INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



BY 



A. W. HOWITT, C.M.G., D.Sd, F.G.S., 



President. 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 

 [ ^ AND THE BURKE AND WILLS EXPEDITION. 



if-V From the times of earliest settlement in New South Wales there 

 was much speculation as to the nature of the interior of this continent, 

 the merest margin of which was known when Lawson, Blaxland, and 

 Wentworth found a practicable track across the Blue Mountains. 

 The vast extent of the " interior," and the many rivers which were 

 found to flow inland, raised geographical questions which were not only- 

 investigated by the early explorers, but also led to hypotheses which 

 were still accepted as late as 1858. 



In reading the reports of the early explorers of New South Wales 

 it is interesting to study their opinions of the physical geography of 

 the Australian continent. 



Before 1831 a convict named Barber — or " the barber " — escaped 

 from custody and lived among the natives, to the northward of Port 

 Macquarie, for some five years. On his voluntary or compulsory re- 

 turn to civilisation he said that a large river, originating in the high- 

 lands near Liverpool Plains and the mountains to the northward of 

 them, pursued a north-west course to the sea. 



In the years 1831-2 Major Mitchell made an expedition to ascer- 

 tain the truth of this statement. He reported that the division of the 

 Avaters falling towards the northern and southern shores of Australia 

 Avas not, as had been supposed, in the direction of the Liverpool and 

 Warabangle Range, but extended between Cape Byron on the eastern 

 shores towards Dirk Hartog's Island on the west, (a) 



Another hypothesis was formulated by Mr. Allan Cunningham, 

 who, according to Sturt, entertained Oxley's views of the character 



(a) Sturt, " Southern Australia," Vol. I., pp. 160-9. 



