Stringy bark trees were seen most generally on barren ridges, the larger
sized blue gums in the valleys. In the evening the weather was unsettled
with flying showers.
August 29. - At eight o'clock we proceeded towards Bathurst, hoping to
reach it by the evening; this we effected between eight and nine
o'clock, passing over a very hilly country with numerous running
streams, joining the river near Pine Hill, and afterwards keeping
along its banks.
The hospitable reception which we met with from Mr. Cox went far to
banish all present care from our minds: relieved, as they were, by the
knowledge that our friends were well, we almost forgot in the hilarity
of the moment, that nineteen harassing weeks had elapsed since we last
quitted it.
Although the winter at Bathurst, we learnt, had been cold and severe,
there had not been much rain; little or none had fallen in the depot on
the Lachlan, although the people there had observed some very high
floods in the river; one particularly that would nearly correspond with
the time when an unexpected fresh surprised us on our return down the
Lachlan on the 11th of July.
JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION IN AUSTRALIA
PART II
- qua nulla pedum vestigia ducunt,
Nulla rotae currus testantur signa priores. GROTIUS.
TO THE RIGHT HON. ROBERT PEEL, M. P.
ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL,
etc. etc. etc.
THIS JOURNAL
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,
BY HIS VERY FAITHFUL AND OBLIGED
HUMBLE SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
Sydney, New South Wales,
July 21, 1819.
PREFACE.
The general appearance of the country of New South Wales and the
magnitude of the Macquarie River, as seen on the return of the
expedition in 1817, had caused the most sanguine expectation to be
entertained, that either a communication with the ocean, or interior
navigable waters, would be discovered by following its course. The
important benefits that would result to the colony in the event of such
an expectation being realized, determined his Excellency Governor
Macquarie to lose no time in fitting out a second expedition, which
should have the elucidation of this point for its principal object. This
expedition was also entrusted to my direction. I had scarcely a doubt of
ultimate success, and set out with a confidence which nothing short of
ocular demonstration could destroy. The result of our voyage down the
Macquarie River, and the conjectures which naturally arose in my mind
founded upon observations of its apparent termination, together with
our subsequent journey to the east coast, will be found in the following
pages.
In the map which accompanies the present Journal, every bounding range
to the westward is laid down, from which it will appear that the
north-west interior is nearly a perfect plain; the lower parts of which
are certainly in most seasons under water. The highest land we crossed
lies in lat. 31. S., and long. 151. 10. E. From this apparently dividing
or principal range, the country gradually declines to the north-west;
when, the hills terminating abruptly, the level land commences, over
which is discharged all the waters that have their rise in this dividing
range; and also those waters which rising in the hills (for they cannot
with propriety be termed mountains) to the south-west, have the Lachlan
River for their channel.
The nature of the country will be best explained by a reference to the
Journal; generally speaking, it is fine and open. The bounding high
lands to the north-west seem to take a direction nearly parallel with
the coast line, and the evident declension of the country northerly
affords strong ground for belief, that if those interior waters have any
outlet to the sea [See Note at end of this paragraph.], it will be found
in that direction; and I think the probability is that the waters falling
westerly, will there approach the high tracts of country, much nearer
than they do to the south-west. The whole country to the north of our
track appeared so extremely open and practicable, that it offers in my
opinion but few obstructions to a series of triangles being carried over
it; the longest sides of which, being traced along the bounding high
lands to the north-west, and carried as far northerly as the isthmus,
which separates the gulf of Carpentaria from the sea to the eastward,
would effectually set at rest all questions as to the existence of an
interior sea. Farther north than this point, there can be no reasonable
expectation of finding either waters or an outlet.
[Note: The observations made in the recent voyage of Lieutenant King
along the west and north coasts preclude every reasonable hope of any
opening being found on those coasts. The voyage which he is at present
prosecuting will doubtless determine that point beyond all future
question.]
So few natives were seen in the interior, that those extensive regions
can scarcely be described as inhabited; some scattered families comprise
the entire population, and the scanty remarks we were enabled to make
satisfied us of the strict identity of this race of human beings with
those of the coast. The same method of procuring their food, the same
arms and utensils, are common to both. This remarkable similarity in the
natives of different tribes extends also to the animal and vegetable
productions of the country: the eucalyptus and casuarina; the kangaroo
and the emu, with their various species, alike inhabit the cold regions
of Van Diemen's land, and the warmer latitudes within the tropics.
