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Oxley's work and his life too were now almost at a close. He died at Kirkham, his private residence, near Sydney, on the 25th of May, 1828. The journey made by Messrs. Hume and Hovell across to Port Phillip has a character of its own, being the first successful trip undertaken from shore to shore, from the eastern to the southern coast.
He was, however, sacrificed; and both the men were eaten by the tribe generally. I questioned several on the subject, but they preserved the most sullen silence, neither acknowledging nor denying the fact. Mr. Hume had been one day on Mount Harris, and while there, had laid his compass on a large rock, near to which Mr. Oxley's boat had been burnt.
This trip helped to prove the hasty condemnation of Oxley's "desert" theory, and besides giving to the colony millions of acres of well-watered fertile country, and adding another large and important river the Murray it also held out far higher hopes for the future of the interior.
During this time a settlement was formed at Moreton Bay, and subsequently removed to a better site on the Brisbane River. Cunningham, in 1827, left on a trip destined materially to effect the immediate progress of this new colony. Crossing Oxley's track, and entering the unexplored region, after naming the Gwydir and Dumaresque Rivers, he finally emerged on the Darling Downs.
Larmer took with him five men and a week's provisions, also a copy of our recent survey of the Bogan, with Mr. Oxley's Macquarie; and I instructed him to rejoin the main party at Cudduldury, the camp where I calculated we should arrive about the probable time of his return. August 26.
Their only resource now was to make north to a creek that they had followed down on their way to Oxley's tableland, and see where it would lead them. On the 31st January they came upon this creek, which was called by them New Year's Creek, now the Bogan, and the next day they suddenly found themselves on the brink of a noble river:
The banks were low and grassy, with a margin of gravel and pebble-stones; there were marks of flood to the height of about twelve feet, when the river would still be confined within its secondary banks, and not overflow the rich lands that bordered it. Its usual width is 200 feet; in times of flood it would be from 600 to 800 feet." See Oxley's Journals, pp. 184-7.
The successful and arduous expedition led by the young native-born explorer, had the twofold effect of exposing Oxley's fallacies, and teaching a lesson of caution to future explorers not to indulge hastily in general condemnation. This lesson, however, has not been heeded; the history of Australian exploration being a history of conclusions drawn one year, to be falsified the next.
Oxley's line of route; and, as I found a ready volunteer in M'Leay, I gave the party in charge to Harris until I should rejoin him, and turned back towards the hills, with the intention of reaching them if possible. No doubt we should have done so had it not been for the nature of the ground over which we travelled, and the impossibility of our exceeding a walk.
Wentworth's Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of New South Wales, and Van Dieman's Land. 1819. 8vo. Oxley's Journey of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales. 1820. 4to. These British colonies are improving so rapidly that no description can long be full and accurate. Mr. Wentworth's work is, we believe, as good an account as we have; and Mr.
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