returned, having discovered a new river at the foot of the range, which
they named the Goulburn.

In 1823, Oxley, Cunningham, and Currie were all in the field in different
directions.

On the 22nd of May, Captain Mark John Currie, R.N., accompanied by
Brigade-Major Ovens, and having with them Joseph Wild, a notable bushman,
started on an exploratory trip south of Lake George. On the 1st of June,
they came to the Morumbidgee, as it was then called, and followed up the
bank of it, looking for a crossing. The day before they had caught sight
of a high range of mountains to the southward, partially snow-topped. In
their progress along the river they came to fine open downs and plains,
which, with the singularly bad taste, which still, unfortunately, holds
sway, Currie immediately named after the then Governor, "Brisbane Downs;"
although but a short time before they had learnt from the aborigines the
native name of Monaroo. Fortunately, in this instance, Monaroo has been
preserved, and Brisbane Downs forgotten.

On the 6th June they crossed the river, and found the open country still
stretching south, bounded to the west by the snowy mountains they had
formerly seen, and to the east by a range that they took to be the coast
range. Their provisions being limited, they turned back, and reached
Throsby's farm of Bong-Bong on the 14th of the same month.

Cunningham, meantime, during the months of April, May, and June, was
busily engaged in the country north of Bathurst. He had two purposes in
view--his pursuit as a botanist, and the discovery of a pass through the
northern range on to Liverpool Plains, which Lieutenant Lawson had been
unable to find. On reaching the range he searched vainly to the eastward