The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888
Produced by Col Choat.
The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888.
Complied from State Documents, Private Papers and the most authentic sources of information. Issued under the auspices of the Government of the Australian Colonies.
Ernest Favenc.
Sydney: Turner and Henderson 1888
Dedication.
A complete history of the exploration of Australia will never be written. The story of the settlement of our continent is necessarily so intermixed with the results of private travels and adventures, that all the historian can do is to follow out the career of the public expeditions, and those of private origin which extended to such a distance, and embraced such important discoveries, as to render the results matters of national history.
That private individuals have done the bulk of the detail work there is no denying; but that work, although every whit as useful to the community as the more brilliant exploits that carried with them the publicity of Government patronage, has not found the same careful preservation.
To find the material to write such a history would necessitate the work of a lifetime, and the co-operation of hundreds of old colonists; and, when written, it would inevitably, from the nature of the subject, prove most monotonous reading, and fill, I am afraid to think, how many volumes. The reader has but to consider the immense area of country now under pastoral occupation, and to remember that each countless subordinate river and tributary creek was the result of some extended research of the pioneer squatter, to realise this.
Since the hope of finding an inland sea, or main central range, vanished for ever, the explorer cannot hope to discover anything much more exciting or interesting than country fitted for human habitation. The attributes of the native tribes are very similar throughout. Since the day when Captain Phillip and his little band settled down here and tried to gain the friendship of the aboriginal, no startling difference has been found in him throughout the continent. As he was when Dampier came to our shores, so is he now in the yet untrodden parts of Australia, and the explorer knows that from him he can only gain but a hazardous and uncertain tale of what lies beyond.
Ernest Favenc
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PREFACE.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
APPENDIX
INTRODUCTION
Part I
PART II.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIV.
PART II.
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI.
"AS I WAS ABOUT TO QUIT THE EASTERN COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, WHICH I HAD COASTED FROM LATITUDE 38 DEG. TO THIS PLACE, AND WHICH I AM CONFIDENT NO EUROPEAN HAD EVER SEEN BEFORE, I ONCE MORE HOISTED ENGLISH COLOURS, AND THOUGH I HAD ALREADY TAKEN POSSESSION OF SEVERAL PARTICULAR PARTS, I NOW TOOK POSSESSION OF THE WHOLE EASTERN COAST, FROM LATITUDE 38 DEG. TO THIS PLACE, LATITUDE 10 DEG. 30 MIN., IN RIGHT OF HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE THE THIRD, BY THE NAME OF NEW SOUTH WALES, WITH ALL THE BAYS, HARBOURS, RIVERS, AND ISLANDS SITUATED UPON IT. WE THEN FIRED THREE VOLLEYS OF SMALL ARMS, WHICH WERE ANSWERED BY THE SAME NUMBER FROM THE SHIP."
"TO THE STRAIT WHICH HAD BEEN THE GREAT OBJECT OF RESEARCH, AND WHOSE DISCOVERY WAS NOW COMPLETED, GOVERNOR HUNTER GAVE, AT MY RECOMMENDATION, THE NAME OF 'BASS'S STRAITS.' THIS WAS NO MORE THAN A JUST TRIBUTE TO MY WORTHY FRIEND AND COMPANION FOR THE EXTREME DANGERS AND FATIGUES HE HAD UNDERGONE IN FIRST ENTERING IT IN THE WHALE BOAT, AND TO THE CORRECT JUDGMENT HE HAD FORMED, FROM VARIOUS INDICATIONS, OF THE EXISTENCE OF A WIDE OPENING BETWEEN VAN DIEMAN'S LAND AND NEW SOUTH WALES."
"IN THE OLD DUTCH CHARTS, CAPE VANDERLIN IS REPRESENTED TO BE A GREAT PROJECTION FROM THE MAINLAND, AND THE OUTER ENDS OF NORTH AND WEST ISLANDS TO BE SMALLER POINTS OF IT. THERE ARE TWO INDENTS OR BIGHTS MARKED BETWEEN THE POINTS WHICH MAY CORRESPOND TO THE OPENING BETWEEN THE ISLANDS, BUT I FIND A DIFFICULTY IN POINTING OUT WHICH ARE TILE FOUR SMALL ISLES LAID DOWN ON THE WEST OF CAPE VANDERLIN; NEITHER DOES THE LINE OF THE COAST, WHICH IS NEARLY W.S.W. IN THE OLD CHART, CORRESPOND WITH THAT OF THE OUTER ENDS OF THE ISLANDS, AND YET THERE IS ENOUGH OF SIMILITUDE IN THE WHOLE TO SHOW THE IDENTITY. WHETHER ANY CHANGES HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN THESE SHORES, AND MADE ISLANDS OF WHAT WERE PARTS OF THE MAINLAND A CENTURY AND A HALF BEFORE—OR WHETHER THE DUTCH DISCOVERER MADE A DISTANT AND CURSORY EXAMINATION, AND BROUGHT CONJECTURE TO AID HIM IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A CHART, AS WAS TOO MUCH THE PRACTICE OF THAT TIME-IT IS NOT NOW POSSIBLE TO ASCERTAIN, BUT I CONCEIVE THAT THE GREAT ALTERATION PRODUCED IN THE GEOGRAPHY OF THESE PARTS BY OUR SURVEY, GIVES AUTHORITY TO APPLY A NAME WHICH, WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO THE ORIGINAL ONE, SHOULD MARK THE NATION BY WHICH THE SURVEY WAS MADE. I HAVE CALLED THE CLUSTER OF ISLANDS SIR EDWARD PELLEW GROUP."
CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XX.
APPENDIX.
INDEX OF NAMES, DATES, AND INCIDENTS
CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY.