Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia Volume I Part 43

I sent Burnett and two men forward to examine some ponds beyond our former camp of the 30th of April, while the rest of the party followed.

Mr. Larmer overtook us during this day's journey, having last night been encamped with his party only three miles behind us.

RESULT OF HIS SURVEY.

He had found in Duck creek long reaches, like ca.n.a.ls, full of excellent water, and covered with wildfowl of every description. On its banks grew large gumtrees like those on the Darling; and he had traced this channel to a large lagoon near the Macquarie, the bed of which was found to be quite dry. Many small watercourses led from the Macquarie into Duck creek, which indeed appeared to be the lowest channel of this river, the general fall of the country being to the westward. The ident.i.ty of the two channels was further established by the quartzose sand found in both.

It appears that a low range of firm ground separates the Bogan from Duck creek, the bed of which and all the land between it and the Macquarie consists of an alluvial soil altogether different, according to Mr.

Larmer, from any we had seen on the Darling. This surface was covered with a luxuriant green crop of gra.s.s, a sight which we had not enjoyed on this journey, and there were also numerous kangaroos and emus, for whose absence from the plains of the Bogan we could not previously account.

Mr. Larmer's men were still seven miles behind him, and had had no water since they left the Macquarie two days previously, nor much to eat, for they had carried rations for seven days only, and this was the ninth since they quitted the camp. We therefore sent back a man with a loaf and a kettle of water, and he met them four miles behind the party. We continued the journey four miles beyond our old camp, to a pond which the overseer had found, and was then the nearest water to our former position. To this pond the cattle came on tolerably well after having travelled fourteen miles, and having pa.s.sed the previous night almost without water. The party was at length reunited here; and we had now pa.s.sed the so much-dreaded long dry part of the bed of the Bogan. An old native and a boy, apparently belonging to the Myall tribes, came in the evening, but we could learn nothing from them. They were covered with pieces of blanket, and the man used a Scotch bonnet as a bag. They said they had been to Buckenba where there were five white men.

TRACES OF MR. CUNNINGHAM.

In the bed of the river where I went this evening to enjoy the sight of the famished cattle drinking, I came accidentally on an old footstep of Mr. Cunningham, in the clay, now baked hard by the sun. Four months had elapsed since we had traced his steps, and up to this time the clay bore these last records of our late fellow-traveller!

September 4.

The old man with a hideous mumping face again came up, and took his place at one of our fires, having sent the boy on some message, probably to bring others of his tribe or tell them of our movements. I asked him about Mr. Cunningham but could only obtain evasive answers, and I thought it best to order him peremptorily to quit our camp. This I did in loud terms, firing a pistol at the same time over his head. He walked off however with a firm step, and with an air which I thought rather dignified under the circ.u.mstances. Early this morning I sent overseer Burnett on before us with three of the party to look for water, leaving the cattle and the men who came in yesterday to rest until 10 A.M. Today and yesterday we once more beheld a sky variegated with good swelling clouds, and enjoyed a fresh breeze from the south-west. The sight even of such a sky was now a novelty to us, and seemed as if we had at last got home. We had in fact already ascended five hundred feet above the level of the plains of the interior, and were approaching the mountains. At eleven we proceeded and struck into our old track where it touched on the Bogan, and we crossed its channel half a mile beyond where we had been encamped so long when looking for Mr. Cunningham. On this day's journey we again intersected his footsteps; and I could not avoid following them once more to the pond on the Bogan where he must have first drunk water after a thirst and hunger of four or five days! There was water still there, though it had shrunk two yards from its former margin; but not the impression of a native's foot appeared near it, nor any longer the traces of Mr. Cunningham. I was now about to follow the Bogan further up in order to make sure of water, and thus to leave our track, with the intention of falling into it again at Cogoorduroy or Cookopie Ponds. We had now pa.s.sed the scene of Mr. Cunningham's distresses, and I judged that a man on horseback might travel safely along our old route with despatches. We had been about five months shut out from all communication with the colony, and I was eager to avail myself of the first safe opportunity of sending to the government a report of our progress.

SEND OFF A COURIER TO SYDNEY.

We were still about 120 miles from Buree, a distance which could be travelled over on horseback in three days, and William Baldock, who was in charge of the horses, was very willing to be the courier. The party was to proceed by a new route in the morning, consequently I had only the night for writing all my letters.

September 5.

I sent off my courier at ten A.M., having ordered him positively not to encamp at waterholes, but only to let his horse drink, fill his own horn, and choose his resting-places at a distance from any water. He was also instructed to ask any natives he might meet with if they had met the other whitefellows, etc. This last being a ruse to prevent the tribes from annoying him, which they were more likely to do when they saw him quite alone.

The Doctor and two men were sent forward at an early hour along the banks of the Bogan in search of waterholes. We followed in the same direction, crossing to the right bank at that very pond at the junction of Bullock creek which saved the lives of the cattle after they had thirsted two days (April 16). We finally encamped on some good pools after a journey of seven miles. The Doctor joined us long after it was dark and reported that he had found plenty of water all along the bed of the river as far as he had proceeded, which was about ten miles higher, in a direct line.

MARKS OF MR. DIXON.

Near where we encamped the marks of Mr. Dixon's cattle and horses were very plainly visible, and by their depth we perceived how very wet and soft the ground had then been.

TANDOGO CREEK AND MAGNIFICENT PINE FOREST.

September 6.

We set forward on a bearing of east-south-east, which I took to be the general direction of the Bogan, considering the position of Croker's range on the east, and that of the hills in the south, which I had traced. We travelled through forests of magnificent pine trees (Callitris pyramidalis) and crossing, at twelve miles further, a dry creek which appeared to be that of Tandogo, we encamped on the Bogan where there was a good pond of water. This abundance was the more acceptable as we had now left behind a part of the bed of this little river which for thirty miles was quite dry; the total want of water there being chiefly owing to the absorbent nature of the subsoil. We were now drawing towards its sources amongst the hills, and the same scarcity no longer prevailed. The height and girt of some of the callitris trees were very considerable.

Thus we found that Australia contains some extensive forests of a very good subst.i.tute for the cedar of the colony (Cedrela toona, R. Br.) which is to be found only in some rocky gullies of the Coast range and is likely to be exhausted in a short time. The Acacia pendula adorned the immediate banks of the Bogan, but the gra.s.s was old and dry, being a crop of two years' growth; the cattle consequently did not feed well on it, and at last grew so weak that they could not be worked more than four hours, and thus our progress was limited to about eight miles a day.

HERVEY'S RANGE IN SIGHT.

September 7.

We followed the bearing of 139 1/2 degrees as the direction in which we were most likely to find the Bogan, considering its general course and the position of the hills to the southward. After travelling eight miles a sight of the highest point of Hervey's range enabled me at once to determine my place on the map.

IMPROVED APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY.

We then proceeded on the bearing of 103 degrees, and made the Bogan at a spot where its banks were beautiful, and the gra.s.s of better quality than any we had seen for some time. The Acacia pendula grew there in company with the pine (or callitris) the casuarina and eucalyptus, besides many smaller trees in graceful groups, the surface being very smooth and park-like.

September 8.

Proceeding in a south-south-east direction we crossed, at seven miles, a creek, which I took for that of Tandogo, and thereupon turned towards the south-east. After a journey of eleven miles we encamped about three-quarters of a mile from the Bogan on a spot where we found excellent gra.s.s. We had now arrived where the pasturage was so much better than any we had seen that we could not doubt that a greater quant.i.ty of rain had fallen here than in the regions where we had been.

The improvement was obvious, not alone in the quality of the gra.s.s, but in the birds, the woods, the clouds, and distant horizon, which all bespoke our approach to a more habitable region than that in which we had so long been wandering. We crossed some fine sloping hills and found on the Bogan a rich flat, somewhat resembling those tracts of black soil which are so much prized on some of the larger rivers of the colony. A hot wind blew from the north and now brought with it smoke and an overcast sky, which in the evening turned to nimbus clouds. A south-west wind (the usual antidote to the hot winds of Sydney) came in the evening, and some genial showers fell during the night.

September 9.

A drizzling rain fell early in the morning but about midday the weather cleared up. We had not proceeded far before I was stopped by the Bogan, the course of which I found at length to come more from the south. I had been fortunate in the line which I had pursued as the supposed direction of this river, above the part previously surveyed. This was on the bearing of 139 1/2 degrees, and chosen after considering the position of hills and other circ.u.mstances relative, and I now found that this line nearly cut through our three last camps on the river. We were at length to turn southward, and this still appeared to be the main channel, judging by the breadth of the bed and the long deep ponds of water.

Indeed we had no longer any apprehensions about finding water while travelling along the main channel; and this day we crossed over ground well covered with gra.s.s.

MEET THE NATIVES WHO FIRST ACCOMPANIED US.

During our progress along this unsurveyed part of the Bogan we had several times heard the natives and called to them, but they could not be induced to come near us. Today however I saw smoke at a distance, and hastened towards it with Burnett who succeeded (although the rest of the tribe fled) in intercepting one individual between him and me who proved to be our old friend Bultje, the very intelligent native who had formerly been our guide. The rest of the tribe soon returned, and gathering around us they all seemed much amused with our relation (and representations) of the conduct of the Myall blackfellows on the Darling. They could not afford any explanation of those ceremonies which appeared to be as strange to them as they had been to us. The only observation of Bultje, on learning that some of them had been shot, was "Stupid whitefellows!

why did you not bring away the gins?" We eagerly enquired whether he knew anything of one whitefellow of ours who had been lost, but he appeared surprised to hear it.

ARRIVE AT A CATTLE STATION.

He told us however that we were near a cattle station where two white men had been recently established, having come from the colony along our track over the mountains. I hastened towards the dwelling of these white men, and the symmetrical appearance of their stockyard fence, when it first caught my eye, so long accustomed to the wavy lines of simple nature, looked quite charming as a work of art. Our hearts warmed at the very sight of the smoking chimney; and on riding up to the hut I need not say with what pleasure I recognised two men of our own race. On seeing my pedestrian companions however, armed, feathered, and in rags; these white men were growing whiter, until I briefly told them who we were, and that we really were not bushrangers. They said a bushranger on horseback had been seen in that country only a few days before by the natives, at whom he had fired a pistol when they had nearly caught him at a waterhole. I was glad to ascertain the fact, even in this shape, that my courier Baldock, whom they of course meant, had got safely so far with my despatches.

LEARN THAT MR. CUNNINGHAM HAD BEEN KILLED BY NATIVES.

One of these men having but lately left the settled districts had seen in the newspapers an account of one of my party having been killed by natives; and he stated that the names of four natives and two gins were mentioned, adding that the person murdered was supposed to have been my man in charge of the sheep. My informant also pointed towards where the white man was said to have been killed, as indicated by the blacks; and this was exactly where our distressing loss befell us. I was also informed that the natives thereabouts were now in dread of the arrival of soldiers, and thus, for the first time, I learned that poor Cunningham had really been murdered by these savages. Intelligence of this kind often travels in exaggerated shapes through the medium of the natives; and I had lately been anxious to see some of them, as many of those so near the colony can speak very well. Now we understood why the Bogan was deserted. The non-appearance of the chief who had been so obsequious on our going down was perhaps a suspicious circ.u.mstance when connected with the fact that a silk handkerchief had been seen on the first of that tribe whom we met, and the strange movements and bustle which took place among those at our camp at Cudduldury during my absence of four days.

The station which we had reached was occupied by the cattle of Mr. Lee of Bathurst; the two stockmen, for such the white men proved to be, seemed to have enough to do to keep the natives in good humour as the only means of finding the cattle or securing their own safety among the savage tribes. With the latter object probably in view they seemed to have encouraged the expectation of soldiers on the part of the natives about them. Soldiers have been too seriously instrumental in the civilisation of the aborigines, wherever they have become civil, to be soon forgotten; and the warfare by which the Bathurst settlers were first established in security would be remembered, no doubt, with some apprehension of the consequences of this last act of barbarism. The stockmen informed me that I should meet with another cattle station which had been established by Mr. Pike where my route crossed Goobang creek. The fact that the stock of the settlers already extends over all available land within reach of the present limits of location is clearly exhibited by the speedy occupation of these two stations. They are placed on the only two good tracts of land crossed by our party before we reached the arid plains of the interior. Even my boat depot on the Namoi, the terra incognita made known only by my first despatch, was immediately after occupied as a cattle-run by the stock-keepers of Sir John Jamieson.

COOKOPIE PONDS.

The Bogan still coming from the south-east, we continued our journey in that direction for four miles beyond the cattle station and then halted.

Near this camp two branches of the Bogan united, and the one which came from the eastward appeared to contain most water. I calculated that we were within eleven miles of Cookopie; a pond in our old track at which we had encamped on the 13th of April, and which bore south-east from this camp. Here we killed our last remaining sheep but one: and it was worthy of remark that, after travelling upwards of 1100 miles, it was found to be fatter and weigh more by two pounds than any of those which had been previously killed as we proceeded, although the best had been always selected for slaughter. It appears thus how well a wandering and migratory life agrees with sheep in this hemisphere, as of old in the other. Ours gave very little trouble, and at length became so tame that they followed the horses or cattle like dogs. The sheep were leanest on the Darling, and on their way back their improved appearance was remarkable.

September 10.

Accompanied by four natives and a boy we continued our journey, and as my reckoning since I deviated from our old route had been by time only, I allowed a black named Old-Fashioned and the boy to guide us to Cookopie.

In going south-west we soon crossed the first creek, and for some way could not proceed on the bearing which led to the other as the natives pointed, and which had the best ponds in it. At length its course came more from the northward, and we travelled on good, open, forest-land, until our guides brought us directly to the very pond of water beside which we formerly encamped. We had travelled but nine miles, which was two miles less than I reckoned the distance to be, a pleasant discovery in our present case when even the proposed journey for the day, although short, had appeared too much for the very weak condition of our animals.

I had indeed thought of going up the first creek in order to join our route at Coogoorduroy; but we had now been so fortunate as to gain, by a journey of nine miles, the point which, had we gone round by Coogoorduroy, must have been the end of our second day's journey. We had here the satisfaction of recognising the track of my courier's horse tracing our foot-marks homewards at a good fast pace. This pond was nearly dry, the little water remaining being thick and green. It was more however than I expected to find, and it was quite sufficient for our wants.

GOOBANG CREEK.

By resting here it was in my power to reach, by another day's travelling, Goobang creek, where the ponds were deep and clear and the gra.s.s good.

This pond of Cookopie appeared to be near the head of a small run of water arising in hills behind Pagormungor, a trap hill distant only five or six miles along our route homeward.

September 11.

This morning Fahrenheit's thermometer stood at 23 degrees, and the pond was frozen three-quarters of an inch thick. There was however so little water left that only three of the bullocks could be supplied before starting. The natives who had promised to go on with us nevertheless remained behind; but we proceeded by our old route to Goobang creek, and encamped on its left bank nearly a mile above where we had crossed it formerly. Here the gra.s.s was superior to any we had seen lower down; numerous fresh tracks of cattle were visible on the ground, and the water lay deep and clear in ponds, surrounded by reeds. There were no reeds about the waterholes of the Bogan; and we had in fact this day left that river, and reached the sources of the Lachlan, to which stream the Goobang must sometimes be an important tributary. The ground separating these waters, which must travel towards the distant channels of such s.p.a.cious basins as those of the Lachlan and Darling, consists here only of some low hills of trap-rock, connected with gently sloping ridges of mica schist. The country on the Goobang or Lachlan side appears to be the best; for the gra.s.s grows there much more abundantly, and the beds of the streams appear to be much more retentive.

CHARACTER OF THE RIVER BOGAN.

All the water which we had used during five months belonged to the basin of the Darling, but today we again tasted of that from channels which led towards the Lachlan. The chief sources of the Bogan arise in Hervey's range, and also in that much less elevated country situated between the Lachlan and the Macquarie. The uniformity of the little river Bogan from its spring to its junction with the Darling is very remarkable. In a course of 250 miles no change is observable in the character of its banks, or the breadth of its bed, neither are the ponds near its source less numerous or of less magnitude than those near its junction with the princ.i.p.al stream. Mr. Dixon estimated the velocity of the current at four miles per hour where its course is most westerly. There are few or no pebbles in its bed, and no reeds grow upon the banks, which are generally sloping and of naked earth but marked with lines of flood similar to those of the Darling. It has often second banks and, as near that river, a belt of dwarf eucalypti, box, or rough gum encloses the more stately flooded-gumtrees with the shining white bark which grow on the immediate borders of the river. It has also its plains along the banks, some of them being very extensive; but the soil of these is not only much firmer, but is also clothed with gra.s.s and fringed with a finer variety of trees and bushes than those of the Darling. Yet in the gra.s.ses there is not such wonderful variety as I found in those on the banks of that river. Of twenty-six different kinds gathered by me there I found only four on the Bogan, and not more than four other varieties throughout the whole course. It appeared that where land was best and gra.s.s most abundant the latter consisted of one or two kinds only, and on the contrary that where the surface was nearly bare the greatest variety of gra.s.ses appeared, as if nature allowed more plants to struggle for existence where fewest were actually thriving.