Expeditions into Central Australia | Page 6

Ornaments Kangaroo Dance
of King George's Sound, J. Neill Woodcut of a Standard used in the
Dances performed by day Plate II. Native Weapons Plate III. Native
Weapons Plate IV. Native Implements Plate V. Native Works of
Industry Mode of disposing of the Dead of the Lower Murray Murray
River at Moorunde Plate VI. Miscellaneous Native Articles 1. Head of
war spear of the North Coast, barbed for 3 feet, total length 9 1/2 feet. 2.
Head of fish spear of the North Coast, barbed for 18 inches, total length
8 3/4 feet. 2. Head of spear of the North Coast, barbed for 18 inches,
total length 8 3/4 feet. 4. Head of war spear of the North Coast, with
head of quartz, 6 inches, total length 9 1/2 feet. 5. Head of war spear of
the North Coast, with head of slate, 6 inches, total length 9 1/2 feet. 6.
Two handed sword of hard wood, North Coast, 3 1/2 feet. 7. Throwing
stick of North Coast, 3 feet 1 inch. 8. Throwing stick of North Coast,
very pliant, 3-16ths of an inch only thick, 3 feet 6 inches. 9. Broad
short throwing stick, 2 feet 2 inches. 10. An ornament of feathers for
the neck. 11. Five Kangaroo teeth in a bunch, worn round the neck. 12.
A net waistband or belt, from Murray River, 8 feet long 6 inches wide.
13. Plume of feathers tied to thin wand, and stuck in the hair at
dances--New South Wales. 14. War club. 15. War club. 16. Bag of
close net work. 17. Band for forehead of Swan's down. 18. Root end of
a kind of grass, used as pins for pegging out skins. 19. Sorcerer's stick.
20. Sorcerer's stick.

VOLUME I

JOURNAL OF EXPEDITIONS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN
AUSTRALIA IN 1840.
Chapter I.
ORIGIN OF THE EXPEDITION--CONTEMPLATED
EXPLORATION TO THE WESTWARD--MEETING OF THE
COLONISTS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS ENTERED INTO FOR THAT
PURPOSE--NOTES ON THE UNFAVOURABLE NATURE OF THE
COUNTRY TO THE WESTWARD, AND PROPOSAL THAT THE
NORTHERN INTERIOR SHOULD BE EXAMINED
INSTEAD--MAKE AN OFFER TO THE GOVERNOR TO
CONDUCT SUCH AN EXPEDITION--CAPTAIN STURT'S
LECTURE--INTERVIEW WITH THE GOVERNOR,
ARRANGEMENT OF PLANS--PREPARATION OF OUTFIT--COST
OF EXPEDITION--NAME A DAY FOR DEPARTURE--PUBLIC
BREAKFAST AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE UNDERTAKING.
Before entering upon the account of the expedition sent to explore the
interior of Australia, to which the following pages refer, it may perhaps
be as well to advert briefly to the circumstances which led to the
undertaking itself, that the public being fully in possession of the
motives and inducements which led me, at a very great sacrifice of my
private means, to engage in an exploration so hazardous and arduous,
and informed of the degree of confidence reposed in me by those
interested in the undertaking, and the sanguine hopes and high
expectations that were formed as to the result, may be better able to
judge how far that confidence was well placed, and how far my
exertions were commensurate with the magnitude of the responsibility I
had undertaken.
I have felt it the more necessary to allude to this subject now, because I
was in some measure at the time instrumental in putting a stop to a
contemplated expedition to the westward, and of thus unintentionally
interfering with the employment of a personal friend of my own, than
whom no one could have been more fitted to command an undertaking
of the kind, from his amiable disposition, his extensive experience, and

his general knowledge and acquirements.
Upon returning, about the middle of May 1840, from a visit to King
George's Sound and Swan River, I found public attention in Adelaide
considerably engrossed with the subject of an overland communication
between Southern and Western Australia. Captain Grey, now the
Governor of South Australia, had called at Adelaide on his way to
England from King George's Sound, and by furnishing a great deal of
interesting information relative to Western Australia, and pointing out
the facilities that existed on its eastern frontier, as far as it was then
known, for the entrance of stock from the Eastward, had called the
attention of the flock-masters of the Colony to the importance of
opening a communication between the two places, with a view to the
extension of their pastoral interests. The notes of Captain Grey,
referring to this subject, were published in the South Australian
Register newspaper of the 28th March, 1840. On the 30th of the same
month, a number of gentlemen, many of whom were owners of large
flocks and herds, met together, for the purpose of taking the matter into
consideration, and the result of this conference was the appointment of
a Committee, whose duty it was to report upon the best means of
accomplishing the object in view. On the 4th, 7th, and 9th of