The Explorers of Australia and their Life-work

overer of the Macquar

INLAND EX

n Australian river flowing into the interior. For some reason he has never received adequate recognition of his important explorations, and he is well-nigh forgotten by the people of New South Wales, the state that ha

dockyard, and while there he married his first wife, Janet Melvill. In 1802 he was appointed Deputy Surveyor-General, and came to Austral

eneral only, until he was permanently settled in Tasmania, where he remained in offi

ade to deprive him of his well-deserved pension, necessitated Evans's departure for England to defend his claims. In this he was only partially successful, for the pension which it was understood was for life, was stopped in 1832. He returne

explored are reproduced in Oxley's journal. He also published a book ent

ost no time in following the tracks of the late expedition, leaving the measurement until his return. On Friday, the 26th, he reached Blaxland's furthest point, and thenceforward passed over new ground. I

t coming to it, looks miserable now after re

time, though he had been "bothered" by the hills in his efforts to reach it. From thi

ountain peaks and sluggish rivers; and, though then hidden from even the most brilliant imagination, the wondrous potentialities latent in that silent and untrodden region. If a vision of the future had been vouchsafed Deputy-Surveyor Evans as he stood and gaze

leased with the sight westward. I think I can s

st of the species to tickle the palate of a white man; fine specimens, too, weighing five and six pounds. As he proceeded further and further, he became enchanted with

duty bound, the Macquarie. Unimpeded in his course, he followed the Macquarie until he was 98 1/2 measured miles -- for they had been chaining since passing the limit of the first explorers -- from the termination of

g his progress, unmistakeable traces of the natives; but he interviewed only a small party of five. This representative band of

losely the same route as that taken by Blaxland's party. This work was completed in the year 1815, and on the 26th of April of the same year, Governor Macquarie and a large staff set out to visit the newl

E LACHL

inding himself still amongst the tributaries of the Campbell River, he retraced his steps some twelve or fourteen miles in order to avoid a row of rocky hills. He then struck out more to the westwa

nd, well-wooded. To the south, distant objects are obscured by high hills, but in the south-west are very distant mountains, under them appear

m the north-east, and he writes: "they have at the end of the day almost the appearance of a river." On the 24th he came to a creek which joined "the bed of a r

ward, and he being clear of the points of the hills, which hitherto had hinder

t hand this morning. I leave no mark here more than cutting trees. On one situated in an an

ked and killed. It must have been a fine tree when marked by the explorer, and though dead it is still standing at the date of the publication of this book. In 1906, the shield of wood bearing

d to a view of the ocean. On his way back to Bathurst, he bestowed upon the new river the name it now bears. A short passage in his diary, written durin

ooked rather white. To-day it was distinguished as plain as ever I saw snow on the mountains in Van Diemen's

tralia. It was not his actual discoveries alone that brought him fame, but the vast field for settlement these discoveries opened up. The indep

E UNKNO

the highlands, and, favoured by a beautiful site, the town of Bathurst soon assumed an orderly appearance. Private enterprise had also been at work elsewhere. The pioneer settlers were making t

lton Hume, the first Australian-born explorer to

and it was fortunate that the first advance into the interior occurred when there

and perplexing ideas, often with regard to the same tract of country. What appeared to one man a land of pleasant gurgling brooks, flowing through rich pastures, appeared to another as a pitiless desert, unfit for human foot to venture upon. Oxley, who tr

ther in tributaries, and having swollen to a size worthy of so great a continent, seek the sea on the west coast. W.C. Wentwor

r. Oxley left off to any part of the western coast is very little short of two thousand miles. If this river therefore be already of the size of the Hawkesbury at Windsor, which is not less than two hundred and fifty yards in breadth, and of sufficient depth to float a seventy-four gun ship, it is not difficult to imagine what must be its magnitude at its confluence with the ocean, before it can arrive at

hopes as these that Oxley went fo