In the month of March, 1857, Mr. Surveyor F.T. Gregory, while engaged on
the survey of the lower part of the Murchison, observed that the river
came down in flood, though there had been no rain for several months near
the coast, and taking advantage of such a favourable opportunity of
extending the exploration of the country beyond the point at which
previous explorers had been driven back for want of water and grass, he
proceeded up the Murchison, accompanied by his assistant, Mr. S. Trigg,
following the course of the river for 180 miles. For the last fifty miles
the condition of the vegetation showed that there had been heavy rains
which had caused the floods in the lower part of the river.
The following is an abstract of Mr. Gregory's report to the
Surveyor-General, as published at the time in the Perth Gazette:--
We last week intimated that an exploratory trip had lately been made into
the interior eastward of the Geraldine Mine. We have now the pleasure and
satisfaction of laying before our readers some details of one of the most
unassuming explorations, yet important in its results, which has ever
been undertaken in this colony. In the latter end of March last, Mr.
Assistant Surveyor F. Gregory and Mr. S. Trigg started from the Geraldine
Mine with two horses and sixteen pounds of flour, to trace the Murchison
to its source, and returned after thirteen days' absence. Mr. Gregory has
made a short report of his journey to the Surveyor-General, from which we
have been kindly furnished with the following extract:--
While at the Geraldine Mine I availed myself of the circumstance of the
Murchison being in flood to ascend that river and complete the sketch of
the unexamined portions, as also to gain any additional information that
might facilitate the exploration of the country between this and the
Gascoyne River. The fact that the natives describe a considerable tract
of grassy country extending northward from the head of the Murchison,
plentifully supplied with water, was an additional incentive to ascertain
from whence the inundation came.