The Explorers of Australia and their Life-workFavenc, Ernest
History
The Explorers of Australia and their Life-work
Favenc, Ernest
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Explorers
On the 16th of April, 1858, he left the Geraldine mine with a
lightly-equipped party of six, including J.B. Roe, son of the
Surveyor-General. They had with them six pack and six riding-horses, and
rations for 60 days.
They proceeded up the Murchison, and on the 25th of the same month they
reached a tributary called the Impey, which had been the highest point
reached by Gregory the preceding year. This time, however, the party did
not find such ample pasture as he had described. Still following the
river up until the 30th April, on that day they struck off on a
nor-north-east course, the course of the Murchison tending too much in an
easterly direction to lead them speedily on to the Gascoyne. On the 3rd
they reached a gentle stony ascent, which proved to be the watershed
between the two rivers. Descending the slope to the northward, they soon
came to the head of a watercourse flowing northwards. They followed the
new creek, and on the 6th of May came to a river joining it from the
eastward, which at last proved to be the Gascoyne.
Gregory kept down the south bank of the Gascoyne, and on the 12th of May
passed a large tributary coming from the north, which he named the Lyons.
On the 17th they ascended a sandy ridge about sixty feet in height, and
had a view of Shark's Bay.
He returned along the north bank of the river, and having reached the
Lyons, followed that river up. On the 3rd of June he ascended the highest
mountain yet discovered in Western Australia, which he named Mount
Augustus, after his brother. Gregory gives the elevation at 3,480 feet,
but Mount Bruce in the Hammersley Range, to the north of it, has since
been found to be higher.* From the summit, however, he had an extensive
view, and was enabled to sketch in the courses of the various rivers for
over twenty miles.
*[Footnote.] 3,800 feet.
As they had now been out 51 days, and their supply of provisions was
approaching the end, the party turned back at Mount Augustus, and struck
southwards. On the 8th the Gascoyne was re-crossed at a place where its
course lay through flats and ana-branches. On the 10th of June they again
came to the Murchison, and followed it down to the Geraldine mine, and
finally reached Perth on the 10th of July. This expedition, so fruitful
in its results to the pastoral welfare of the colony, cost the settlers
only their contributions in horses and rations, and a cash expenditure of
forty pounds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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