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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




Above the Palmer, Hann came across a memorial of the trip of the Jardines
in the tracks of some (or descendants) of the cattle, dropped by them,
but he was unable to find them. This was on a creek which, he supposed,
to be the one named by them the Kendall.

These animals had, no doubt, led a rather harassed life from the natives
since they had last been seen by the whites.

On the 1st September, Hann reached his northern limit, the 14th parallel
of latitude, and the next day commenced the ascent of the dividing range
between eastern and western waters. A few days afterwards he sighted the
sea, at Princess Charlotte's Bay.

From this point the party turned south, and soon came to a large river,
which was named the Normanby, and here a slight skirmish occurred with
the natives, with whom they had hitherto been on friendly terms. Whilst
the men were collecting the horses in the morning, and not suspecting
treachery, a body of blacks attempted to cut them off, each native being
well armed with a bundle of spears. A few shots, however, at long
distance were sufficient to disperse them, so that, fortunately, the
affair ended without bloodshed.

On the 21st September, Hann came to the Endeavour, a river well-known in
the history of Australia. Whilst entangled in the scrub on the upper
reaches of this stream he had the misfortune to lose one of his best
horses by poison, two others having also eaten of the weed.

At this point the party had terrible work to encounter; the old obstacles
that had so retarded Kennedy were met with--scrub impenetrable, and steep
ravines. Tracks had to be cut through the vines, and the horses led on
foot down perilous descents. This went on for days, and an attempt to
reach the sea coast and continue their intended route south, ended in
involving them in a perfect sea of scrub, and the final conclusion that
advance for white men and horses was impossible. Hann had reluctantly to
make up his mind to return to the west, and abandon the fresh ground to
the south of him.

After many entanglements in the ranges, and the usual confusion arising
from the tortuous courses of the rivers, the watershed was at last
crossed, and on the 28th October they camped once more on the Palmer
River. From here they returned over the country formerly traversed on the
outward course, and exploring came to an end.

The work had been very hard, especially during the time the party had
been impeded in the scrubs of the east coast, which fully bore out the
reports of the survivors of Kennedy's expedition as to the terribly
toilsome nature of the labour to be undergone in cutting a track through
them. Hann was lucky in not having his party attacked by sickness during
his detention in such a dangerous locality; they all returned in safety.

The gold discoveries on the Palmer, and the rush there which occurred
soon after this expedition, led to a vast deal of exploration being done
under the name of prospecting. Small parties were out in all directions
on the rivers named and crossed by Hann and the heads of those named by
Leichhardt, the Lynd and the Gilbert, were ransacked and searched in
every direction.

In 1875, the Queensland Government decided to send out an expedition to
decide upon the amount of pastoral country existing to the westward of
the Diamantina River, and see if it extended to the boundary of the
colony. It was placed under the command of W. O. Hodgkinson, who had
already seen considerable experience as an explorer, having been one of
the members of the Burke and Wills party, and also a member of M'Kinlay's
expedition when he traversed the continent. The second in charge was a
mining surveyor and mineralogist, Mr. E. A. Kayzer.

Although the expedition was organised as early as September, it was not
thought politic to start so soon before the impending wet season, so the
party were directed to muster at the Etheridge (goldfield), and occupy
the time between then and the end of the year, in examining and reporting
on the country between there and Cloncurry gold-field, on the Cloncurry
River, which was to be the final point of departure.

After some minor excursions in the neighbourhood of the Cloncurry,
Hodgkinson and party left that place in May, 1876, and proceeded across
the dividing watershed to the Diamantina River, and followed that river
down to below the boundary of the colony of Queensland and South
Australia, where it received the name of the Everett, from Lewis.

This much of the progress of the North West Expedition, as it was called,
included little country not already known, and, moreover, at this time
the district was being settled on in all parts by the pioneer squatters,
the tracks of whose cattle were now up and down the whole length of the
river.

From the lower Diamantina, Hodgkinson made west towards the boundary of
the colony, and beyond Eyre's Creek found a fine watercourse running
through good pastoral country, which he branded with the name of the
Mulligan River. Following this river up, and finding it alternately well
and poorly watered, the party crossed from the head of it on to the
Herbert, unwitting that they had done so, and followed that river on
until they overtook Buchanan, Landsborough's old companion, who, with a
mob of cattle, was re-stocking the Herbert.

As this country had been at one time stocked, and stations formed and
abandoned, exploration may be considered to have ceased. The surveys of
Messrs. Scarr and Jopp soon explained the mistake fallen into by
Hodgkinson as to the identity of Landsborough's Herbert and his own
Mulligan. It will be remembered that in the central districts, the
watersheds are so low and the size of the rivers so uncertain, that to
find a watercourse dwindle away into nothing in one mile, and expand into
a river the next is not at all surprising, so that to leave the head of a
river and come on to another running in the same direction, it would
appear quite feasible that it was the same river re-formed.

This was the last exploring expedition sent out by the Queensland
Government; their colony being now nearly entirely known, and in fact the
earlier squatters of the Herbert, before its abandonment in 1874, were
settled some distance across into South Australian territory.

Unfortunately, the commercial depression of 1871 and 1872 led to the
stations on the Herbert being thrown up, and the country, good as it was,
lapsed into its original state of loneliness, and remained for many years
quite unoccupied.

Although Queensland herself had little or no territory within her own
borders left to explore, the energy and enterprise of her pioneers led to
many private explorations being organized across the border into the
colony of South Australia, or rather into the northern territory of that
colony. Amongst those undertaken in the year 1878 may be instanced one
which resulted in the loss of the entire party.

Induced by the favourable terms offered by the South Australian
Government to pastoral lessees in the Northern Territory, two brothers
named Prout started out with one man, looking for country across the
Queensland border. They never returned, and it was not until they had
been given up for months that some of their horses, and finally the bones
of one of the brothers, were discovered by Mr. W. J. H. Carr Boyd.

It was evident, from the fragments of a diary recovered, that they had
extended their researches far into South Australian territory, and met
their death by thirst on their homeward way, probably from some of the
waters they depended upon for their return having failed them.

In the same year Buchanan made an excursion to the overland line from the
border of Queensland. Crossing from the Ranken--one of the main heads of
the Georgina River, and so called after one of the pioneers of that
district, J. C. L. Ranken--Buchanan on a westerly course, came to the
head of a creek, running through fine open downs; following it down for
some days he eventually lost its channel in flooded country, and striking
across a belt of dry country arrived at Tennant's Creek station on the
overland line. This creek, which received the name of Buchanan's Creek,
was a most important discovery, affording in future a highway and stock
route to the great pastoral district lying between the Queensland border
and the overland line.

The next to attack this unknown strip was Frank Scarr, a Queensland
surveyor. He tried to cross the line, to the south of Buchanan's track,
but was prevented by the waterless belt of country existing there. During
one of his excursions he found the horses of the ill-fated Prout
Brothers, already alluded to.

Finding he could not reach the country he desired to, from the Queensland
border, Scarr made north, and by means of Buchanan's Creek arrived at
Tennant's Creek station; but owing to the dry season, did not extend his
researches further.

In the same year, 1878, a project for an overland railway line, between
Brisbane and Port Darwin, was inaugurated in the former city. The
principle of building the line by means of land grants being one of the
chief features of the scheme. Mr. Gresley Lukin, the then proprietor of
the leading Brisbane newspaper, organised and equipped a party to explore
a line of country, the object being to find out the nature and value of
the land in the neighbourhood of the proposed line, and the geographical
features of the unexplored portion.

The party left Blackall, then the furthest township to the westward in
Queensland, the leader being Mr. E. Favenc, accompanied by Messrs. S. G.
Briggs (surveyor), G. R. Hedley, and a black boy.

From Blackall the party struck across the settled pastoral districts
until they arrived at Cork station, on the Diamantina. From there they
kept a north-westerly route through the then unexplored country lying
between the Burke and Herbert Rivers. From the Herbert the Ranken was
followed up for some distance, and the route was then to Buchanan's
Creek, and down that creek to the last permanent water. From here the
party struck north, and some permanent waters were discovered, amongst
them being the Corella Lagoon, the finest lagoon in that district. Two
lakes of large extent were also seen and named, but, although at the time
of the explorer's visit they were extensive sheets of water, seven or
eight miles in circumference, they were so shallow for a mile from their
shores, that at that distance, they were only knee deep.

A singular feature of the lakes of this depressed region, was the fringe
of dead trees that surrounded them. From the age of the trees, and even
borders of all the lake beds seen, both dry and full, it was evident that
this must have been the result of an excessive flood, which had inundated
this district during some past year.

From the Corella Lagoon, where some two or three hundred natives were
assembled to celebrate the peculiar tribal rites common to that religion,
and which have never been witnessed by whites, the expedition proceeded
north, and discovered a large creek running from east to west, which
received the name of Cresswell Creek. This creek, which ran through fine,
open downs, was followed until its course was lost in the flooded
country, which is the end of most inland creeks.

The last permanent water on it was named the Adder Waterholes, on account
of the number of death-adders killed there. The first excursion from there
towards the telegraph line, some ninety miles away, resulted, in such
days of heat, in conjunction with cracked and fissured plains, that three
horses died before returning to camp. The country was soft, and full of
holes and hollows, and it being the height of summer, the horses could
not travel long stages without water; so there was nothing to do but
await at the Adder Waterholes the falling of a kindly thunderstorm, to
assist them to bridge the gap that lay between them and the telegraph
line.

During their detention at this camp many excursions were made, and the
country traversed found to be mostly richly grassed downs; and where
flooded country was crossed numbers of the dry beds of former lakes,
surrounded by the customary belt of dead forest were noticed.

The long delay exhausted the supply of rations, but by means of game,
horse-flesh, and the usual bush vegetable, "bluebush and pig-weed," the
party fared sufficiently well.


"We made up a list of game that had already been shot for ration
purposes, nearly all by Hedley, who was our chief reliance as a hunter,
and the following is the account up to 11th December:--50 parrots
(corellas and galars), 350 ducks (black ducks, teal, whistling ducks,
wood ducks and widgeons), 150 pigeons (principally flock), 11 geese, 4
turkeys, 8 spoonbills, 7 water hens, 2 shags, 1 emu, 1 native companion,
making a total of 584 birds, and in addition we had consumed 100 fish.
All of them were shot for actual food, nothing had been wantonly
destroyed. We considerably added to this menu afterwards, including such
choice delicacies as eagle hawk and frogs. Crows and hawks we carefully
reserved to the last when all else should fail. The absence of kangaroos
and other marsupials is a marked feature in this list, there being none
on these wide-stretching downs."


In January, 1879, the thunderstorms set in, and enabled the explorers to
reach the line safely at Powell Creek Station. From here they travelled
over known country to Port Darwin.

This expedition had the effect of opening up a good deal of pastoral
country, which is now nearly all stocked.

As might have been expected, the party were most hospitably received at
Palmerston, where the inhabitants, in addition to its chief feature of a
railway survey, saw in this expedition one of the first steps to open up
to the world the vast territory they possessed; for as yet the pastoral
industry had been confined to one or two spirited attempts in the
immediate neighbourhood of the goldfields, the great tableland at the
back whereon there was so much valuable sheep country being, untouched.

Western Australia now sent out another of the exploring parties, which
form such a feature of her history. In 1879, Alexander Forrest led an
expedition from De Grey River to the telegraph line. The party left
Anderson's Station on the De Grey River, on the 25th February, and
reached Beagle Bay on the 10th April, the country passed over being like
most of the land in the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, poor and
indifferent.

From Beagle Bay they followed the coast round to the Fitzroy River, which
empties into King's Sound, and journeyed up that river until they reached
a range which gave the explorers some trouble; in fact, they spent six
weeks of constant toil and trouble endeavouring to penetrate it.

On the 2nd June, Forrest bade good-bye to the Fitzroy, which he calls
"the longest and largest river in Western Australia, flowing through
magnificent flats;" and which he says they had then followed for 240
miles. Leaving the river the party struck north, looking for a pass
through the precipitous bluffs of King Leopold Range, as it was named.
The sea was, however, reached before this range was surmounted, and
following down the angle now being formed, between the sea and the range,
they at last found themselves enclosed in a perfect prison; romantic and
pretty according to Forrest's description, but rather militating against
their success. Here too the blacks approached them in threatening
numbers, but after the display of a little policy, peace was preserved.
The rugged nature of the country began to tell most severely on the
horses, "how on earth," says Forrest, "they are going to take us on I
really cannot think." On the 22nd June, they attacked a range, and
finally after a steep climb, which witnessed the death of one of the
horses, they reached the height of 800 feet, and camped; here Forrest
determined to rest the horses and go ahead on foot, and explore the
country. The result was that they came upon endless rugged zigzags, which
so involved them that they gave it up in despair and returned to camp.

Forrest had most reluctantly to abandon any idea of crossing this range
and return to the Fitzroy, where they arrived on the 8th of July.
Following up a tributary of this river, the Margaret, they gradually
managed to work round the southern end of the range, which still frowned
defiance at them, and at last reached the summit of the tableland, and
saw before them good grassy hills and plains. Of this country Forrest
speaks most enthusiastically, and doubtless after their late terrible
struggle with the range it must have appeared a perfect picture of
enchantment to them.

On the 24th, they reached a fine river, running strong, and named by
Forrest the Ord, and for a time he followed its course. Leaving, he
continued his way to the overland telegraph line, which they were
destined not to reach without a struggle. More rivers were crossed, and
the country undulated between rough ridges and well-grassed flats, and at
last, on the 18th August, the Victoria River of Captain Stokes was
reached.


Now commenced their first privation for want of water. Their rations were
almost expended, and one of the party seriously ill. Taking with him one
man (Hicks), Forrest started for the line to obtain succour, leaving his
party in camp to await his return.

The first stage was for twenty-nine miles, and then they fortunately
found a small pool; on the next day a stage of thirty-two miles, through
the level, grassy country, timbered with box and intersected by dry
swamps, which is so familiar a feature in the Northern Territory, but at
the end they had to camp without water. They now had no alternative but
to push on to the line at all risks, as it was the nearest point where
they could obtain supplies, and it was useless to think of going back
without them. Unhappily, Forrest was unprovided with a map of the line,
which led to his having to strike at random; and, as it happened in the
end, resulted in his turning north instead of south, which brought about
needless pain and suffering. Forrest's account of their terrible trip
runs as follows:--


"August 31. An hour before daylight we started, steering east for
fourteen miles before we rested. The country was similar to that passed
over yesterday. During the mid-day halt we walked about searching for
water in the dry swamps, but were unsuccessful. Here we killed a large
snake, and made off it a miserable meal, thinking that it would relieve
our thirst; it made us, however, a good deal worse than we were before.
We had only two quarts of water with us, and we both decided not to touch
this until reduced to the last extremity, as we knew not how far we might
have to go before coming to water. At one o'clock we were in the saddle
again, and continued on the same course until sundown, when we gave our
horses a short rest. They were very tired, and did not seem able to keep
up, in the state they were, for much longer. As for ourselves, we were so
thirsty we could scarcely speak. We shot a hawk, and cut his throat in
order to drink the blood, but it did us no good. What would we have given
for water? No one can have an idea what thirst is unless he has
experienced it under tropical heat. . . . After eating our hawk we
saddled up, and steered east-north-east for two miles, when we reached a
creek trending northwest. We thought there might be water in it lower
down, so we followed it for a mile or two, when the horse I was riding
knocked up, and by lying down compelled us to halt."


Forrest now decided to leave the creek, and walk all night, leading their
worn out horses. Fortunately for them they had not far to go; in two
miles Hicks called out that the line was in sight, and forgetting their
thirst they cheered lustily. Within a short distance of where they struck
the line, they came to one of the tanks stationed at intervals for the
use of the repairing parties, and so their thirst was relieved; but owing
to taking the wrong direction, they travelled away from the nearest
station, Daly Waters, and it was four days before they overtook a
repairing party, under Mr. Wood; who provided them with food and fresh
horses to take back succour to their comrades.

Thus ended a most successful trip, as the country found by Forrest is
amongst some of the most valuable in the northern part of Western
Australia, and has since been stocked with both sheep and cattle, and
large mineral wealth has been developed.

The whole of the northern part of the continent of Australia seemed for a
time to suffer from a blight. The tracks of the explorers appeared to be
checked by some fatal influence.

The Victoria that was thought to be such a grand discovery turned out but
an ordinary coast stream, and on its further investigation to lead to
nothing but disappointment. This deduction, however, under fuller
knowledge is gradually departing, and there is little doubt that the time
is not far away when it will attain its greatest development as a
pastoral and mineral country.

There is no doubt that the east and west tracks of tile Queensland
explorers, and of Alexander Forrest did more to throw open the country
than did the north and south one of Stuart, although that was the most
important ever made in the later days of Australia's history. Stuart
showed the feasibility of crossing the continent in the centre, but even
after the telegraph line was formed on his track, very little was known
of the country on either side. The northern territory had, however, been
the scene of many private expeditions beside those mentioned here. Some
years before Alexander Forrest crossed over, two residents of the
Northern Territory, Phillip Saunders and Adam Johns, accompanied by a
third man, started from Roebourne in Western Australia, and crossed to
the telegraph line successfully. They were prospecting for gold most of
the way, but the line they took was unlucky, as although they passed
through the now well-known Kimberly country, they failed to obtain
anything like satisfactory prospects. They passed through much good
pastoral country, but at that time stock country was of no value at such
a remote distance from settlement.


There now remains but a few more explorations, and those mostly in the
northern part of Australia. Whatever the yet large unknown tract of
country in the interior will show in the future it is impossible now to
do more than conjecture.

In 1884, Mr. Stockdale, who had had considerable experience in the other
colonies, and was an old bushman, started on an expedition from Cambridge
Gulf to explore the country in that neighbourhood, with a view to
settlement. He proceeded there by the WHAMPOA, and on the 13th September
he landed at the gulf, with his party of seven men and the necessary
horses, this being, probably, the first landing that had taken place
there since the days of Captain Stokes. Leaving the gulf, and crossing
the range through a natural gap, which was named after the leader, they
found themselves in well-grassed country, with a fine stream of water
running through it. Their next halting-place was at a creek they called
the Birdie, and they now found numerous camps of the natives, though as
yet they did not come into contact with them. The next creek was named
the Patrick, which was followed down for some distance through very good
country. Here commenced the beginning of the trouble, which afterwards
culminated in a tragedy, one of the men (Ashton) losing himself, and
delaying the party by having to be sought for. They were now on a river
which was called the Forrest, after the explorer, and here they rested
for the sake of their horses. On leaving it they got into rather stony
country until they arrived at the head of a creek called the Margaret,
where they again rested.

From there they had to face great difficulties in the shape of
mountainous country, the gullies and ravines reminding one of those
described by Grey. On October the 14th, they came to a fine river, which
they named the Lorimer, on which there was a waterfall one hundred feet
high. The large creek next met with was called the Buchanan.

On the 21st of October a depôt was formed, and the leader, with three
men, went south, for the purpose of making a thorough inspection of the
country, leaving the other men to await his return, having first taken
the precaution to bury the main portion of their stock of provisions in
case of accidents.

On November 2nd they narrowly escaped an encounter with the natives. By
means of a little tact bloodshed was avoided. While amongst the cliffs
they came upon some of the native drawings and paintings, which have
always created so much interest.

On returning to the depôt, after having passed through and discovered a
fine amount of pastoral country, the leader found, much to his disgust,
that the horses he had left to spell there had been used for kangaroo
hunting, and were not in a fit condition to do much more work. This
compelled him to shorten his trip and start towards the telegraph line.

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