u 4 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



country known as the Wimmera, and then proceeded to an examination of the south- 

 west corner of Victoria, which territory was named by him Australia Felix. On the 

 return journey the expedition traversed a vast extent of country, making numerous 

 discoveries in every direction. From the summit of Mount Macedon, upon which he 

 erected a stone column, Mitchell saw the white tents of the settlement of Fawkner and 

 Batman, and the broad expanse of Port Phillip. He returned to Sydney by a north- 

 easterly route, after one of the most extensive surveys which had then been made of 

 the colony of New South Wales, and one which added greatly to the knowledge of that 

 southern district now known as the colony of Victoria. Mitchell was knighted when the 

 news of this discovery was received in England. 



After the discovery of Australia Felix, Leichhardt's courageous journey to Port 

 Essington, Sturt's expedition to the Central Desert, and Mitchell's through tropical 

 Australia are of the greatest interest. Leichhardt returned to Sydney by sea after a 

 land journey of three thousand miles, which extended over a period of fifteen months. 

 Sturt's route was across the terrible desert situated on the border lines of the three 

 colonies of New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. This expedition was of 

 little commercial value, and entailed frightful suffering upon Sturt and his party. 

 Mitchell's expedition traversed a vast expanse of Queensland territory, and resulted in 

 the discovery of the celebrated Barcoo or Victoria River. 



A year or two later, Leichhardt set out on a journey from 'the Condamine with the 

 intention of making the Swan River in a line which should bisect the interior of the 

 Continent at its greatest breadth. From the date of his setting forth until July, 1847, 

 a period of over seven months, the expedition appears to have wandered aimlessly about, 

 having been arrested by heavy rains, which induced a fever that attacked its members. In 

 1848 Leichhardt, still determined to cross the Continent, started out with another party, and 

 from that time till to-day no clue to his fate has ever been discovered. Leichhardt was 

 lost, and the history of eastern exploration becomes largely the chronicle of the successive 

 expeditions sent out to find any trace of the missing scientist. Vague rumours of a white 

 man living among the blacks have obtained prominence at intervals, the white man being 

 always identified as Classen, Leichhardt's brother-in-law, and a member of his party. One 

 Hume stated that when employed in the construction of the overland telegraph line he had 

 seen Classen, and learnt from him that Leichhardt was murdered during a mutiny in the 

 camp, after which the party became disorganized and lost. Hume and two companions were 

 fitted out to go in search of Classen, which they did, but only one man returned, Hume 

 and the other having perished from thirst in Western Queensland. A search expedition 

 under Hely was sent out in 1852, and another under M'Intyre in 1865, but in each 

 case without result. 



The gradual widening of the area of exploration is really the history of settlement. 

 In the footsteps of the early discoverers followed commercial enterprise and internal 

 development. The first pioneers were the squatters, who, driven by drought, were forced 

 to seek fresh pastures for their Hocks, and being thus driven beyond the boundaries of 

 actual occupation, enlarged the sphere of colonial enterprise, and paved the way for that 

 rapid and extended settlement which has taken place within the last few years. 



