INTRODUCTION.

IN presenting the following pages to the Reader, it may not be out of
place to take a retrospect of the progress of Australian Settlement
generally, and particularly in the young northern colony of
Queensland.

During the last six years the great question of the character of
Central Australia, in the solution of which the lives of the
unfortunate Leichhardt and his party have been sacrificed, has been
set at rest by the memorable trip of Burke and Wills, and no less
memorable, but more fortunate one of McDouall Stewart. The Search
Expeditions of McKinlay, Howitt, Landsborough, and Walker, have made
it still more familiar, their routes connecting the out-settlements
of South Australia with those of the Gulf Shores and East Coast, and
adding their quota of detail to the skeleton lines of Leichhardt,
Gregory, and Burke and Wills; whilst private enterprise has, during
that time, been busy in further filling in the spaces, and utilizing
the knowledge gained by occupying the waste lands thus opened up.

It is questionable whether the amount of available country thus made
known has not been dearly purchased, by the very large sums that have
been expended, and the valuable lives that have been lost in its
exploration; the arid and waterless wastes of the interior, which
have now been proved equally subject to terrific droughts and
devastating floods, make it improbable that the Settlements of the
North Coast and the Southern Colonies can be connected by a
continuous line of occupation for many years to come; the rich
pastoral tracts of Arnheim's Land, the Victoria River, the Gulf