Sturt has been called the father of Australian exploration, and may well be held as one of our greatest scientific explorers—his object always to solve the mystery of the great interior; its strange peculiarity and physical formation. He returned disappointed, baffled. But was he in reality beaten? He was exceptionally unlucky in his seasons, and the report of the land he brought back caused settlement to progress slowly; only after years, when men had grown accustomed to the terrors of the desert, and knew that experience robbed them of their effect, Sturt found, but unwittingly, the outflow of the second river system. He longed to be the first to reach the centre of Australia, and hoped that once past the southern zone of the tropics he would reach a country blessed with a heavy and constant rainfall. Always he looked back with pleasure upon his travels, and said: "My path amongst savage tribes has been a bloodless one."
Next among our explorers comes Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt, and his trip from Fort Burke, on the Darling, to the Gulf of Carpentaria, which opened up so much well-watered country and attracted universal attention; but, unlike Sturt, he had exceptional good fortune, travelling always through country easy to penetrate and well watered—not one night had the party to camp without water.
During this expedition, Sir Thomas Mitchell started with one having almost the same end in view as Dr. Leichhardt's. He did not reach the Gulf, but threw open our wonderful western prairies, and found the upper tributaries of the second great river system. This was his last expedition, and it fully confirmed his reputation. More fortunate than Sturt, he had been favoured in having plentiful and bountiful seasons of water and vegetation; but both men had done wonders in the cause of exploration. Mitchell's discovery of the Victoria, along the banks of which river he felt the high road to the north coast was found, was continued by Kennedy, who had been second in command during the first expedition of Sir Thomas Mitchell.
With a lightly equipped party Kennedy started to follow the course of the Victoria. Finally the river led them into the desert described by Sturt: "Plains gaping with fissures, grassless and waterless," and he turned back satisfied that the Victoria had not its outflow in the Gulf of Carpentaria, as hoped for by Sir Thomas Mitchell, but lost itself in Cooper's Creek. The loss of flour, through the natives, prevented Kennedy from extending his explorations towards the Gulf.
Kennedy's second trip, to examine Cape York Peninsula, ended most disastrously. Out of his party of thirteen only two men and a black boy were rescued. Through marshes and scrubs—seemingly the one monotonous entry in their journal being, "Cutting scrub all day"—they endeavoured to push their way to Port Albany, the extreme north of the Peninsula, where a ship would meet them. Saltwater creeks and marshy ground, with the ranges inhabited by hostile natives, was their prospect, while their horses were rapidly failing on the sour coast grasses. From first to last this was a most unfortunate expedition-the awful and impassable nature of the country travelled through, the hostile blacks and loss of the horses, and then, when sickness came upon the little band, it was doomed.
In the south, Baron von Mueller was busy exploring some of the unknown portion of South Australia and the Australian Alps-botanical and geographical researches combined. The heights of several of the highest mountains in Australia were fixed, and geographical positions accurately placed.
Leichhardt, encouraged by his successes, makes his final venture, but what befel his party—shall we ever know? It is so late now that we can entertain little hope of ever elucidating his fate.
In 1846, the Gregory brothers are in the west, led by A. C. Gregory, who so distinguished himself afterwards as a scientific explorer, and in 1855 he was in command of the North Australian Expedition; with him his brother and the celebrated botanist Baron Von Mueller. Captain Stokes reported the Victoria as an important stream, and the probable means of gaining access to the interior, upon which Gregory traced its course. He professed great disappointment at the reality of Captain Stokes' "Plains of Promise," compared to what he had been led to expect. The successful conclusion of this expedition, which had covered nearly five thousand miles, proves Gregory an explorer of undoubted qualifications, and it is to he regretted that so scanty a record of his travels has been published.
Lake Torrens still occupied the attention of the South Australian colonists, its probable extent and direction, and several expeditions were undertaken to solve the question. To the south-east fresh water and well grassed pastoral country, but Lake Torrens still remained as on its first discovery by Eyre—a dry bed covered with a thick incrustation of salt, and far away surrounded on all sides by barren country. Goyder found fresh water in the lake, but its unavailability was confirmed.
M'Dowall Stuart has been recognised as the man who first crossed from sea to sea, from the south to the north coast, and now on Stuart's track is built the overland telegraph line, a lasting witness of his indomitable perseverance. In his subsequent expeditions following his old tracks, he was destined to meet success, and come to the sea near the mouth of the Adelaide River. Stuart dipped his hands and feet in the sea, and his initials were cut on the largest tree they could find. This was his last trip, and he never recovered from the great suffering of his return journey.