A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888

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





"Captain King's visit to this part of the coast was in 1819, and under
very adverse circumstances; his vessel had but one anchor left, and the
strong easterly winds then prevailing, with thick hazy weather, rendered
his progress into the opening both difficult and hazardous. After a trial
of two days, and having several narrow escapes from getting on shore, he
bore away to examine the coast to the south-west, where he was repaid for
his disappointment by the discovery of Cambridge Gulf. Thus did the
exploration of this wide and interesting opening fall to our good
fortune."


The explorers had great hopes of finding the mouth of an important river.
These hopes were rewarded by the discovery of the Victoria, which Stokes,
in his extravagant joy, deemed equal in importance to the Murray. Captain
Wickharn bestowed the present name on it, and the delighted explorers
proceeded to trace their new found stream, and pulled up it thirty miles.
After their return, Lieutenant Fitzmaurice returned, having also
discovered a river more to the eastward, which received the name of
Fitzmaurice, after its discoverer. A long and interesting task now
commenced--the examination of the new river, and the process of taking the
vessel up as far as possible. After this had been successfully
accomplished, Captain Wickharn being unwell, Stokes was put in charge of
a boat party to follow the river up as far as possible. Taking the boats
as far as practicable, and then forming a land party, they managed to
reach a distance of one hundred and forty miles from the sea, and finding
the river still of considerable size, and full of large freshwater
reaches, Stokes hugged the belief that at last the highway to the
interior was discovered.

His raptures on this point led to a much higher estimate of the value of
this river being entertained than it deserved; and until its exploration
by Gregory, many shared Stokes' opinion as to its future importance. The
party returned in safety, and on going to weigh the anchors found them so
firmly embedded in the bottom, which must have been a quicksand, that
they had to slip both.

While anchored at the mouth of this river, Stokes went on shore to take
observations, and, when ahead of his companions, was suddenly surprised
and speared by the natives; the wound narrowly escaped being a fatal one.
By December 12th he was sufficiently recovered to bear the motion of the
ship, and sail was made for Swan River, where they arrived safely, having
made some most important discoveries. A cruise on the west coast, and to
Coepang, followed, and thence they returned by way of the west coast and
Cape Leeuwin to Adelaide.

In the beginning of June, 1841, the BEAGLE, now in charge of Captain
Stokes, Captain Wickharn having gone home on sick leave, left Sydney for
another northern cruise. On the way up the ship fell in with four
merchant vessels, which she convoyed as far as Booby Island, she herself
pursuing her way down the Gulf of Carpentaria. Their first stay of any
length was at Sweer's Island, and all the coastal inlets in the
neighbourhood were well examined, resulting in the discovery of the
Flinders River, on the 20th July, and of the Albert on the 1st of August.
On the merits of this river Stokes waxes nearly as eloquent as he did
over the Victoria, and once more indulges in excited hopes of reaching
the centre of the continent. At fifty miles from the mouth the fallen
logs stayed the progress of the boats, and the party landed and made an
excursion on foot. Stokes now saw the plains to which he gave the name of
the Plains of Promise, the position of which gave rise to so much
discussion amongst the land explorers in after years. As may be imagined,
the extent of level country, and its apparent richness, gave rise to much
enthusiastic speculation on his part, and he returned to his ship well
satisfied with his work.

During the discovery and examination of the Albert, Mr. Fitzmaurice had
been engaged to the eastward, where he found the other mouth of the
Flinders River, known as Bynoe Inlet. Unfortunately, another gun accident
resulted in his being lamed for life, a charge of shot having entered his
foot. This was the second accident while in the Gulf, a gun having burst
with Lieutenant Gore, and badly lacerated his hand.

On the banks of the Flinders a native burial tree was found:--


"On the eastern bank rose a tree, the branches of which were laden with a
most singular looking bundle or roll of pieces of wood. Struck with its
appearance, we rested our oars to observe it. Landing, I advanced for
nearer inspection towards the huge bundle of sticks before mentioned. It
seemed almost like the nest of some new bird, and greatly excited my
curiosity. As I approached a most unpleasant smell assailed me, and on
climbing up to examine it narrowly I found that it contained the decaying
body of a native.

"Within the outer covering of sticks was one of net, with an inner one of
the bark of the papyrus tree enveloping the corpse. According to the
singular practice of uncivilised peoples of providing for the wants of
those who have nothing more to do with earthly things, some weapons were
deposited with the deceased in this novel kind of mortuary habitation,
and a little beyond was a rill of water."


The BEAGLE then sailed to Booby Island, and from there to Victoria--the
settlement at Port Essington--which they found in a comparatively
flourishing state. Strange to say, Stokes, the discoverer of Port Darwin,
says of Port Essington:


"As steam communication, moreover, must soon be established between
Singapore and our colonies on the south-eastern shores of Australia, this
port, the only real good one on the north coast, will be of vast
importance as a coal depôt."


Another of the many instances of the hasty and fallacious deductions of
first discovery, a second proof of which was afforded on the arrival of
the BEAGLE at Swan River, whither, after calling at Coepang, they
directed her course. Here they found the colonists in a state of doubt as
to the existence of an inlet called Port Grey. A large number of
immigrants had arrived from England, with the intention of settling
there, but owing to the rumours of its non-existence, the name was
changed to Leschenault Inlet. Captain Stokes was asked to settle the
question, which he did by confirming the rumour that there was no Port
Grey, and that the fertile country at the back of the spot indicated had
likewise no existence. Grey, it will be remembered, reported seeing this
available country when on his return from the hair-brained expedition to
Sharks' Bay, and called it the Province of Victoria, but no subsequent
exploration ever confirmed its existence.

The work of exploration by the BEAGLE now came to an end. Her remaining
cruises in Australian waters were in the neighbourhood of the south coast
and Tasmania. The work performed by her was more intimately connected
with land exploration than that done by any other survey ship, and her
close examination of the north coast resulted in the discovery of many
important rivers. The Flinders, the Albert, the Adelaide, Victoria, and
Fitzroy, all owe their names to the commander of the BEAGLE, and with her
last cruise the maritime explorations of Australia may be said to close.




CHAPTER XX.



Nationality of the first finders of Australia--Knowledge of the
Malays--The bamboo introduced--Traces of smallpox amongst the natives in
the north-west--Tribal rites--Antipathy to pork--Evidence of admixture in
origin--Influence of Asiatic civilisation partly visible--Coast
appearance repelling--Want of indigenous food plants--Lack of intercourse
with other nations--Little now left of unexplored country--Conclusions
respecting various geological formations--Extent of continental
divisions--Development of coastal towns--Inducements for
population--Necessity of the first explorings--Pioneer squatters'
efforts--First Australian-born explorer--Desert theory exploded--Fertile
downs everywhere--Want of water apparently insurmountable--Heroism of
explorers--Inexperience of the early settlers--Grazing possible--Rapid
stocking of country--The barrenness of the "Great Bight"--Sturt, the PENN
of Australia--Results--Mitchell's work--Baron von Mueller's researches--A
salt lake--Stuart first man across the continent--Burke and Wills'
heroism--Services of McKinlay and Landsborough--John Forrest's
journeys--Camel expedition by Giles--The BRISBANE COURIER
expedition--Further explorations--Stockdale at Cambridge Gulf--Carr-Boyd
and O'Donnell open good country in Western Australia--Work done by
explorers--Their characteristics--Conclusion.

By common consent the nationality of the first navigators who landed on
our shores is awarded to the Spanish. Following them came the Dutch, and,
finally, the French and English. And, although the record of the Spanish
visit to our northern coast is but vague, the fact of their being the
first to acquaint the Western nations with the undoubted existence of a
far southern land is generally allowed. Amongst the people inhabiting the
many islands of the Malay Archipelago and portions of the mainland of
Asia, there can be little doubt that our continent was known, and
intercourse of an occasional kind carried on with its natives. That no
permanent settlement was ever formed, or probably attempted, we may
ascribe to the unpromising nature of the soil, compared to the fertile
islands left by the visitors, and the fact that the products of which
they came in search were mostly found in the sea itself, the shore only
being at times visited for obtaining fresh water or seeking shelter.

During these visits no inducements would be forthcoming for undertaking
an excursion inland. The monotonous character of the country would not
excite curiosity, and the absence of all temptation in the way of
articles of barter and traffic likely to be found, would confine their
investigations chiefly to the sea shore. A temporary camp for drying the
sea-slugs of commerce, a refuge for their crafts when the sudden storms
of the tropics broke loose, met all their requirements. It is to the
Malay ancestors of the men whose proas are still to be found fishing
among the outlying reefs of the north, that we must look for the first
discoverers of our island continent, and failing all written record or
existing monument of their doings, search amongst the natives themselves
for confirmation of the fact.

The presence of the bamboo in Arnheim's Land only, and its indigenous
nature, is strong evidence of its Malay origin. It is found in abundance
over this large promontory, and on the banks of the different rivers and
creeks. Its extensive spread and thick growth point to many centuries of
introduction, and that the Australians first obtained it from their
northern visitors is almost certain. In abandoned camps pieces of bamboo
would be left sticking in the ground, and formed, as most of their camps
are, on the sandy banks of a creek, their growth would be under
favourable circumstances, and their spread down the watercourses rapid.

Amongst all the tribes whose hunting grounds are between Cape Arnheim,
and Cambridge Gulf, the traces of small-pox can be seen unmistakeably on
many of the old men. Some are blind, and deeply pitted, others but
lightly marked. Apparently the disease has worn itself out, for only the
oldest members of the tribes have suffered. None seem to have it now, nor
are the marks of the disease to be seen on the middle-aged men. The
ravages of this scourge must have been confined to the coast tribes, as
no evidence of its having been amongst the natives of the interior is to
be found. The belt of dry country separating the aborigines of the plain
from those of the sea may have saved the former, as this belt is often
left uncrossed for years. This disease must have been brought from the
north, and the date of its introduction would probably lie many centuries
back.

Many of their customs and tribal rites bear a close resemblance to some
that may be found in the New Testament, and are foreign to the usual
habits of the Australian blackfellow. Add to this an innate antipathy to
the flesh of swine when tasted for the first time, and it seems evident
that some of the laws and traditions of more civilised nations have
drifted down and been partly appropriated by the Australians.

In many of the sea-coast blacks of the north, sleepy eyes and
straight-cut noses are often prominent, and render some of them
especially remarkable; these features giving their faces an entirely
different aspect to the common blackfellow type adjoining them inland.
That, in the event of the wreck of a proa on the coast, some intermixture
of the races would take place, and the survivors, perhaps, pass the
remainder of their lives amongst the blacks, is quite possible, seeing
that to many of our countrymen it has happened.

The close acquaintanceship shown by the Malay bêche-de-mer fishers with
the nooks and inlets that are so thickly strewn along the coast, west of
Cape Wessell, appears to be the result of much old-world seafaring lore,
handed down from father to son. Whether the Chinese ever ventured so far
south as Australia cannot be affirmed with certainty. Accident may have
led them to our shores, but it is scarcely probable that the love of
adventure would have tempted them so far.

Taking, then, the exceptional customs common to the natives of that
portion 'of Australia still visited by the Malays, and seeing that these
customs would only be the outcome of some centuries of intercourse, it is
reasonable to suppose that from these outposts of Asiatic civilisation
came the first adventurous traders to the lone land of the south. The
distinct type of the Australian, while showing in exceptional cases the
signs of foreign blood, precludes the idea that the continent was peopled
from the north; but, at the same time, it is evident that some
rudimentary forms of a higher development drifted down in after ages from
that source.

The effect that the repellant nature of the Australian coast has had upon
the southern progress of semi-civilisation is remarkably distinct. Each
successive wave of improvement from the Asiatic continent seems to grow
weaker and weaker as it travels south, until it breaks hopelessly on
Australia. Nor is it hard to find the reason. The savage, coming from
islands where a rude cultivation of indigenous fruits, valuable in their
nature, had induced primitive land laws, and consequently settled
habitations and a defined code of laws concerning tribal rights and
boundaries, found himself amongst a nomadic race, trusting to hunting and
fishing solely for the means of existence. The soil, formed of the
denudation of the sandstone rocks, scantily fertilised here and there by
the decaying jungle, presented no field for rude agriculture, even had
the dry seasons permitted; and gave forth no native fruits, save
tasteless berries and half-poisonous roots. No knowledge of minerals would
tempt him into the semi-scorched ranges inland; he would simply see that
life after the old fashion of village existence was no longer for him,
and would become a hunter and fisher like his fellows.

It would have been of inestimable benefit to the Australians, had tribes
from the northern countries, only slightly higher than themselves in the
scale, established a permanent footing on the mainland, and gradually
worked their way throughout the land, carrying their superior knowledge
with them, and having in the extended area before them a wide field for
future development. Intermixing socially with the aborigines, they would
have in a few generations made an indelible mark upon their mental
capacity, which, after all, is only dormant; and the march of improvement
once set in motion, centuries of confirmed intercourse with races of
greater culture, and the consequent spread of new ideas would have
peopled our continent with a different race to the improvident native of
the present.

But the force of nature was against it; the new land of the south held
forth no inducements even for the pirate or marauder. In the hand to
mouth struggle for existence, not even a supply of food would be found in
a ransacked camp; no land seen tempting settlement by its luxuriant
vegetation and produce. The visitors of the straits scorned the
inhospitable coast, and returned north. Only those whom ill-fate had
deprived of the means of return stayed perforce, and lost their identity
amongst the aborigines.

The white man, when he came, looked upon the country as he would upon an
uninhabited land; the native was too far beneath him to profit by his
coming, no inter-mixture of races could take place, the difference was
too widely marked; and the aborigines of Australia were from the first
numbered amongst the doomed tribes of the earth. An earlier introduction
of the spirit of progress, however meagre in form, might have saved them.
Had our northern coasts but possessed some lure for Asiatic nations, the
story would have travelled and brought their overflowing population down
to settle the continent long before the advent of our countrymen.

It is an accepted fact that on the continent of Australia proper there is
very little unexplored territory left, and that we pretty well know what
resources, in the way of land, we have still to fall back upon. This
acceptance of our knowledge of the unsettled regions of our country is
both right and wrong. Right, inasmuch that in a general sense, arguing
from our knowledge of climatic influences in different latitudes, we can
infer the particular nature of a particular district, although untrodden
as yet by any one capable of giving us information. Wrong, in that the
geographical formations of Australia are so persistently antagonistic
that no true nor reliable deduction can always be arrived at. When I say
persistently antagonistic, I mean that the two formations common to the
interior, namely, sandstone and limestone, produce either a desert or a
rich prairie. As a rule, in the vast interior, still unvisited and
unsettled, the conditions are that the soil either grows grasses and
herbs of the most nutritive character, or such as are totally unfitted to
support graminivorous animal life. And these two conditions we may call
antagonistic, as far as our efforts at practical settlement are
concerned. When the outcrop is limestone, we may reckon on good pastoral
country, and a fair water supply. When the outcrop is the pure red
sandstone, we can hope for little else but the desert spinifex.

The distinction between these two formations is so strongly marked that
it almost seems that a hard and fast line had, in places, been drawn
between the productive and unproductive portions of Australia. That these
strange and sudden alterations occur right through the continent, we have
the evidence in the diaries of Giles and Forrest; and although we cannot
doubt that a great portion of unexplored Australia consists of country
that will never support population, we have as yet no valid reason for
condemning the whole.

The continent of Australia contains, roughly speaking, three millions of
square miles less about thirty-five thousand square miles. It may be
summarised as follows: that New South Wales contains no unexplored
country; Victoria, none; Queensland, a small portion of Cape York
Peninsula; South Australia, a considerable area; and Western Australia, a
very great deal. All the important explorations of late years have been
in the last two mentioned colonies, for the very reason that in these
colonies only the unknown exists. South Australia has at least 300,000
square miles of unexplored and partly explored country, and Western
Australia can claim more than half a million of miles just touched here
and there by the tracks of Eyre, Gregory, Giles, Forrest, and Warburton.

In speculating upon the future capabilities of this great expanse, we
must fairly weigh the testimony of these men, and, by comparison, see
what chance we have in the future of finding fresh pasture lands for the
next generation. On the whole the testimony is unfavourable, but, on
close inspection, there are strange coincidences in their diaries which
would lead one to think that, perhaps, after all the "hopeless desert"
that witnessed both their struggles and successes may yet hold secrets
worth knowing and worth seeking for. In our time we have seen how the
desert theory has been exploded in New South Wales--forced, as it were,
outside our boundaries by the mere expansion of settlement. It is but a
question of time for the mysteries of the yet unknown interior to share
the same fate, and in the solution of the unknown great possibilities
exist.

The development of the towns along the northern sea-board must
necessarily be rapid. From the sheep-growing downs of the inland plateau,
to the sugar and coffee-growing flats of the coast, the exports will be
ever on the increase, and the wants of a growing people will necessitate
ports in places that are now uninhabited. That the north will become one
of the richest portions of our continent there is no doubt; its immense
mineral wealth stands but partially revealed, while its adaptability for
settlement is practically unbounded. The progress and utilisation of the
waste lands of the north will be an interesting experiment to watch.
Nature has, to a great extent, indicated the laws of settlement that will
dominate the territory. To the capitalist she has given the rich
wool-growing slopes of the inland country, where the expenditure of money
is necessary, in order that the full value may be reaped from the land
leased; money expended in water-storage, that repays the owner in a
hundred ways. To the man of humbler means the well-watered coast
districts offer facilities for small cattle stations and selections, and
on the banks of some of the rivers the planter will soon be making a
home, whilst for the miners are the broken ranges and gullies of the
Dividing Range.

A settled Australia--that is, comparatively settled-this century may not
witness, but that it will be a fact of the future, few, who have lived in
the colonies during the last two decades, can doubt.

We may look forward to the crowning work of the future, when we shall no
longer be altogether dependent upon the caprices of climate; nor sit idly
by whilst our heritage of rainfall rushes past us into the ocean.

From the arrival of Governor Phillip with the first fleet, 1789, to the
year 1813, when Wentworth, Lawson, and Blaxland succeeded in crossing the
main range--the Blue Mountains--all attempts at exploration into the
interior had been limited, the main range proving an impenetrable
barrier. For the wants of the colony, the country up to that time found
had proved sufficient. In the neighbourhood of Sydney, the Nepean, Grose,
and Hawkesbury; to the north, the River Hunter; and to the south, the
district known now as the Illawarra. But combined with the severe drought
of 18 13, and the increase of stock, it was necessary to seek pastures
new.

Their hopes of finding a navigable river flowing west into the sea were
never realised, although for years it was each explorer's dream. On
following a stream, they invariably found it run out into a shallow
swamp, and then thought the continent possessed an inland sea or lake.
Oxley pronounced this portion desert, and to them it then was; no thought
could enter their minds of how after years of stocking, the entire
country would change; how time and labour alone could make that vast
waste profitable.

Directly the pass of the Blue Mountains had been won, and a public road
made across the range, settlers with their stock steadily flowed west;
the township of Bathurst sprang up, and settlement was made south towards
the Shoalhaven River. The first large expedition into the interior was
undertaken by Oxley, and he again comes to the conclusion that "the
interior westward of a certain meridian is uninhabitable, deprived, as it
is, of wood, water, and grass . . . that the interior of this vast
country is a marsh, and uninhabitable." Only the edge of the interior
crossed, it was early to come to this conclusion. But we must remember
that the party were weary and disgusted with their want of success-the
barren country, with no variety of trees, or soil; everything always the
same. Eventually they reached good, well-watered country, and turning
back from the Macquarie, delighted with the river, believed that the high
road to the interior had been found.

This trip successful, he again left to follow the Macquarie, and although
the inland sea remained undiscovered, large tracts of fertile country
were opened for settlement; moreover, he had crossed the coast range to
the north, and discovered that Port Macquarie (which, on following down
the River Hastings, he had found and named) proved a practicable route to
the interior.

About this time the pioneer squatter took share with the explorer, and
settlement quickly advanced. Lawson and Scott were disappointed in their
attempt to reach Oxley's discovery of Liverpool Plains; unable to
penetrate the southern boundary of the plains, they discovered the
Goulburn River. The year 1823 found Oxley, Cunningham, and Currie, all
out in different directions; Currie to the south of Lake George,
Cunningham engaged north of Bathurst, first in his capacity of botanist,
and the discovery of a pass through the northern range on Liverpool
Plains, which Lawson and Scott had sought in vain. He found and named the
Pandora Pass, it proving practicable as a stock route.

Copyright (c) 2007. famouswriterz.com. All rights reserved.