Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 1: With Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales

Bushranger's story. My plan of exploration. Preparations. Departure

from Sydney. A garden. Country between Sydney and the Hawkes-

bury. Beyond the Hawkesbury. Summit of Warrawolong. Natives of Bris-

bane Water. The Wollombi. Valley of the Hunter. Fossils of the Hunter.

Men employed on the expedition. Equipment. Burning grass. Aborigines

and Colonists. Cambo, a wild native. A Colonist of the right sort. Escape of

the Bushranger, The Barber. Burning Hill of Wingen. Approach Liverpool

Range. Cross it. A sick tribe. Interior waters. Liverpool Plains. Proposed

route. Horses astray. A Squatter. Native guide and his gin. Modes of drink-

ing au naturel. Woods on fire. Cross the Turi Range. Arrive on the River

Peel. Fishes. Another native guide. Explore the Peel.

BUSHRANGER'S STORY.

The journey northward in1831 originated in one of those fabulous taleswhich

occasionally become current in the colony of New South Wales, respecting

the interior country, still unexplored.

A runaway convict named George Clarke, alias The Barber, had, for a length

of time escaped the vigilance of the police by disguising himself as an abo-riginal native. He had even accustomed himself to the wretched life of that

unfortunate race of men; he was deeply scarified like them and naked and

painted black, he went about with a tribe, being usually attended by two

aboriginal females, and having acquired some knowledge of their language

and customs.

But this degenerate white man was not content with the solitary freedom of

the savage life and his escape from a state of servitude. He had assumed the

cloak and colour of the savage that he might approach the dwellings of the

colonists, and steal with less danger of detection. In conjunction with the

simple aborigines whom he misled, and with several other runaway convicts

he had organised a system of cattle stealing, which was coming into extensive

operation on Liverpool plains when, through the aid of some of the natives,

who have in general assisted the detection of bushrangers, he was at length

discovered and captured by the police.

After this man was taken into custody, he gave a circumstantial detail of his

travels to the north-west along the bank of a large river, named, as he said, the

Kindur; by following which in a south-west direction he had twice reached

the seashore. He described the tribes inhabiting the banks of the Kindur

and gave the names of their chiefs. He said that he had first crossed vast

plains named Balyran, and, on approaching the sea, he had seen a burning

mountain named Courada. He described, with great apparent accuracy, the

courses of the known streams of the northern interior which united, as he

stated, in the Namoi, a river first mentioned by him; and, according to his

testimony, Peel's river entered the Namoi by flowing westward from where

Mr. Oxley had crossed it.

Now this was contrary to the course assigned to the Peel in the maps by early

travellers, but consistent nevertheless with more recent surveys. Vague ac-

counts of a great river beyond Liverpool plains, flowing north-west, were

current about the time General Darling embarked for England. The atten-

tion of the acting governor, Colonel Lindesay, was particularly drawn to the

question by this report of Clarke, and also by the subsequent proposals of