As Europe, is, from its geological formation,
destitute of rivers, either terminating in interior seas, or having
their estuaries on the coast.
J. O.
Sydney, New South Wales,
Dec. 11, 1817.
ERRATA: 12 items of errata, listed in the book at this point,
have been corrected in this eBook.
JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION IN AUSTRALIA - Part I
On the twenty-fourth of March I received the instructions of his
excellency the Governor to take charge of the expedition which had been
fitted out for the purpose of ascertaining the course of the Lachlan
River, and generally to prosecute the examination of the western
interior of New South Wales.
On the sixth of April I quitted Sydney, and after a pleasant journey
arrived at Bathurst on the fourteenth, and found that our provisions
and other necessary stores were in readiness at the depot on the
Lachlan River. We were detained at Bathurst by rainy unfavourable
weather until the nineteenth, when the morning proving fine, the BAT
horses, with the remainder of the provisions, baggage, and instruments,
were sent off, we intending to follow them the ensuing morning.
Bathurst had assumed a very different appearance since I first visited
it in the suite of his excellency the Governor in 1815. The industrious
hand of man had been busy in improving the beautiful works of nature; a
good substantial house for the superintendant had been erected, the
government grounds fenced in, and the stack yards showed that the
abundant produce of the last harvest had amply repaid the labour
bestowed on its culture. The fine healthy appearance of the flocks and
herds was a convincing proof how admirably adapted these extensive downs
and thinly wooded hills are for grazing, more particularly of sheep. The
mind dwelt with pleasure on the idea that at no very distant period
these secluded plains would be covered with flocks bearing the richest
fleeces, and contribute in no small degree to the prosperity of the
eastern settlements.
The soil, in the immediate neighbourhood of Bathurst, is for the first
six inches of a light, black, vegetable mould, lying on a stratum of
sand, about eighteen inches deep, but of a poor description, and mixed
with small stones, under which is a strong clay. The surface of the
hills is covered with small gravel, the soil light and sandy, with a
sub-soil of clay. The low flats on the immediate borders of the river
are evidently formed by washings from the hills and valleys deposited by
floods, and the overflowings of the watercourses.
Sunday, April 20. - Proceeded on our journey towards the Lachlan River.
At two o'clock we arrived at the head of Queen Charlotte's Valley,
passing through a fine open grazing country; the soil on the hills and
in the vale a light clayey loam, occasionally intermixed with sand and
gravel: the late rains had rendered the ground soft and boggy. The trees
were small and stunted, and thinly scattered over the hills, which
frequently closed in stony points on the valley. The rocks a coarse
granite.
Monday, April 21. - Our journey for the greater part of the way lay over
stony ridges, and for the last six miles over a country much wooded with
ill-grown gum and stringy bark trees (all of the eucalyptus genus); the
grass good, and in tolerable plenty, and much more so than the
appearance of the soil would seem to promise. At three o'clock, the
horses being very much fatigued, we stopped under the point of a rocky
hill for the evening.
April 22. - A clear and frosty morning. Last night was the coldest we had
yet experienced, the thermometer being at six o'clock as low as 26. We
felt the cold most severely, being far beyond what we had been
accustomed to on the coast; the difference of temperature in twelve
hours being upwards of twenty degrees of cold. Our route lay through a
dull uninteresting country, thickly covered with dwarf timber, daviesia,
etc. Passed under Mount Lachlan, a hill of very considerable height; a
stream of water runs north-westerly under its base. Turned off a little
from our track to the right, and ascended Mount Molle, whence there is a
beautiful and extensive prospect from the south by the west to the
north. The country (except the dividing range between the Lachlan and
Macquarie Rivers, which is very lofty and irregular) rising into gentle
hills, thinly timbered, with rich intervening valleys, through which
flow small streams of water. I think from Mount Molle, between the
points above mentioned, a distance of forty miles round may he seen; the
view to the west being lost in the blue haze of the horizon, no hills
appearing in that quarter. The Mount itself is a fine rich hill,
favourably situated for a commanding prospect; the valleys which
surround it are excellent land, well watered with running streams. We
descended its west side, and stopped for the night in the valley
beneath, on the banks of a small rivulet.
April 23. - A fine clear morning. At two o'clock we arrived at Limestone
Creek, passing through a beautiful picturesque country of low hills and
fine valleys well watered: the timber, as usual of diminutive growth,
and unfit for any useful purpose. The ridges of the higher eminences
were invariably stony, and about a mile and a half from the Creek, there
is a narrow slip of barren country covered with small slate stones: the
soil until then was on the sides of the hills of a fine vegetable mould,
the more level and lower grounds a hazel-coloured stiff loam, both
equally
covered with grass, particularly the anthistria. The timber standing
at wide intervals, without any brush or undergrowth, gave the country a
fine park-like appearance.
