The Explorers (19 page)
The party encamped by the side of a fine stream of water, at a short distance from a high hill in the shape of a sugar loaf. In the afternoon they ascended its summit, from whence they descried all around forest or grass land, sufficient in extent, in their opinion, to support the stock of the colony for the next thirty years.
This was the extreme point of their journey. The distance they had travelled, they computed, at about fifty-eight miles nearly north-west; that is, fifty miles through the mountain (the greater part of which they had walked over three times) and eight miles through the forest land beyond it, reckoning the descent of the mountain to be half a mile to the footâ¦
They now conceived that they had sufficiently accomplished the design of their undertaking, having surmounted all the difficulties which had prevented hitherto the interior of the country from being explored, and the colony from being extended. They had partly cleared, or at least marked out, a road by which the passage of the mountain might easily be effected. Their provisions were nearly expended, their clothes and shoes were in very bad condition, and the whole party were ill with bowel complaints.
These considerations determined them, therefore, to return home by the track they cameâ¦On Sunday the 6th of June, they crossed the river after breakfast, and reached their homes, all in good health. The winter had not set in on this side of the mountain, nor had there been any frost.
They Began to Laugh, 1814
George William Evans arrived in Australia in 1804 and managed the government grain store at Parramatta. He went on to become acting surveyor-general, a farmer, an artist and a resolute explorer. In November 1813, in the wake of Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson, he became the first European to roam the lush plains to the west of the Blue Mountains. For this work he was awarded the sum of £100 and a thousand acres of land in Tasmania. He was to join other expeditions in both New South Wales and Tasmania.
In his later years, Evans opened a bookshop in Sydney. I wonder how many people dropped in just to chat with the old explorer. He loved children, for he had at least twelve of them himself, and seems to have delighted in their company, regardless of whether they were black or white. We join him in April 1814 near Bathurst.
Tuesday, 21stâFine weather very warm; halted at the commencement of Bathurst Plains early, as I was desirous to examine this part. I ascended Mount Pleasant: the west end led me on a ridge of beautiful hills, along which I travelled about three miles; a small stream of water forming ponds run at their foot. I was gratified with a pleasant sight of an open country to the
SW
of them; at the space of seven or eight miles I could discern the course of a river winding to the west. I saw three or four large plains; the first of them I was on, the chain of ponds before mentioned running through it.
I feel much regret I am not able to travel a week or more in that direction. I imagine the flat open country extends thirty or forty miles; at the termination I can only discern one mountain quite pale with three peaks. I suspect an open country lay about the
SW
point; as I passed, the range of hills then obscured it from me, nor had I time to examine it.
I cannot speak too much of the country. The increase of stock for some 100 years cannot overrun it, the grass is so good and intermixed with variety of herbs. Emus and geese are numerous, but cannot get any.â We counted forty-one emus this day: our dogs will not follow them.
Returning we saw smoke on the north side of the river. At sunset as we were fishing I saw some natives coming down the plain. They did not see us until we surprised them: there were only two women and four children. The poor creatures trembled and fell down with fright; I think they were coming for water. I gave them what fish we had; some fish hooks, twine and a tomahawk they appeared glad to get from us. Two boys ran away; the other small children cried much at first. A little while after I played with them they began to be good-humoured and laugh. Both of the women were blind of their right eye.
An Oval Grave, 1817
An Englishman who initially pursued a career in the navy, John Oxley was the first of the great overland explorers. His expeditions into the country west and north of the Blue Mountains, with George Evans and others, can be said to mark the beginning of the classic phase of Australian exploration.
Explorers are naturally curious. But here, on the banks of the Lachlan River in 1817, did Oxley go too far?
July 29âThe stream where we stopped was about four feet from the banks, running with much rapidity; and I think the flood in it has rather increased than abated.
Almost directly under the hill near our halting-place, we saw a tumulus which was apparently of recent construction (within a year at most). It would seem that some person of consideration among the natives had been buried in it, from the exterior marks of a form which had certainly been observed in the construction of the tomb and surrounding seats. The form of the whole was semi-circular. Three rows of seats occupied one half, the grave and an outer row of seats the other; the seats formed segments of circles of fifty, forty-five and forty feet each, and were formed by the soil being trenched up from between them. The centre part of the grave was about five feet high, and about nine long, forming an oblong pointed cone.
I hope I shall not be considered as either wantonly disturbing the remains of the dead, or needlessly violating the religious rites of an harmless people, in having caused the tomb to be opened that we might examine its interior construction. The whole outward form and appearance of the place was so totally different from that of any custom or ceremony in use by the natives on the eastern coast, where the body is merely covered with a piece of bark and buried in a grave about four feet deep, that we were induced to think that the manner of interring the body might also be different.
On removing the soil from one end of the tumulus, and about two feet beneath the solid surface of the ground, we came to three or four layers of wood, lying across the grave, serving as an arch to bear the weight of the earthy cone or tomb above. On removing one end of those layers, sheet after sheet of dry bark was taken out, then dry grass and leaves in a perfect state of preservation, the wet or damp having apparently never penetrated even to the first covering of wood. We were obliged to suspend our operation for the night, as the corpse became extremely offensive to the smell, resolving to remove on the morrow all the earth from the top of the grave, and expose it for some time to the external air before we searched fartherâ¦
July 30âThe rain continued throughout the day without intermissionâ¦This morning we removed all the earth from the tomb and grave, and found the body deposited about four feet deep in an oval grave, four feet long and from eighteen inches to two feet wide. The feet were bent quite up to the head, the arms having been placed between the thighs. The face was downwards, the body being placed east and west, the head to the east.
It had been very carefully wrapped in a great number of opossum skins, the head bound round with the net usually worn by the natives, and also the girdle. It appeared, after being enclosed in those skins, to have been placed in a larger net, and then deposited in the manner before mentioned. The bones and head showed that they were the remains of a powerful tall man. The hair on the head was perfect, being long and black; the under part of the body was not totally decayed, giving us reason to think that he could not have been interred above six to eight months. Judging from his hair and teeth, he might have been between thirty and forty years of age.â To the west and north of the grave were two cypress trees distant between fifty and sixty feet. The sides towards the tomb were barked, and curious characters deeply cut upon them, in a manner which, considering the tools they possess, must have been a work of great labour and time. Having satisfied our curiosity, the whole was carefully re-interred, and restored as near as possible to the station in which it was found. The river fell in the course of the day near two feet.
The Finest Park Imaginable, 1818
On a second expedition in 1818, Oxley encountered a land of plenty. His description of the fertile hills and beautiful, spacious valleys of the New England region helped to draw settlers over the ranges by the score. Soon the idyllic scenes of clear-flowing rivers, of plains full of kangaroos and emus, of Aborigines and their intricate cultures, were all to be things of the past.
September 7âThe morning clear and fine. At half past seven o'clock we proceeded on our journey: in the whole course of it we never experienced more precipitous travelling than during the first six miles. Travellers less accustomed to meet difficulties might perhaps have been a little alarmed at traversing such steep and shelving hills, the loose stones on which added to the insecurity of our footing. Nevertheless we found it extremely pleasant from the romantic beauty of the scenery and the freshness of the verdure.
We had been ascending an extremely elevated country for the last thirty miles; and I was in great hopes of soon reaching the point of division between the eastern and western waters. By a tolerably easy acclivity, we gained that which I took to be the highest of these congregated hills, in hopes it might possibly lead into a main range. From its summit we had a very extensive prospect over the country we had left, and also to the southward, in which direction the land appeared broken and hilly, and but thinly clothed with timber. To the east and north-east it appeared far less broken, and certainly less elevated than the ridge we were on. This ridge soon expanded to a broad surface of open forest land, and proceeding on it to the east about a mile we perceived in the valley beneath us a considerable and rapid stream running to the north, and afterwards apparently taking a more easterly direction.
A more remarkable change in the outward appearance of a country was perhaps never before witnessed. In less than a mile the timber had entirely changed from the bastard box to another kind of eucalyptus called common blue gum which grew in great luxuriance in the country before us. Until now this species had never been seen except on the immediate banks of running streams. In the course of the day, great quantities of fine stringybark were also seen. The soil, instead of the light black mould which had been the general covering of the country, was now changed to a stiff tenacious clay; and although well clothed with grass its less luxuriant growth evidently showed the difference of soil not to be favourable.
From this hill or range we descended very gradually for nearly two miles to the river before seen, and up the banks of which we proceeded about a mile farther, when we halted for the evening. The country was perfectly open, though much covered with fallen timber; the banks of the river sloping and quite clear of timber; and, being within one hundred miles of the sea coast, I had a strong belief that we had descended from the highest land, and that we should meet with no dividing ranges in the course of our future progress. It is impossible to form any certain conclusion at present as to the course taken by this stream. Whether it finds its way to the coast, or is lost like the other streams of this country, will, I think, in a great measure depend upon the fact of our having crossed the highest ranges of the country.