remarkable running stream which joins the Burdekin below the township of
Dalrymple, and was noticed and called by M'Kinlay the Brown River, was
really first found by this party, though where it obtained its present
name of Fletcher's Creek is not on record.

In the far south, the Great Bight became once more the scene of interest.
In 1862, Goyder paid a visit to the much-abused region north of Fowler's
Bay, but found nothing to reward him but mallee scrub and spinifex. In
this year Delisser and Hardwicke went over the same country, but on a
much more attractive route, as they came upon a large, limitless plain,
covered with grass and saltbush. Unfortunately they could find no water,
but since then this want has been supplied by sinking and boring, and
pastoral settlement has extended so far.

In the year 1863, Mr. Thomas Macfarlane attempted to get inland, north of
the Bight, but was forced to turn back, after suffering much hardship.
He, too, found some fairly-grassed country, but quite waterless.

In Western Australia, the colonists still made efforts to find good
country east of the Swan River. Lefroy and party pushed out to the
eastward of York, but were not able to give a much better account of the
country than their predecessors. In the north-west a party of colonists
landed at the De Grey River, and settled on the country found by F.
Gregory. Their account quite confirmed the one given by that explorer
previously.

Once more a fresh chapter in the history of exploration has to be turned.
All around the coast the fringe of settlement was rapidly creeping, the
gaps of unoccupied country growing smaller and fewer every year. The
adventurous traveller who now forced his way through to the late