urged to give a short description of the colony before entering upon my personal narrative; and I have conversed with so many individuals whose ideas of Australia are totally at variance with its actual state, that I am encouraged to indulge the hope that my observations, desultory as they are, may be of some interest to the public. I am strengthened in this hope by the consideration that some kind friends have enabled me to add much valuable matter to that which I had myself collected. It is not my intention, however, to enter at any length on the commercial or agricultural interests of New South Wales. It may be necessary for me to touch lightly on those important subjects, but it is my wish to connect this preliminary chapter, as much as possible with the subjects treated of in the body of the work, and chiefly to notice the physical structure, the soil, climate, and productions of the colony, in order to convey to the reader general information on these points, before I lead him into the remote interior.

NAME OF AUSTRALIA.

It may be worthy of remark that the name "Australia," has of late years been affixed to that extensive tract of land which Great Britain possesses in the Southern Seas, and which, having been a discovery of the early Dutch navigators, was previously termed "New Holland." The change of name was, I believe, introduced by the celebrated French geographer, Malte Brun, who, in his division of the globe, gave the appellation of Austral Asia and Polynesia to the new discovered lands in the southern ocean; in which division he meant to include the numerous insular groups scattered over the Pacific.

IMPRESSIONS OF ITS EARLY VISITORS.

Australia is properly speaking an island, but it is so much larger than every other island on the face of the globe, that it is classed as a continent in order to convey to the mind a just idea of its magnitude. Stretching from the 115th to the 153rd degree of east longitude, and from the 10th to the 37th of south latitude, it averages 2700 miles in length by 1800 in breadth; and balanced, as it were, upon the tropic of that hemisphere in which it is situated, it receives the fiery heat of the equator at one extremity, while it enjoys the refreshing coolness of the temperate zone at the other. On a first view we should be led to expect that this extensive tract of land possessed more than ordinary advantages; that its rivers would be in proportion to its size; and that it would abound in the richest productions of the inter-tropical and temperate regions. Such, indeed, was the impression of those who first touched upon its southern shores, but who remained no longer than to be dazzled by the splendour and variety of its botanical productions, and to enjoy for a few days the delightful mildness of its climate. But the very spot which had appeared to Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks an earthly paradise, was abandoned by the early settlers as unfit for occupation; nor has the country generally been fount to realize the sanguine expectations of those distinguished individuals, so far as it has hitherto been explored.