LANDSBOROUGH 283 



ward, almost, if not quite, to the site of BURKETOWN (^otb 

 September). Thence he returned (SE. by E.-i-E.) to his former 

 crossing of the Leichhardt, where he fixed upon the site of a head 

 station, to be called FLORAVILLE, designed to command the greater 

 part of what Stokes had designated the PLAINS OF PROMISE nearly 

 a quarter of a century before. 



His return track to Carpentaria Downs was almost the same 

 as his outward track; indeed, he generally camped at his old camps. 

 On arriving, however, at the ROBERTSON RIVER, he ran the river 

 up to its head. (Gregory had already run it up for some distance 

 in 1856, although he had not given it a name.) Macdonald 

 arrived at CARPENTARIA DOWNS on 22nd October, 1864. 



Very shortly afterwards he took cattle along his tracks to stock 

 the new Floraville station. In May, 1 865, he chartered the " Jackmel 

 Packet " for the conveyance of supplies to Burketown. 



Mr. Macdonald, who afterwards was a Police Magistrate, died 

 in Brisbane in 1918. 



II. WALKER, 1 861-2 



FREDERICK WALKER, an officer of Native Police, with troopers 

 and a few white men, among whom were Haughton, Rodney and 

 Macalister, was sent to search for Burke or his tracks on a traverse 

 from the east coast of Queensland to the Gulf of Carpentaria. 

 He came north by the " Firefly" which also carried Landsborough's 

 party, and landed at Rockhampton, 1 from which he travelled west- 

 ward to " Mr. Macintosh's station on the Nogoa." The station 

 was left behind on i$th September, 1861. Passing EMERALD DOWNS 

 on the 20tb, Walker reached Dismal Creek, a tributary of the 

 BARCOO RIVER, at the intersection of the I46th meridian and 

 24th parallel, i.e., between the modern townships of BLACKALL 

 and JERICHO. On $oth October, after having, apparently, travelled 

 via Barcaldine, Aramac, Muttaburra, Cameron Downs and 

 Afton Downs, he reached (at his Camp 30) and named the STAWELL 

 RIVER, which he then followed up about 12 miles northward to 

 its junction with the WOOLGAR. (SEE MAP Q.) Crossing the 

 river (to which he gave its name), he struck out north-west, and 

 on loth November (Camp 36) cut a river, running north-west, 

 which might be either the " Bynoe " or the NORMAN. (SEE MAP 

 R.) Modern charting proves that it was the latter. He followed 



1 " Journal of Mr. Walker from the day he left Macintosh's Station on the Nogoa 

 to that of his arrival at the Albert River, Gulf of Carpentaria," Journ. Roy. Geogr. 

 Soc., London, Vol. XXXIII, p. 133. 



Ernest Favenc, History of Australian Exploration, Sydney, 1888, p. 396. 



John Davis, edited by William Westgarth, Tracks of McKinlay and Party across 

 Australia. London, 1863. 



Governor Sir H. Barkly, Dispatch from, to the Duke of Newcastle, 2ist August, 

 1862, in Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc., London, Vol. XXXIII, p. 150. 



G. Phillips, " The Victorian Exploring Expedition, 1860-1," Queensland Geogr. 

 Journ., Vol. XXIII, 1908. 



