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The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888

E >> Ernest Favenc >> The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888




On the 27th of February, heavy rains set in, fortunately, they were in
the neighbourhood of some stony ridges and sand hills, on which they
camped, and where they had plenty of space to feed their animals,
although surrounded by water.

On March 10th, they started again, and steadily continued north through
good travelling country, keeping back from the main creek, which was now
too flooded and boggy to follow. This large creek, which was called by
M'Kinlay the Mueller, is one of the main rivers of the interior, now
known as the Diamantina. M'Kinlay soon kept more to the westward and
crossed the stony range, which bears his name, in much the same place
that Burke and Wills did. He christened many of the large tributaries of
the inland watershed, but most of his names have been replaced by others,
it having been difficult to determine them, as in many cases, the creeks
he named were but anabranches.

The history of their progress is now monotonous in the extreme, the
country through which they travelled presented no great obstacle to the
travellers' advance, being well-grassed and watered; and finally on the
6th May they reached the Leichhardt River.

M'Kinlay was most anxious to get to the mouth of the Albert, it being
understood that Captain Norman with the steamer Victoria, would there
form a depôt for the use of the other explorers, Landsborough and Walker,
and M'Kinlay's stock of rations was getting perilously low.

His attempts to reach the sea were, however, fruitless. He was
continually turned back by deep and broad mangrove creeks and boggy
flats, and on the 21st May the party started for the nearest settled
districts in Queensland, in the direction of Port Denison.

They were now on the country already twice described by both Leichhardt
and Gregory, and making in the same direction that Gregory did on his
return journey. Like him, too, M'Kinlay missed following up the Flinders.
He crossed on to the head of the head of the Burdekin, which river he
followed down, continually trusting to meet the advancing flocks and
herds of the settlers, then pushing forward into the new country. On
reaching Mount M'Connell, where the tracks of the two former explorers
came respectively to the river, and left it, M'Kinlay kept down the
river, crossing the formidable Leichhardt Range, through which the
Burdekin forces its way to the lower lands of the coast. Here they came
to a temporary station, just formed by Mr. Phillip Somer, where they were
received with the usual hearty hospitality. Since leaving the Gulf
country the explorers had subsisted on little else than horse and camel
flesh, and were necessarily in rather a weak condition; but whilst they
were toiling down the channel of the Upper Burdekin, suffering
semi-starvation, they were actually travelling amongst the advance-guard
of the pioneer squatters, and had they but thought of resting a day and
looking around, their wants would have been relieved long before they
sighted the gorge of the Burdekin, and their toilsome journey through
that gorge have been prevented.

The tracks of the camels had been seen by one squatter [Note, below] at
least within a few hours after the cavalcade had passed down the river,
and a very little trouble would have saved M'Kinlay much suffering.

[Note: Mr. E. Cunningham, who had then just formed Burdekin Downs
Station. He tells, with much amusement, how the nature of the tracks
puzzled himself and his black boy. The Burdekin pioneers of course did
not expect M'Kinlay's advent amongst them, although they knew he was out
west, and such an animal as a camel did not enter into their reckoning.
Cunningham says that the only thing he could think of was, that it was a
return party who had been looking for new country, and that, having
footsore horses and no shoes left, they had wrapped up their horses' feet
with bandages.]

M'Kinlay's trip across the continent did good service at this juncture.
His track was across the country that had always been considered a
terrible desert, useless for pastoral occupation. His report being of
such a favourable nature, dealt a final blow to this theory, which Stuart
had partly demolished. Fortunately, M'Kinlay was an experienced man,
whose verdict was accepted without cavil.

The successful way in which he conducted his party across the continent,
and his well-known merits, led to his afterwards being selected by the
South Australian Government for a responsible post in the Northern
Territory, which will be dealt with in its proper order.

On the 14th of August, 1861, the FIREFLY, having on board the Brisbane
search party for Burke and Wills, left Brisbane. The leader of the party
was Mr. William Landsborough, an experienced bushman, having already a
good knowledge of new country gained in private exploration. The brig was
convoyed by the VICTORIA, under Captain Norman, who had charge of the
expedition until the party were landed. On the way up, the vessels were
separated, and the FIREFLY suffered shipwreck on one of Sir Charles
Hardy's islands; the horses being got ashore safely. On the VICTORIA
coming up, the FIREFLY was repaired sufficiently to serve as a transport.
hulk and the party re-embarked; she was taken in tow by the VICTORIA, and
safely reached her destination at the mouth of the Albert River, in the
Gulf of Carpentaria.

The VICTORIA, as arranged, remained there to render assistance to
Landsborough on his return, and to the Rockhampton search party under Mr.
Walker, on his arrival overland. Landsborough's track, after leaving the
Albert, took him on to the banks of a new river, which had the same
outlet as the Albert, but on account of the other explorers crossing
below the junction, had been hitherto unnoticed. This river, which is a
constantly running stream, and flows through well-grassed, level country,
was named by him the Gregory. His written opinion of the much-disputed
qualities of this district is most sanguine, with regard to its future as
a sheep country. Experience, however, has proved otherwise, it being
found to be fitted only for cattle. Higher up, Landsborough found the
river drier, and presenting a far less tropical appearance than on its
lower course. After continued efforts to the south, and the discovery of
many tributary creeks, Landsborough, on the 21St of December, found the
river which he named the Herbert, one of the most important streams
running south, and joining Eyre's Creek. This river has since been
re-named by the Queensland Government, in consequence of there being
another Herbert River in the territory. With most questionable taste, the
officials, out of a wide choice of names, could find none better than the
absurd, and inappropriate one of the GEORGINA! by which it is now known.

The first important feature in Landsborough's Herbert, which runs through
richly-grassed tableland country, was met with on the day following its
discovery, when a fine sheet of water was found which they named Lake
Mary; below this, some distance, was another pool--Lake Frances.
Landsborough now made an attempt to push to the westward, but failed
through want of water, He then returned up the Herbert, and crossed on to
the head of the O'Shanassy, a tributary of the Gregory. Down this river,
and by way of Beames' Brook, they returned to the depôt on the Albert,
where they arrived on the 8th February, 1862, having been absent nearly
three months.

Here Landsborough learnt that during his absence Walker had arrived, and
reported finding the tracks of Burke and Wills on the Flinders. He
therefore determined to go home in that direction, instead of returning
in the steamer, being anxious to see if he could render any assistance.
The party was reduced in number to three whites and three blacks in all,
namely, Messrs. Landsborough, Bourne, and Gleeson, and the three
boys--Jacky, Jemmy, and Fisherman They had a decidedly insufficient stock
of rations when they started the second time, being without tea and
sugar, the VICTORIA not being able to supply them with any.

From the Albert depôt Landsborough made for the Flinders, by way of the
Leichhardt, and arrived at that river on the 19th February. He followed
it up, and was rewarded by being the first discoverer of the beautiful
downs country through which it runs. He named the isolated and remarkable
hills visible from the river Fort Bowen and Mounts Brown and Little. On
the upper part of the Flinders he named Walker's Creek--a considerable
tributary--and from there struck more to the south, towards Bowen
Downs country discovered by himself and Buchanan two years previously.
Here the leader was in hopes of finding a newly-formed station, and
obtaining some more supplies; but the country was still untenanted,
although in one place they observed the track of a dray, and they also
saw the tracks of a party of horsemen near Aramac Creek. They now made
for the Thomson, which is formed by the junction of the Landsborough and
Cornish Creeks, but did not follow it down to the Barcoo, striking that
river higher up. On the Barcoo they had a slight skirmish with the
blacks, who nearly surprised them during the night.

Landsborough was now back in well-known country; some of it, in fact, he
had been over before himself, and from the number of trees they saw
marked with different initials, it was evident that before long stock
would be on its way out. He crossed on to the Warrego, followed that
river down, and on the 21st of May came to the station of Messrs.
Neilson and Williams, where they heard of the fate of Burke and Wills,
the objects of their search. From here the party proceeded to the
Darling, and finally to Melbourne.

On Landsborough's arrival in Melbourne, he found that rumour had
accredited him with being more interested in looking for available
pastoral country than in hunting for Burke and Wills. So far as can be
seen, this accusation was utterly groundless, as there was no saying to
what part of the Gulf Burke and Wills would penetrate, and he was as
likely to meet with traces of them on the Barcoo as well as anywhere
else. With the general belief then current, of the desert nature of the
interior, nobody dreamt that four inexperienced men would have been able
to cross so easily in such a straight line.

The charge lay in a newspaper paragraph that went the round of the daily
papers, an extract from which runs as follows:--


"Great credit must be given to Mr. Landsborough for the celerity with
which he has accomplished the expedition. At the same time, its object
seems to have been lost sight of at a very early stage of the journey, as
there was not the remotest probability of striking Burke's track after
quitting the Flinder's River, and taking a S.S.E. course for the
remainder of the way. In fact, from that moment all mention [This is
incorrect. Landsborough particularly mentions in his journal during his
trip to the Barcoo, how anxiously he endeavoured to find out from the
natives if they had seen anybody with camels.] ceases to be made of the
ostensible purpose for which the party was organised, until Mr.
Landsborough reached the Warrego, and received the intelligence of Burke
and Wills having perished, at which great surprise was expressed. But
supposing these gallant men to have been still living, and anxiously
awaiting succour at some one of the ninety camping places at which they
halted, on their arduous journey between the depôt and the Gulf what
excuse could Mr. Landsborough have offered for giving so wide a berth to
the probable route of the explorers, and for omitting to endeavour to
strike their track, traces of which had been reported on the Flinders by
Mr Walker? We may be reminded that 'all's well that ends well,' that the
lamented explorers were beyond the reach of human assistance, and that
Mr. Landsborough has achieved a most valuable result in following the
course he did; but we cannot help remarking that in so doing he seems to
have been more intent upon serving the cause of pastoral settlement than
upon ascertaining if it were possible to afford relief to the missing
men. The impression produced by a perusal of the dispatch which we
published on Saturday last is that the writer was commissioned to open up
a practicable route from the Warrego to the Flinders, and not that he was
the leader of a party which had been organized and dispatched 'for the
purpose of rendering relief, if possible, to the missing explorers under
the command of Mr. Burke.' We do not wish to detract one iota from the
credit due to Mr. Landsborough for what he has actually effected, but we
must not lose sight of 'the mission of humanity' in which he was
professedly engaged, nor the fact that this mission was replaced by one
of a totally different character, strengthening, as this circumstance
does, the conviction, which is gaining ground in the public mind, that we
have been deluded in expending large sums of money in sending out relief
expeditions which were chiefly employed in exploring available country
for the benefit of the Government and people of Queensland. The cost and
the empty honour has been ours, but theirs has been the substantial
gain."


The reply to this is very simple. In the first place, Howitt had been
sent especially to follow up Burke from the start, and would therefore be
supposed to be searching the country on the direct course. Again, Walker
was--as Landsborough thought--then following the homeward track of the
lost party. The only chance of affording succour to the missing men, left
to Landsborough, was the remote one of accidentally coming upon them.
Nobody could have reasonably supposed that such a costly and elaborately
got up expedition would have degenerated into a scamper across to the
Gulf, and a scramble back over the same country.

Apart from all this, Landsborough did not apply for a lease of any of the
country discovered by him on the search expedition, the country called
Bowen Downs having been his discovery of two years previously, and
considering that he closed his days in comparative poverty, after all his
labour, such insinuations as the above are most unjust, and would be
hardly worthy of comment save for the prominent and adverse notice taken
of it by William Howitt, in general such an impartial historian.

The late William Landsborough first went north to Queensland in 1853. In
1854 Messrs. Landsborough and Ranken formed a station on the Kolan River,
between Gayndah and Gladstone, where between bad seasons and blacks they
had considerable trouble. In 1856 his exploring career commenced in the
district of Broadsound and the Isaacs River. In 1858 he explored the
Comet to the watershed, and in the following year the head-waters of the
Thomson.

An old friend and comrade, writing of him, says:--


"Landsborough's enterprise was entirely founded on his own self-reliance.
He had neither Government aid nor capitalists at his back when he
achieved his success as an explorer. He was the very model of a
pioneer--courageous, hardy, good-humoured, and kindly. He was an
excellent horseman, a most entertaining and, at times, eccentric
companion, and he could starve with greater cheerfulness than any man I
ever saw or heard of. But excellent fellow though he was, his very
independence of character and success in exploring provoked much
ill-will."


It is to be hoped, therefore, that in future Landsborough's great
services will be regarded in a more just light than they were by some of
his contemporaries, particularly some living explorers, who resemble the
one alluded to by Dr. Lang:--


"But Mr. ---- is not the only geographical explorer in Australia who,

'Turk-like, could bear no brother near the throne.'

It seems to be a family failing."


Frederick Walker was the leader of the Rockhampton search expedition. He
was an old bushman, had had much to do with the formation of the native
police of Queensland, and took a party of native troopers with him on
this occasion.

On receiving his commission he pushed rapidly out to the Barcoo, and in
the neighbourhood of the tree marked L, found by Gregory, discovered
another L tree. This may or may not be considered a corroboration that
the first was Leichhardt's, there being arguments on both sides. From the
Barcoo he struck north-west to the Alice, seeing some old horse-tracks,
which he thought must be Leichhardt's, but which were probably those of
Landsborough and Buchanan. From the head-waters of the Alice and Thomson,
Walker struck a river he called the Barkly, in reality the head of the
Flinders. Here he experienced much difficulty from the rough basaltic
nature of the country which borders the upper reaches of this river.
Finally getting on to the great western plains he unwittingly crossed the
Flinders, and went far to the north looking for it. Bearing into the
Gulf, he had several encounters with the natives, who by this time it may
be supposed began to see too many exploring parties.

Walker's track down here is rather vague. He may be said to have run a
parallel course to the Flinders River away to the north of it, until, on
nearing the coast, the bend of the river brought it across his course
again. Here he found the tracks of the camels, which assured him that
Burke had at any rate reached the Gulf in safety. He therefore pushed on
to the depôt at the Albert to get a supply of provisions, and return and
follow the tracks up.

He reached the Victoria depôt safely, as before related, and reported his
discovery, having had two more skirmishes with the natives on the way.
Fresh provisioned, he made back for the Flinders, but found it impossible
to follow the tracks. From what he saw, however, he formed a theory that
Burke had retreated towards Queensland, and there he made up his mind to
return. He regained his former course on the river he calls the Norman,
but which may have been the Saxby, and up this river he toiled till he
reached the network of watersheds which forms such a jumble of broken
country at the heads of the Burdekin, Lynd, Gilbert and Flinders.

Here Walker's horses suffered severely from the rocks and stones, until
at last, by the time they had reached the Lower Burdekin, they were
well-nigh horseless, and quite starving. On the 4th of April, 1862, they
reached Strathalbyn cattle station, owned by Messrs. Wood and Robison,
not far from where M'Kinlay eventually arrived.

M'Kinlay's was the last party to use the roundabout and rugged road to
the head of the Burdekin that seemed to have such attractions for all the
explorers. Henceforth the road to the Gulf lay down the wide plains of
the Flinders.

Walker was afterwards employed by the Queensland Government to explore a
track for the telegraph line from Rockingham Bay to the mouth of the
Norman River, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. This he carried out
successfully; but when at the Gulf he was attacked by the then prevalent
malarial fever, and died there.

This completes the series of expeditions undertaken for the relief of
Burke and Wills. The eastern half of Australia was now nearly all
known--from south to north, and from north to south, it had been crossed
and re-crossed, and future enterprise was soon to expend itself upon the
western half.

So far the results arrived at had been most satisfactory. Not much over
forty years after Oxley's gloomy prediction of the future of the
interior, country had been found surpassing in richness any that was then
known. The pathways for the pioneers had been marked out, and a few more
years was to see the whole of the continent up to the western boundary of
Queensland the busy scene of pastoral industry.

Most noticeable in the history we have just recounted is the persistent
manner in which each succeeding explorer found in all new discoveries the
fulfillment of some pet theory. To the men brought up in the old school
of belief in the central desert, every fresh advance into the interior
was only pushing the desert back a step; it was there still, and,
according to some, it is there now. Others who believed in the great
river theory, imagined its source in the fresh discovery of every inland
river; and those who pinned their faith on a central range, accepted the
low broken ridges of the M'Donnel Ranges as the leading spurs.

But the discoveries of the luxuriant new herbage and edible shrubs of the
interior were the greatest stumbling block to all. That the much-despised
SALSOLEA and other shrubs should be coveted and sought after; that the
bugbear of Oxley, the ACACIA PENDULA, should now be held to indicate good
country was inconceivable; and when, above everything, the most
fondly cherished of all delusions, that in the torrid north the sheep's
wool would turn to hair, had to be given up, it was quite evident that a
new order of belief would soon be entertained.

Writers, however, were still found to argue that things must be after the
old opinion. When M'Kinlay took his little flock of sheep across
Australia and found them grow so fat that, when at the Gulf, he had to
select the leanest one to kill from choice, they cried out triumphantly,
"Ah, but the flesh was tasteless!" When he assured them that he had never
enjoyed better mutton, they said that it was hunger made him think so.

Still the distinctive value of the country was not under stood.
Landsborough, who ought certainly to have known better, speaks highly of
the Gulf plains as a suitable sheep run; but he was not alone in this
belief. The valley of the Burdekin, and many of its tributaries were
stocked with sheep by men of acknowledged experience. In a few years the
error was found out, and sheep pastures were sought for only in the
uplands of the interior.

But the later explorations had done much good for the new colony of
Queensland. Most of the work, with the exception of Stuart's, had been
wrought out within her boundaries, and capital and stock flowed in from
all sides. This led to many private expeditions, such as those conducted
formerly by Messrs. Landsborough, Walker, and Buchanan.

Amongst these, one under the leadership of Mr. Dalrymple penetrated the
coast country north of Rockhampton, and discovered the main tributaries
of the Lower Burdekin, the Bowen and the Bogie rivers. They followed down
the Burdekin in 1859, and discovered that its EMBOUCHERE was much higher
up the coast than was supposed. From this point they turned back, and
ascending the coast range, reached the upper waters of the Burdekin, and
discovered the Valley of Lagoons, west of Rockingham Bay. Another party,
consisting of Messrs. Cunningham, Somer, Stenhouse, Allingham, and Miles
explored the Upper Burdekin in the following year, and discovered tracts
of good pastoral country on the many tributaries of that river. The
remarkable running stream which joins the Burdekin below the township of
Dalrymple, and was noticed and called by M'Kinlay the Brown River, was
really first found by this party, though where it obtained its present
name of Fletcher's Creek is not on record.

In the far south, the Great Bight became once more the scene of interest.
In 1862, Goyder paid a visit to the much-abused region north of Fowler's
Bay, but found nothing to reward him but mallee scrub and spinifex. In
this year Delisser and Hardwicke went over the same country, but on a
much more attractive route, as they came upon a large, limitless plain,
covered with grass and saltbush. Unfortunately they could find no water,
but since then this want has been supplied by sinking and boring, and
pastoral settlement has extended so far.

In the year 1863, Mr. Thomas Macfarlane attempted to get inland, north of
the Bight, but was forced to turn back, after suffering much hardship.
He, too, found some fairly-grassed country, but quite waterless.

In Western Australia, the colonists still made efforts to find good
country east of the Swan River. Lefroy and party pushed out to the
eastward of York, but were not able to give a much better account of the
country than their predecessors. In the north-west a party of colonists
landed at the De Grey River, and settled on the country found by F.
Gregory. Their account quite confirmed the one given by that explorer
previously.

Once more a fresh chapter in the history of exploration has to be turned.
All around the coast the fringe of settlement was rapidly creeping, the
gaps of unoccupied country growing smaller and fewer every year. The
adventurous traveller who now forced his way through to the late
uninhabited north coast would find several infant settlements ready to
receive him, and he would no longer be obliged to retrace, with weakened
frame and exhausted resources, his toilsome outward track. The last stage
of Australia's history was about to set in; the telegraph wire was soon
to follow on Stuart's footsteps, and the ring of communication to be
nearly completed around the continent.




CHAPTER XI.



Settlement formed at Somerset, Cape York, by the Queensland
Government--Expedition of the Brothers Jardine--Start from Carpentaria
Downs Station--Disaster by fire--Reduced resources--Arrive at the coast
of the Gulf--Hostility of the blacks--Continual attacks--Horses mad
through drinking salt water--Poison country--An unfortunate camp--Still
followed by the natives--Rain and bog--Dense scrub--Efforts of the two
brothers to reach Somerset--Final Success--Lull in exploration--Private
parties--Settlement at Escape Cliffs by South Australia--J. M'Kinlay sent
up--Narrow escape from floods--Removal of the settlement to Port
Darwin--M'Intyre's expedition in search of Leichhardt--His death--Hunt in
Western Australia--False reports about traces of Leichhardt--Forrest's
first expedition--Sent to investigate the report of the murder of white
men in the interior--Convinced of its want of truth--Unpromising
country--Second expedition to Eucla--The cliffs of the Great
Bight--Excursion to the north--Safe arrival at Eucla.

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