The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888

The History of Australian
Exploration from
by Ernest
Favenc

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of Australian Exploration
from
1788 to 1888, by Ernest Favenc Copyright laws are changing all over
the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before
downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg
eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****

Title: The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888
Author: Ernest Favenc
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7163] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 18,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY
OF AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATION ***

Produced by Col Choat.

The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888.
Complied from State Documents, Private Papers and the most authentic
sources of information. Issued under the auspices of the Government of
the Australian Colonies.
by
Ernest Favenc.
Sydney: Turner and Henderson 1888

Dedication.
TO

THE HON. SIR HENRY PARKES, G.C.M.G., C.C.I., M.P., AS THE
OLDEST RULING STATESMAN IN AUSTRALIA, AND IN THE
PRESENT CENTENARY YEAR THE PREMIER OF NEW SOUTH
WALES, THE MOTHER COLONY, FROM WHENCE FIRST
STARTED THOSE EXPLORATIONS BY LAND AND SEA,
WHICH HAVE RESULTED IN THROWING OPEN TO THE
NATIONS OF THE WORLD A NEW CONTINENT, NOW
RAPIDLY DEVELOPING, UNDER FREE CONSTITUTIONS, A
PROSPEROUS, CONTENTED, AND SELF-GOVERNING
COMMUNITY, THIS HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN
EXPLORATION IS DEDICATED.
ERNEST FAVENC, SYDNEY, 1888.

PREFACE.
A complete history of the exploration of Australia will never be written.
The story of the settlement of our continent is necessarily so intermixed
with the results of private travels and adventures, that all the historian
can do is to follow out the career of the public expeditions, and those of
private origin which extended to such a distance, and embraced such
important discoveries, as to render the results matters of national
history.
That private individuals have done the bulk of the detail work there is
no denying; but that work, although every whit as useful to the
community as the more brilliant exploits that carried with them the
publicity of Government patronage, has not found the same careful
preservation.
To find the material to write such a history would necessitate the work
of a lifetime, and the co-operation of hundreds of old colonists; and,
when written, it would inevitably, from the nature of the subject, prove
most monotonous reading, and fill, I am afraid to think, how many
volumes. The reader has but to consider the immense area of country
now under pastoral occupation, and to remember that each countless

subordinate river and tributary creek was the result of some extended
research of the pioneer squatter, to realise this.
Since the hope of finding an inland sea, or main central range, vanished
for ever, the explorer cannot hope to discover anything much more
exciting or interesting than country fitted for human habitation. The
attributes of the native tribes are very similar throughout. Since the day
when Captain Phillip and his little band settled down here and tried to
gain the friendship of the aboriginal, no startling difference has been
found in him throughout the continent. As he was when Dampier came
to our shores, so is he now in the yet untrodden parts of Australia, and
the explorer knows that from him he can only gain but a hazardous and
uncertain tale of what lies beyond.
But, in this utter want of knowledge of the country to be explored,
where even the physical laws do not assimilate with those of other
continents, lies the great charm of Australian exploration. It is the
spectacle of one man pitted against the whole force of nature--not the
equal struggle of two human antagonists, but the old fable of the subtle
dwarf and the self-confident giant.
When the battle commenced between Sturt and the interior, he was, as
he thought, vanquished, though in reality the victor.
In the history of exploration are to be found some of the brightest
examples of courage and fortitude presented by any record. In the
succeeding pages I have tried to bring these episodes