CHAPTER XXX 



KENNEDY'S EXPEDITION, 1848 

 THE EAST COAST AND THE COAST RANGE 



KENNEDY LEAVES SYDNEY IN " TAM O'SHANTER," CONVOYED BY H.M.S. " RATTLE- 

 SNAKE." LANDS AT TAM O'SHANTER POINT, ROCKINGHAM BAY. ARRANGEMENT 

 FOR MEETING SHIP IN PRINCESS CHARLOTTE BAY. EQUIPMENT, INCLUDING CARTS 

 AND A FLOCK OF SHEEP. PERSONNEL. THIRTEEN PERSONS. "RATTLESNAKE" 

 ASSISTS IN DEBARKATION (24 AND 25 MAY, 1848). THOMAS HUXLEY. 

 MOUNTAINS AND SCRUBS TO THE NORTH. TRY SOUTHWARD. HULL, TULLY 

 AND MURRAY RIVERS AND DALLACHY, WRECK AND MEUNGA CREEKS CROSSED. 

 NATIVES OCCASIONALLY ASSIST. THE SHEPHERD DESERTS AND JOINS NATIVES, BUT 

 IS RECOVERED. CARTS AND SHEEP CAUSE DELAY AND TROUBLE. SOUTHWARD TO 

 NEAR SITE OF CARDWELL. ATTACKED BY NATIVES, WHO ARE REPULSED, WITH 

 Loss (4TH JULY). WESTWARD UP MEUNGA AND KENNEDY CREEKS. NORTH- 

 WESTWARD. SCRUBBY MOUNTAINS. CARTS ABANDONED (i4TH JULY). OVER- 

 DRIVEN AND HUNGRY SHEEP AND HORSES. HEWING A WAY THROUGH SCRUB AND 

 UP MOUNTAINS. RAIN. SCRUB LEECHES. SUMMIT OF RANGE BETWEEN TULLY 

 AND HERBERT RIVERS (gTH AUGUST). 



EDMUND BESLEY COURT KENNEDY had been second 

 in command of Sir Thomas Mitchell's expedition, which 

 left Buree on I5th December, 1845, and which penetrated 

 to the Darling River, Balonne, St. George and the Maranoa 

 River. In 1847, he led an expedition with the object of tracing the 

 course of the Barcoo, when he followed the river into South 

 Australia till it ran out into marshes. 



In 1848, he was appointed by the Government of New South 

 Wales to the leadership of an expedition designed TO EXPLORE the 

 coast country FROM ROCKINGHAM BAY (18 S. lat.) TO CAPE 

 YORK. The successes of Mitchell and Leichhardt had roused him 

 to emulate their exploits and to plan an expedition on a more 

 ambitious scale than the one which he had already concluded. He 

 carried a copy of Leichhardt's Overland Expedition, then fresh 

 from the press. No doubt it was his daily study, and Leichhardt's 

 methods his model. The influence of the book is very distinctly 

 traceable in the nature of his preparations and equipment which 

 proved singularly inapplicable to the country he was to travel over. 

 He and his party left Sydney in the " Tarn O'Sbanter " barque, on 

 29th April, 1848, convoyed by H.M.S. "Rattlesnake." The 

 " Rattlesnake's " voyages extended to New Guinea and the 

 Louisiade Archipelago, although she set out from Sydney with the 



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