Part 1 (1/2)

Australia Twice Traversed, The Romance of Exploration

by Ernest Giles

INTRODUCTION

Before narratingout portions of the unknown interior of Australia, it will be well that I should give a succinct account of what others engaged in the same arduous enterprise around the shores and on the face of the great Southern Continent, have accomplished

After the wondrous discoveries of Columbus had set the Old World into a state of excite of new lands appears to have become the roions has been that of our time; and in less than fifty years after the discovery of A every sea in hopes of ereat explorer; but nearly a hundred years elapsed before it became known in Europe that a vast and misty land existed in the south, whose northern and western shores had been eneral outline had not been traced, nor was it even then visited with anything like a systeraphical object The fact of the existence of such a land at the European antipodes no doubt set many ardent and adventurous spirits upon the search, but of their exploits and labours we know nothing

The Dutch were the h Torres, a Spaniard, was, so far as we know, the first to pass in a voyage from the West Coast of America to India, between the Indian or Malay Islands, and the great continent to the south, hence we have Torres Straits The first authentic voyager, however, to our actual shores was Theodoric Hertoge, subsequently known as Dirk Hartog--bound from Holland to India He arrived at the western coast between the years 1610 and 1616 An island on the west coast bears his name: there he left a tin plate nailed to a tree with the date of his visit and the na after Theodoric Hertoge, and still to the western and north-western coasts, came Zeachern, Edels, Nuitz, De Witt, and Pelsart, recked upon Houtman's Albrolhos, or rocks named by Edels, in his shi+p the Leewin or Lion Cape Leewin is called after this vessel Pelsart left two convicts on the Australian coast in 1629 Carpenter was the next navigator, and all these adventurers have indelibly affixed their names to portions of the coast of the land they discovered The next, and a greater than these, at least greater in his navigating successes, was Abel Janz Tasman, in 1642 Tasman was instructed to inquire from the native inhabitants for Pelsart's two convicts, and to bring them aith hiain Tasreat portion of the Australian coast, discovered what he named Van Diemen's land, now Tasmania, and New Zealand He it ho called the whole, believing it to be one, New Holland, after the land of his birth Next we have Dah the name sounds very like Dutch; it was probably by chance only that he and his roving crew visited these shores Then ca with three shi+ps God save the s shi+ps How theover vast and unknown oceans, visiting unknown coasts with iron-bound shores, beset with sunken reefs, subsisting on food not fit for hu from scurvy caused by salted diet and rotten biscuit, with a short allowance of water, in torrid zones, and liable to be attacked and killed by hostile natives, it is difficult for us to conceive They suffered all the hardshi+ps it is possible to ilory? That their naht be handed down to us; and this seeraphical Society's medal in those days with itswas the discoverer of the Swan River, upon which the seaport town of Fremantle and the picturesque city of Perth, in Western Australia, now stand This river he discovered in 1697, and he was the first who saw Dirk Hartog's tin plate

Daions he had visited caused hiain in 1710 by the British Government, and upon his return, all previous doubts, if any existed, as to the reality of the existence of this continent, were dispelled, and the position of its western shores ell established Dampier discovered a beautiful flower of the pea family known as the Clianthus Dampierii In 1845 Captain Sturt found the same flower on his Central Australian expedition, and it is now generally known as Sturt's Desert Pea, but it is properly nainal discoverer

After Da like sixty years elapsed before Cook appeared upon the scene, and it was not until his return to England that practical results seemed likely to accrue to any nation froes; the first fitted out by the British Government was made in 1768, but Cook did not touch upon Australia's coast until two years later, when, voyaging northwards along the eastern coast, he anchored at a spot he called Botany Bay, frohtness and abundance of the beautiful wild flowers he found growing there Here two natives atteh the boats were manned with forty men

The natives threw stones and spears at the invaders, but nobody was killed At this remote and previously unvisited spot one of the crew named Forby Sutherland, who had died on board the Endeavour, was buried, his being the first whiteupon Australia's shore; at least the first authenticated one--forone of the two unfortunate convicts left by Pelsart have dug a grave for his co to bury the survivor? Cook's route on this voyage was along the eastern coast frorees 30' to Cape York in Torres Straits in latitude 10 degrees 40' He called the country New South Wales, from its fancied resemblance to that older land, and he took possession of the whole in the naland's territory

Cook reported so favourably of the regions he had discovered that the British Government decided to establish a colony there; the spot finally selected was at Port Jackson, and the settlement was called Sydney in 1788 After Cook came the Frenchman Du Fresne and his unfortunate countryman, La Perouse Then Vancouver, Blyth, and the French General and Ad La Perouse In 1826, Captain Dillon, an English navigator, found the stranded remains of La Perouse's shi+ps at two of the Charlotte Islands group We now coator, Matthew Flinders, as the first to circuiven to this great island continent the na in an open boat from Sydney, discovered that Australia and Van Die straits betere then nae in the Investigator, a vessel about the size of a modern shi+p's launch, Flinders had with him as a midshi+pator On his return to England, Flinders, touching at the Isle of France, was overnor and detained for nearly seven years, during which tiator Nicolas Baudin, hom came Perron and Lacepede the naturalists, and whom Flinders had met at a part of the southern coast which he called Encounter Bay in reference to that reat portion of the unfortunate prisoner's work Alas for huallant sailor died before his ed or rewarded, and I believe one or two of his sisters were, until very lately, living in the very poorest circureater veneration than any of his predecessors or successors, for no part of the Australian coast was unvisited by hies, parks, districts, counties, and electoral divisions, have all been named after him; and, indeed, Imostly confined to the eastern coast, the more western colonies are not so intih an Australian poet has called him the Columbus of our shore

After Flinders and Baudin came another Frenchman, De Freycinet, bound on a tour of discovery all over the world

Australia's next navigator was Captain, subsequently Ades of discovery, mostly upon the northern coasts At three places upon which King favourably reported, naton in Arnhem's Land, and Port cockburn in Apsley Straits, between Melville and Bathurst Islands on the north coast, military and penal settleration these were abandoned King coes, which occurred between the years 1813 and 1822

Captain Wickhale comes next; he discovered the Fitzroy River, which he found e's Sound

In consequence of ill-health Captain Wickhaned his command, and Lieutenant Lort Stokes, who had sailed with hiellan's Straits and Tierra del Fuego, received the command from the Lords of the Admiralty Captain Lort Stokes may be considered the last, but by no ators On one occasion he was speared by natives of what he justly called Treachery Bay, near the mouth of the Victoria River in Northern Australia, discovered by hies occurred between the years 1839 and 1843 He discovered the mouths of most of the rivers that fall into the Gulf of Carpentaria, besides raphical features upon the North Australian coasts

The early navigators had to encountersurveys froh achievements of the Dutch, down to theand Stokes It is to be remembered that they caulfs, bays, peninsulas, mountains, rivers and harbours, as well as to make acquaintance with the native races, the soils, and anireat new land, so as to diffuse the knowledge so gained for the benefit of others who ht come after theers did they not encounter froes of the new and shallow seas, how ain; howbark with its adventurous crew have been sunk in Australia's seas, while those poor wretches who one by, have landed upon the inhospitable shore would certainly have been killed by the wild and savage hordes of hostile aborigines, from whom there could be no escape! With Stokes the list of those who have visited and benefited Australia by their labours fro that so poor a chronicler is giving an outline of their achievements I now turn to another kind of exploration--and have to narrate deeds of even greater danger, though of a different kind, done upon Australia's face

In giving a short account of those gallantnanita of our Australian possession, I o back a hundred years to the arrival of Governor Phillip at Botany Bay, in 1788, with eleven shi+ps, which have ever since been known as ”The First Fleet” I am not called upon to narrate the history of the settlement when he removed his fleet and all his e of Sydney, which has now becoion was thus opened out for British labour, trade, capital, and enterprise From the earliest days of the settle as the Governor himself, as on one occasion speared by the natives, were found willing to venture their lives in the exploration of the country upon whose shores they had so lately landed Wentworth, Blaxland, and Evans appear on the list as the very first explorers by land The chief object they had in vieas to sur to cross the Blue Mountains, and Evans was the first who acco expedition into the interior of New South Wales was conducted by John Oxley, the Surveyor-General of the colony, in 1817 His principal discovery was that some of the Australian streams ran inland, towards the interior, and he traced both the Macquarie and the Lachlan, named by him after Governor Lachlan Macquarie, until he supposed they ended in vast swamps or marshes, and thereby founded the theory that in the centre of Australia there existed a great inland sea After Oxley came two explorers named respectively Hovell and Hume, who penetrated, in 1824, from the New South Wales settlements into what is now the colony of Victoria They discovered the upper portions of the River Murray, which they crossed sohbourhood of the present town of Albury The river was then called the Hume, but it was subsequently called the Murray by Captain Charles Sturt, who heads the list of Australia's heroes with the title of The Father of Australian Exploration

In 1827 Sturt reatest discoveries of this century--or at least one of the , the great western artery of the river system of New South Wales, and what is now South-western Queensland In another expedition, in 1832, Sturt traced the Murruee River, discovered by Oxley, in boats into what he called the Murray This river is the sa been adopted He entered the new stream, which was lined on either bank by troops of hostile natives, from whom he had many narrow escapes, and found it trended for several hundreds ofhim in his idea of an inland sea; but at a certain point, which he called the great north-west bend, it suddenly turned south and forced its way to the sea at Encounter Bay, where Flinders met Baudin in 1803 Neither of these explorers appear to have discovered the river's mouth On this occasion Sturt discovered the province or colony of South Australia, which in 1837 was proclaimed by the British Government, and in that colony Sturt afterwards made his home

Sturt's third and final expedition was from the colony of South Australia into Central Australia, in 1843-1845 This was the first truly Central Australian expedition that had yet been despatched, although in 1841 Edward Eyre had attempted the same arduous enterprise Of this I shall write anon On his third expedition Sturt discovered the Barrier, the Grey, and the Stokes ranges, and a numerous smaller watercourses he found and named Strezletki's, Cooper's, and Eyre's Creeks The latter remained the furthest known inland water of Australia for many years after Sturt's return Sturt was accompanied, as surveyor and draftsman, by John McDouall Stuart, whom I shall mention in his turn So far as reater portions of the country explored by Sturt, goes, his estiions he visited has scarcely been borne out according to the views of the present day

Like Oxley, he was fully impressed with the notion that an inland sea did exist, and although he never ht it must be only a little more remote than the parts he had reached He was fully prepared to coon for hundreds of miles, and when he finally abandoned it he writes: ”Here we left the boat which I had vainly hoped would have ploughed the waters of an inland sea” Several years afterwards I discovered pieces of this boat, built of New Zealand pine, in the debris of a flood about twenty reat portion, if not all the country, explored by that expedition is now highly-prized pastoral land, and a gold field was discovered alht of a depot formed by Sturt, at a spot where he was i his caion as a desert, and he seeot into and was surrounded by a wilderness the like of which no hu had ever seen or heard of before His whole narrative is a tale of suffering and woe, and he says on hisat the furthest point he attained in the interior, about forty-five miles from where he had enca place for stock on a Queensland cattle run: ”Halted at sunset in a country such as I verily believe has no parallel upon the earth's surface, and one which was terrible in its aspect” Sturt's views are only to be accounted for by the fact thatcall excellent sheep and cattle country appeared to him like a desert, because his comparisons were made with the best alluvial lands he had left near the coast Explorers as a rule, great ones more particularly, are not without rivals in so honourable a field as that of discovery, although not every one who undertakes the task is fitted either by nature or art to adorn the chosen part Sturt was rivalled by no less celebrated an individual than Major, afterwards Sir Thomas, Mitchell, a soldier of the Peninsula War, and some professional jealousy appears to have existed between them

Major Mitchell was then the Surveyor-General of the Colony, and he entirely traversed and ion he appropriately named Australia Felix, now the colony of Victoria Mitchell, like Sturt, conducted three expeditions: the first in 1831-1832, when he traced the River Darling previously discovered by Sturt, for several hundred miles, until he found it trend directly to the locality at which Sturt, in his journey down the Murray, had seen and laid down its , in latitude 30 degrees 5', Mitchell built a stockade and formed a depot, which he called Fort Bourke; near this spot the present town of Bourke is situated and now connected by rail with Sydney, the distance being about 560 miles Mitchell's second journey, when he visited Australia Felix, was made in 1835, and his last expedition into tropical Australia was in 1845 On this expedition he discovered a large river running in a north-westerly direction, and as its channel was so large, and its general appearance so grand, he conjectured that it would prove to be the Victoria River of Captain Lort Stokes, and that it would run on in probably increasing size, or at least in undih the 1100 or 1200 miles of country that intervened between his own and Captain Stokes's position He therefore called it the Victoria River Gregory subsequently discovered that Mitchell's Victoria turned south, and was one and the same watercourse called Cooper's Creek by Sturt The upper portion of this watercourse is non by its native nanored Mitchell always had surveyors with him, who chained as he went every yard of the thousands of hted for his explorations, and lived to enjoy the honour; so indeed was Sturt, but in his case it was only a mockery, for he was totally blind and alnition of his numerous and valuable services was so tardily conferred upon him (Dr WH Broho accoeon and naturalist, is living in London; and another earlier coe McCleay, still survives)

These two great travellers were followed by, or worked sih in a totally different part of the continent, nae Grey in 1837-1839 His labours and escapes from death by spear-wounds, shi+pwreck, starvation, thirst, and fatigue, fill his volumes with incidents of the deepest interest

Edward Eyre, subsequently known as Governor Eyre, made an attempt to reach, in 1840-1841, Central Australia by a route north froined hiht he was hemmed in by a circular or horse-shoe-shaped salt depression, which he called Lake Torrens; because, wherever he tried to push northwards, north-ards, eastwards, or north-eastwards, he invariably came upon the shores of one of these objectionable and impassable features As , there are several of theround between, instead of the obstacle being one continuous circle by which he supposed he was surrounded In consequence of his inability to overcoave up the atte westerly, round the head of Flinders' Spencer's Gulf, where now the inland seaport town of Port Augusta stands, he forced his way along the coast line fro the perpendicular cliffs of the Great Australian Bight to Albany, at King George's Sound

This journey of Eyre's was very remarkable inthe statehts without water I have travelled with horses in almost every part of Australia, but I know that after three days and three nights without water horses would certainly knock up, die, or become utterly useless, and it would be i Another reht whilst Eyre atching the horses, there being no water at the encampment, Baxter, his only white co to South Australia, who had been with Eyre for some time previously These little boys shot Baxter and robbed the camp of nearly all the food and a up from the horses to where Baxter lay, deca, but never afterwards One other and older boy, a native of Albany, whither Eyre was bound, now alone re condition, living upon dead fish or anything they could find for several weeks, and never could have reached the Sound had they not, by al schooner when nearly 300 lishman named Rossiter, treated them most handsomely; he took them on board for a month while their horses recruited on shore--for this was a watering place of Flinders--he then completely refitted them with every necessary before he would allow theratitude called the place Rossiter Bay, but it seems to have been prophetically christened previously by the ubiquitous Flinders, under the na places visited by Eyre consisted of the drainage froreat accumulations of pure white sand or huator; as Flinders hiht well have been called The most peculiar of these features is the patch at what Flinders called the head of the Great Australian Bight; these sandhills rise to an elevation of several hundred feet, the prevailing southerly winds causing theradually from the south, while the northern face is precipitous In ht I have seen these sandhills, a fewrefracted to an unnatural altitude by the bright ht Fortunate indeed it was for Eyre that such relief was afforded him; he was unable to penetrate at all into the interior, and he brought back no information of the character and nature of the country inland I am the only traveller who has explored that part of the interior, but of this more hereafter

About this time Strezletki and McMillan, both froion now the easternmost part of the colony of Victoria, which Strezletki called Gipp's Land These two explorers were rivals, and both, it seems, claimed to have been first in that field

Next on the list of explorers coer seeker after fame in the Australian field of discovery, and whose memory all must revere He successfully conducted an expedition fro--on the northern coast--by which he reat part of what is now Queensland, the capital being Brisbane at Moreton Bay A settleton by the Government of New South Wales, to which colony the whole territory then belonged At this settlehteen months of travel, Leichhardt and his exhausted party arrived The settlement was a military and penal one, but was ultimately abandoned It is now a cattle station in the northern territory division of South Australia, and belongs to soentlemen in Adelaide