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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





Here Cunningham halted for some time, with the view of ascertaining the
practicability of a passage across the range to Moreton Bay.

In exploring the mountains immediately above the tents of the encampment,
a remarkably excavated part of the main range was discovered, which
appeared likely to prove available as a pass. Upon examination, the gap
was found to be rugged and broken, partially blocked with fallen masses
of rocks, and overgrown by scrub and jungle. Beyond these impediments,
which could soon be removed, the gap now known as Cunningham's Gap was
apparently available as affording a descent to the lower coast lands.
Relinquishing any further attempts for the present, either through the
mountains or to the western interior, Cunningham returned to the Hunter,
crossing and re-crossing his outward track. He was absent oil this
expedition thirteen weeks.

The following year the discoverer of the Darling Downs, accompanied by
his old companion, Charles Frazer, Colonial Botanist, proceeded by sea to
Moreton Bay with the intention of starting from the settlement and
connecting with his camp on the Darling Downs by way of Cunningham's Gap.
In this attempt he was also accompanied by the Commandant, Captain Logan.
The party followed up the Logan River, and partly ascended Mount Lindsay,
a lofty and remarkable mountain on the Dividing Range. They were,
however, unsuccessful in finding the Gap on this occasion. Cunningham,
however, immediately started from Limestone Station on the Bremer, now
the town of Ipswich, and this time was quite successful. On the 24th Of
August he writes:--

"About one o'clock we passed a mile to the southward of our last
position, and, entering a valley, we pitched our tents within three miles
of the gap we now suspected to be the Pass of last year's journey.

"It being early in the afternoon, I sent one of my people (who, having
been one of my party on that long tour, knew well the features of the
country lying to the westward of the Dividing Range) to trace a series of
forest ridges, which appeared to lead directly up to the foot of the
hollow-back of the range.

"To my utmost gratification he returned at dusk, having traced the ridge
about two and a-half miles to the foot of the Dividing Range, whence he
ascended into the Pass and, from a grassy head immediately above it,
beheld the extensive country lying west of the Main Range. He recognised
Darling and Canning Downs, patches of Peel's Plains, and several
remarkable points of the forest hills on that side, fully identifying
this hollow-back with the pass discovered last year at the head of
Miller's Valley, notwithstanding its very different appearance when
viewed from the eastern country."


The next day, accompanied by one man, Cunningham ascended the pass that
bears his name. Following the ridges, they arrived in about two and
three-quarter miles to the foot of the Gap.


"Immediately the summit of the pass appeared broad before us, bounded on
each side by most stupendous heads, towering at least two thousand feet
above it.

"Here the difficulties of the Pass commenced. We had now penetrated to
the actual foot of the Pass without the smallest difficulty, it now
remained to ascend by a steep slope to the level of its entrance. This
slope is occupied by a very close wood, in which red cedar, sassafras,
palms, and other ornamental inter-tropical trees are frequent. Through
this shaded wood lye penetrated, climbing up a steep bank of a very rich
loose earth, in which large fragments of a very compact rock are embedded.
At length we gained the foot of a wall of bare rock, which we found
stretching from the southward of the Pass.

"This face of naked rock we perceived (by tracing its course northerly)
gradually to fall to the common level, so that, without the smallest
difficulty, and to my utmost surprise, we found ourselves in the highest
part of the Pass, having fully ascertained the extent of the difficult
part, from the entrance into the wood to this point, not to exceed four
hundred yards."


In this comparatively easy manner was the main range crossed, and access
at once obtained from the coastal districts to the rich inland slope--a
startling result when compared with the years of labour and baffled hope
wasted on the Blue Mountains before victory was won.

In the following year (1829) Cunningham went on his last expedition, to
the source of the Brisbane River, and this work concluded ten years of
constant and unceasing labour in the cause of exploration. He died in
Sydney ten years afterwards, on the 27th of June, leaving behind an
undying name, both as a botanist and ardent explorer. During his own
travels, and whilst sailing with Captain King, he had seen more of the
continent than any man then living.

Captain Charles Sturt, of the 39th Regiment! What visions are conjured up
when this name comes on the scene! Cracked and gaping plains, desolate,
desert and abandoned of life, scorched beneath a lurid sun of burning
fire, waterless, hopeless, relentless, and accursed: that is the picture
he draws of the great interior. He had followed up Oxley's footsteps and
exposed the fallacies into which that explorer had fallen, and erred just
as egregiously himself. True, like Oxley, he was the sport of the
seasons. Oxley had followed the rivers down when, year after year, the
regular rainfall had made them navigable for his boats, and had finally
lost them in oceans of reeds. Sturt came when the land was smitten with
drought, and the rivers had dwindled down to the tiniest trickle.

"In the creeks weeds had grown and withered, and grown again and young
saplings were now rising in their beds, nourished by the moisture that
still remained; but the large forest trees were drooping and many were
dead. The emus, with outstretched necks, gasping for breath, searched the
channels of the rivers for water, in vain; and the native dog, so thin
that he could hardly walk, seemed to implore some merciful hand to
dispatch him."

Such was Sturt's description of the state of the country.

In 1828, the year that witnessed his first expedition, no rain had fallen
for two years, and it seemed as though it would never fall again. The
thoughts of the colonists turned to that shallow ocean of reeds to the
westward wherein Oxley had lost the Macquarie, and it was thought that
now would be the time to verify its existence or find out what lay
beyond. Captain Sturt was appointed to take command, and with him went
Hamilton Hume, who had so successfully crossed to Port Phillip. The party
consisted, besides, of two soldiers and eight prisoners of the crown, two
of whom were to return with dispatches. They had with them eight riding
and seven pack horses, two draught and eight pack bullocks. They had also
with them a small boat rigged up on a wheeled carriage.

It would be uninteresting to follow the party over the already known
ground to Mount Harris where Oxley had camped in 1818; this place Sturt
and his men reached on the 20th December, 1828.


"As soon as the camp was fixed, Mr. Hume and I rode to Mount Harris, over
ground subject to flood and covered for the most part by the polygonum,
being too anxious to defer our examination of the neighbourhood even a
few hours. Nearly ten years had elapsed since Mr. Oxley pitched his tents
under the smallest of the two hills into which Mount Harris is broken.
There was no difficulty in hitting upon his position. The trenches that
had been cut round the tents were still perfect, and the marks of the
fire places distinguishable; while the trees in the neighbourhood had
been felled, and round about them the staves of casks, and a few tent
pegs were scattered. Mr. Oxley had selected a place at some distance from
the river on account of its then swollen state. I looked upon it from the
same ground and could not discern the waters in the channel, so much had
they fallen below their ordinary level. On the summit of the great
eminence which we ascended, there remained the half-burnt planks of a
boat, some clenched and rusty nails, and an old trunk; but my search for
the bottle Mr. Oxley had left was unsuccessful.

"A reflection arose to my mind, on examining these decaying vestiges of a
former expedition, whether I should be more fortunate than the leader of
it, and how far I should be enabled to penetrate beyond the point which
had conquered his perseverance. Only a week before I left Sydney I had
followed Mr. Oxley to the tomb. A man of uncommon quickness and of great
ability. The task of following up his discoveries was not less enviable
than arduous; but, arrived at that point at which his journey may be said
to have terminated and mine only to commence, I knew not how soon I
should be obliged, like him, to retreat from the marshes and exhalations
of so depressed a country. My eye turned instinctively to the north-west,
and the view extended over an apparently endless forest. I could trace
the river line of trees by their superior height, but saw no appearance
of reeds save the few that grew on the banks of the stream."


Satisfied, after consultation with his companion Hume, that there was no
obstacle to their onward march, they left their position, intending, as
Sturt says, "to close with the marshes."

The night of the first day found them camped amongst the reeds, which
they came upon sooner than they expected, and the next day they halted
for the purpose of preparing the dispatches for the Governor. On the
morning of the 26th, the journey was resumed, the two messengers leaving
for Bathurst, the rest proceeding onward until checked by finding
themselves in the great body of the marsh, which spread in boundless
extent around them.


"It was evidently," says the leader, "lower than the ground on which we
stood; we had, therefore, a complete view of the whole expanse, and there
was a dreariness and desolation pervading the scene which strengthened as
we gazed upon it."


Under the circumstances, an advance with the main body of the party was
considered unwise, and it was determined to launch the boat, and try and
follow the course of the river, whilst a simultaneous attempt was made to
penetrate the reed bed to the north. Accordingly Sturt, with two men,
started in the boat, and Hume and two more struck north.

Sturt's boating expedition came very quickly to a close. In the afternoon
of the day he started:--


" . . . the channel which had promised so well, without any change in
its breadth or depth, ceased altogether, and while we were yet lost in
astonishment at so abrupt a termination of it the boat grounded."


All search was fruitless, and mysteriously and completely baffled as
Oxley had been, so was his successor, and there was nothing for it but to
return to camp.

Hume had been more successful. He reported finding a serpentine sheet of
water to the northward, which he did not doubt was the channel of the
river. He had pushed on, but was checked by another of the seemingly
inevitable marshes.

On the 28th the camp was shifted to this lagoon, and the boat was
launched once more; without result. The new-found channel was soon lost
in reeds and shallows. Forced to halt again, Hume went to the north-east
to scout, and Sturt went north-west, each accompanied, as before, by two
men. They left the camp on the last day of the year.

After sunset on the first day, Sturt struck a creek of considerable size
leading northerly, having good water in its bed. The next day, after
passing through alternate plain and brush for eighteen miles, a second
creek was found, inferior to the first both in size and the quality of
the water; it too ran northerly. Crossing this creek, after a short halt,
they travelled through stony ridges and open forest, and at night camped
on the edge of a waterless plain, after a hot and thirsty ride; here one
of the men, noticing the flight of a pigeon, found a small puddle of rain
water that just sufficed them. Next day, the country steadily improving
in appearance, they made west by south for an isolated mountain with
perpendicular sides, from the top of which Sturt trusted to see something
hopeful ahead. He was disappointed, the country was monotonous and level,
and no sign of a river could be seen. They camped that night at a small
swamp, and next morning Sturt turned back, like Oxley, coming to the
conclusion that:--


"Yet upon the whole, the space I traversed is unlikely to become the
haunt of civilised man, or will become so in isolated spots, as a chain
of connection to a more fertile country; if such a country exist to the
westward."


Hume had not returned when the party reached the main camp on the 5th of
January; the next day he made his appearance. He reported having
travelled, on various courses, about thirty miles N.N.W. over an
indifferent country. He had anticipated meeting with the Castlereagh, but
had been forced to conclude that that river had taken a more northerly
course than Mr. Oxley had supposed. He went westward, and across fine
far-stretching plains, but saw no sign of the Macquarie River having
re-formed, crossing nothing but small 'reeks or chains of ponds.

Most of the men, including Hume, complaining of sickness, he camp was
shifted four miles to the north, on to a chain of ponds reported by Hume.
This creek they followed down, when it disappointed them by disappearing
in the marsh. Without water, they continued skirting the low country
until fatigue compelled them to stop, when, by digging shallow wells in
the reeds, they obtained a small supply. From here they made their way by
a different route to the hill that had terminated Sturt's late trip, and
which he had christened Oxley's Tableland. Here they rested a few days,
and Sturt and Hume, with two men, made another excursion westward, but
without result.

Their only resource now was to make north to a creek that they had
followed down on their way to Oxley's tableland, and see where it would
lead them.

On the 31st January they came upon this creek, which was called by them
New Year's Creek, now the Bogan, and the next day they suddenly found
themselves on the brink of a noble river:--


"The party drew up upon a bank that was from forty to forty-five feet
above the level of the stream. The channel of the river was from seventy
to eighty yards broad, and enclosed an unbroken sheet of water, evidently
very deep, and literally covered with pelicans and other wild fowl. Our
surprise and delight may better be imagined than described. Our
difficulties seemed to be at an end, for here was a river that promised
to reward all our exertions, and which appeared every moment to increase
in importance to our imaginations. Coming from the N.E. and flowing to
the S.W., it had a capacity of channel that proved that we were as far
from its source as from its termination. The paths of the natives on
either side of it were like trodden roads, and the trees that overhung it
were of beautiful and gigantic growth.

"The banks were too precipitous to 'allow of our watering the cattle, but
the men descended eagerly to quench their thirst, which a powerful sun
had contributed to increase; nor shall I ever forget the cry of amazement
that followed their doing so, or the looks of terror and disappointment
with which they called out to inform me that the water was so salt as to
be unfit to drink. This was indeed too true. On tasting it, I found it
extremely nauseous, and strongly impregnated with salt, being apparently
a mixture of sea and fresh water. . . Our hopes were annihilated at the
moment of their apparent realisation. The cup of joy was dashed out of
our hands before we had time to raise it to our lips."


Finding fresh feed lower down the river, the party halted for the benefit
of the cattle, who, unable to drink the water, soaked their bodies in it.
Meantime, although the tracks of the natives were abundant, they looked
in vain for any of them. Fortunately, that night Hume found a pond of
fresh water, and the party were refreshed once more. The phenomena of the
salt river was puzzling to Sturt, though too familiar now to excite
wonder; the long continued drought having lowered the river so that the
brine springs in the banks preponderated over the fresh water, was of
course the explanation, and it is a common characteristic of inland
watercourses. The size of the river and the saltness of its water,
however, partly convinced Sturt that he was near its confluence with an
inland sea; so for six days they moved slowly down the river, finding,
however, no change in its formation, until the discovery of saline
springs in the bank convinced the leader that the saltness was of local
origin.

Leaving the party encamped at a small pool of fresh water, Sturt and Hume
pushed ahead to look for more, but without success. Before leaving they
were startled, one afternoon, by a loud report like a distant cannon, for
which they could in noway account, as the sky was clear and without a
cloud. [These strange reports have since been frequently heard, often at
the same moment, at places more than a hundred miles apart. The cause is
generally ascribed to atmospheric disturbances.]

The advance was now checked, no fresh water could be found on ahead, and
their animals were weak and exhausted. Sturt christened the river the
Darling, and gave the order to retreat.

As they again approached Mount Harris on the Macquarie, where they
expected to find a relief party with fresh supplies, fears began to be
entertained regarding the safety of those who might be awaiting them at
the depôt. The reed beds were in flames in all parts, and the few natives
they met displayed a guilty timidity, and one was observed with a jacket
in his possession. Their fears were, however, fortunately vain, the
natives had made one attempt to surprise the camp, but it had been
frustrated, and the relief party had now been some three weeks awaiting
the return of the explorers.

Sturt rested for some days, during which time Hume made a short western
trip.. to the south of the marsh land. He reported that for thirty miles
the country was superior to anything they had yet seen, and exceedingly
well watered; beyond that distance the plains and brush of the remote
interior again resumed their sway.

On the 7th March the party struck camp and made for the Castlereagh, the
relief going back to Bathurst. On the 10th they reached the Castlereagh,
and found it apparently without a drop of water in its bed. From here
downwards the old harassing hunt for water commenced once more, and as
they descended the river they were further puzzled by the intricate
windings of its course and the number of channels that intersected the
depressed country they were travelling through. On the 29th they again
struck the Darling, ninety miles above the spot where they had discovered
it:

"This singular river still preserved its character so strikingly that it
was impossible not to have recognised it in a moment. The same steep
banks and lofty timber, the same deep reaches, alive with fish, were here
visible as when we left it. A hope naturally arose to our minds, that if
it was unchanged in other respects, it might have lost the saltness that
rendered its waters unfit for use; but in this we were disappointed-even
its waters continued the same."

Fortunately the adventurers were not this time in such unhappy straits
for water as before, so that the disappointment was less intense. Knowing
what they might expect if they followed the Darling down south, the party
at once halted. It was evident that to the east and north-east, the
rigorous drought had put its mark on the land, from the fact that large
bodies of natives driven in from that direction were congregated round
the few permanent waters left. A reconnoitring expedition across the
Darling to the N.W. was accordingly determined on, to see if any advance
into the interior was possible, and after a camp had been formed Sturt
and Hume started on the quest. No encouragement to proceed resulted. By
four p.m. they found themselves on a plain that stretched far away and
bounded the horizon.


"It was dismally brown, a few trees only served to mark the distance. Up
one of the highest I sent Hopkins on, who reported that he could not see
the end of it, and that all around looked blank and desolate. It is a
singular fact that during the whole day we had not seen a drop of water
or a blade of grass.

"To have stopped where we were would, therefore, have been impossible;
to have advanced would probably have been ruin. Had there been one
favourable circumstance to have encouraged me with the hope of success I
would have proceeded. Had we picked up a stone, as indicating our
approach to high land, I would have gone on; or had there been a break in
the country, or even a change in the vegetation; but we had left all
traces of the natives behind us, and this seemed a desert they never
entered--that not even a bird inhabited. I could not encourage a hope of
success, and therefore gave up the point, not from want of means, but a
conviction of the inutility of any further efforts. If there is any blame
to be attached to the measure it is I who am in fault; but none who had
not like me traversed the interior at such a season would believe the
state of the country over which I had wandered. During the short interval
I had been out, I had seen rivers cease to flow before me and sheets of
water disappear, and had it not been for a merciful Providence should,
ere reaching the Darling, have been overwhelmed by misfortune.

"I am giving no false picture of the reality. So long had the drought
continued that the vegetable kingdom was almost annihilated, and minor
vegetation had disappeared."


Once more the order to retreat from the inhospitable Darling was given,
and the weary march home recommenced. On their way they traced and
followed a defined channel, or depression, formerly crossed by Hume, and
ascertained it to be the outflow of the Macquarie Marshes. On the 7th of
April, 1829, they reached Mount Harris.

The mystery of the Macquarie was now, to a certain extent, cleared up,
but there still remained another riddle to solve in the course and outlet
of the Darling. Sturt, the discoverer of this river, was destined to find
the answer to this problem as well.

We have now traced the gradual extension of exploration to the westward,
and seen a river system growing up, as it were, piece by piece, as the
result of these expeditions; it may, therefore, be as well to continue to
follow up Captain Sturt's expeditions, and note how the Murray and its
tributary streams were gradually elaborated, before touching upon events
at this time occurring afar on the south-west coast of the continent.

The desire to ascertain the course of the Darling naturally became a
subject of great interest so soon as the result of Captain Sturt's
expedition was known; and the Macquarie and Lachlan rivers having failed
to afford a means of reaching the interior, it was determined to try the
Morumbidgee. The fact that this river derived its supply from the highest
known mountains, and was independent, to a large extent, of the
periodical rainfall, was a great inducement to hope for success.

Almost exactly a year after he had started on his journey down the
Macquarie, Captain Sturt left Sydney, on his Morumbidgee expedition, on
the 3rd of November, 1829.

Hume, was not, on this occasion, able to accompany the party, his own
affairs on his farm needing his attention; doubtless in spirit he was
often with them, and it would have been but fitting had the discoverer of
the Murray or Hume, been one of the party to first trace its downward
course. In Hume's place went George M'Leay, the son of the then Colonial
Secretary, Alexander M'Leay; with them also went Harris, Hopkinson, and
Fraser, members of the Macquarie expedition,

To our modern eyes the appearance of the troop that marched out of
Sydney, early that summer morning, would have looked strange indeed.


"At a quarter before seven the party filed through the turnpike gate, and
thus commenced its journey with the greatest regularity. I have the scene
even at this distance of time, vividly impressed upon my mind, and I have
no doubt the kind friend who was with me on the occasion bears it as
strongly on his recollection. My servant Harris, who had shared my
wanderings, and had continued in my service for eighteen years, led the
advance with his companion Hopkinson; nearly abreast of them the
eccentric Frazer stalked along, wholly lost in thought. The two former
had laid aside their military habits, and had substituted the
broad-brimmed hat, and the bushman's dress in their place, but it was
impossible to guess how Frazer intended to protect himself from the heat
or damp, so little were his habiliments suited for the occasion. He had
his gun over his shoulder, and his double shot belt as full as it could
be of shot, although there was not a chance of his expending a grain
during the day. Some dogs Mr. Maxwell had kindly sent me followed close
at his heels, as if they knew his interest in them, and they really
seemed as if they were aware that they were about to exchange their late
confinement for the freedom of the woods. The whole of these formed a
kind of advanced guard. At some distance in the rear the drays moved
slowly along, on one of which rode the black boy; Robert Harris, whom I
had appointed to superintend the animals generally, kept his place near
the horses, and the heavy Clayton, my carpenter, brought up the rear."

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