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CHAPTER VII.
1. Oxley.—After the passage over the Blue Mountains
had been discovered—in 1813—and the beautiful pasture land round Bathurst had
been opened up to the enterprise of the squatters, it was natural that the
colonists should desire to know something of the nature and capabilities of the
land which stretched away to the west. In 1817 they sent Mr. Oxley, the
Surveyor-General, to explore the country towards the interior, directing him to
follow the course of the Lachlan and discover the ultimate “fate,” as they
called it, of its waters. Taking with him a small party, he set out from the
settled districts on the Macquarie, and for many days walked along the banks of
the Lachlan, through undulating districts of woodland and rich meadow. But,
after a time, the explorers could perceive that they were gradually entering
upon a region of totally different aspect; the ground was growing less and less
hilly; the tall mountain trees were giving place to stunted shrubs; and the
fresh green of the grassy slopes was disappearing. At length they emerged on a
great plain, filled with dreary swamps, which stretched as far as the eye could
reach, like one vast dismal sea of waving reeds. Into this forbidding region
they penetrated, forcing their way through the tangled reeds and over weary
miles of oozy mud, into which they sank almost to the knees at every step. Ere
long they had to abandon this effort to follow the Lachlan throughout its
course; they therefore retraced their steps, and, striking to the south,
succeeded in going round the great swamp which had opposed their progress.
Again they followed the course of the river for some distance, entering, as
they journeyed, into regions of still greater desolation; but again they were
forced to desist by a second swamp of the same kind. The Lachlan here seemed to
lose itself in interminable marshes, and as no trace could be found of its
further course, Oxley concluded that they had reached the end of the river. As
he looked around on the dreary expanse, he pronounced the country to be “for
ever uninhabitable”; and, on his return to Bathurst, he reported that, in this
direction at least, there was no opening for enterprise. The Lachlan, he said,
flows into an extensive region of swamps, which are perhaps only the margin of
a great inland sea.
Oxley was afterwards sent to explore the
course of the Macquarie River, but was as little successful in this as in his
former effort. The river flowed into a wide marsh, some thirty or forty miles
long, and he was forced to abandon his purpose; he started for the eastern
coast, crossed the New England Range, and descended the long woodland slopes to
the sea, discovering on his way the river Hastings.
2. Allan Cunningham.—Several important discoveries were effected
by an enthusiastic botanist named Allan Cunningham, who, in his search for new
plants, succeeded in opening up country which had been previously unknown. In
1825 he found a passage over the Liverpool Range, through a wild and
picturesque gap, which he called the Pandora Pass; and on the other side of the
mountains he discovered the fine pastoral lands of the Liverpool Plains and the
Darling Downs, which are watered by three branches of the Upper Darling—the
Peel, the Gwydir, and the Dumaresq. The squatters were quick to take advantage
of these discoveries; and, after a year or two, this district was covered with
great flocks of sheep. It was here that the Australian Agricultural Company
formed their great stations already referred to.
3. Hume and Hovell.—The southern coasts of the district now called
Victoria had been carefully explored by Flinders and other sailors, but the
country which lay behind these coasts was quite unknown. In 1824 Governor
Brisbane suggested a novel plan of exploration; he proposed to land a party of
convicts at Wilson’s Promontory, with instructions to work their way through
the interior to Sydney, where they would receive their freedom. The charge of
the party was offered to Hamilton Hume, a young native of the colony, and a
most expert and intrepid bushman. He was of an energetic and determined, though
somewhat domineering disposition, and was anxious to distinguish himself in the
work of exploration. He declined to undertake the expedition in the manner
proposed by Governor Brisbane, but offered to conduct a party of convicts from
Sydney to the southern coasts. A sea-captain named Hovell asked permission to
accompany him. With these two as leaders, and six convict servants to make up
the party, they set out from Lake George, carrying their provisions in two
carts, drawn by teams of oxen. As soon as they met the Murrumbidgee their
troubles commenced; the river was so broad and swift that it was difficult to
see how they could carry their goods across. Hume covered the carts with
tarpaulin, so as to make them serve as punts. Then he swam across the river,
carrying the end of a rope between his teeth; and with this he pulled over the
loaded punts. The men and oxen then swam across, and once more pushed forward.
But the country through which they had now to pass was so rough and woody that
they were obliged to abandon their carts and load the oxen with their
provisions. They journeyed on, through hilly country, beneath the shades of
deep and far-spreading forests; to their left they sometimes caught a glimpse
of the snow-capped peaks of the Australian Alps, and at length they reached the
banks of a clear and rapid stream, which they called the Hume, but which is now
known as the Murray. Their carts being no longer available, they had to
construct boats of wicker-work and cover them with tarpaulin. Having crossed
the river, they entered the lightly timbered slopes to the north of Victoria,
and holding their course south-west, they discovered first the river Ovens, and
then a splendid stream which they called the Hovell, now known as the Goulburn.
Their great object, however, was to reach the ocean, and every morning when
they left their camping-place they were sustained by the hope of coming, before
evening, in view of the open sea. But day after day passed, without any
prospect of a termination to their journey. Hume and Hovell, seeing a high peak
at some little distance, left the rest of the party to themselves for a few
days, and with incredible labour ascended the mountain, in the expectation of
beholding from its summit the great Southern Ocean in the distance. Nothing was
to be seen, however, but the waving tops of gum trees rising ridge after ridge
away to the south. Wearily they retraced their steps to the place where the
others were encamped. They called this peak Mount Disappointment. Having
altered the direction of their course a little, in a few days they were
rejoiced by the sight of a great expanse of water. Passing through country
which they declared to resemble, in its freshness and beauty, the well-kept
park of an English nobleman, they reached a bay, which the natives called
Geelong. Here a dispute took place between the leaders, Hovell asserting that
the sheet of water before them was Western Port, Hume that it was Port Phillip.
Hume expressed the utmost contempt for Hovell’s ignorance; Hovell retorted with
sarcasms on Hume’s dogmatism and conceit; and the rest of the journey was
embittered by so great an amount of ill-feeling that the two explorers were
never again on friendly terms. Hume’s careful and sagacious observations of the
route by which they had come enabled him to lead the party rapidly and safely
back to Sydney, where the leaders were rewarded with grants of land and the
convicts with tickets-of-leave.
4. Captain Sturt.—The long drought which occurred between 1826
and 1828 suggested to Governor Darling the idea that, as the swamps which had
impeded Oxley’s progress would be then dried up, the exploration of the river
Macquarie would not present the same difficulties as formerly. The charge of
organising an expedition was given to Captain Sturt, who was to be accompanied
by Hume, with a party of two soldiers and eight convicts. They carried with
them portable boats; but when they reached the Macquarie they found its waters
so low as to be incapable of floating them properly. Trudging on foot along the
banks of the river they reached the place where Oxley had turned back. It was
no longer a marsh; but, with the intense heat, the clay beneath their feet was
baked and hard; there was the same dreary stretch of reeds, now withered and
yellow under the glare of the sun. Sturt endeavoured to penetrate this
solitude, but the physical exertion of pushing their way through the reeds was
too great for them. If they paused to rest, they were almost suffocated in the
hot and pestilent air; the only sound they could hear was the distant booming
of the bittern, and a feeling of the most lonely wretchedness pervaded the
scene. At length they were glad to leave this dismal region and strike to the
west through a flat and monotonous district where the shells and claws of
crayfish told of frequent inundations. Through this plain there flowed a river,
which Sturt called the Darling, in honour of the Governor. They followed this
river for about ninety miles, and then took their way back to Sydney, Sturt
being now able to prove that the belief in the existence of a great inland sea
was erroneous.
5. The Murray.—In 1829, along with a naturalist named
Macleay, Sturt was again sent out to explore the interior, and on this occasion
carried his portable boats to the Murrumbidgee, on which he embarked his party
of eight convicts. They rowed with a will, and soon took the boat down the
river beyond its junction with the Lachlan. The stream then became narrow, a
thick growth of overhanging trees shut out the light from above, while,
beneath, the rushing waters bore them swiftly over dangerous snags and through
whirling rapids, until they were suddenly shot out into the broad surface of a
noble stream which flowed gently over its smooth bed of sand and pebbles. This
river they called the Murray; but it was afterwards found to be only the lower
portion of the stream which had been crossed by Hume and Hovell several years
before.
Sturt’s manner of journeying was to row from
sunrise to sunset, then land on the banks of the river and encamp for the
night. This exposed the party to some dangers from the suspicious natives, who
often mustered in crowds of several hundreds; but Sturt’s kindly manner and
pleasant smile always converted them into friends, so that the worst mishap he
had to record was the loss of his frying-pan and other utensils, together with
some provisions, which were stolen by the blacks in the dead of night. After
twilight the little encampment was often swarming with dark figures; but Sturt
joined in their sports, and Macleay especially became a great favourite with
them by singing comic songs, at which the dusky crowds roared with laughter.
The natives are generally good-humoured, if properly managed; and throughout
Sturt’s trip the white men and the blacks contrived to spend a very friendly
and sociable time together.
After following the Murray for about two
hundred miles below the Lachlan they reached a place where a large river flowed
from the north into the Murray. This was the mouth of the river Darling, which
Sturt himself had previously discovered and named. He now turned his boat into
it, in order to examine it for a short distance; but after they had rowed a
mile or two they came to a fence of stakes, which the natives had stretched
across the river for the purpose of catching fish. Rather than break the fence,
and so destroy the labours of the blacks, Sturt turned to sail back. The
natives had been concealed on the shore to watch the motions of the white men,
and seeing their considerate conduct, they came forth upon the bank and gave a
loud shout of satisfaction. The party in the boat unfurled the British flag,
and answered with three hearty cheers, as they slowly drifted down with the
current. This humane disposition was characteristic of Captain Sturt, who, in
after life, was able to say that he had never—either directly or
indirectly—caused the death of a black fellow.
When they again entered on the Murray they
were carried gently by the current—first to the west, then to the south; and,
as they went onward, they found the river grow deeper and wider, until it
spread into a broad sheet of water, which they called Lake Alexandrina, after
the name of our present Queen, who was then the Princess Alexandrina Victoria.
On crossing this lake they found the passage to the ocean blocked up by a great
bar of sand, and were forced to turn their boat round and face the current,
with the prospect of a toilsome journey of a thousand miles before they could
reach home. They had to work hard at their oars, Sturt taking his turn like the
rest. At length they entered the Murrumbidgee; but their food was now failing,
and the labour of pulling against the stream was proving too great for the men,
whose limbs began to grow feeble and emaciated. Day by day they struggled on,
swinging more and more wearily at their oars, their eyes glassy and sunken with
hunger and toil, and their minds beginning to wander as the intense heat of the
midsummer sun struck on their heads. One man became insane; the others
frequently lay down, declaring that they could not row another stroke, and were
quite willing to die. Sturt animated them, and, with enormous exertions, he
succeeded in bringing the party to the settled districts, where they were safe.
They had made known the greatest river of Australia and traversed one thousand
miles of unknown country, so that this expedition was by far the most important
that had yet been made into the interior; and Sturt, by land, with Flinders, by
sea, stands first on the roll of Australian discoverers.
6. Mitchell.—The next traveller who sought to fill up the
blank map of Australia was Major Mitchell. Having offered, in 1831, to conduct
an expedition to the north-west, he set out with fifteen convicts and reached
the Upper Darling; but two of his men, who had been left behind to bring up
provisions, were speared by the blacks, and the stores plundered. This disaster
forced the company soon after to return. In 1835, when the major renewed his
search, he was again unfortunate. The botanist of the party, Richard
Cunningham, brother of the Allan Cunningham already mentioned, was
treacherously killed by the natives; and, finally, the determined hostility of
the blacks brought the expedition to an ignominious close.
In 1836 Major Mitchell undertook an
expedition to the south, and in this he was much more successful. Taking with
him a party of twenty-five convicts, he followed the Lachlan to its junction
with the Murrumbidgee. Here he stayed for a short time to explore the
neighbouring country; but the party was attacked by hordes of natives, some of
whom were shot. The major then crossed the Murray; and, from a mountain top in
the Lodden district, he looked forth on a land which he declared to be like the
Garden of Eden. On all sides rich expanses of woodland and grassy plains
stretched away to the horizon, watered by abundant streams. They then passed
along the slopes of the Grampians and discovered the river Glenelg, on which
they embarked in the boats which they had carried with them. The scenery along
this stream was magnificent; luxurious festoons of creepers hung from the
banks, trailing downwards in the eddying current, and partly concealing the
most lovely grottos which the current had wrought out of the pure white banks
of limestone. The river wound round abrupt hills and through verdant valleys,
which made the latter part of their journey to the sea most agreeable and
refreshing. Being stopped by the bar at the mouth of the Glenelg, they followed
the shore for a short distance eastward, and then turned towards home. Portland
Bay now lay on their right, and Mitchell made an excursion to explore it. What
was his surprise to see a neat cottage on the shore, with a small schooner in
front of it at anchor in the bay. This was the lonely dwelling of the brothers
Henty, who had crossed from Tasmania and founded a whaling station at Portland
Bay. On Mitchell’s return he had a glorious view from the summit of Mount
Macedon, and what he saw induced him, on his return to Sydney, to give to the
country the name “Australia Felix”. As a reward for his important services he
received a vote of one thousand pounds from the Council at Sydney, and he was
shortly afterwards knighted; so that he is now known as Sir Thomas Mitchell.
CHAPTER VIII.
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