Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2 / With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales

by T. L. Mitchell

REACH THE MURRAY.

The grass grew luxuriantly on this plain and after crossing and passing through the forest beyond it I recognised with satisfaction the lofty yarra trees and the low verdant alluvial flats of the Murray. No one could have mistaken this grand feature; for the vast extent of verdant margin with lofty trees and still lakes could belong to no other Australian river we knew of. On descending the berg or outer bank which was sloping and grassy, I found the still lagoons so numerous that I could not, without very great difficulty and after a ride of nearly an hour, obtain a sight of the flowing river. I found it at length running bank-high and still of greater width than any other known Australian river.

THE RIVER VERY DIFFICULT OF ACCESS.

The water was then just beginning to pour over its borders into the alluvial margins by which I had approached it; and on the opposite side the border consisted of a reedy swamp, evidently impassable and unfit for a landing-place. In no direction could I find access for our carts to the running stream. Deep and long winding reaches of still water shut me out, either from the high berg or bank at one part, or from the flowing stream at another. Returning from the river in a different direction I found, in a situation where I had nearly gained as I imagined the high bank after riding a mile, that a deep reach still separated me from that high bank which I then saw was beyond it, so that in order to return to the carts I was obliged to retrace my steps for several miles. Having got round at length I ascended the hill before mentioned for the purpose of taking some angles, and I found that it consisted of granite, the component parts being white quartz and felspar and black mica. I named this remarkable feature, probably the lowest hill of granite on the Murray, Mount Ochtertyre. I had sufficient daylight left to conduct the party over part of this hill to a portion of the riverbank accessible then to carts by fording only one lagoon. The velocity of the Murray at the spot where we could thus approach its border exceeded that of any other river we had previously crossed, being at the rate of 2 1/2 miles per hour.

October 18.

At daylight this morning the boat was sent across with Burnett and Piper, who landed to examine the ground within the reeds on that bank; and they ascertained it was so intersected by various deep lagoons that we could no longer hope to pass that way. I next went down the river in the boat and found at about a mile and a half below our camp a place where I thought we might effect a passage. This point was under a steep bank of red earth on the opposite shore where the river seemed to be encroaching.

A CARRIAGE TRACK DISCOVERED.

We landed and endeavoured to ascertain by looking for cattle marks whether any stations were near; and having heard that the flocks of the settlers already extended to the Murray we proceeded northward, eager to discover the tracks of civilised men. The wheels of a gig drawn by one horse and accompanied by others were traced by Piper, but the impressions were several months old. We walked as far as a spacious plain at some distance from the river without seeing any more recent tracks; and we were at length convinced that no station extended then in the immediate neighbourhood. The left bank between the spot where our camp then was and the crossing-place which I had selected was low though apparently firm; but on landing and returning along it I met with several narrow channels into which water was then flowing from the river and which afterwards cost us considerable trouble to cross with our carts.

PASSAGE OF THE RIVER.

That part of the bank which I had selected for driving the cattle into the river, that they might swim over, was soft and boggy, but in the opposite shore where they were to go out we cut in the firm clay at the base of the red cliff before mentioned a landing-place and path with picks and spades, so that the cattle on reaching that side could pass along the foot of the cliff to a lower part of the bank adjacent. After all other obstacles had been surmounted and the best portion of the day had been spent in conducting the party to within a short distance of this place my horse unexpectedly sunk in what had appeared to be firm ground.