INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 7 



Having sent Babbage and his party back to Adelaide on the 

 8th November, Warburton, on the same day, started with two com- 

 panions and two packhorses to try and cross Lake Torrens to the 

 northern settlements. He did this without difficulty, and on the 15th 

 reached an outstation near Fortress Hill. On the 18th he reported 

 himself to the Government as having arrived at the Mounted Police 

 Station at Angepina, and was in Adelaide on the 10th December, 1858. 



We may now ask, was it Babbage who first recognised the inde- 

 pendent existence of Lake Gregory, which is now known as the southern 

 part of Lake Eyre, from Lake Torrens, and was it Babbage who first 

 formed the idea of a practicable passage from " Stuart's Country " 

 to the northern settlements, across what was believed to be the horse- 

 shoe Lake Torrens ? 



In 1857 Babbage believed that there was only one passage practi- 

 cable over Lake Torrens, and to be found near Mount Hopeless, at 

 the north-east side of the horseshoe. (Appendix p. 39.) 



In 1858 he wrote — " Either that Lake Torrens does not extend 

 so far northwards as this latitude, viz., 29° 37', or that, if it does, it 

 must be reduced to a mere inconsiderable channel, and might be readily 

 crossed." In the same letter, however, he says — " My own belief, 

 from what I then and subsequently saw, is that Lake Torrens turns 

 up to Yarrawurta at its northern end, as at its southern it does to the 

 Beda Arm, and that between Yarrawurta and Lake Gregory there are 

 only a few small isolated salt lakes, similar to Lake Phibbs, sufficient, 

 however, to impress E}Te, who, I believe, only saw the country from 

 a distance, with the idea that he saw the loom of a continuous lake." 

 (Appendix p. 39.) 



The despatch from which I quote was written from Port Augusta 

 on the 21st of November, when he was on his way to Adelaide, having 

 been superseded in his command on the 5th. On that date he had 

 dissented from Major Warburton as to there being a passage across 

 Lake Torrens, but changed his opinion when the latter told him that 

 Stuart's blackfellow had urged him (Stuart) to return that way. (w) 



In 1859 Babbage said, in evidence before the Select Committee, 

 in reply to a question by the chairman as to whether the distance of 

 the northern shore of Lake Torrens from Stuart's Creek would be 

 50 or 60 miles, " No ; we here strike Lake Torrens, and I have proved 

 it to be a portion of Lake Gregory." (o) The uncertainty of his opinions 

 as to this matter is also shown in what he says as to the view he ob- 



{7i) Appendix, p. 39. 

 (o) Select Committee — Evidence, 456 ; Appendix, pp. 38-39. 



