Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South WalesOxley, John
History
Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales
Oxley, John
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Oxley, John, 1783-1828
July 22.--The river had risen during the night upwards of a foot, and
was now about eight feet from the banks; its breadth from thirty to
fifty feet, whilst its apparent usual channel could not exceed from
fifteen to twenty. The calls of the natives were heard this morning on
the opposite side of the river. At nine o'clock we again proceeded up
the river, which to-day trended east by north. About four miles east
from our last station, we ascended a stony mount being near the
north-east extreme of Goulburn's Range: the country to the north-east
and round to east was without any eminences of magnitude, but several
rising chains of low hills were scattered over the general surface of
the country; they were mostly bare of trees, being stony and barren. It
is impossible to imagine a worse tract of country than that through
which our route lay this day; to the very edges of the stream, it was a
barren acacia scrub intermingled with cypresses and dwarf box-trees. The
flats were uniformly swampy, and covered with bushes (rhagodea); the
hills instead of grass were clothed with gnapthalium. We repeatedly saw
the river in our course, but I could find no eligible place to cross it,
as the trees which would have suited our purpose for bridges were now,
in consequence of the fresh or flood, in the very middle of the stream.
The banks where the rising grounds came immediately on the river were
high and of a red loamy clay, and when this was the case the opposite
banks were seen to be low in proportion: when we halted for the night,
they were not above five or six feet, and I think there must have been
from ten to twelve feet more water in the bed of the stream than usual.
Bad as the travelling was even close to the stream, it was still worse
about two miles back from it; several small scrubs of the eucalyptus
dumosa and prickly shrubs were passed through by the men who had taken
out the dogs in search of game; and from the hill we first ascended, we
observed several very extensive scrubs to the northward, of the same
description. At half past three we halted for the night, having gone
about eleven miles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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