The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 Part 24

The charge lay in a newspaper paragraph that went the round of the daily papers, an extract from which runs as follows:--

"Great credit must be given to Mr. Landsborough for the celerity with which he has accomplished the expedition. At the same time, its object seems to have been lost sight of at a very early stage of the journey, as there was not the remotest probability of striking Burke's track after quitting the Flinder's River, and taking a S.S.E. course for the remainder of the way. In fact, from that moment all mention [This is incorrect. Landsborough particularly mentions in his journal during his trip to the Barcoo, how anxiously he endeavoured to find out from the natives if they had seen anybody with camels.] ceases to be made of the ostensible purpose for which the party was organised, until Mr.

Landsborough reached the Warrego, and received the intelligence of Burke and Wills having perished, at which great surprise was expressed. But supposing these gallant men to have been still living, and anxiously awaiting succour at some one of the ninety camping places at which they halted, on their arduous journey between the depot and the Gulf what excuse could Mr. Landsborough have offered for giving so wide a berth to the probable route of the explorers, and for omitting to endeavour to strike their track, traces of which had been reported on the Flinders by Mr Walker? We may be reminded that 'all's well that ends well,' that the lamented explorers were beyond the reach of human a.s.sistance, and that Mr. Landsborough has achieved a most valuable result in following the course he did; but we cannot help remarking that in so doing he seems to have been more intent upon serving the cause of pastoral settlement than upon ascertaining if it were possible to afford relief to the missing men. The impression produced by a perusal of the dispatch which we published on Sat.u.r.day last is that the writer was commissioned to open up a practicable route from the Warrego to the Flinders, and not that he was the leader of a party which had been organized and dispatched 'for the purpose of rendering relief, if possible, to the missing explorers under the command of Mr. Burke.' We do not wish to detract one iota from the credit due to Mr. Landsborough for what he has actually effected, but we must not lose sight of 'the mission of humanity' in which he was professedly engaged, nor the fact that this mission was replaced by one of a totally different character, strengthening, as this circ.u.mstance does, the conviction, which is gaining ground in the public mind, that we have been deluded in expending large sums of money in sending out relief expeditions which were chiefly employed in exploring available country for the benefit of the Government and people of Queensland. The cost and the empty honour has been ours, but theirs has been the substantial gain."

The reply to this is very simple. In the first place, Howitt had been sent especially to follow up Burke from the start, and would therefore be supposed to be searching the country on the direct course. Again, Walker was--as Landsborough thought--then following the homeward track of the lost party. The only chance of affording succour to the missing men, left to Landsborough, was the remote one of accidentally coming upon them.

n.o.body could have reasonably supposed that such a costly and elaborately got up expedition would have degenerated into a scamper across to the Gulf, and a scramble back over the same country.

Apart from all this, Landsborough did not apply for a lease of any of the country discovered by him on the search expedition, the country called Bowen Downs having been his discovery of two years previously, and considering that he closed his days in comparative poverty, after all his labour, such insinuations as the above are most unjust, and would be hardly worthy of comment save for the prominent and adverse notice taken of it by William Howitt, in general such an impartial historian.

The late William Landsborough first went north to Queensland in 1853. In 1854 Messrs. Landsborough and Ranken formed a station on the Kolan River, between Gayndah and Gladstone, where between bad seasons and blacks they had considerable trouble. In 1856 his exploring career commenced in the district of Broadsound and the Isaacs River. In 1858 he explored the Comet to the watershed, and in the following year the head-waters of the Thomson.

An old friend and comrade, writing of him, says:--

"Landsborough's enterprise was entirely founded on his own self-reliance.

He had neither Government aid nor capitalists at his back when he achieved his 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."

It is to be hoped, therefore, that in future Landsborough's great services will be regarded in a more just light than they were by some of his contemporaries, particularly some living explorers, who resemble the one alluded to by Dr. Lang:--

"But Mr. ---- is not the only geographical explorer in Australia who,

'Turk-like, could bear no brother near the throne.'

It seems to be a family failing."

Frederick Walker was the leader of the Rockhampton search expedition. He was an old bushman, had had much to do with the formation of the native police of Queensland, and took a party of native troopers with him on this occasion.

On receiving his commission he pushed rapidly out to the Barcoo, and in the neighbourhood of the tree marked L, found by Gregory, discovered another L tree. This may or may not be considered a corroboration that the first was Leichhardt's, there being arguments on both sides. From the Barcoo he struck north-west to the Alice, seeing some old horse-tracks, which he thought must be Leichhardt's, but which were probably those of Landsborough and Buchanan. From the head-waters of the Alice and Thomson, Walker struck a river he called the Barkly, in reality the head of the Flinders. Here he experienced much difficulty from the rough basaltic nature of the country which borders the upper reaches of this river.

Finally getting on to the great western plains he unwittingly crossed the Flinders, and went far to the north looking for it. Bearing into the Gulf, he had several encounters with the natives, who by this time it may be supposed began to see too many exploring parties.

Walker's track down here is rather vague. He may be said to have run a parallel course to the Flinders River away to the north of it, until, on nearing the coast, the bend of the river brought it across his course again. Here he found the tracks of the camels, which a.s.sured him that Burke had at any rate reached the Gulf in safety. He therefore pushed on to the depot at the Albert to get a supply of provisions, and return and follow the tracks up.

He reached the Victoria depot safely, as before related, and reported his discovery, having had two more skirmishes with the natives on the way.

Fresh provisioned, he made back for the Flinders, but found it impossible to follow the tracks. From what he saw, however, he formed a theory that Burke had retreated towards Queensland, and there he made up his mind to return. He regained his former course on the river he calls the Norman, but which may have been the Saxby, and up this river he toiled till he reached the network of watersheds which forms such a jumble of broken country at the heads of the Burdekin, Lynd, Gilbert and Flinders.

Here Walker's horses suffered severely from the rocks and stones, until at last, by the time they had reached the Lower Burdekin, they were well-nigh horseless, and quite starving. On the 4th of April, 1862, they reached Strathalbyn cattle station, owned by Messrs. Wood and Robison, not far from where M'Kinlay eventually arrived.

M'Kinlay's was the last party to use the roundabout and rugged road to the head of the Burdekin that seemed to have such attractions for all the explorers. Henceforth the road to the Gulf lay down the wide plains of the Flinders.

Walker was afterwards employed by the Queensland Government to explore a track for the telegraph line from Rockingham Bay to the mouth of the Norman River, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. This he carried out successfully; but when at the Gulf he was attacked by the then prevalent malarial fever, and died there.

This completes the series of expeditions undertaken for the relief of Burke and Wills. The eastern half of Australia was now nearly all known--from south to north, and from north to south, it had been crossed and re-crossed, and future enterprise was soon to expend itself upon the western half.

So far the results arrived at had been most satisfactory. Not much over forty years after Oxley's gloomy prediction of the future of the interior, country had been found surpa.s.sing in richness any that was then known. The pathways for the pioneers had been marked out, and a few more years was to see the whole of the continent up to the western boundary of Queensland the busy scene of pastoral industry.

Most noticeable in the history we have just recounted is the persistent manner in which each succeeding explorer found in all new discoveries the fulfillment of some pet theory. To the men brought up in the old school of belief in the central desert, every fresh advance into the interior was only pus.h.i.+ng the desert back a step; it was there still, and, according to some, it is there now. Others who believed in the great river theory, imagined its source in the fresh discovery of every inland river; and those who pinned their faith on a central range, accepted the low broken ridges of the M'Donnel Ranges as the leading spurs.

But the discoveries of the luxuriant new herbage and edible shrubs of the interior were the greatest stumbling block to all. That the much-despised SALSOLEA and other shrubs should be coveted and sought after; that the bugbear of Oxley, the ACACIA PENDULA, should now be held to indicate good country was inconceivable; and when, above everything, the most fondly cherished of all delusions, that in the torrid north the sheep's wool would turn to hair, had to be given up, it was quite evident that a new order of belief would soon be entertained.

Writers, however, were still found to argue that things must be after the old opinion. When M'Kinlay took his little flock of sheep across Australia and found them grow so fat that, when at the Gulf, he had to select the leanest one to kill from choice, they cried out triumphantly, "Ah, but the flesh was tasteless!" When he a.s.sured them that he had never enjoyed better mutton, they said that it was hunger made him think so.

Still the distinctive value of the country was not under stood.

Landsborough, who ought certainly to have known better, speaks highly of the Gulf plains as a suitable sheep run; but he was not alone in this belief. The valley of the Burdekin, and many of its tributaries were stocked with sheep by men of acknowledged experience. In a few years the error was found out, and sheep pastures were sought for only in the uplands of the interior.

But the later explorations had done much good for the new colony of Queensland. Most of the work, with the exception of Stuart's, had been wrought out within her boundaries, and capital and stock flowed in from all sides. This led to many private expeditions, such as those conducted formerly by Messrs. Landsborough, Walker, and Buchanan.

Amongst these, one under the leaders.h.i.+p of Mr. Dalrymple penetrated the coast country north of Rockhampton, and discovered the main tributaries of the Lower Burdekin, the Bowen and the Bogie rivers. They followed down the Burdekin in 1859, and discovered that its EMBOUCHERE was much higher up the coast than was supposed. From this point they turned back, and ascending the coast range, reached the upper waters of the Burdekin, and discovered the Valley of Lagoons, west of Rockingham Bay. Another party, consisting of Messrs. Cunningham, Somer, Stenhouse, Allingham, and Miles explored the Upper Burdekin in the following year, and discovered tracts of good pastoral country on the many tributaries of that river. The remarkable running stream which joins the Burdekin below the towns.h.i.+p of Dalrymple, and was noticed and called by M'Kinlay the Brown River, was really first found by this party, though where it obtained its present name of Fletcher's Creek is not on record.

In the far south, the Great Bight became once more the scene of interest.

In 1862, Goyder paid a visit to the much-abused region north of Fowler's Bay, but found nothing to reward him but mallee scrub and spinifex. In this year Delisser and Hardwicke went over the same country, but on a much more attractive route, as they came upon a large, limitless plain, covered with gra.s.s and saltbush. Unfortunately they could find no water, but since then this want has been supplied by sinking and boring, and pastoral settlement has extended so far.

In the year 1863, Mr. Thomas Macfarlane attempted to get inland, north of the Bight, but was forced to turn back, after suffering much hards.h.i.+p.

He, too, found some fairly-gra.s.sed country, but quite waterless.

In Western Australia, the colonists still made efforts to find good country east of the Swan River. Lefroy and party pushed out to the eastward of York, but were not able to give a much better account of the country than their predecessors. In the north-west a party of colonists landed at the De Grey River, and settled on the country found by F.

Gregory. Their account quite confirmed the one given by that explorer previously.

Once more a fresh chapter in the history of exploration has to be turned.

All around the coast the fringe of settlement was rapidly creeping, the gaps of unoccupied country growing smaller and fewer every year. The adventurous traveller who now forced his way through to the late uninhabited north coast would find several infant settlements ready to receive him, and he would no longer be obliged to retrace, with weakened frame and exhausted resources, his toilsome outward track. The last stage of Australia's history was about to set in; the telegraph wire was soon to follow on Stuart's footsteps, and the ring of communication to be nearly completed around the continent.

CHAPTER XI.

Settlement formed at Somerset, Cape York, by the Queensland Government--Expedition of the Brothers Jardine--Start from Carpentaria Downs Station--Disaster by fire--Reduced resources--Arrive at the coast of the Gulf--Hostility of the blacks--Continual attacks--Horses mad through drinking salt water--Poison country--An unfortunate camp--Still followed by the natives--Rain and bog--Dense scrub--Efforts of the two brothers to reach Somerset--Final Success--Lull in exploration--Private parties--Settlement at Escape Cliffs by South Australia--J. M'Kinlay sent up--Narrow escape from floods--Removal of the settlement to Port Darwin--M'Intyre's expedition in search of Leichhardt--His death--Hunt in Western Australia--False reports about traces of Leichhardt--Forrest's first expedition--Sent to investigate the report of the murder of white men in the interior--Convinced of its want of truth--Unpromising country--Second expedition to Eucla--The cliffs of the Great Bight--Excursion to the north--Safe arrival at Eucla.

The year 1863 was one of great activity in the northern part of Australia. At Cape York the Imperial Government had, on the recommendation of Sir George Bowen, the first Governor of Queensland, decided to form a settlement. Mr. Jardine, the police magistrate of Rockhampton was selected to take command, and a detachment of marines was sent out to be stationed there.

At the Gulf of Carpentaria the towns.h.i.+p of Burketown was springing into existence, under the care of William Landsborough, the explorer; and in the north of Arnhern's Land, M'Kinlay was looking for a suitable site to establish a port for South Australia. Somerset, the formation of which led to the expedition of the Jardine brothers, was formed on the mainland at the Albany Pa.s.s, opposite the island of that name. Mr. Jardine was to proceed by sea to his new sphere of office., but antic.i.p.ating the want of fresh meat at the new settlement, he entered into an arrangement with the Government for his two sons to take a herd of cattle overland to there.

Somerset was near the fatal scene of poor Kennedy's death, and knowing what tremendous difficulties that explorer had met with on the east coast, it was decided to attempt the western fall, through the unknown country fronting the Gulf.

Both the Jardines were quite young men at the time when they started, Frank, the accepted leader, being only twenty-two years old, and his brother, Alexander, twenty. Besides themselves, the party was composed of A. J. Richardson, a surveyor sent by the Government; Messrs. Scrutton, Binney and Cowderoy, and four natives. They had forty-two horses, and about two hundred and fifty head of cattle, with four months, provisions.

Before their final start from Carpentaria Downs Station, then the furthest occupied country to the north-west, and supposed to be situated on the Lynd River, of Leichhardt, Alexander Jardine made a trip of some distance ahead in order to ensure finding an available road for the cattle, and saving delay when the actual start took place.

On this preliminary journey he followed the presumed Lynd down for nearly one hundred and eighty miles, until he was convinced that there was an error, and that, whatever river it was, it certainly was not Leichhardt's, as neither in appearance, direction, nor position did it coincide with that explorer's description.

On the subsequent journey with the cattle this supposition was found to be correct, the river turning out to be a tributary of the Gilbert, now known as the Einnesleigh. On the 11th of October, after A. Jardine's return, the final start was made from Carpentaria Downs, and the whole of the party commenced a journey destined to be full of peril and adventure.