In accordance with the instructions conveyed in your letter of the 15th
March, authorising me to take command of the Expedition to Shark's Bay,
in course of organisation by the northern settlers, I have the honour to
furnish the following report of our proceedings while in that service,
for the information of His Excellency the Governor.
The preliminary arrangements having been completed, and the heavy portion
of the stores forwarded by sea to Champion Bay, I left Perth on the 26th
March, accompanied by Mr. James Roe as second in command, chainer
Fairburn having started the previous day with the team and light
equipment of the Expedition.
Proceeding by way of Toodyay to the Irwin River, the party were joined by
Mr. W. Moore with three horses; passing on by way of Champion Bay, we
arrived a Koobijawanna, the point of general rendezvous, by the 10th of
April. On the 12th the remainder of the stores arrived from Champion Bay,
the party being augmented to six persons by the addition of Mr. C. Nairn
and Dugel, an aboriginal policeman. This day and the following were
occupied in weighing and packing stores, shoeing horses, etc.
14th April.
The equipment of the Expedition being completed (with the exception of
one horse to be procured at the Geraldine Mine), we moved on to
Yanganooka, passing the Geraldine Mine on the 16th, and bivouacked on the
Murchison River, six miles above the mine, having obtained the additional
horse, making in all six saddle and six pack horses; our supplies
consisting of sixty days' rations, on a scale of one and a half pounds of
flour, eight ounces of pork, four ounces of sugar, and half an ounce of
tea per diem, the party being all well armed and furnished with
ammunition.
The mean of our observations with the Aneroid barometer gives 575 feet
for the elevation of this part of the river above the sea.