Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume ISturt, Charles
History
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume I
Sturt, Charles
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Sturt, Charles, 1795-1869
We passed some considerable plains, lying to the eastward of the creek,
on parts of which the grass, though growing in tufts, was of luxuriant
growth. They were, however, more generally covered with salsola and
rhagodia, and totally destitute of other vegetation, the soil upon them
being a red sandy loam. The paths across the plains, which varied in
breadth from three to eight miles, were numerous; but they had not been
recently trodden. The creek continued to have a thick brush of
casuarina and acacia near it, to the westward of which there was a
rising open forest track; the timber upon it being chiefly box,
cypress, and the acacia longifolia. It was most probably connected with
New Year's Range, those elevations being about thirty miles distant. It
terminated in some gentle hills which, though covered in places with
acacia shrub, were sufficiently open to afford an extensive view. From
their summit Oxley's Table Land, towards which we had been gradually
working our way, was distinctly visible, distant about twenty miles,
and bearing by compass W. by S. On descending from these hills (called
the Pink Hills, from the colour of a flower upon them) which were
scattered over with fragments of slaty quartz, we traversed a box flat,
apparently subject to overflow, having a barren sandy scrub to its
left. I had desired the men to preserve a W.N.W. direction, on leaving
them, supposing that that course would have kept them near the creek;
but, on overtaking the party, I found that they had wandered completely
away from it. The fact was, that the creek had taken a sudden bend to
the eastward of N. and had thus thrown them out. It was with some
difficulty that we regained it before sunset; and we were at length
obliged to stop for the night at a small plain, about a quarter of a
mile short of it, but we had the satisfaction of having excellent feed
for the animals.
OXLEY'S TABLE LAND.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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