LANDSBOROUGH 281 



WALKER CREEK and JARDINE CREEK, to all of which places he gave 

 their names. (SEE MAP Q.) Between Walker Creek and the 

 Jardine he passed the site of the modern town of HUGHENDEN. 

 On Sth March, on O'CONNELL CREEK, he saw CATTLE TRACKS, and 

 on WALKER CREEK he discovered TRACKS which he (no doubt 

 correctly) believed to be those of WALKER'S PARTY. From the 

 Jardine Valley he crossed the low WATERSHED BETWEEN THE GULF 

 OF CARPENTARIA AND THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN BIGHT and passed 

 southward to COXON CREEK, one of the heads of the Thomson 

 River. Coxon Creek led him to TOWERHILL CREEK, which he 

 followed southward, apparently to its junction with Cornish and 

 Landsborough Creeks, which unite with Towerhill Creek and 

 form the THOMSON RIVER. From the Thomson River he crossed 

 country to the south-east to the WARREGO RIVER, which he followed 

 down to Williams' station on the DARLING (2ist May, 1862). 



As regards the primary object of his travels, the evidence 

 procured by Landsborough was of a purely negative character, 

 but perhaps more than any explorer of these regions he had the 

 good fortune to demonstrate the existence of an enormous extent 

 of first-rate PASTORAL COUNTRY. 



The steamer " Victoria " was back in Moreton Bay on I4th 

 March, 1862. 



A sequel to Landsborough's expedition was the race for the 

 magnificent pastoral country described by him. One of the first 

 starters was ERNEST HENRY, of Mount McConnell station, near the 

 junction of the Belyando with the Burdekin River. He had been, 

 as a member of one of George Elphinstone Dalrymple's expeditions, 

 among the earliest to follow up Leichhardt's discoveries in that 

 region. In his early youth he had served as a subaltern officer 

 in the Crimean War. Along with a companion named Devlin, 

 he pushed through the spinifex country between the Cape and 

 Flinders Rivers. Descending to the Jardine Valley, he followed 

 the Flinders down to a point which he selected as the site for a 

 new station, on which he bestowed the name of HUGHENDEN, the 

 Tudor manor house in Buckinghamshire owned by his grandfather, 

 and known to fame in later days as the residence of Benjamin 

 Disraeli. 1 The name in due course passed on to the town 

 which grew up near the station. Not long after the foundation 

 of the station, Henry drifted westward and discovered the mineral 

 riches of CLON CURRY. He died at Epping, near Sydney, on 

 26th March, 1919. 



Another of the immediate effects of Landsborough's expedition 

 was the settlement of the fine " country " on the ALBERT RIVER, 

 or Inlet. First observed by STOKES in 1841, the importance of 

 this district was emphasised by LANDSBOROUGH in a manner which 

 ensured attention. The leader in this new enterprise was JOHN 



1 " Early Carpentaria," by " Pioneer." The World's News, 5th May, 1906. 



