Explorations in Australia / 1.-Explorations in search of Dr. Leichardt and party. 2.-From Perth to Adelaide, around the great Australian bight. 3.-From Champion Bay, across the desert to the telegraph and to Adelaide. With an appendix on the condition of Western Australia.

by Baron John Forrest Forrest

I readily accepted the offer, and at once busied myself with the necessary preparations, but was far from being insensible to the difficulties of the undertaking. Of the route nothing was known except the disastrous experience of Mr. Eyre in 1840 and 1841. His remarkable narrative--interesting to all concerned in the history of explorations or in the records of energy, courage, and perseverance under the most discouraging circumstances--might have acted as a warning to future explorers against endeavouring to follow in his track. The fearful privations he endured, his narrow escape from the most terrible of all forms of death, were certainly not encouraging; but his experience might often be of service to others, pointing out dangers to be avoided, and suggesting methods of overcoming difficulties. At any rate, I was not deterred from the attempt to trace once more the coast of the Great Bight, and to reach the sister colony by that route. Eyre had not discovered any rivers, although it was possible that he might have crossed the sand-bars of rivers in the night. The difficulties he laboured under in his almost solitary journey, and the sufferings he endured, might have rendered him unable to make observations and discoveries more practicable to a better equipped and stronger party, while the deficiency of water on the route appeared to offer the greatest impediment. We were not, however, deterred from the attempt, and on the 30th of March, 1870, we started from Perth on a journey which all knew to be dangerous, but which we were sanguine enough to believe might produce considerable results.

Portrait of Alexander Forrest.

That we were not disappointed the result will prove. Indeed, the difficulties were much fewer than we had been prepared to encounter; and in five months from the date of departure from Perth we arrived safely at Adelaide, completing a journey which Mr. Eyre had been more than twelve months in accomplishing.

THE EXPLORING PARTY.

My party was thus composed: I was leader; the second in command was my brother, Alexander Forrest, a surveyor; H. McLarty, a police constable; and W. Osborne, a farrier and shoeing smith, these with Tommy Windich, the native who had served me so faithfully on the previous expedition, and another native, Billy Noongale, an intelligent young fellow, accompanied us.

Before I enter upon the details of my journey it may be useful to state as briefly as possible the efforts made to obtain a better acquaintance with the vast territory popularly known as No Man's Land, which had been traversed by Eyre, and afterwards to summarize the little knowledge which had been obtained.

In 1860 Major Warburton--who afterwards, in 1873 and 1874, succeeded in crossing the northern part of the great inland desert, after enduring great privations--contrived to reach eighty-five miles beyond the head of the Bight, and made several journeys from the coast in a north and north-westerly direction for a distance of about sixty miles. Traces of Eyre's expedition were then visible. The holes he had dug in search of water twenty years before were still there, and the records of his journey were of great value as guiding Warburton's movements. His experience of the nature of the country amply confirmed that of the previous explorer. He found the district to the north to be a dreary waste, destitute of food and water. Rain seldom fell, and, when it did, was immediately absorbed by the arid soil. Bustards and moles were the only living creatures. To the north-west there was a little grass, but the tract showing verdure was very small in extent, and beyond it was again the scorched, barren, inhospitable desert.

Two years afterwards other explorations were attempted, and especially should be noted Captain Delessier's. He was disposed to think more favourably of the nature of the country. The enterprise of squatters seeking for "fresh fields and pastures new," to whom square miles represent less than acres to graziers and sheep farmers in England--is not easily daunted. They made a few settlements; but the scanty pasturage and the difficulty of obtaining water, by sinking wells, in some instances to the depth of over 200 feet, have been great drawbacks.