Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia

by John Davis (1829-1885)

TRACKS ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

TRACKS OF McKINLAY

AND PARTY

ACROSS AUSTRALIA.

BY JOHN DAVIS,
ONE OF THE EXPEDITION.

EDITED FROM MR. DAVIS'S MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL; WITH AN INTRODUCTORY
VIEW OF THE RECENT AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATIONS OF
M^cDOUALL STUART, BURKE AND WILLS,
LANDSBOROUGH, ETC.,

BY

WILLIAM WESTGARTH,

AUTHOR OF "VICTORIA AND THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD MINES," ETC.

WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, SON, & CO., 47, LUDGATE HILL.
1863

[The Right of Translation is Reserved.]

TO JOHN McKINLAY, ESQ.

My dear Mr. McKinlay,

To no one could I more appropriately dedicate this effort to portray the difficulties and hardships experienced during our trip across the Continent, than to you, our worthy Leader, who piloted us through the wilderness, and brought us again to the haunts of our fellow men, with such intrepidity and judgment.

Yours very truly,⁠
JOHN DAVIS.

Adelaide, February, 1863.

PREFACE.

As we shall occupy the reader's attention at some length in the Introductory View, he may reasonably claim exemption from a long Preface. Our allusions here are confined to two subjects: our Chapters, and our Illustrations.

To have given three hundred successive pages of Journal without a break would have been tolerable to very few, and the less so from some degree of sameness that characterizes Australian scenery and incidents of travel. Mr. McKinlay, indeed, was fortunate in meeting with such weather as greatly dispelled this Australian sameness, and in many parts substituted for scrub, spinifex, and parched ground, the pleasant spectacle of lakes and running streams, waving grass and flowery meadows. Nevertheless, a subdivision of the Journal into Chapters will be found acceptable. We have succeeded in finding demarcation lines for eleven Chapters, and at the beginning of each Chapter we have given a short précis of the subject. At the beginning of the last Chapter we give the very interesting account of an Englishman, James Morrill, who had lived seventeen years with the Aborigines of the lower Burdekin, and whose history lately reached us while occupied with this work.

With reference to the Illustrations, the Publishers are indebted to the courtesy of the Proprietors of the Illustrated London News for permission to make use of three of the Lake Views, and also of the Portraits of Burke and Wills, and J. McDouall Stuart. The latter is taken from a photograph by Mr. R. S. Stacey, North Adelaide, and is specially interesting from the fact that the background scene is a representation, sketched by Mr. Stuart himself, of the shores of the Indian Ocean, on the Northern coast of Australia. The other Lake Views are from sketches supplied by Mr. Davis; and the Portraits of McKinlay and party are from a photograph supplied by the same gentleman. As to the "little canvas camp flying in all directions," the Author, in his Journal, invokes "the spirit or the pencil of 'Crowquill,' or the world-known George, to scratch that ludicrous scene." It is hoped that our friend, Mr. C. H. Bennett, has not unworthily caught the spirit both of the scene and the invocation. The same gentleman has also, it is believed, adhered to nature and to truth in depicting the more serious scene of the alligators.

W. W.

London, June, 1863.

CONTENTS.

	page
Dates of Australian Discovery, Exploration, and Settlement	xv
Introductory View. RECENT AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATORY EXPEDITIONS.
Stuart's Expeditions, 1858—1862	4
Burke and Wills' Expedition, 1860, 1861	20
Landsborough's Expedition, 1861, 1862	27
McKinlay's Expedition, 1861, 1862	37
RESULTS OF RECENT EXPLORATION OF AUSTRALIA.
Physical Features and Climate	44
The Aboriginal Natives	62
The other Notabilia of the Way	67
The Outfit of an Australian Exploratory Party	69
Tributes to the Explorers	64
What is in the Future?	66
CHAPTER I.
Adelaide to Blanchewater	71
CHAPTER II.
Blanchewater to the Depot, Lake Buchanan	88
CHAPTER III.
Camp Life at the Depot	101
CHAPTER IV.
The Search for Burke and Wills	134
CHAPTER V.
Lake Buchanan to Lake Hodgkinson	169
CHAPTER VI.
Lake Hodgkinson to the Stony Desert	200
CHAPTER VII.
The Great Stony Desert	229
CHAPTER VIII.
Central District	281
CHAPTER IX.
Australia Traversed : Tropical District	311
CHAPTER X.
Homeward Bound—Carpentaria to Port Denison	341
CHAPTER XI.
The Return Home—Port Denison to South Australia	390

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

	page
PORTRAITS OF J. McKINLAY, J. DAVIS, R. POOLE, J. C. KIRBY, AND P. WYLDE	Frontispiece
PORTRAIT OF JOHN McDOUALL STUART (From a photograph by Mr. R. S. Stacey, North Adelaide)	4
PORTRAIT OF R. O'HARA BURKE (From the "Illustrated London News")	20
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM JOHN WILLS (From the "Illustrated London News")	26
VIEW OF LAKE HOPE, OR PANDO	88
VIEW OF LAKE CAMEL	95
VIEW OF KIRRIE	98
OUR LITTLE CANVAS CAMP	105
VIEW OF LAKE BUCHANAN	134
VIEW OF LAKE KADHIBERRI, OR MASSACRE LAKE	146
PORTRAIT OF KERI KERI	154
VIEW OF LAKE McKINLAY	178
SKETCH ON THE GILBERT	362
A CAMP ON THE BURDEKIN	376
"THE ALLIGATORS WERE CLOSE TO US"	384