Our First Half-Century Part 2

In 1860 the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition left Melbourne, and reached the Gulf of Carpentaria, but their return journey resulted in the death of Burke, Wills, and Gray.

In 1861 McDouall Stuart crossed the continent; Frank Gregory discovered the Hammersley Range, and the Fortescue, Ashburton, de Grey, and Oakover Rivers in Western Australia. In the same year William Landsborough left the Gulf of Carpentaria in search of Burke and Wills; and Alfred Howitt started from Victoria on the same errand.

Edwin J. Welch, Howitt's second in command, found King, the only survivor of the expedition; and McKinlay, with W. O. Hodgkinson as lieutenant, started from Adelaide in the search, and crossed the continent, reaching the coast at Townsville. In 1863 John Jardine formed a settlement at Somerset, Cape York; and in the next year his adventurous brothers, Alexander and Frank, travelled overland to Somerset along the Peninsula, which Kennedy had failed to do.

In 1864 Duncan McIntyre travelled from the Paroo to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and died there. Next year J. G. Macdonald visited the Plains of Promise, and Frederick Walker marked the telegraph line from Rockingham Bay to the Norman River. In 1869 Mr. (now Sir John) Forrest made his first expedition to Lake Barlee; in 1870 he travelled the Great Bight from Perth to Adelaide, and in 1871 took charge of a private expedition in search of pastoral country. In 1872 William Hann, a Northern squatter, led an expedition equipped by the Queensland Government, and discovered the Walsh, Palmer, and Upper Mitch.e.l.l Rivers, and found prospects of gold which led to great mineral discoveries in North Queensland. Hann reached the coast at Princess Charlotte Bay. In the same year J. W. Lewis travelled round Lake Eyre to the Queensland border. Ernest Giles also made his first expedition in 1872, discovering Lake Amadeus, and on a second trip in 1873 discovered and named Gibson's Desert, after one of his party who died there. In 1873 Major Warburton crossed from Alice Springs, on the overland telegraph line, to the Oakover River, Western Australia. In 1875-6 Ernest Giles made a third and successful attempt from Adelaide to reach Western Australia. In the same year W. O. Hodgkinson started on a north-west expedition to the Diamantina and Mulligan Rivers, on which he officially reported.

In 1878 Prout brothers, looking for country across the Queensland border, never returned. In 1878 N. Buchanan, on an excursion to the overland telegraph line from the Queensland border, discovered Buchanan's Creek. In 1878-9 Ernest Favenc, starting from Blackall in charge of the "Queenslander" transcontinental expedition, reached Powell's Creek station, on the overland telegraph line; four years later he explored the rivers flowing into the Gulf, particularly the Macarthur, and then crossed to the overland telegraph line. In 1878 Winnecke and Barclay, surveyors, started to determine the border lines of Queensland and South Australia, returning in 1880 with their work done. In 1879 Alexander Forrest led an expedition from the de Grey River, Western Australia, to the overland telegraph line, discovering the Ord and Margaret Rivers.

By this time there was little left of the continent, save Western Australia, to explore, though men in search of pastoral country still found occupation in expeditions to discover the unknown in Queensland and the Northern Territory. In 1896 Frank Hann, younger brother of the explorer, who had left Queensland, traversed the country to the north of King Leopold Range, discovering a river which he named the Phillips, but which was afterwards renamed the Hann by the Surveyor-General of Western Australia. Afterwards Hann travelled from Laverton, Western Australia, to Oodnadatta, in South Australia. F. S.

Brockman is another explorer who was leader of a Kimberley expedition a few years ago, and discovered in North-west Australia 6 million acres of basaltic country clad with blue gra.s.s, Mitch.e.l.l and kangaroo gra.s.ses, and other fodder vegetation. The Elder expedition, projected on an ambitious scale in 1891 to complete the exploration of the continent, started under David Lindsay, but the results were less valuable than its generous and enterprising originator antic.i.p.ated.

From a second Elder expedition under L. A. Wells no great results were recorded. The same may be said of the Carnegie expedition in Western Australia. Yet the sum total of the information obtained was valuable.

Australia owes much to her adventurous explorers, as well as to the men who, following up their tracks, placed stock on much of the country that produced great wealth to the people, though as a rule neither explorers nor pastoral pioneers personally benefited much by their labours and privations.

[Footnote a: See Dampier's "Collection of Voyages, 1729."]

[Footnote b: See Cook's "Journal during his First Voyage Round the World, 1768-71." W. J. L. Wharton, 1893.]

[Footnote c: Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. i.]

[Footnote d: See "History of Australian Exploration," 1888; and "Explorers of Australia," 1908, both by Ernest Favenc.]

[Ill.u.s.tration (hand-written letter):

Victoria by the Grace of G.o.d of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, &c.

In pursuance of Our Order made by and with the advice of our Privy Council on the 6th day of June in the year of Our Lord 1859, We do by these presents summon and call together a Legislative a.s.sembly in and for Our Colony of Queensland to advise and give consent to the making of Laws for the peace, welfare and good Government of our said Colony.----

And we do enjoin and require Our subjects, inhabitants of Our said Colony, and being duly qualified in that behalf, to proceed to the Election of Members to serve in the said Legislative a.s.sembly in pursuance of Our Writs to be issued in Our name, in the first instance by Our Governor of Our Colony of New South Wales, and thereafter by Our Governor of Our said Colony of Queensland.----

----And We do further enjoin and require the Members who shall be so elected, to a.s.semble and meet together and to be and appear before Us for the purposes aforesaid at the Court House Buildings Brisbane on the 22nd day of May in the present year.

----In testimony whereof we have caused the Great Seal of Our Colony of Queensland to be affixed to this Our Writ.----

----Witness our trusty and well-beloved Sir William Thomas Denison, Knight Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, Governor General in and over all Her Majesty's Colonies of New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland, and Captain General and Governor-in-chief of the Territory of New South Wales and Vice Admiral of the same &c. &c. &c. at Government House Sydney, in New South Wales aforesaid this twentieth day of March in the Twenty third year of Our reign, and the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty--

W. Denison

By His Excellency's Command

Robert G. W. Herbert

G.o.d save the Queen!]

THE SUBDIVISION OF AUSTRALIA.

(MAPS 1 AND 2.)

Since the issue of Captain Arthur Phillip's Commission as Governor in 1786 there have been no less than ten successive modifications in Australian boundaries, all internal save the first, which severed Van Diemen's Land from New South Wales. Map 1 represents Australia as depicted before the time of Captain Cook. Map 2 shows the territory as divided into two parts by Governor Phillip's Commission. The continent was severed by a north-and-south line along the 135th meridian of east longitude, and all the eastern part declared to be the territory of New South Wales.

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND (MAP 3).

Under an Imperial Act of 1823 a Royal Commission was issued to Governor Arthur on 14th June, 1825, erecting Van Diemen's Land into a separate colony, as shown in Map 3.

NEW SOUTH WALES--ALTERED BOUNDARY (MAP 4).

On 6th July, 1825, a Commission appointing Sir Ralph Darling Governor of New South Wales, after describing the boundary of the colony as then existing, declared that the western boundary should be extended 6 degrees further west to the 129th meridian of east longitude, including all the adjacent islands in the Pacific Ocean.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA (MAP 5).

Although Western Australia had been occupied in 1826 by Major Lockyer, and a settlement had been established at Swan River in 1829, the boundaries of the colony were not definitely described until 1831, when Sir James Stirling's Commission of appointment as Governor gave him authority over all that part of the continent to the west of 129 degrees east longitude. A supplementary Commission issued in 1873 included all the adjacent islands in the Indian Ocean.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA (MAP 6).

South Australia was proclaimed a British Province by Letters Patent on the 28th December, 1836; bounded on the north by the 26th parallel of south lat.i.tude; on the south by the Southern Ocean; on the west by the 132nd meridian of east longitude; on the east by the 141st meridian.

VICTORIA (MAP 7).

In 1851 the territory previously known as Port Phillip was separated from New South Wales. In July, 1851, the legal symbol of the fact was found in the issue of writs of election for members of the Legislative Council. This was done under an Act of the New South Wales Legislature, pa.s.sed to give effect to the Act pa.s.sed in 1850 "for the Better Government of Her Majesty's Australian Colonies." Boundaries: On the north and north-east by a straight line from Cape Howe to the nearest source of the River Murray; thence by the course of that river to the eastern boundary of South Australia; and on the south by the sea: the River Murray to remain within New South Wales.

NEW SOUTH WALES--ALTERED BOUNDARY (MAP 8).

By a later statute pa.s.sed in 1855, the boundaries of New South Wales were defined as follows:--"All the territory lying between the 129th and 154th meridians of east longitude, and north of the 40th parallel of south lat.i.tude, including all islands and Lord Howe Island, except the territories comprised within the boundaries of the province of South Australia and the colony of Victoria as at present established."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map 1 (1770).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map 2 (1786).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map 3 (1825).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map 4 (1825).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map 5 (1831).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map 6 (1836).]