6 
PROPOSAL TO EXPLORE 
turned my attention to the subject so prominently 
occupying the public mind, I have stated that the 
principal object proposed to be attained by the ex- 
pedition to the westward, was that of opening a 
route for the transit of stock from one colony to the 
other — nay it was even proposed and agreed to by 
a majority of the gentlemen attending the public 
meeting that the first party of exploration should 
be accompanied by cattle. Now, from my previous 
examination of the country to the westward of the 
located parts of South Australia, I had in 1839 fully 
satisfied myself? not only of the difficulty, but of 
the utter impracticability of opening an overland 
route for stock in that direction, and I at once 
stated my opinion to that effect, and endeavoured to 
turn the general attention from the Westward to 
the North, as being the more promising opening, 
either for the discovery of a good country, or of an 
available route across the continent. The following 
extract, from a paper by me on the subject, was pub- 
lished in the South Australian Register of the 23rd 
May, 1840, and contains my opinion at that time 
of the little prospect there was of any useful result 
accruing from the carrying out of the proposed ex • 
pedition to the Westward : — 
“ It may now, therefore, be a question for those who are in- 
terested in the sending an expedition overland to the Swan 
River to consider what are likely to be the useful results from 
such a journey. In a geographical point of view it will 
be exceedingly interesting to know the character of the in- 
