BY THE HON. A. NORTON, M.L.C. 151 



the following year I made another trip with cattle to Deniliquin, 

 varying the route in places and becoming more extensively 

 acquainted with the nature of the country ; but the only effect of 

 these journeys was to turn my thoughts more definitely towards 

 the undeveloped north. While I was in Melbourne, after my 

 second overland trip, I was afforded a convenient opportunity to 

 visit the westernmost country of New South Wales then under 

 occupation, and without any unnecessary delay I made a start 

 from Sydney taking a well-tried man with me. I had selected 

 three good horses, one of whicb carried our pack, and we 

 travelled by the usual road through Bathurst, Orange, Molong, 

 Wellington, and Dubbo. From Bathurst our course was 

 generally down the valley of the Macquarie. As a matter 

 of fact we followed approximately the track of Captain 

 Sturt when in 1829 he travelled down the Macquarie during 

 a terrible drought which had commenced on the coast in 

 1826, hoping to solve the mystery connected with the marshes 

 which in 1817 and 1818 had blocked Oxley's further progress. 

 After passing Mount Harris and Mount Foster we crossed onto 

 Duck Creek, and afterwards onto Mara Creek, and this we 

 followed down to the Barwon River, as it is there called. There 

 is some very fine cattle country on the Lower Macquairie, but 

 this was already occupied. Until we re iched the Barwon we 

 had travelled through dry country, water being confined for the 

 most part to the Macquairie River and the larger creeks. The 

 Barwon was lined on either bank by large blue-gums ; the 

 channel was wide and deep, and numbers of waterfowl floated 

 lazily on the splendid reaches of water. It was only close 

 beside the river, however, that grass was plentiful, and even it 

 was very dry in most places. Sturt, after vainly trying to follow 

 the Macquairie through the marshes which were then almost 

 dry, turned to the left and crossed the dry bed of the Bogan 

 without recognising it as a river of importance. He passed 

 under Oxley's Tableland, Durban's Group being distant only a 

 few miles, and named the river he discovered the Darling. His 

 disappointment can be understood when he found the water was 

 too salt for men or his animals to drink. The saltness they 

 discovered arose from brine springs in the river itself. When 

 in 1859-60 I visited the country the water was fresh and good, 

 but its dry character was well-known, and the frontages to the 

 river had not in all cases been stocked. For several years, 

 however, Tyson and other pastoral magnates, who knew their 



