MR. A. C. GREGORY'S EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH-WEST INTERIOR.
The part of the continent which shall next engage our attention is the
north-west interior. Up to this period of our history very little had
been known of this quarter, except along the seaboard and, in sparse
places, for a few miles inland. The Victoria had been discovered in 1840
by Captain Stokes, who described it as a rival to the Murray, and,
moreover, sailed up its channel for 50 miles without reaching the head
of the navigation. By this waterway it was thought possible to reach the
north-western interior, in which some traces of Leichhardt might be met
with. The conduct of this expedition was entrusted to Mr. A. C. Gregory,
a very capable explorer, and a man of scientific attainments. His party
numbered eighteen persons, including his brother, Mr. H. Gregory, Mr.
Wilson, geologist, and the now famous Baron Von Mueller as botanist. The
party took with them 50 horses and 200 sheep. The _Tom Tough_ and the
_Monarch_ landed the expedition on the Plains of Promise, near the head
of the Gulf of Carpentaria, on the 24th September, 1855. The _Monarch_
then returned to Moreton Bay, while the _Tom Tough_ sailed round to the
Victoria, having received orders to wait for the rest of the party, who
were to proceed overland. In six days they made the Macadam Range, and
in eight more came on to the Fitzmaurice River. At this camp the horses,
which had already been greatly reduced in number, were bitten by
alligators, and three of them died. On reaching the Victoria the _Tom
Tough_ was not to be seen, as she had been driven ashore elsewhere and
had sustained severe injury. On the 3rd of January, 1856, Mr. Gregory
started with eight men and followed up the Victoria for 100 miles. In
latitude 16° 26' S. it split into two branches, each of which was in
succession traced up to the vanishing point. The explorers then struck
forth into the desert, proceeding on a southerly course. A journey of
300 miles brought them, on the 22nd of February, to a promising creek,
to which they gave the name of Sturt, in memory of the eminent explorer.
To their intense disappointment, this clue also failed them, for Sturt's
Creek finally resolved itself into a sheet of salt water, to which they
gave the appropriate designation of Lake Termination. Two mountains in
this neighbourhood were called Mount Mueller and Mount Wilson, after the
botanist and the geologist of the expedition. Once more the terrible
salt desert lay before the baffled explorers. "Nothing," says the
leader, "could have been more forbidding than the long, straight lines
of drift-sand which, having nearly an east and west direction, rose
beyond each other like the waves of the sea; and though the red glare of
the sand was partially concealed by a scanty growth of spinifex, the
reflection from its surface caused the passing clouds to be coloured a
deep purple. We had long passed the limit to which the tropical rains of
the north-west coast extend, and the country south of 19° seemed only to
be visited by occasional thunderstorms. Thus for a few miles the grass
would be fresh and green, then there would be a long interval of dry,
parched country, where no rain appeared to have fallen for a
twelve-month. The channel of the creek also decreased in size, and the
frequent occurrence of salicornia indicated the saline nature of the
soil; the water became brackish, then salt, and finally spread out and
terminated in the dry bed of a salt lake, a mile in diameter, which
communicated with a second, of larger size, nine miles long and five
wide. Though now quite dry, there were marks of water having stood for
considerable periods, of from 10 to 15 feet deep, as the shells of
mussels in their natural position were abundant more than a mile from
the ordinary bank of the lake, showing that a large tract of country is
sometimes inundated. As the mussels are a species which live in fresh
water, it is evident that at such times the lake is not salt, but it
would appear that as the waters evaporate and recede they become saline,
as the shells found within the limits of the lake were of other species
which affect brackish or salt water." One more attempt to make for the
south proved abortive, and, with many regrets, Gregory returned to the
depôt, after having penetrated within 730 miles of Sturt's most
advanced camp towards the centre of Australia.
Falling back upon alternative instructions, the leader now left the
Victoria, and, making his way across Arnheim's Land, reached the River
Roper. The track of Leichhardt round the southern shores of the Gulf was
followed for the most part. The Plains of Promise were crossed, but
Gregory scarcely agreed with Stokes in his unqualified praise of this
country. From the Albert River he resolved to seek for a better track to
Moreton Bay than Leichhardt's. The Flinders was reached on the 8th of
September, between which river and the Gilbert some good country was
discovered. The latter was traced for 180 miles of its course. The
Burdekin was reached by the 16th of October, and a fortnight later its
junction with the Suttor. Gregory traced the Belyando to 22°, thus
connecting the routes of Mitchell and Leichhardt with his own. Passing
the Mackenzie and the Comet, the Dawson River was reached by the 15th of
November. The course was then made to Brisbane through the Burnett
district, a journey of 400 miles. The parties in this expedition had
been absent sixteen months from the haunts of civilization. They had
travelled 2,000 miles by sea and 5,000 by land.