McKinlay was now satisfied that he had discovered all there was to find of the Victorian expedition, and, after burying a letter for the benefit of any after-comers, he left Lake Massacre, as it was mistakenly named, and returned to the depot camp. His letter was as follows:—

"S.A.B.R. Expedition,

"October 23rd, 1861.

"To the leader of any expedition seeking tidings of Burke and party.

"Sir, I reached this water on the 19th instant, and by means of a native guide discovered a European camp, one mile north on west side of flat. At or near this camp, traces of horses, camels, and whites were found. Hair, apparently belonging to Mr. Wills, Charles Gray, Mr. Burke, or King, was picked up from the surface of a grave dug by a spade, and from the skull of a European buried by the natives. Other less important traces — such as a pannikin, oil-can, saddle-stuffing, etc., have been found. Beware of the natives, on whom we have had to fire. We do not intend to return to Adelaide, but proceed to west of north. From information, all Burke's party were killed and eaten.

"JNO. MCKINLAY.

"P.S. All the party in good health.

"If you had any difficulty in reaching this spot, and wish to return to Adelaide by a more practicable route, you may do so for at least three months to come by driving west eighteen miles, then south of west, cutting our dray track within thirty miles. Abundance of water and feed at easy stages."

McKinlay next sent one of his party — Hodgkinson — with men and pack-horses to Blanche Water, to carry down the news of his discovery, and to bring back rations for a prolonged exploration. Meanwhile he remained in camp. From one old native with whom he had a long conversation, he obtained another version of the alleged massacre, in which there was apparently some vestige of truth.

The new version was to the effect that the whites, on their return, had been attacked by the natives, but had repulsed them. One white man had been killed, and had been buried after the fight, whilst the other whites went south. The natives had then dug up the body and eaten the flesh. The old fellow also described minutely the different waters passed by Burke, and the way in which the men subsisted on the seeds of the nardoo plant, all of which he must have heard from other natives.

After waiting a month, Hodgkinson returned, bringing the news of the rescue of King and the fate of Burke and Wills. This explained McKinlay's discovery as that of Gray's body, the narrative of the fight and massacre being merely ornamental additions by the natives. After an easterly excursion, in which he visited the two graves on Cooper's Creek, McKinlay started definitely north. It is difficult to follow without a map the Journal containing the record of his travel during the first weeks. Not only does he give the native name of every small lakelet and waterhole in full, but he omits to give the bearing of his daily course.

A northerly course was however, in the main pursued, and Mckinlay describes the country crossed as first-class pastoral land. As it was then the dry season of the year, immediately preceding the rains, it proves what an abnormally severe season must have been encountered by Sturt when that explorer was turned back on his last trip in much the same latitude. On the 27th of February, the wet season of the tropics set in; but fortunately the party found a refuge among some stony hills and sand-ridges, in the neighbourhood of which they were camped, though at one time they were completely surrounded by water. On March 10th, the rain had abated sufficiently to allow them to resume their journey; but the main creek which they still continued to follow up north was so boggy and swollen that they were forced to keep some distance from its banks. This river, which McKinlay called the Mueller, is one of the main rivers of Central Australia, and an important affluent of Lake Eyre, and is now known as the Diamantina. McKinlay left it at the point where it comes from the north-west, and following up a tributary, he crossed the dividing range, there called the McKinlay Range, in about the same locality as Burke's crossing. He had christened many of the inland watercourses on his way across, but most of his names have been replaced by others, it having been difficult subsequently to identify them. In many cases, the watercourses which he thought to be independent creeks, are but ana-branches of the Diamantina.

Passing through good travelling country, and finding ample grass and water, he reached the Leichhardt River flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria, on the 6th of May.

As his rations were becoming perilously low, McKinlay was anxious to get to the mouth of the Albert, it having been understood that Captain Norman, with the steam-ship Victoria was there to form a depot for the use of the Queensland search parties. His attempts to reach it however, were fruitless, as he was continually turned back by mangrove creeks both broad and deep, and by boggy flats; so that on the 21st of May he started for the nearest settled district in North Queensland, in the direction of Port Denison.

He followed much the same route as that taken by A.C. Gregory on his return from the Victoria River.* Crossing on to the head of the Burdekin, he followed that river down, trusting to come across some of the flocks and herds of the advancing settlers. On reaching Mount McConnell, where the two former explorers had crossed the Burdekin, he continued to follow the river, and descended the coast range where it forces its way through a narrow gorge. Here on the Bowen River, he arrived at a temporary station just formed by Phillip Somer, where he received all the accustomed hospitality. Since leaving the Gulf, the explorers had subsisted on little else but horse and camel flesh, and were necessarily in a weak condition. Had they but camped a day or two when on the upper course of the Burdekin, they would have been relieved much earlier, for the pioneer squatters were already there, and the party would have been spared a rough trip through the Burdekin Gorge. In fact the tracks of the camels were seen by one pioneer at least, a few hours after the caravan had passed. E. Cunningham, who had just then formed Burdekin Downs station, tells with much amusement how McKinlay's tracks puzzled him and his black boy. The Burdekin pioneers did not of course, expect McKinlay's advent amongst them, although they knew that he was then somewhere out west; and such an animal as a camel did not enter into their calculations. Cunningham said that the only solution of the problem of the footprints that he could think of was that the tracks were those of a return party who had been looking for new country, and that their horses, having lost their shoes and becoming footsore, they had wrapped their feet in bandages.

*[Footnote.] See Chapter 18.

For his services on this expedition which were of great value in opening up Central Australia, McKinlay was presented with a gold watch by the Royal Geographical Society, and was voted 1,000 pounds by the South Australian Government.

During the early settlement of the Northern Territory, much dissatisfaction had arisen concerning the site chosen at Escape Cliffs. McKinlay was sent north by the South Australian Government to select a more favourable position, and to report generally on the capabilities of the new territory. He organized an expedition at Escape Cliffs, and left with the intention of making a long excursion to the eastward. But a very wet season set in, and he had reached only the East Alligator River when sudden floods cut him off and hemmed him in. The whole party would have been destroyed but for the resourcefulness displayed by the leader, who made coracles of horse-hides stretched on frames of saplings, by which means they escaped. On his return, McKinlay examined the mouth of the Daly River, and recommended Anson Bay as a more suitable site, but his suggestion was not adopted. McKinlay, whose health suffered from the effect of the hardships incident to his journeys, retired to spend his days in the congenial atmosphere of pastoral pursuits, and died, in 1874, at Gawler, South Australia, where a monument is erected to his memory.

15.2. WILLIAM LANDSBOROUGH.

William Landsborough, the son of a Scotch physician, was born in Ayrshire and educated at Irvine. When he came to Australia, he settled first in the New England district of New South Wales, and thence removed to Queensland. In 1856, his interest in discovery and a desire to find new country led him to undertake much private exploration, principally on the coastal parts of Queensland, in the district of Broadsound and the Isaacs River. In 1858 he explored the Comet to its head, and in the following year the head waters of the Thomson.

An old friend and erstwhile comrade, writing of him, says: "Landsborough's enterprise was entirely founded on self-reliance. He had neither Government aid nor capitalists at his back when he achieved his first success as an explorer. He was the very model of a pioneer — courageous, hardy, good-humoured, and kindly. He was an excellent horseman, a most entertaining and, at times, eccentric companion, and he could starve with greater cheerfulness than any man I ever saw or heard of. But, excellent fellow though he was, his very independence of character and success in exploring provoked much ill-will."

Landsborough was recommended for the position of leader by the veteran A.C. Gregory, and on the 14th of August he left Brisbane in the Firefly, having on board a party of volunteer assistants who had been stirred by the widespread sympathy with the missing men to take an active part in the relief expedition. Unfortunately, those under Landsborough were, with one exception, unacquainted with bush life. The exception was George Bourne, the second in command, an old squatter who had seen and suffered many a long drought, and whose services proved to be of great value. After some mishap the Firefly, convoyed by the Victoria, reached the mouth of the Albert River, where the party was safely landed.

After starting from the Albert, Landsborough came unexpectedly upon a river hitherto unknown. It flowed into the Nicholson, and both Leichhardt and Gregory had crossed below the confluence. It was a running stream with much semi-tropical foliage on its banks, running through well-grassed, level country, and he named it the Gregory. As they neared the higher reaches of the Gregory, they found the country of a more arid nature. They ascended the main range, and on the 21st of December, Landsborough found an inland river flowing south, which he named the Herbert. The Queensland authorities subsequently re-christened the stream with the singularly inappropriate name of Georgina. In this river two fine sheets of water were found, and called Lake Frances and Lake Mary. An ineffectual attempt was then made to go westward, but lack of water compelled them to desist.

Landsborough now returned to the depot by way of the Gregory, and, on arriving there, learnt that Walker had been in and had reported having seen the tracks of Burke and Wills on the Flinders. Landsborough thereupon resolved to return by way of the Flinders, instead of going back by boat. They had very little provisions, but by reducing the number of the party, they managed to subsist on short allowance. On this second trip, he followed the Flinders up, and was rewarded by being the first white man to see the beautiful prairie-like country through which it flows. He named the remarkable isolated hills visible from the river Fort Bowen, Mount Brown and Mount Little. From the upper Flinders he struck south, hoping to come across a newly-formed station, but was disappointed, though he saw numerous horse-tracks showing that settlement was near at hand. At last after enduring a long period of semi-starvation, they reached the Warrego, and at the station of Neilson and Williams, first learnt the fate of those whom they had been seeking.

Landsborough was next appointed Resident at Burketown, and afterwards Inspector of Brands for the district of East Moreton. He died in 1886.

15.3. P.E. WARBURTON.



Major Warburton was the fourth son of the Reverend Rowland Warburton of Arley Hall, Cheshire, where he was born on the 15th of August, 1813. He was first educated in France. He entered the Royal Navy in 1826, and in 1829 proceeded to Addiscombe College, preparatory to entering the East India Company's service, in which he served from 1831 to 1853, when he retired with the rank of Major. In 1853 he arrived at Albany. From there he went on to Adelaide, and at the end of the same year was appointed Commissioner of Police, an office which he held until he was placed in charge of the Imperial Pension Department. On his return from his exploring expedition he was voted 1,000 pounds for himself, and 500 pounds for his party. He was created a C.M.G. in 1875, was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, and he died in 1889.

In 1873 two prominent South Australian colonists, whose names are intimately connected with the promotion of exploration in that colony, Thomas Elder and Walter Hughes, fitted out an expedition which it was hoped would lead to the rapid advancement of geographical knowledge. Unfortunately the result was not commensurate with the ambitious nature of the undertaking. The command was given to Major Warburton, who was instructed to start from the neighbourhood of Central Mount Stuart, and to steer a course direct to Perth. In spite of being provided with a long string of camels, Warburton incurred so much delay in getting through the sandhills that his camels were knocked up and his provisions nearly all consumed before he had advanced half-way. This compelled him to bear up north to the head waters of the Oakover River. Besides the leader, the party consisted of his son Richard; Lewis, a surveyor; one more white man; two Afghans; and a native. Lewis, the surveyor, showed himself to be a most capable man; in fact, but for his energy and forethought, the expedition would have been swallowed up in the sands of the north-west desert.

On the 15th of April, 1873, the explorers left Alice Springs and followed the overland line until they reached a creek called Burt's Creek, whence they struck to the westward. After a vain search for the rivers Hugh and Finke, which were popularly supposed to rise to the north of the McDonnell Ranges, Warburton altered his course to the north-west, meaning to connect with A.C. Gregory's most southerly point on Sturt's Creek. For some distance his way led him through available pastoral country, and in some of the minor ranges beautiful glens were discovered with deep pools of water in their beds. So frightened were the camels by the rocks that surrounded them, that they would not approach them to drink. On the 22nd of May, after travelling for some days in poor sandy country, they came to a good creek with a full head. The whole flat, on to which the creek emerged from the hills, was one vast spring. This place, the best camp they had yet met with, was named Eva Springs. Leaving the main body resting at these springs, the leader, with two companions, started ahead, and was successful in finding some native wells that enabled him to break up his main camp and advance with all the men and material.

On the 5th of June they crossed the boundary-line between the two colonies, and found themselves on the scrubby, sandy tableland common to the interior. At some native wells, which were called Waterloo Wells, they made an enforced sojourn of about a month; in addition they lost three camels, and one of the Afghans nearly died of scurvy. When they were at last enabled to leave the Waterloo Wells, they found themselves plunged into the salt lake country, where the native inhabitants exist on shallow wells and soakage springs. By their reckoning they were now within ten miles of Gregory's Sturt's Creek; but though Warburton made two separate attempts to find the place, he was unable to recognise any country that at all resembled the description given by Gregory. Rightfully ascribing this disappointment to an error in his longitude, he proceeded on a westerly course once more. The tale of each day's journey now becomes a dreary record of travels across a monotonous barren country, and an incessant search for native wells, their only means of sustaining life.

In addition to other causes for delay, the excessive heat caused by radiation from the surrounding sandhills during the day compelled the leader to spare his camels as much as possible by travelling at night. This naturally led to a most unsatisfactory inspection of the country traversed, and it was impossible to say what clues to water were passed by unwittingly.

Starvation now commenced to press close upon them; the constant delays had so reduced their store of provisions that they were almost at the end of their resources, whilst still surrounded by the endless desert of sand-ridges and spinifex. Sickness, too, befel them, so that almost the full brunt of the work of the expedition was placed upon the capable shoulders of Lewis and the black boy Charley. The time of these two was taken up in watching the smoke of the fires of the natives, or in looking for their tracks. During the early morning and in the evening they could travel a little, but at night the myriad swarms of ants prevented the tired men from obtaining their natural sleep. If they stopped to rest the camels, they only prolonged their own starvation; yet without rest the camels could not carry them ahead in the search for water. On the 9th of October, the camels strayed away during the night, but luckily came across a small waterhole, and at this welcome spot the party rested for a while; indeed with the exception of Lewis and the native, they were all too weak to do aught else. They slaughtered a camel, and were fortunate to shoot a few pigeons and galah parrots, the fresh meat restoring a little of their strength. They had long since despaired of carrying out the original purpose of the expedition. All that they could hope for was to struggle on with the last remaining flicker of life to the nearest settled country. This was the Oakover River, on the north coast, and to the head of the Oakover, therefore, their worn-out camels were directed. They could entertain no hope of relief before reaching the Oakover, for the discoverer of that river, Frank Gregory, a man always reluctant to acknowledge defeat, had been turned from the southward attempt by this very desert across which they were painfully toiling. On the evening that they started for the station, the whole party were about to ride blindly on into waterless country, where, but for the black boy, they would all have perished. The boy had left the camp early in the morning, and, having come across the fresh tracks of some natives, followed them up to their camp, where he found a well. He hastened back to the party to tell them of his discovery, only to find that they had gone. Fortunately he had sharp ears, and hearing the distant receding tinkle of the camel bell, by dint of energetically pushing on and cooeeing loudly, he managed to attract their attention, and then led them back to the new source of relief. Lewis and the black boy were now the eyes and ears of the party, and but for them the expedition would never have reached the river.

A fresh start was made after a welcome halt at this well. Warburton and his son could scarcely sit their camels, and followed the weary caravan almost with apathy. On the 14th of November Charley found another native well; but its discovery nearly cost him his life. When close to the native camp, he had gone ahead by himself, as he usually did, so as not to startle the aboriginals. The blacks received him kindly and gave him water, but when he cooeed for his companion, they took sudden alarm and attacked him. They had speared him in the arm and back, and cut his head open with a club when Lewis came up just in time to rescue him. Evidently this attack was not premeditated, but caused by the sudden fear aroused by the sight of the white men and camels. At this well Lewis and one of the Afghans went ahead to strike the head of the Oakover, for they thought they must be drawing near the coast, as the nights were growing cool and dewy, and they had found traces of white iron work in an old camp. In a week Lewis returned, having reached a tributary of the river; and on the 5th of December the whole party arrived at the rocky creek that he had found.

They now proceeded slowly down the Oakover, but came across no sign of occupation. The indefatigable Lewis had therefore again to go ahead for help whilst the others waited for him, living on the flesh of the last camel. He had 170 miles to journey over before he reached the cattle station belonging to Grant, Harper, and Anderson, where he was immediately supplied with horses and provisions to take back to the starving men.

It was on the 29th of December as Warburton was lying in the shade thinking moodily that the station must have been abandoned, and that Lewis had surely been compelled to push on to Roebourne, when the black boy from a tree-top gave a cheerful signal. Starting to their feet, the astonished men found the pack-horses and the relief party almost in their camp.

Of the seventeen camels with which they had started, the two that Lewis had taken on to the station were the only survivors; and all their equipment had been abandoned piecemeal in the desert.

15.4. WILLIAM CHRISTIE GOSSE.



On the 23rd of April, about a week after the departure of Warburton, William Christie Gosse, Deputy Surveyor-General of South Australia, also left Alice Springs on an exploring expedition, having been appointed by the South Australian Government to take charge of the Central and Western Exploring Expedition. Like Warburton, he was frustrated by dry country in his endeavour to reach Perth. He had with him both white men and Afghan camel drivers, and a mixed outfit of horses and camels. He left the telegraph line and struck westward, soon finding himself in very dry country, where he lost one horse on a dry stage. He made a depot camp on a creek which he called the Warburton, and while on an excursion from this camp he had the singular experience of riding all day through heavy rain and camping at night without water, the sandy soil having quickly absorbed the downpour. On his return he found that the creek at the camp was running, and though repeated attempts had been made by the Afghans to goad one of the camels over, the animal obstinately refused to cross. Probably the leader thought that it was fortunate for the progress of the expedition that they were not likely to meet with many more running streams. After passing both Warburton's tracks and those of Giles, Gosse reached the extreme western point of the Macdonnell Ranges, where another stationary camp was pitched. The leader made a long excursion to the south-west, and at 84 miles, after passing over sand-ridges and spinifex country, caught sight of a remarkable hill, that on a nearer approach proved to be of singular limestone formation.

"When I got clear of the sandhills, and was only two miles distant, and the hill, for the first time coming fairly in view, what was my astonishment to find it was one immense rock rising abruptly from the plain; the holes I had noticed were caused by the water in some places causing immense caves."

This hill, which Gosse made an ineffectual attempt to ascend, he called Ayer's Rock. He returned to his depot camp, crossing an arm of Lake Amadeus as he did so, and moved the main body on to Ayer's Rock. Rain having set in heavily for some days, he pushed some distance into Western Australia, but soon reached the limit of the rainfall. After many attempts to penetrate the sand-hill region which confronted him, the heat and aridity compelled him to turn back.

His homeward course was by way of the Musgrave Ranges, where he found a greater extent of pastoral country than had been thought to exist there. He discovered and christened the Marryat, and followed down the Alberga to within sixty miles of the Overland Line, when he turned north-eastward to the Charlotte Waters station.

Although Gosse's exploration did not add any important new features, he filled in many details in the central map, and was able correctly to lay down the position of some of the discoveries of Ernest Giles.

William Christie Gosse was the son of Dr. Gosse, and was born in 1842 at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. He had come to Australia with his father in 1850, and in 1859 had entered the Government service of South Australia. He held various positions in the survey department, and, after his return from the exploring expedition, he was made Deputy Surveyor-General. He died prematurely on August 12th, 1881.



CHAPTER 16. TRAVERSING THE CENTRE.



16.1. ERNEST GILES.

Ernest Giles was born at Bristol, a famous birthplace of adventurous spirits. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, London, and after leaving school came out to South Australia to join his parents, who had preceded him thither. In 1852 he went to the Victorian goldfields, and subsequently became a clerk, first in the Post Office, Melbourne, and afterwards in the county court.

Having resigned his clerkship, he pursued a bush life, and in 1872 made his first effort in the field of exploration. His party was a small one, the funds being found by contributions from S. Carmichael, one of the party, Baron von Mueller, Giles himself, and one of his relatives. The members of the expedition were Giles, Carmichael, and Robinson; 15 horses and a little dog were included in the equipment. They started from Chambers Pillar, and it was on this journey that Lake Amadeus and Mount Olga were discovered, the two most enduring physical features whose discovery we owe to Giles. The lake is a long narrow salt-pan of considerable size, but without any important affluents; Mount Olga is a singular mountain situated about 50 miles from the lake. On this trip Giles went over much untrodden country, but the smallness of the party at last convinced him that it was beyond their frugal means to force their way through the desert country to the settlements of West Australia. Giles was fortunate on this his first trip in having two able and willing bushmen for his companions; otherwise he would not have progressed as far as he did and returned in safety. But most untiring endeavours will not compensate for the lack of numbers, and Giles was forced to return beaten from his first attempt.

His second expedition took place about the same time as that undertaken by Gosse. In consequence of a stirring appeal by Baron von Mueller, he had now the advantage of both substantial private help and a small sum from the South Australian Government. The party numbered four: W.H. Tietkins, who afterwards made an honourable name as an independent explorer; the unfortunate Alfred Gibson; and a lad named Andrews, in addition to the leader.

Giles left the settled district at the Alberga, and made several determined efforts to push through the sandy spinifex desert that had baffled so many. It was during one of these forlorn hopes that Gibson died.

Anxious to reach a range which he had sighted in the distance, and where he hoped to find a change of country, Giles made up his mind to make a determined effort to reach it, carrying a supply of water with him on pack-horses. As usual, Tietkins was to accompany him, but as Gibson complained of having been always previously left in camp, he was allowed to go instead. The two kept doggedly on, the horses, as they gave in, being left to find their way back to the main camp. At last, when several days out, they had but two horses left. Giles sent Gibson back on one, with instructions to push on for the camp, taking what little water he wanted out of a keg they had buried on their outward way, leaving the remainder for his use. He himself intended to make a final effort to reach the range.

Giles's horse soon gave in after they parted, and he had to start to return on foot. On his weary way back he saw that one of the abandoned horses had turned off from the trail, and that Gibson's tracks turned off too, seemingly following it. When he reached the keg, he found that the contents were untouched. Fearing greatly that the unfortunate man's fate was sealed, Giles dragged himself on to the camp. A search was at once instituted, but it was fruitless. Neither man nor horse was ever seen again; and the scene of his fate is known as Gibson's Desert.

During his excursions in various directions, Giles discovered and traversed four different ranges of hills. The party were much worried by the hostility of the blacks, and, what with the uneasiness caused by their attacks, the plague of myriads of ants, the loss of Gibson, and the failure of their own hopes, they were forced to return to Adelaide, baffled for a time, but not beaten.

We thus see how the arid belt of the middle country had defied three different explorers — Warburton, Gosse, and Giles — one equipped with camels only, one with camels and horses, and one who had relied on horses alone.



In 1875 Giles took the field once more. This time, owing to the generosity of Sir Thomas Elder, of South Australia, he was well-prepared. He had a fine caravan of camels, and had his former companion Tietkins with him, besides a completely-equipped party.

The start was made from Beltana, the next halting-place being Youldeh, where a depot was formed. From this place they shifted north to a native well, Oaldabinna. As the water supply here proved but scanty, Giles started off to the westward to search for a better place, sending Tietkins to the north on a similar errand accompanied by Young.

Giles pushed his way for 150 miles through scrub and past shallow lakelets of salt water until he came to a native well or dam, containing a small supply of water. Beyond this he went another 30 miles, but finding himself amongst saline swamps and scrub, he then returned to the depot. Tietkins and his companion were not so successful. At their furthest point they had come across a large number of natives, who, after decamping in a terrified manner, returned fully armed and painted for war. No attempts of the two white men to open friendly communication or to obtain any information from them had succeeded.

A slight shower of rain having replenished the well they were camped at, Giles determined to make a bold push to the west, trusting to the powers of endurance of his camels to carry him on to water.

On reaching the dam that he had formerly visited, he was agreeably surprised to find that it had been nearly filled by the late rains. As it now contained plenty of water for their wants, and there was good feed all around, they rested by it until the supply of water began to show signs of declining.

On the 16th of September, 1875, he left the Boundary Dam, as he called it, and commenced to try conclusions with the desert to the westward. For the first six days of their march the caravan passed through scrubs of oak, mulga, and sandalwood; next they entered upon vast plains well-grassed, with salt-bush and other edible shrubs growing upon them. Crossing these, the camel train again passed through scrub, but not so dense as before.

When 250 miles had been accomplished, Giles distributed amongst the camels the water he had carried with him. As they kept on, sand-ridges began to make their appearance, native smoke was often seen, and they frequently crossed the tracks of the natives.

On the seventeenth day from the Boundary Dam, Tietkins, who judged by the appearance of the sandhills that there was water in the neighbourhood, sent the black boy Tommy on to a ridge lying south of their course. It was fortunate that he did so, for hidden in a hollow surrounded by sandhills was a tiny lake which they were passing by unheeded until Tommy arrested their progress with frantic shouts. Giles gave this place of succour, which he should have named after his companion, the commonplace name of Victoria Spring; and here the caravan rested for nine days.

Recruited and in good spirits, they soon found themselves amongst the distinctive features of the inner slopes of Western Australia — outcrops of granite mounds and boulders, salt lakes, and bogs. Their next camp of relief was at a native well 200 miles from Victoria Spring.

The quietude of their life at this encampment was however rudely broken by the natives. During their stay they had had friendly intercourse with the blacks, but no suspicions of treachery had been aroused. The explorers were just concluding their evening meal when Young saw a mob of armed and painted natives approaching. He caught sight of them in time to give the alarm to the others, who stood to their arms. Giles says in his journal that they were "a perfectly armed and drilled force," though military discipline was a singular characteristic to find amongst the blacks of this barren region. A discharge of firearms from the whites checked their assailants before any spears had been thrown, and probably prevented the massacre of the whole party.

On leaving this camp the caravan travelled through dense scrub, with occasional hills and patches of open country intervening. They were fortunate to find some wells on the way, and on the 4th of November arrived at an outside sheep-station in the settled districts of Western Australia, and Giles's long-cherished ambition was at last fulfilled.

The result of this trip was satisfactory to Giles, who thus saw his many fruitless, though gallant efforts, at last crowned with success; but the journey had no substantial geographical or economic results. It resembled Warburton's in having been a hasty flight with camels through an unknown country, marking only a thin line on the map of Australia. An explorer with the means at his command, in the shape of camels, of venturing on long dry stages with impunity, is tempted to sacrifice extended exploration of the country bordering his route and the deeper and more valuable knowledge that it brings to rapidity of onward movement. John Forrest, for example, was able, owing to the many minor excursions he was forced to make because of the nature of his equipment, to gain infinitely more knowledge of the geographical details of the country he passed over than either Warburton or Giles.

Giles now retraced his steps to South Australia, following a line to the northward of Forrest's track. He went by way of the Murchison, and crossed over the Gascoyne to the Ashburton, which he followed up to its head. Then striking to the south of east, he cut his former track of 1873 at the Alfred and Marie Range, the range he had so ardently striven to reach when the unfortunate man Gibson died. How futile was the vain attempt that led to Gibson's death he now realised. He finally arrived at the Peake telegraph station. Few watercourses were crossed; the country was suffering under extreme drought; and no discoveries of importance were made.

Giles published a narrative of his explorations entitled Australia Twice Traversed. He was a gold medallist of the Royal Geographical Society. He entered the West Australian Government service on the Coolgardie goldfields, and, on the 13th of November, 1897, died at Coolgardie, West Australia, where the Western Australian Government erected a monument to his memory.

16.2. W.H. TIETKINS AND OTHERS.



W.H. Tietkins was born in London on the 30th of August, 1844, and was educated at Christ's Hospital. He arrived in Adelaide in September, 1859, and took to bush life and subsequently survey-work. On the conclusion of his exploring expeditions with Ernest Giles, he engaged in the survey of Yorke's Peninsula for the South Australian Government, and then paid a visit to England. On his return he went to Sydney, and did some survey work for the New South Wales Government into whose service he permanently entered. He is now a Lands Inspector on the South Coast.

After his experiences as second with Ernest Giles, Tietkins took charge, in 1889, of the Central Australian Exploring Expedition. He left Alice Springs on the overland line on the 14th of March to examine the hitherto unknown country to the north and west of Lake Amadeus. Late in the month of May he discovered and named the Kintore Range, to the north-west of Lake Macdonald, and ascended one of the elevations, Mount Leisler. During the beginning of the next month he practically completed the circuit of Lake Macdonald and discovered the Bonython Ranges to the south-east. On his return journey, Tietkins corrected the somewhat exaggerated notion entertained as to the extent of Lake Amadeus, as he passed through sixty miles of country supposed to be contained in its area without seeing a vestige of this natural feature. In after years he surveyed and correctly fixed its location.

In 1874, surveyor Lewis, the gallant and tireless spirit whose indefatigable efforts had pulled the Warburton Expedition out of the fire took charge of an expedition equipped by Sir Thomas Elder to define the many affluents of Lake Eyre. Starting from the overland line, Lewis skirted Lake Eyre to the north, penetrated to Eyre's Creek, traced that stream and the Diamantina into Lake Eyre, and confirmed the opinion that the waters of Cooper's Creek as well as the more westerly streams found their way into that inland sea. J.W. Lewis afterwards died in Broome, Western Australia.

In 1875 the Queensland Government decided to send out an expedition to ascertain the amount of pastoral country that existed to the westward of the Diamantina River. It was placed in charge of W.O. Hodgkinson, who had occupied a subordinate position in the Burke and Wills expedition. They started from the upper reaches of the Cloncurry and, crossing the main dividing range on to the Diamantina, followed that river down to the southern boundary of Queensland, where it had been named the Everard by Lewis. This portion was now well-known, and the tracks of the pioneers' stock were everywhere visible. From the lower Diamantina, the party went westwards, and, beyond Eyre's Creek, in good pastoral country, came upon a watercourse which was named the Mulligan. This creek Hodgkinson followed up to the north; and, not knowing that he had crossed its head watershed, went on down the Herbert (Georgina) under the impression that he was still on the Mulligan. He was undeceived when he overtook N. Buchanan with cattle, who was then engaged in re-stocking the stations on the Herbert that had been abandoned in the commercial depression of 1872 and 1873. This was the last exploring expedition sent out by the Queensland authorities, the country within the bounds of that colony being by that time all known.

But across the western border, the vacant and unknown country of South Australia attracted many private expeditions to examine it in search of pastoral holdings. Amongst those from Queensland were two brothers named Prout, who, with one man, went out to look for new grazing lands, and never returned. Many months afterwards a search party, under W.J.H. Carr-Boyd, found some of the horses, and then the remains of one of the brothers. It was evident from the fragments of a diary recovered, that they had pushed far into the dry region of South Australia, and had met their deaths from thirst on the return journey. Probably some of the waters on which they had relied had unexpectedly failed.

In 1878, Nathaniel Buchanan, a veteran pioneer and overlander of Queensland, made an excursion from the Queensland border to Tennant's Creek on the overland telegraph line. Starting from the Ranken, a tributary of the Georgina, Buchanan struck a westerly course, and discovering the head of a well-watered creek running through fine open downs, he followed it down to the westward for some days. The creek eventually ran out into dry flats, so Buchanan struck westward to the telegraph line, which he reached after some hardship, a little to the south of Tennant's Creek. The creek which he discovered, and to which Favenc afterwards gave the name of Buchanan's Creek, was a most important discovery, affording a practicable stock route to the great pastoral district lying between the Queensland border and the overland line.

Frank Scarr, a Queensland surveyor, was the next to invade this strip of still unknown land. He attempted to steer a course south of Buchanan's, but was turned back by the dry belt of country. On this excursion he also found two of the horses of the ill-fated Prout brothers. Scarr then made further north, and, with the assistance of the creek discovered by Buchanan, was enabled to reach the line. Owing to the severity of the drought, however, he was unable to extend his researches any further, and returned safely to Queensland.



In 1878, a project for a railway line on the land-grant principle between Brisbane and Port Darwin was originated in the former city. The proprietor of the leading Brisbane newspaper, Gresley Lukin, organized and equipped a party to explore a suitable line of country, the object being to ascertain the nature and value of the land in the neighbourhood of the proposed line, and the geographical features of the unexplored portion. The leader was Ernest Favenc, who was accompanied by surveyor Briggs, G. Hedley, and a black boy. They left Cork station on the Diamantina, and kept a north-west course through the untraversed country between that river and the Georgina, or Herbert, as it was then called. They then crossed the border into South Australia, and struck the creek which Buchanan had found, and to which the name of Buchanan's Creek was now given. Leaving this creek at the lowest water, the party struck north, and, after finding two large but shallow lakes, came, in the midst of most excellent pastoral country, to a fine lagoon which they named the Corella Lagoon. The trees on the banks of this lagoon, which was about four miles long, were at the time of the visit white with myriads of corella parrots; hence the name. Some three hundred natives were assembled at this lagoon to celebrate their tribal rites; but they showed a friendly disposition.

From the Corella Lagoon the expedition proceeded north and discovered a large creek running from east to west. It proved to be one of the principal creeks of that region, and was named Cresswell Creek; and a permanent lagoon on it was named the Anthony Lagoon. Cresswell Creek was followed down until, like its fellow creek the Buchanan, it too was absorbed in dry, parched flats. The last permanent water on Cresswell Creek was named the Adder Waterholes, on account of the large number of death-adders that were killed there. A dry stage of ninety miles now intervened between the party and the telegraph line, and the first attempt to cross, on a day of terrible heat, resulted in a return to the Adder Camp, three horses having succumbed to the heat, thirst, and the cracked and fissured arid plains. It being the height of the summer season, and no water within a reasonable distance, it was evidently useless to sacrifice any more horses. There was nothing to do, therefore, but to await at the last camp the fall of a kindly thundershower, by means of which they might bridge the dry gap between them and the line.

The long delay exhausted the supply of rations, but by means of birds — ducks and pigeons — horseflesh, and the usual edible bush plants — blue-bush and pigweed — the party fared sufficiently well.

During their detention at this camp, many short excursions were made, and the country traversed was found to be mostly richly grassed downs. Where flooded country was encroached upon, the dry beds of former lakes were found, encircled in all cases with a ring of dead trees.

In January, 1879, the thunderstorms set in, and the party reached Powell's Creek telegraph station in safety.

This expedition opened up a good deal of fine pastoral country, which is now all stocked and settled.

Western Australia was still busy in the field of exploration. In 1876 Adam Johns and Phillip Saunders started from Roebourne and crossed to the overland line in South Australia. Ostensibly theirs was a prospecting expedition; but as the country to the eastward of the Fitzroy River was then unknown, it was an important exploration event. They were unsuccessful in finding gold, but on their arrival at the line they reported having passed through good pastoral country.

There is no doubt that the east and west tracks of the Queensland explorers, and of Alexander Forrest,* did more to throw open that part of Australia to settlement than did the north and south journey of Stuart, more important as that one was from the purely geographical point of view. Stuart led the way across the centre of the continent, but even after the telegraph line was constructed on his route, very little was known of the country to the east and the west.

*[Footnote.] See Chapter 19.

The South Australian Government had several times made slight attempts to reach the Queensland border, but in 1878, they sent out H.V. Barclay to make a trigonometrical survey of most of the untraversed country between the line and the Queensland boundary. Barclay left Alice Springs, of which station he first fixed the exact geographical position by a series of telegraphic exchanges with the observatory in Adelaide. Barclay had much dry country to contend against, but managed to reach a north point close to Scarr's furthest south. He did not, however, on that occasion, actually arrive at the Queensland border, but explored the territory on the South Australian side. During the conduct of the survey he discovered and named the Jervois Ranges, the spurs of the eastern MacDonnell, and the following tributaries of Lake Eyre — the Hale, the Plenty, the Marshall, and the Arthur Rivers.

In 1883, Favenc, on a private expedition to report on pastoral country, traced the heads of several of the rivers of the Carpentarian Gulf, and in the following year left the north Newcastle Waters to examine and trace the Macarthur River. The river was followed from its source to the sea, and a large extent of valuable pastoral country and several permanent springs found in its valley; a large tributary, the Kilgour, was also discovered and named. These short excursions, and some exploratory trips made by MacPhee, east of Daly Waters, may be said to have concluded exploration between the line and the Queensland border.

In 1883, the South Australian Government despatched an expedition in charge of David Lindsay to complete the survey of Arnhem's Land. Lindsay left the Katherine station, and proceeded to Blue Mud Bay. On the way the party had a narrow escape of massacre at the hands of the blacks, who speared four horses, and made an attempt to surprise the camp of the whites. Lindsay had trouble with his horses in the stony, broken tableland that had nearly baffled Leichhardt; and from one misfortune and another, lost a great number of them. In fact, at one time, so rough was the country that he anticipated having to abandon his horses and make his way into the telegraph station on foot. On the whole, however, the country was favourably reported on, particularly with regard to tropical agriculture.

Another journey was undertaken about this time by O'Donnell and Carr-Boyd, who left the Katherine River and pushed across the border into Western Australia. They succeeded in finding a large amount of pastoral country; but no important geographical discoveries were made.

In 1884 H. Stockdale, who had had considerable experience in the southern colonies, and was an old bushman, made an excursion from Cambridge Gulf to the south through the Kimberley district. Stockdale found well-grassed country with numerous permanently-watered creeks. When he came to the creek which he named Buchanan Creek, he formed a depot. On his return from an expedition to the south with three men, he found that during his absence the men left in charge of it had been hunting kangaroos with the horses instead of allowing them to rest. There were other irregularities as well, and Stockdale found his resources too much reduced, both in horseflesh and rations, to continue the exploration. They started for the telegraph line, but on the way the two men who had been misbehaving requested to be left behind. As they persisted in their wish, there was nothing left but to accede to it. The two men, with as much rations as could be spared, arms, and powder and shot, were then left at their own request on a permanent creek in a country where game could be obtained. Stockdale himself had to undergo some hardship before reaching the Overland Line. Although search was made for the two men, they were never afterwards found.

One little area of country, of no great importance but still untrodden by man yet remained in Central Australia, as a lure to excite the white man's curiosity. This unvisited spot was situated north of latitude 26, and bounded on the west by the Finke River, on the north by the Plenty and Marshall Rivers and part of the MacDonnell Ranges, and on the west by the Hay River and the Queensland border. An expedition to exploit it was equipped by Ronald MacPherson, and assisted by the South Australian Government with the loan of camels. The leader was Captain V. Barclay, an old South Australian surveyor, whose name has already been mentioned in these pages.

Barclay had been born in Lancashire, at Bury, on the 6th of January, 1845. He had entered the Royal Navy in 1860, and had been severely wounded on board H.M.S. Illustrious by a gun breaking loose when at target practice. He had emigrated to Tasmania in the seventies, and in 1877 had been appointed by the South Australian Government to explore the country lying between the line and the Queensland border, a notice of which occurs in the preceding pages.

The party, lightly equipped to be more effective, was absent from Oodnadatta from July 24th until December 5th 1904, and in that time accomplished much useful work in the face of great difficulties. On account of the great heat, the expedition had to resort to travelling by night and resting by day. The country was principally high sandy ridges, some so steep that it was not easy to find crossing-places. They had to sacrifice a lot of valuable stores, personal effects, and a valuable collection of native curios, all chiefly on account of the shortness of water.

By this date the whole of the central portion of Australia was known, and the greater part of it mapped; while all the permanently-watered country had been rapidly utilised by the pastoralists.

PART 3. THE WEST.



CHAPTER 17. ROE, GREY, AND GREGORY.

17.1. ROE AND THE PIONEERS.

Whilst Sturt and kindred bold spirits had been painfully but surely piecing together the geographical puzzle of the south-east corner of the Australian continent, a similar struggle between man and Nature had commenced in the south-west. Here, Nature kept close her secrets with no less pertinacity than in the east; but, though the struggle was just as arduous, the environment was very different. Instead of rearing an unscalable barrier of gloomy mountains, Nature here showed a level front of sullen hostility. Nor did she lure the first explorers inland with a smiling face of welcome once the outworks had been forced, as she had drawn Evans when he reached the head-waters of the Macquarie and Lachlan. Beyond the sources of the western coastal streams, she fought silently for every eastward mile of vantage ground, spreading before the adventurous intruder the salt lake and the arid desert.

As far back as 1791, George Vancouver, a whilom middy of Cook's, discovered and named King George's Sound, when in command of H.M.S. Discovery. He formally took possession of the adjacent country, and remained there some days, making a careful survey of both the inner and outer harbours.

On the 9th of December, 1826, Sir Ralph Darling, then Governor of New South Wales, sent Major Lockyer, of the 57th, with a detachment of the 39th, a regiment intimately associated with the early settlement of Australia, to form a settlement at King George's Sound, where they landed on the 25th of December of the same year. This settlement was established in order to forestall the French, who, according to rumour, intended to occupy the harbour and adjacent lands.

On the 17th of January, 1827, Captain James Stirling, of H.M.S. Success, left Sydney, intending to survey those portions of the west coast unvisited by Lieutenant King, and also to investigate the nature of the country in the neighbourhood of the Swan River with a view to its suitability for settlement. Stirling was accompanied by Charles Fraser, who had considerable experience as adviser upon Australian sites for settlement. Both Stirling and Fraser reported favourably on the Swan River; and the latter waxing enthusiastic on its eligibility, it was decided to found a new colony there.

In 1829, Captain Fremantle of H.M.S. Challenger hoisted the British flag at the mouth of the Swan River, and thenceforth the whole of the Australian continent was under British sway. Captain, now Lieutenant-Governor, Stirling arrived a month later in the transport Parmelia, and the free colony of Western Australia was launched on its varied career.

The names first mentioned in the annals of land exploration in Western Australia are those of Alexander Collie and Lieutenant William Preston, who together explored the country on the coast between Cockburn Sound and Geographe Bay. This was in November, 1829, and in the following month Dr. J.B. Wilson, who came to the Sound with Captain Barker on the abandonment of Raffles Bay, made an excursion from the Sound and discovered and named the Denmark River.

In a passage in a letter written by R.M. Davis, of the medical staff, to Charles Fraser, the botanist, there is a detailed reference to this trip:—

"Dr. Wilson, who came here with Captain Barker, started in a direction to Swan Port (Swan River) with a party of men, and in eleven days went over at least two hundred miles of ground. He says, without fear of contradiction in future, that there is far greater proportion of good land in this direction than in any other part of Australia that he had been in, and also wood of large growth, with innumerable rivers. He ascended a very high mountain, which he called Mount Lindsay, in honour of the 39th regiment."

On the 22nd of March, 1830, we first hear of the exploring feats of Lieutenant Roe, R.N., the Surveyor-General of the new colony. Captain John Septimus Roe was born in 1797, and entered the navy. He accompanied Captain P. King to explore the north and north-west coasts of Australia, in 1818, and was a member of King's expedition in 1821. He was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia, and held that position for forty-two years. He is commonly styled the father of western exploration. He died at Perth on May 28th, 1878. Mrs. Roe, who accompanied her husband to Western Australia in 1829, pre-deceased him in 1870.

On the date mentioned in 1830, Roe was in the field exploring in the vicinity of Cape Naturaliste. Afterwards he was active in the country between the head-waters of the Kalgan and Hay Rivers. In 1836 he first tried serious conclusions with the inland country of Western Australia, when he headed an expedition to explore the tableland that lies to the north and east of Perth. The country was dreary and depressing, and, judging from its configuration and natural properties, he was unable to recommend it as a site for settlement or to depict it as the entrance to more pleasant lands beyond. He reached Lake Brown, near the western boundary of the present Yilgarn goldfield; but the only noteworthy features that he perceived were the salt lakes that are now so well-known throughout Western Australia. In 1839, Roe distinguished himself by rescuing Grey's dismembered party. On the 14th of September, 1848, he started to make an attempt at further discovery to the eastward. He had with him six men, twelve horses, and three months' provisions. Upon leaving the outer settlements, they encountered the same depressing country as before. Having crossed it, they were turned from their course by scrub of exceeding density, which in turn was succeeded by sandy desert plains. Foiled for the time being they made for the south coast, where they recruited their strength at one of the outlying settlements.

On the 18th they started again, and followed up the course of the Pallinup River. They ascended a branch coming from the north-east, and for a time revelled in the spectacle of well-grassed and promising valleys; but they soon again came amongst the scrub and sand plains of the inland desert. Sighting a granite range to the eastward, they made towards it, but the outlook from its summit brought nothing but exceeding disappointment. Fortunately the weather was showery, and the lack of water did not induce such keen anxiety as the total absence of grass. Still pushing to the eastward, they found their difficulties increase at every step. To the perils of travel through dense thickets and over barren, scorching plains, there was now added the risk of death from thirst. It was not until after days of extreme privation that they reached some elevated peaks, where they obtained a little grass and water.

Their course lay now to the south-east, towards the range sighted by Eyre, and named the Russell Range, and there commenced a desperate struggle with the intervening desert.

So weak were the horses and so compact the belts of scrub, that in three days they had traversed only fifty miles. After being four days and three nights without water for the horses, they reached a rugged hill which they named Mount Riley, where they were relieved by a scant supply. Thence it was but fifty miles to the Russell Range, but the journey involved a repetition of the worst sufferings they had endured. The scrub disputed their passage the whole route, being often so dense as to defy the use of the axe, and many long detours had to be made before they reached their goal.

Every hope they had entertained of a change for the better was shattered by an inspection of the country to which they had so laboriously penetrated. The range, destined to be associated with so many subsequent important explorations, was a mass of naked rocks, and from the summit they could see nothing but the interminable scrub thickets, and in the distance the thin blue line of ocean. Fortunately they found a little grass and water, which saved the lives of their animals. They had discovered a coal seam at the mouth of the Murchison River, and now, on their return journey, they found another at the Fitzgerald River. This was Roe's longest and most important expedition, and it placed him in the front rank of Australian explorers.

Amongst the very early explorers who did as good work as the scanty opportunities permitted, was Ensign R. Dale, of the 63rd Regiment, who pushed east of the Darling Range. Bannister, Moore, and Bunbury are other noteworthy names amongst those of the early discoverers.

17.2. SIR GEORGE GREY.



In 1837 an expedition in charge of Captain George Grey and Lieutenant Lushington was sent out from England to the Cape of Good Hope. It was under instructions from Lord Glenelg, and was to procure a small vessel at the Cape to convey the party and their stores to the most convenient point in the vicinity of the Prince Regent's River on the coast. Once landed there, the party was to take such a course as would lead them in the direction of the great opening behind Dampier's Land, where they were to make every endeavour to cross to the Swan River.

The schooner Lynher was chartered at the Cape, and on the 3rd of December, 1837, the party was landed at Hanover Bay, with large quantities of livestock, stores, seeds, and plants. Whilst the schooner proceeded to Timor for ponies, Grey employed the time in forming a garden, building sheds for the stores, and in exploring the country in the neighbourhood of Hanover Bay. On the 9th of December, he hoisted the British flag and went through the ceremony of taking possession. On the 17th of January the Lynher returned, and nearly a month later Grey and his party, which now numbered twelve, started from the coast with twenty-six half-broken Timor ponies as baggage-carriers, and some sheep and goats.

The rainy season had now set in, and many of the stock succumbed almost at the outset, whilst their route proved a veritable tangle of steep spurs and deep ravines. On the 11th of February they came into collision with the natives, and Grey was severely wounded in the hip with a spear. When he had recovered sufficiently to be lifted on to one of the ponies, a fresh start was made, and on the 2nd of March his perseverance was rewarded by the discovery of a river which he named the Glenelg. He followed the course of this river upwards, and reported the country as good, being well-grassed and watered. Sometimes his route lay along the river's bank; at other times by keeping to the foot of a sandstone ridge he was enabled to avoid detours around many wearisome bends.



The party continued along the Glenelg for many days, until indeed they were checked by a large tributary coming from the north. As both the river and the tributary were here much swollen, they had to fall back on the range. It was among the recesses of this range that Grey discovered some curious cave paintings of the blacks, in which the aboriginal figures were represented as clothed.

[*Footnote.] A subsequent photograph of these paintings, by Brockman, is reproduced in Chapter 20.

Unable to find a pass through the mountains, and enfeebled by his wound, Grey determined to retrace his steps. As a last resort he sent Lushington some distance ahead, but there was no noticeable change to report in the aspect of the country. Hanover Bay was reached on the 15th of April. The Lynher was waiting there at anchor, and H.M.S. Beagle was lying in Port George the Fourth, awaiting the return of Captain Stokes, who was away exploring the coast. The party having embarked, the Lynher sailed for the Isle of France, where they safely arrived. Thus ended Captain Grey's first expedition, which is interesting chiefly as a proof of the heroic qualities of its members; for the Glenelg River has never invited settlement, and has yet to prove that it possesses any considerable economic value.

During January, 1839, Grey explored the country between the Williams and the Leschenhault, while searching for a settler who had been lost in the bush.

On the 17th of February in the same year, Grey, who had been back endeavouring to persuade Sir James Stirling to assist him in his explorations, was enabled to start on another exploring enterprise. The object of this, his second important expedition, was to examine the undiscovered parts of Shark's Bay, and to make excursions as far inland as circumstances permitted. The party comprised four of the members of his first expedition, five other men, and a Western Australian aboriginal, and they left Fremantle in an American whaler, taking three whale-boats with them. They were duly landed at Bernier Island, where their troubles commenced at once. The whaler sailed away, taking with her by mistake the whole of their supply of tobacco. There was no water on the island, and, in their first attempt to start, one of the boats was smashed and nearly half a ton of stores lost. The next day they succeeded in making Dorre Island, but that night both the remaining boats were driven ashore by a violent storm. Two or three days were spent in making good the damage, when they succeeded in making the mainland, and obtained a supply of fresh water. They had landed at or near the mouth of a stream which afterwards proved to be the second longest river in Western Australia. Grey named it the Gascoyne, and found that it was then dry beyond the limit of tidal influence. They then pulled up the coast, but one night, when effecting a landing, both boats were swamped, and their previously-damaged provisions suffered another soaking. This accident kept them prisoners for a week till the wind and surf had abated. Tired, hungry, and ill, they were here harassed by frequent threats and one actual attack by the blacks. A slight break in the weather tempted them forth once more, and, having succeeded in righting the boats, they made for the mouth of the Gascoyne, where they re-filled their water-beakers. On March 20th they made a desperate effort in the teeth of foul weather to fetch their depot on Bernier Island. We may picture their dismay when they found that during their absence a hurricane had swept the island, and scattered their cherished stores to the four winds.

Their position was now as desperate as could be imagined: the southerly winds had set in, and they had to coast along a surf-beaten shore against a head wind. Their food was scanty, and they were weak with the constant toils they had undergone. There was nothing for it, however, but to put to sea again, and they succeeded in reaching Gantheaume Bay on the 31st of March. Fate had not yet spent all her wrath on them, and in attempting a landing, Grey's boat was dashed to destruction upon a rock, and the other received such a buffeting as to place it beyond repair. The only hope of safety lay in an overland march to Perth, three hundred miles away, upon their twenty pounds of damaged flour and one pound of salt pork per man; and yet, so wearied were they with the unceasing battle against wind and sea, that they even welcomed this hazardous prospect as a change for the better.

They had not proceeded far before differences of opinion arose. Grey naturally wished the men to cover the ground as quickly as possible whilst their strength lasted, whilst they favoured slow marches, relieved by frequent rests. Grey, who recognised that in their weakened condition they could not replenish their scanty food supplies from the native game, held firmly to his opinion, and made strenuous efforts to quicken their progress; but the comparative safety of the shore had lulled his followers into a feeling of false security; and after goading them along for a hundred miles, bearing the chief burden of the march and sharing much of his scanty food with the black boy, Grey left them to push onwards, and if possible send them assistance. He took two or three picked men with him, and after terrible sufferings and privations, reached Perth, whence a rescue party was immediately despatched. This party found only one man, Charles Wood, who by more closely following Grey's instructions, had made better progress than the others. The remaining five could not be found, and at the end of a fortnight the rescuers were forced to return on account of the lack of provisions. Roe immediately left with another party, and, after experiencing trouble in tracking the erratic wanderings of the unfortunates, came upon most of them hopelessly regarding a face of rock that stopped their march along the beach, unable to muster sufficient strength to climb it. They had then been three days without water, having nothing in their canteens but a loathsome substitute.

One of them, Smith, a lad of eighteen who had accompanied the expedition as a volunteer, had died two days before the rescue; his body was recovered and buried in the wilderness. Walker, the surgeon and second in charge, was still absent; but he had voluntarily left the main body and had pushed on for assistance towards Fremantle, which he safely reached.

During these unfortunate expeditions, Grey had shown a generous spirit of self-sacrifice combined with high courage and a fine enthusiasm for geographical discovery. But his lack of experience and his ignorance of the local seasonal conditions counterbalanced these, and explained his failures. Afterwards he became Acting Government Resident at Albany, on King George's Sound, and he was at a critical period Governor of South Australia. But Australia proper saw little of him in his after prime, and his fame was built up elsewhere, in New Zealand and at the Cape of Good Hope.

Grey's reports left doubt as to the precise value of the country he traversed under such trying circumstances, but he is justly credited with the discovery of many rivers on the west coast — the Grey, the Buller, the Chapman, the Greenough, the Arrowsmith, the Hutt, the Bowyer, and those important streams, the Murchison and the Gascoyne.

17.3. AUGUSTUS C. GREGORY.



In 1846 we come upon a name destined to become linked with the history of exploration in most parts of Australia. There were three notable brothers of the name of Gregory; but as their expeditions, at least those of Augustus and Frank, were conducted independently, with the exception of the first, we shall deal with them separately. H.C. Gregory, it is true, associated his work mostly with that of his brother, A.C. Gregory, generally in a subordinate position, but Frank Gregory won nearly equal fame with his brother Augustus as an independent explorer.

A.C. Gregory was the son of Lieutenant J. Gregory of the 78th Highlanders. He was born at Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1819, and came to Western Australia with his parents in 1829 in the Lotus, 500 tons, Captain Summerson, the second passenger ship that sailed for Western Australia. Lieutenant Gregory had five sons in all: William, Augustus, Francis, Henry, and James. The Lotus reached Fremantle about the 10th of October, 1829. Captain Gregory had been obliged to retire from active service, being incapacitated by serious wounds received at El Hamed, in Egypt, and held a large grant of land from the Imperial Government in lieu of pension. On this grant, situated not far from Perth, he established a farm, and on that farm Augustus and his brothers received the balance of their education and underwent their course of bush training. Augustus, after his last expedition, was appointed in 1859 Surveyor-General of Queensland, in which colony he settled down later, after retiring from active official life. He had a seat in the Legislative Council, and was a prominent freemason. He was created C.M.G. in 1874, and K.C.M.G. in 1903, and had several honours conferred upon him by the Royal Geographical Society. He died in Brisbane, in 1905.

If we except a short excursion down the Blackwood and Kojonup Rivers, his expedition of 1846, in which he was accompanied both by F.T. and H.C. Gregory, was the first important enterprise undertaken by him. It was in August that his party left Captain Scully's station at Bolgart's Springs, about seventy miles from Perth.

On leaving the settled districts they at once found themselves in the barren country that was damming back the eastward flow of settlement. Having traversed it, they reached a range of granite hills, and turning more to the northward, they kept along these for the sake of the rain-water to be found in the rock holes. On striking again to the east, they encountered an extensive salt lake, and in attempting to cross an arm of this marsh, their horses were bogged, and extricated only after great labour. The lake was afterwards proved to be of great size, and to hem them in completely to the eastward, whilst, owing to its crescent-like formation, for five days it baffled all their attempts to proceed northwards.

Finally abandoning the lake, which they called Lake Moore, they turned to the westward to examine some of the streams crossed by Grey during his return from Shark's Bay. On the head of one of these rivers, the Irwin, they found a seam of coal.

"Having pitched our tent and tethered our horses, we commenced to collect specimens of the various strata, and succeeded in cutting out five or six hundredweight of coal with the tomahawk, and in a short time had the satisfaction of seeing the first fire of West Australian coal burning cheerfully in front of the camp, this being the first discovery of coal in Western Australia."

The party then returned by way of the Moore River to Bolgart Springs, which they reached on the 22nd of September.

The discovery of coal deposits and of country available for settlement was seen to be of great importance by the Government, and Lieutenant Helpman, A.C. Gregory, his brother Henry, and Messrs. Irby and Meekleham, in the colonial schooner Champion, were despatched to procure a quantity of coal for testing. They were also instructed to make a further inspection of the pastoral capabilities of the district, of which there had been so many conflicting opinions. A three days' examination of the country convinced them that it was suitable for settlement.

In 1846 Gregory took charge of an expedition to the north of Perth, organised by the settlers of the colony, and entitled The Settlers' Expedition; its object being to proceed to the Gascoyne River, examining the intervening country as to its suitability for pastoral purposes.

Gregory was accompanied by one of his brothers, Messrs. Burges, Walcott, and Bedart, and private King of the 96th Regiment, of whose services he speaks very highly. This expedition excited great hopes amongst the settlers, who found most of the horses and provisions. The party left Lefroy's station of Welbing on the 9th of September, with ten pack, and two riding-horses, but did not succeed in penetrating any distance beyond the Murchison, being turned back at all points, after repeated efforts, by the belt of impervious scrub between the Murchison and Gascoyne. They therefore returned without seeing the latter river, after having attained a distance of 350 miles from Perth; but they succeeded in finding a considerable extent of available country, both pastoral and agricultural, and in discovering a vein of galena on the Murchison. They re-entered Perth on the 17th of November.

The following month, Gregory, Bland, and three soldiers of the 96th accompanied Governor Fitzgerald by sea to Champion Bay to examine the new mineral discoveries. The galena lode was found to be more important than had been at first supposed. On their return to the schooner, an affray occurred with the natives, in which the Governor was wounded.

"As the country was covered with dense wattle thickets, the natives took advantage of the ground, and having completely surrounded the party, commenced first to threaten to throw their spears, then to throw stones, and finally one man caught hold of Mr. Bland by the arm, threatening to strike him with a dowak; another native threw a spear at myself, though without effect; but before I could fire at him, the Governor, perceiving that unless some severe example was made, the whole party would be cut off, fired at one of the most forward of our assailants and killed him; two other shots were fired by the soldiers, but the thickness of the bushes prevented our seeing with what effect. A shower of spears, stones, kylies and dowaks followed, and although we moved to a more open spot, the natives were only kept off by firing at any that exposed themselves. At this moment a spear struck the Governor in the leg, just above the knee, with such force as to cause it to protrude two feet on the other side, which was so far fortunate as to enable me to break off the barb and withdraw the shaft. The Governor, notwithstanding his wound, continued to direct the party, and although the natives made many attempts to approach close enough to reach us with their spears, we were able by keeping on the most open ground and checking them by an occasional shot, to avoid their attacks when crossing the gullies."

The natives followed them for seven miles, but finally desisted, and the whites reached the beach and boarded the Champion without further mishap.

In 1856 Gregory made his most celebrated journey in the north of central Australia. An account of this journey might have been included in Part 2, but as the name of Gregory is so intimately connected with Western Australia, this section is perhaps the most appropriate place in which to recount its incidents. [But its lengthy place in which to recount its incidents (sic)]. But its numerous details demand another chapter.



CHAPTER 18. A.C. AND F.T. GREGORY.

18.1. A.C. GREGORY ON STURT'S CREEK AND THE BARCOO.

The Imperial Government having long considered the feasibility of further exploration of the interior of Australia voted 5000 pounds for the purpose, and offered the command of the expedition to A.C. Gregory. As the inexplicable disappearance of Leichhardt was then exciting much interest in Australia, search for the lost expedition was to form one of its chief duties.

On the 12th of August, 1855, Gregory's party left Moreton Bay in the barque Monarch, attended by the schooner Tom Tough. There were eighteen men in all. H.C. Gregory was second in command, Ferdinand von Mueller was botanist, J.S. Wilson geologist, J.R. Elsey surgeon and naturalist, and J. Baines artist and storekeeper. They had on board fifty horses, two hundred sheep, and provisions and stores calculated to last them eighteen months on full rations.

They did not reach Point Pearce, at the mouth of the Victoria River, until the 24th of September. There they separated, the schooner taking the stores up the river, and the Monarch proceeding on her voyage to Singapore. The horses had been landed at Point Pearce, whence Gregory, his brother, and seven men took them on overland by easy stages. One night the horses were attacked by crocodiles, and three of them were severely wounded. They followed up the course of the Fitzmaurice River and then passed over rough country, not reaching the Victoria until the 17th. On the 20th they rejoined the members who had gone round by the schooner, and learned that she was aground in the river. A large part of their stores was spoiled; and the number of the sheep had also been reduced to forty, in consequence of their being foolishly kept penned up on board. These losses and accidents considerably weakened Gregory's resources, and it was not until the 24th of November that any excursion on horseback was undertaken. An attempt had previously been made to ascend the river in the portable boat with which the expedition had been supplied, but it was not successful, as the boat could not navigate the rocky bars in safety.

Gregory left camp accompanied by his brother, Dr. von Mueller, and Wilson, taking seven horses and twenty days' rations, his object being to examine the country through which the exploring party would have to travel on their route to the interior. On this preliminary trip, he penetrated as far as latitude 16 1/2 south, whence, finding the tributaries flowing from fine open plains and level forest country, all well-grassed, he returned to the main camp.

On the 4th of January, 1856, Gregory started with a much larger party on an energetic dash into the interior. He had with him six men besides his brother, Dr. von Mueller and Baines the artist, and thirty-six horses. He retraced his steps along his preliminary route, and on the 30th of January, thinking it wise judging from the rapid evaporation of the waterholes, to make his means of retreat secure, he formed a temporary camp, leaving there four men and all the horses but eleven to await his return, whilst he, his brother, Dr. Mueller, and a man named Dean, rode ahead to challenge the desert to the south. On the 9th of February, having run the Victoria out, he crossed an almost level watershed, and found himself on the confines of the desert. From a slight rise he looked southwards:—

"The horizon was unbroken; all appeared one slightly undulating plain, with just sufficient triodia and bushes growing on it to hide the red sand when viewed at a distance."

Gregory reviewed the problem from a logical standpoint. He decided to follow the northern limit of the desert to the westward, until he should find a southern-flowing watercourse which would afford him the opportunity to make a dash beyond its confines.

On the 15th of February he came to a small flat which gradually developed into a channel and ultimately became a creek, running first west, and then south-west. This gave him his desired opening, and he pursued the course of the creek through good open country, finding the water plentiful, though shallow. On February 20th, however, the channel of the creek was lost in an immense grassy plain. The country to the south being sandy and unpromising, Gregory kept westwards, and succeeded in again picking up the channel, now finding the water in it to be slightly brackish. That day he crossed the boundary of Western Australia. The creek now gave promise of continuity, the water-holes taking on a more permanent appearance. It was now pursuing a general south-west course, and Gregory, though still rightly anticipating that it would eventually be lost in the dry interior, determined to follow it as far south as should be compatible with safety. He named the creek Sturt's Creek, after the gallant explorer of that name, who was naturally then often in his mind. The creek maintained its southern course, until, on the 8th of March, it ran out into a mud plain and a salt lake.

"Thus, after having followed Sturt's Creek for nearly 300 miles, we have been disappointed in our hope that it would lead to some important outlet to the waters of the Australian interior; it has, however, enabled us to penetrate far into the level tract of country which may be termed the Great Australian Desert."

Gregory, convinced that no useful results could arise from any attempt to penetrate the inhospitable region to the south, determined to return before the rapidly-evaporating water on which they were dependent should vanish and cut off all retreat. He therefore retraced his steps up Sturt's Creek, and on the 28th of March arrived at his temporary depot, where he found the men all well and the horses much improved in condition.

On the 2nd of April, A.C. Gregory, taking his brother Henry, Baines, and one man, started on an excursion to examine the eastern tributaries of the Victoria, and was absent a little over a fortnight. On their return, the whole of the members started for the landing-place on the Victoria, which they reached on the 9th of May. After all arrangements and preparations had been completed, Gregory, with most of the party, started on the return journey overland to Moreton Bay. The Tom Tough, now caulked and repaired, was to make her way to the Albert River in the Gulf of Carpentaria, where they would again probably meet.

Traversing the tributaries of the Victoria on his homeward way, Gregory met with no remarkable incident until his arrival on the Elsey, a tributary of the Roper River, which he named after the surgeon of the expedition. It was here that he came upon the last authentic trace of Leichhardt. He describes his discovery as follows:—

"There was also the remains of a hut and the ashes of a large fire, indicating that there had been a party camped there for several weeks; several trees from six to eight inches in diameter had been cut down with iron axes in fair condition, and the hut built by cutting notches in standing trees and resting a large pole therein for a ridge; this hut had been burnt apparently by the subsequent bush fires, and only some pieces of the thickest timber remained unconsumed. Search was made for marked trees, but none found, nor were there any fragments of leather, iron, or other equipment of an exploring party, or of any bones of animals other than those common to Australia. Had an exploring party been destroyed here, there would most likely have been some indications, and it may therefore be inferred that the party proceeded on its journey. It could not have been a camp of Leichhardt's in 1845, as it is 100 miles south of his route to Port Essington; and it was only six or seven years old, judging by the growth of the trees; having subsequently seen some of Leichhardt's camps on the Burdekin, Mackenzie and Barcoo Rivers, a great similarity was observed in regard to the manner of building the hut and its relative position with regard to the fire and water supply, and the position in regard to the great features of the country was exactly where a party going westward would first receive a check from the waterless tableland between the Roper and Victoria Rivers, and would probably camp and reconnoitre ahead before attempting to cross to the north-west coast."

From the Roper the party travelled around the shore of the Gulf, keeping rather more inland than Leichhardt had done. On reaching the Albert they found that the Tom Tough had not yet arrived at the rendezvous; and Gregory, leaving a marked tree with a message indicating the situation of some instructions he had buried, pushed onwards.

His route from the Albert lay along much the same line of country as that followed by Leichhardt during his journey to Port Essington. He did not, however, make such a wide sweep to the north, up to the Mitchell, but struck away from Carpentaria at the Gilbert River. He corrected the error Leichhardt had fallen into over the situation of the Albert, and re-named the river that he had mistaken the Leichhardt. The exploring party reached the settled districts at Hay's station, Rannes, south of the Fitzroy; and thence reached Brisbane on the 16th of December, 1856.

To advance the search after Leichhardt, the interest in whose fate had been stimulated by the discovery made by Gregory, a public meeting was held in September, 1857, at which resolutions were passed requesting monetary assistance from the Government, and offering the leadership of a new expedition to A.C. Gregory. The appeal was successful, and accordingly in March, 1858, Gregory left Euroomba station on the Dawson with a party of nine in all, one of his brothers going as second. The expedition was equipped for light travelling, taking as means of carriage pack-horses only, of which there were thirty-one, as well as nine saddle-horses.

Gregory crossed the Nive on to the Barcoo, which he proceeded to run down, finding the country in a very different condition from that in which it bloomed when Mitchell rode rejoicingly along what he thought was a Gulf river. A sharp look out was of course kept for any trace of the missing party, and on the 21st of April they came across another marked tree.

"We discovered a Moreton Bay ash (Eucalyptus sp.), about two feet in diameter marked with the letter L on the east side, cut through the bark about four feet from the ground, and near it the stumps of some small trees that had been cut with a sharp axe, also a deep notch cut in the side of a sloping tree, apparently to support the ridge-pole of a tent, or some similar purpose; all indicating that a camp had been established here by Leichhardt's party...No other indications having been found, we continued the search down the river, examining every likely spot for marked trees, but without success."

Approaching the Thomson River, they found the country suffering from drought although the river was running in consequence of some late rains. As winter was now approaching, there was however no spring in the vegetation, and their horses were suffering great hardship. On the 15th of May they found themselves beyond the rainfall, and realised that lack of water was likely to be added to an absence of grass.

"We, however, succeeded in reaching latitude 23 degrees 47 minutes, when the absence of water and grass — the rain not having extended so far north, and the channels of the river separating into small gullies and spreading on to the wide plains — precluded our progressing further to the north or west; and the only chance of saving our horses was to return south as quickly as possible. This was a most severe disappointment, as we had just reached that part of the country through which Leichhardt most probably travelled if the season was sufficiently wet to render it practicable. Thus compelled to abandon the principal object of the expedition, only two courses remained open — either to return to the head of the Victoria (Barcoo) River and attempt a northern course by the valley of the Belyando, or to follow down the river and ascertain whether it flowed into Cooper's Creek or the Darling."

The latter alternative was chosen, and they proceeded to retrace their steps down the Thomson, and on reaching the junction of the Barcoo they continued south and west. In fact, following Kennedy's route, they soon found themselves involved in the same difficulties that had beset that explorer. The river — now Cooper's Creek — broke up into countless channels running through barren, fissured plains. Toiling on through these, varied by an interlude of sandhills, Gregory at last reached a better-grassed land, where his famished horses regained a little strength. He reached Sturt's furthest point, and continued on to the point where Strzelecki's Creek carried off some of the surplus flood waters, and finally lost the many channels amongst the sandhills and flooded plains. He again struck Strzelecki's Creek and traced it as he then thought, into Lake Torrens, but in reality into Lake Blanche, for the salt lake region had not then been properly delimited. He reached Baker's recently-formed station, eight miles beyond Mount Hopeless, and thence he went on to Adelaide.

18.2. FRANK T. GREGORY.



It was in Western Australia, in March, 1857, that Frank T. Gregory commenced his career as an independent explorer by taking advantage of a sudden heavy downpour of rain on the upper reaches of the Murchison River, which flooded the dry course of the lower portion where he was then engaged on survey work. Gregory at once seized the opportunity thus afforded of examining the upper reaches of this river, from which former explorers had been driven back by the aridity of the country. Accompanied by his assistant, S. Trigg, he proceeded up the river finding, thanks to the wet season that had preceded him, luxuriant grass and ample supplies of water. In consequence, he had a more pleasing account of the country to bring back than the report based on the thirsty experiences of Austin. So easy did he find the country, that only scarcity of provisions prevented him from pushing on to the long-sought-for Gascoyne River. As it was, he returned after an absence of thirteen days, having completed what the Perth Gazette of that time justly described as "one of the most unassuming expeditions, yet important in its results."

It was so far satisfactory, and roused such fresh hopes in the minds of the settlers, that they once more formed bright hopes of what the River Gascoyne might have in store for the successful explorer. For a long time now they had become resigned to the conclusion that their northern pathway was barred by a dry, scrubby country; but they at once took advantage of the promising practical passage along which Frank Gregory had led the way. Another expedition was organised to penetrate to the Gascoyne, and the leadership being naturally offered to Frank Gregory, was accepted by him.

On the 16th of April, 1858, he left the Geraldine mine with a lightly-equipped party of six, including J.B. Roe, son of the Surveyor-General. They had with them six pack and six riding-horses, and rations for 60 days.

They proceeded up the Murchison, and on the 25th of the same month they reached a tributary called the Impey, which had been the highest point reached by Gregory the preceding year. This time, however, the party did not find such ample pasture as he had described. Still following the river up until the 30th April, on that day they struck off on a nor-north-east course, the course of the Murchison tending too much in an easterly direction to lead them speedily on to the Gascoyne. On the 3rd they reached a gentle stony ascent, which proved to be the watershed between the two rivers. Descending the slope to the northward, they soon came to the head of a watercourse flowing northwards. They followed the new creek, and on the 6th of May came to a river joining it from the eastward, which at last proved to be the Gascoyne.

Gregory kept down the south bank of the Gascoyne, and on the 12th of May passed a large tributary coming from the north, which he named the Lyons. On the 17th they ascended a sandy ridge about sixty feet in height, and had a view of Shark's Bay.

He returned along the north bank of the river, and having reached the Lyons, followed that river up. On the 3rd of June he ascended the highest mountain yet discovered in Western Australia, which he named Mount Augustus, after his brother. Gregory gives the elevation at 3,480 feet, but Mount Bruce in the Hammersley Range, to the north of it, has since been found to be higher.* From the summit, however, he had an extensive view, and was enabled to sketch in the courses of the various rivers for over twenty miles.

*[Footnote.] 3,800 feet.

As they had now been out 51 days, and their supply of provisions was approaching the end, the party turned back at Mount Augustus, and struck southwards. On the 8th the Gascoyne was re-crossed at a place where its course lay through flats and ana-branches. On the 10th of June they again came to the Murchison, and followed it down to the Geraldine mine, and finally reached Perth on the 10th of July. This expedition, so fruitful in its results to the pastoral welfare of the colony, cost the settlers only their contributions in horses and rations, and a cash expenditure of forty pounds.

The discovery of so much fresh available country on the Gascoyne River, with the prospect of a new base for exploration in the tropical regions beyond, attracted the attention of English capitalists. The American civil war had so depressed the cotton trade that those interested in cotton manufacture were seeking for fresh fields in which to establish the growth of the plant. Frank Gregory was then in London, and advantage was taken of his presence to urge upon the Home Government and the Royal Geographical Society the desirability of fitting out an expedition to proceed direct to the north-west coast of Australia, accompanied by a large body of Asiatic labourers, and all the necessary appliances for the establishment of a colony.