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Amidst the ardour with which geographical research has been patronized and prosecuted in almost every other portion of the globe, it is a subject of surprise and regret that so little anxiety should have been shown by geographers, and even by men of science in general, to increase our knowledge of the interior of the Australian continent. But so it is,—that land of anomalies may still be said to be almost a terra incognita; and, limited as may be the information which we possess of its internal features, yet, with the conviction that some concise notice of the way in which that knowledge has been progressively acquired will not prove altogether uninteresting to the Geographical Society, I beg to lay before it, in a brief view, the results of the several expeditions, which have been employed in inland discovery since the first settlement was formed at Port Jackson; to which I have added, a few occasional remarks on the different routes which have been pursued, and which will be further illustrated by the accompanying map.
To that fine settlement, in whose internal prosperity and advancement I have, during my long residence among its inhabitants, ever felt a lively interest, I shall consider myself as having rendered no small service, if what may appear in the following pages should induce this society to promote, by such means as it may have at command, the more extensive examination of the interior of New South Wales. We possess colonies, on its eastern and western shores, which are daily exciting more and more interest in this country; and, should the tide of emigration continue to flow, as it has done for some years past, new land must be thrown open to meet the wants of the settlers.
It would appear that, from the earliest periods of the settlement at Port Jackson, there were not wanting individuals of skill and enterprise to undertake the task of inland discovery,—of whom it may suffice to mention the names of Bass, Caley, and Barrallier. But their utmost endeavours to penetrate beyond the Blue Mountains were entirely defeated by the difficulties with which they had to contend, and which, ultimately, obliged each party, after suffering great fatigue and privation, to return with the full conviction of the utter impossibility of passing to the westward of so formidable a barrier,—an opinion, which appeared, at that period, not a little supported by the fact, that such of the aborigines as had become known to the colonists, were totally ignorant of any pass to the interior, through that elevated chain of mountains.
