In 1858 Frank Gregory reached the Gascoigne River, Western Australia, and discovered Mount Augustus and Mount Gould. A. C. Gregory in the same year, when searching for Leichhardt, confirmed the identity of the Barcoo River with Cooper's Creek. In 1858 also McDouall Stuart started on his first expedition across the continent; in the following year he started again, and one of his party, Hergott, discovered and named Hergott Springs. In 1859 G. E. Dalrymple discovered the main tributaries of the Lower Burdekin, also the Bowen and the Bogie Rivers, and in the year following Edward Cunningham and party explored the Upper Burdekin.
In 1860 the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition left Melbourne, and reached the Gulf of Carpentaria, but their return journey resulted in the death of Burke, Wills, and Gray.
In 1861 McDouall Stuart crossed the continent; Frank Gregory discovered the Hammersley Range, and the Fortescue, Ashburton, de Grey, and Oakover Rivers in Western Australia. In the same year William Landsborough left the Gulf of Carpentaria in search of Burke and Wills; and Alfred Howitt started from Victoria on the same errand. Edwin J. Welch, Howitt's second in command, found King, the only survivor of the expedition; and McKinlay, with W. O. Hodgkinson as lieutenant, started from Adelaide in the search, and crossed the continent, reaching the coast at Townsville. In 1863 John Jardine formed a settlement at Somerset, Cape York; and in the next year his adventurous brothers, Alexander and Frank, travelled overland to Somerset along the Peninsula, which Kennedy had failed to do.
In 1864 Duncan McIntyre travelled from the Paroo to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and died there. Next year J. G. Macdonald visited the Plains of Promise, and Frederick Walker marked the telegraph line from Rockingham Bay to the Norman River. In 1869 Mr. (now Sir John) Forrest made his first expedition to Lake Barlee; in 1870 he travelled the Great Bight from Perth to Adelaide, and in 1871 took charge of a private expedition in search of pastoral country. In 1872 William Hann, a Northern squatter, led an expedition equipped by the Queensland Government, and discovered the Walsh, Palmer, and Upper Mitchell Rivers, and found prospects of gold which led to great mineral discoveries in North Queensland. Hann reached the coast at Princess Charlotte Bay. In the same year J. W. Lewis travelled round Lake Eyre to the Queensland border. Ernest Giles also made his first expedition in 1872, discovering Lake Amadeus, and on a second trip in 1873 discovered and named Gibson's Desert, after one of his party who died there. In 1873 Major Warburton crossed from Alice Springs, on the overland telegraph line, to the Oakover River, Western Australia. In 1875-6 Ernest Giles made a third and successful attempt from Adelaide to reach Western Australia. In the same year W. O. Hodgkinson started on a north-west expedition to the Diamantina and Mulligan Rivers, on which he officially reported.
In 1878 Prout brothers, looking for country across the Queensland border, never returned. In 1878 N. Buchanan, on an excursion to the overland telegraph line from the Queensland border, discovered Buchanan's Creek. In 1878-9 Ernest Favenc, starting from Blackall in charge of the "Queenslander" transcontinental expedition, reached Powell's Creek station, on the overland telegraph line; four years later he explored the rivers flowing into the Gulf, particularly the Macarthur, and then crossed to the overland telegraph line. In 1878 Winnecke and Barclay, surveyors, started to determine the border lines of Queensland and South Australia, returning in 1880 with their work done. In 1879 Alexander Forrest led an expedition from the de Grey River, Western Australia, to the overland telegraph line, discovering the Ord and Margaret Rivers.
By this time there was little left of the continent, save Western Australia, to explore, though men in search of pastoral country still found occupation in expeditions to discover the unknown in Queensland and the Northern Territory. In 1896 Frank Hann, younger brother of the explorer, who had left Queensland, traversed the country to the north of King Leopold Range, discovering a river which he named the Phillips, but which was afterwards renamed the Hann by the Surveyor-General of Western Australia. Afterwards Hann travelled from Laverton, Western Australia, to Oodnadatta, in South Australia. F. S. Brockman is another explorer who was leader of a Kimberley expedition a few years ago, and discovered in North-west Australia 6 million acres of basaltic country clad with blue grass, Mitchell and kangaroo grasses, and other fodder vegetation. The Elder expedition, projected on an ambitious scale in 1891 to complete the exploration of the continent, started under David Lindsay, but the results were less valuable than its generous and enterprising originator anticipated. From a second Elder expedition under L. A. Wells no great results were recorded. The same may be said of the Carnegie expedition in Western Australia. Yet the sum total of the information obtained was valuable. Australia owes much to her adventurous explorers, as well as to the men who, following up their tracks, placed stock on much of the country that produced great wealth to the people, though as a rule neither explorers nor pastoral pioneers personally benefited much by their labours and privations.
[Footnote a:] See Dampier's "Collection of Voyages, 1729."
[Footnote b:] See Cook's "Journal during his First Voyage Round the World, 1768-71." W. J. L. Wharton, 1893.
[Footnote c:] Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. i.
[Footnote d:] See "History of Australian Exploration," 1888; and "Explorers of Australia," 1908, both by Ernest Favenc.