EARLY AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATION. 



log 



would have been to convert it into Australia, as being more agreeable to the ear. and 

 an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth." 



OXLEY AND CUNNINGHAM. 



Although the coast-line of the Australian Continent had been accurately surveyed, 

 inland exploration had made but little progress. For a period of about five and twenty years 

 after the landing of Governor Phillip the 

 country beyond the Blue Mountains 

 remained an unexplored territory, and 

 rewards were offered for the discovery 

 of even a sheep-track. Governor Phillip 

 had certainly made a trip towards the 

 range which shut in this terra incognita, 

 and his trip had resulted in the dis- 

 covery of the Carmarthen and Richmond 

 Hills, but further exploration ceased at 

 the foot of this seemingly impassable 

 barrier. Dawes, Bass, Barreillier, Cayley 

 and others had in turn attempted the 

 discovery of the golden interior, but all 

 these attempts had resulted in failure 

 and disappointment. Most of the early 

 assaults upon the grim bastions of Nature 

 were made by way of the valleys, which 

 are really gorges, and which to this day 

 are difficult to traverse. Success was not 

 achieved till the dividing ridge between 

 the Cox and the Grose was followed. 



CUNNINGHAMS MONUMKNT, BOTANICAL GARDENS, 



The first expedition of value was that SYDNEY. 



of Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth, who, 



following the ridge, descended the slopes of Mount York, caught a glimpse of the Vale 

 of Clwyd, and climbed to the summit of Mount Blaxland. Surveyor Evans followed the 

 track of Lawson and his comrades, and extended their discoveries over a distance of 

 ninety-eight miles further inland. Two years afterwards Governor Macquarie opened 

 the road to Bathurst, and Evans was again sent out to follow the course of the 

 Lachlan. The result of this expedition was the preparation of another on a more 

 important scale, which_ was sent out under Surveyor-General Oxley in 1817, to trace the 

 courses of the Lachlan and the Macquarie to their debouchures. 



Oxley set out from Sydney on the 6th of April, 1817, and passing through Queen 

 Charlotte's Valley, struck the Lachlan on the 28th of that month, and followed its course 

 north-west through poor swampy country until it became lost in the marshes lying east 

 of Field's Plains. In the hope of again finding the river the party turned south-west, 

 and after enduring great privations from bad water which particularly affected the 

 horses skirted west and north-west round Mount Cayley and Mount Brogden. Here 



