318 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



blacks, and unable to induce McMillan to return made an attempt 

 to kill him during the night. When detected in the act he denied 

 all evil intention, and blamed an unfortunate realistic dream for his 

 erratic action. In any case, the incident induced McMillan to re- 

 turn at once to Omeo to report progress to his employer. Later in 

 the year he returned and formed a cattle station on the Tambo River, 

 some forty miles south of Omeo, and from this depot he made his 

 first considerable journey, starting on the llth of January, 1840, 

 with four white companions and two natives. He appears to have 

 followed the Tambo down until he reached the great lakes, to which 

 he gave the names of Victoria and Wellington. He then struck a 

 westerly course, and penetrated as far as the district about Maffra, 

 the centre of the richest grazing area in Eastern Victoria. In his 

 course he crossed and named the rivers Nicholson, Mitchell and 

 Avon, and finally brought up on the McAlister, which he then 

 followed down to its junction with the river afterwards called the 

 Latrobe, close to the site of the present town of Sale. Here, their 

 provisions nearly exhausted, and a fortnight's laborious effort to 

 their credit, they resolved to return to the station, McMillan declar- 

 ing his intention to bring cattle thence at once to fatten on the 

 finely grassed open plains which extended from the Avon to the 

 foot of the Australian Alps in the north. Believing himself the first 

 white man who had penetrated the district, he named it, with 

 pardonable racial pride, "Caledonia Australis," but the name had 

 no more permanence than Sir Thomas Mitchell's happy christening 

 of Victoria. 



Lest any other claimant should arise for the honour of his 

 discovery, McMillan, on reaching the station on the Tambo, at once 

 reported to his employer the particulars of the country opened up, 

 though that gentleman, desiring to avoid competition for its occu- 

 pancy, kept the information to himself. But as soon as possible 

 he sent McMillan back with a mob of cattle, and in October, 1840, 

 he formed the first station on the Avon River. This was of course 

 done without any Government sanction, as it was beyond the 

 jurisdiction of any Crown Lands Commissioner. Leaving the 

 station in charge of his companions, McMillan started off to 

 Maneroo to get protection for his holding from the Commissioner 



