EARLY AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATION. 



1 1 1 



a white man named Pamphlet, who had been shipwrecked, living among the blacks. 

 Pamphlet's information led to the discovery of a river emptying into Moreton Bay named 

 by Oxley the Brisbane, on which is now the site of the capital of Queensland. 



As Government botanist to the Mermaid explorations to various parts of the 

 Australian Coast, conducted by Captain Phillip King, Cunningham added greatly to the 

 botanical knowledge of Australia ; and, as an explorer, he discovered an available route 

 through the Liverpool Ranges to the fertile northern plains, besides conducting an exami- 

 nation of the Cudgegong 

 and Goulburn Rivers. Some 

 years afterwards he dis- 

 covered a gap in the coast- 

 range by which the Darling 

 Downs could be easily 

 reached, and penetrated 

 seventy-five miles west of 

 Brisbane. He died in 

 Sydney on the 2~\\\ of June, 

 1839, and an obelisk com- 

 memorating his achievements 

 in the field of botanical re- 

 search was erected in the 







Sydney Botanical Gardens, 

 of which reserve it now 

 forms one of the most pro- 

 minent ornaments. 



HUME AND HOVELL. 



Two years after Cun- 

 ningham had found an out- 

 let through the Pandora 

 Pass to the extensive plains 

 lying north of the Liverpool 

 Ranges, a private expedition 



of an important character engaged in the work of exploration in a south-south-westerly 

 direction from the county of Argyle, with the intention of intersecting the southern coast 

 in a journey of from four to five hundred miles. The leaders of this expedition were 

 Hamilton Hume and Captain W. H. Hovell. Hume was a native of Parramatta and a 

 splendid bushman. He had been engaged in exploring work from a very early age, having 

 with his brother, John Kennedy Hume, discovered the country called Argyle in 1814. 

 He had since then accompanied Surveyor Meehan in a journey which had resulted in 

 the discovery of Lake Bathurst, and he had also sailed with Lieutenant Johnson in the 

 Snappers survey voyage. Hovell had previously belonged to the merchant service, and 

 he was not only a bold and determined leader, but a man of great physical endu- 

 rance. Setting out from Lake George they journeyed in a south-westerly direction until 



SIR THOMAS MITCHELL. 



