ERRATA: 12 items of errata, listed in the book at this point,
have been corrected in this eBook.
JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION IN AUSTRALIA - Part I
On the twenty-fourth of March I received the instructions of his
excellency the Governor to take charge of the expedition which had been
fitted out for the purpose of ascertaining the course of the Lachlan
River, and generally to prosecute the examination of the western
interior of New South Wales.
On the sixth of April I quitted Sydney, and after a pleasant journey
arrived at Bathurst on the fourteenth, and found that our provisions
and other necessary stores were in readiness at the depot on the
Lachlan River. We were detained at Bathurst by rainy unfavourable
weather until the nineteenth, when the morning proving fine, the BAT
horses, with the remainder of the provisions, baggage, and instruments,
were sent off, we intending to follow them the ensuing morning.
Bathurst had assumed a very different appearance since I first visited
it in the suite of his excellency the Governor in 1815. The industrious
hand of man had been busy in improving the beautiful works of nature; a
good substantial house for the superintendant had been erected, the
government grounds fenced in, and the stack yards showed that the
abundant produce of the last harvest had amply repaid the labour
bestowed on its culture. The fine healthy appearance of the flocks and
herds was a convincing proof how admirably adapted these extensive downs
and thinly wooded hills are for grazing, more particularly of sheep. The
mind dwelt with pleasure on the idea that at no very distant period
these secluded plains would be covered with flocks bearing the richest
fleeces, and contribute in no small degree to the prosperity of the
eastern settlements.
The soil, in the immediate neighbourhood of Bathurst, is for the first
six inches of a light, black, vegetable mould, lying on a stratum of
sand, about eighteen inches deep, but of a poor description, and mixed
with small stones, under which is a strong clay. The surface of the
hills is covered with small gravel, the soil light and sandy, with a
sub-soil of clay. The low flats on the immediate borders of the river
are evidently formed by washings from the hills and valleys deposited by
floods, and the overflowings of the watercourses.
Sunday, April 20. - Proceeded on our journey towards the Lachlan River.
At two o'clock we arrived at the head of Queen Charlotte's Valley,
passing through a fine open grazing country; the soil on the hills and
in the vale a light clayey loam, occasionally intermixed with sand and
gravel: the late rains had rendered the ground soft and boggy. The trees
were small and stunted, and thinly scattered over the hills, which
frequently closed in stony points on the valley. The rocks a coarse
granite.
Monday, April 21. - Our journey for the greater part of the way lay over
stony ridges, and for the last six miles over a country much wooded with
ill-grown gum and stringy bark trees (all of the eucalyptus genus); the
grass good, and in tolerable plenty, and much more so than the
appearance of the soil would seem to promise.
