Explorations in Australia, Illustrated, by John Forrest
page 68 of 325 (20%)
page 68 of 325 (20%)
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Proposal to reach Adelaide by way of the South Coast.
The experience derived from Eyre's Expedition. Survey of Port Eucla. Official Instructions. The Start. Dempster's Station near Esperance Bay. The Schooner at Port Eucla. Journal of the Expedition. Immediately on my return to Perth a new expedition was suggested by Dr. Von Mueller, whose anxiety for the discovery of Leichardt was rather increased than abated by the disappointment experienced. He proposed that I should start from the upper waters of the Murchison River with a light party and provisions for six months, and endeavour to reach Carpentaria. He thought, not only would such an expedition almost certainly find some traces of the lost explorer, but probably would make geographical discoveries of the highest interest and importance. In a paper in the Colonial Monthly he argued that: "While those who searched after traces of the lost party did not solve the primary objects of their mission, their labours have not been without importance to geographical science. The course of one traveller connected the southern interior of Queensland in a direct route with the vast pastoral depressions about Lake Torrens; the researches of another explorer, bent on ascertaining Leichardt's fate, unfolded to us a tract of table country, now already occupied by herds and flocks, not less in length than that of Sweden and Italy...We should bear fully in mind how a line in Leichardt's intended direction would at once enable the squatters of North-East Australia to drive their surplus of flocks and herds easily across to the well-watered, hilly and grassy country within close |
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