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Australian ? Explorers MAXIMEDIA LOOK, LISTEN & LEARN™ By Geoff Saunders TO MAIN MENU HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ?...

Australian ? Explorers MAXIMEDIA LOOK, LISTEN & LEARN™ By Geoff Saunders TO MAIN MENU HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? Australian Explorers Geoff Saunders MAXIMEDIA LOOK, LISTEN & LEARN™ TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? Contents 1: Exploration begins....................................................................................3 2: Crossing the Blue Mountains.....................................................................4 3: Hume and Hovell......................................................................................6 4: Exploring the rivers...................................................................................7 Explorers timeline...................................................................................10 5: Eyre and Wylie........................................................................................12 6: Sturt’s journey into central Australia........................................................13 7: Leichhardt explores the north..................................................................14 8: Kennedy’s terrible journey.......................................................................15 9: Burke and Wills.......................................................................................17 10: John McDouall Stuart..............................................................................20 11: Later explorers........................................................................................21 12: What explorers did for Australia..............................................................22 Glossary.................................................................................................23 Index......................................................................................................24 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE  ? Exploration 1 DISCOVERY? Colonial begins explorers thought that they were The first European settlement in ‘discovering’ Australia began at Sydney Cove on unknown land. But 26 January 1788. The new settlers Aboriginal knew very little about this vast land. people had lived there for The colony was surrounded by thousands of natural barriers. To the north and Above: The route of Bass and Flinders’ years. voyage around Van Diemen’s Land. south lay rugged hills, to the west rose the Blue Mountains, and the In the 1790s Matthew Flinders and sea stretched eastwards. George Bass explored the coast south of Sydney. They proved that Van FLINDERS’ ACHIEVEMENTS Diemen’s Land, which we now call Between 1801 and 1803, Matthew Flinders Tasmania, was an island. The stretch circumnavigated the continent, drawing precise maps of the coastline. He was one of the first people of water that separates it from the to call the continent ‘Australia’. mainland was named Bass Strait. 3 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  2 Crossing the ? WERE THEY FIRST? Blue Mountains Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth are known as the first Europeans to cross the Blue Mountains. But a convict named John Wilson claimed he had found a Before long the colony needed to way over the mountains nearly 20 years before them. find more land for farming. But the Blue Mountains blocked the way to the west. In May 1813, Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth set out to cross the mountains. Other explorers had tried following the valleys that ran through the mountains, but these ended in tall cliffs. Blaxland decided to follow the ridges instead. Above: Soon after Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth’s journey, a road was built over the Blue Mountains. 4 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? After nearly three weeks of hard ABORIGINAL RESISTANCE travelling, the explorers reached the Settlers soon followed the explorers, building towns and setting up farms. The Aboriginal owners were western side of the mountains and pushed off their land. In the 1820s, the Wiradjuri looked down on forests and people around Bathurst fought a fierce war against the invaders. Many people on both sides were killed. grasslands. Blaxland wrote that this new country was ‘sufficient in extent … to support the stock of the Colony for the next thirty years’. JOHN OXLEY Once the Blue Mountains had been crossed, explorers set out to open up the land to the west. In 1817, John Oxley (shown left) travelled along the Lachlan River, where he found large areas of fertile land. In 1818 he explored the area near where Tamworth stands today. He then followed the Hastings River to the sea at Port Macquarie. Above: Settlers brought their cattle and sheep onto land belonging to Aboriginal people. 5 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? Hume 3 and Hovell In October 1824 Hamilton Hume and William Hovell led an expedition to explore the country between Lake George and Port Phillip Bay. On their journey the explorers crossed a large river, which Above: The route of Hume and Hovell’s expedition in 1824. they named the Hume. (This river was later renamed the Murray by the HUME AND HOVELL’S FEUD explorer Charles Sturt.) Hovell was older than Hume, and liked being in charge. But Hume knew In December they reached Corio more about the bush. Bay, on the western side of Port They often argued about Phillip Bay. The Aboriginal owners which direction they should go. The two men called the place ‘Jilong’. The city of disliked each other for Geelong now stands here. Hume the rest of their lives. Hovell 6 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  4 Exploring ? SALTWATER RIVER? the rivers The Darling’s saltiness was caused by salt Most of the rivers the explorers found springs in the flowed west. As rivers usually flow to riverbed. When the water level the sea, many people thought there is low, these was a sea in the middle of Australia. springs make the water salty. Above: The routes Sturt followed on his expeditions in 1828 and 1829. In 1828 Charles Sturt and Hamilton Hume set out to explore the rivers. After travelling down the Macquarie, they discovered a large river they named the Darling. The river water tasted salty, so the explorers thought they must be close to the inland sea. Above: Many Aboriginal people lived along rivers. 7 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? In 1829 Sturt led an STURT’S TERRIBLE JOURNEY HOME The ship that was supposed to meet Sturt and his men expedition to row down the and take them back to Sydney by sea was waiting in the Murrumbidgee River to its mouth. wrong place. So Sturt decided to row back up the rivers. After a terrible journey of more than 1600km, the After a week the exhausted men arrived in Sydney. Murrumbidgee joined a wide river, which Sturt named the Murray. By following the Murray, the explorers reached the ocean near where Adelaide now stands. Sturt had proven that the rivers didn’t flow into an inland sea, but ran to the ocean. Above: While travelling down the Murray, Sturt’s way was blocked by Aboriginal warriors. Luckily, a group of Aboriginal people who knew Sturt arrived, and a fight was avoided. 8 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? In the 1830s, Major Thomas MAJOR Mitchell led several expeditions MITCHELL’S COCKATOO along the rivers of western New Thomas Mitchell South Wales. Although Mitchell was drew many pictures of the people, places an excellent explorer, he was and animals he saw criticised for fighting with the on his journeys. Major Mitchell’s Aboriginal owners of some of the Cockatoo was named after him. areas he travelled through. In 1836 Mitchell crossed the Murray River and travelled south into what is now western Victoria. He thought this area was so beautiful that he called it ’Australia Felix’, which Above: Mitchell was also the Surveyor-General of means ‘Happy Australia’. Above: The route of Mitchell’s 1836 expedition. New South Wales. 9 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? Explorers timeline 1813 1828–29 Blaxland, Lawson and Sturt explores the Wentworth cross the 1793–98 Darling and Blue Mountains. Bass and Flinders explore Murray rivers. the coast south of Sydney. 1785 1800 1810 1820 1830 1801–03 Flinders 1817–23 1788 circumnavigates British settlement of Australia. John Oxley explores Australia begins at the rivers of New Sydney Cove. South Wales. 1824 Hume and Hovell reach Port Phillip Bay. 10 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  1862 ? 1844–46 Sturt explores the John McDouall Stuart centre of Australia. travels from Adelaide to Australia’s north coast. 1869–74 1841 1848 The Forrest Eyre and Wylie cross Kennedy is killed exploring brothers explore the Nullarbor Plain. Cape York Peninsula. Western Australia. 1840 1850 1860 1870 1875 1835–36 1848 Leichhardt disappears Mitchell explores 1875 western New South in central Australia. Giles travels Wales and Victoria. from the 1844–45 1860–61 centre of Leichhardt travels from Burke and Wills travel to the Australia to Moreton Bay to Port Essington. Gulf of Carpentaria. Perth. 11 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? Eyre 5 and Wylie In January 1841 Edward John Eyre left Adelaide to travel to Albany along the Great Australian Bight. His Above: Eyre and Wylie’s journey across the Nullarbor Plain. companions were a white man named Baxter and three Aboriginal One night, Joey and Yarry killed men: Joey, Yarry and Wylie. Baxter and ran away with the supplies. Eyre and Wylie travelled on, only surviving because Wylie found waterholes and bush food. They were saved when they found a ship anchored at Rossiter Bay. The two explorers regained their strength before continuing their journey, finally reaching Albany in July. Above: Eyre and Wylie are saved by a ship at Rossiter Bay. 12 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  6 ? Sturt’s journey into SCURVY Scurvy is a central Australia disease that causes pains in the joints, blotchy In August 1844, Charles Sturt led an skin and loose expedition from Adelaide. His goal teeth. It is caused by a lack was to reach the centre of Australia, of vitamin C, Above: The route of Sturt’s 1844–45 which comes where he thought there might be journey to central Australia. from fresh fruit fertile land. and vegetables. Many explorers, On his journey Sturt found sandy including Sturt, deserts, and a great plain covered in had scurvy. small pebbles. This became known as Sturt’s Stony Desert. With his men suffering from hunger and illness, Sturt gave up after 19 months. Although he hadn’t reached the centre of the continent, he had proved it was a land of huge deserts. Above: Sturt’s expedition sets off from Adelaide. 13 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? 7 Leichhardt explores the north On 1 October 1844, Ludwig Leichhardt led an expedition from southern Queensland to travel to Port Essington, near where Darwin now stands. Leichhardt had not Above: Port Essington in 1845. LEICHHARDT planned the expedition well. He VANISHES didn’t take enough supplies, and In 1848 Leichhardt set often lost his way. As the expedition out to cross travelled north, the men grew weak. Australia from In June 1845, one of the explorers east to west. On this journey was killed in a fight with Aboriginal he and his six warriors. In December, after companions disappeared, travelling for 14 months, the and were never explorers reached Port Essington. heard of again. Above: Leichhardt’s 1844–45 expedition. 14 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? 8 Kennedy’s terrible journey In 1848 Edmund Kennedy led an expedition to Cape York Peninsula. Twelve men went with him, including an Aboriginal man named Jackey Jackey (Galmarra). The expedition soon became a nightmare. The explorers hacked their way north through thick rainforest, with hostile Aboriginal warriors close behind. A rescue ship was supposed to meet the expedition at Princess Charlotte Bay, but when the explorers arrived they discovered it had left early. Above: Travel was slow and difficult for Kennedy’s expedition. 15 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? Most of the men were now too sick to go on. Kennedy and Jackey Jackey left them and continued the journey north to Cape York, where another ship was waiting. Close to Cape York, Kennedy was killed by Aboriginal warriors. Jackey Jackey buried him, then continued to the rescue ship. Above: Kennedy’s journey to Cape York. Jackey Jackey led the rescuers to Kennedy’s body, and to look for the 11 men who had been left behind. Only two of them were found alive. ABORIGINAL PEOPLE AND EXPLORERS Wherever they went, colonial explorers crossed land belonging to Aboriginal people. Some Aboriginal people welcomed them, while others were suspicious. How Aboriginal people treated explorers often depended on how the explorers treated them. Most explorers included Aboriginal people in their expeditions because of their excellent bush skills. Above: Aboriginal people often resisted white invaders. 16 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? Burke 9 and Wills On 20 August 1860 Robert O’Hara Burke led an expedition from Melbourne to reach the north coast of Australia. One of the members of the expedition was a surveyor named William John Wills. Burke was a brave man, but he did not know much about the bush. On 12 October, the explorers reached Menindee on the Darling River. Here they set up a depot to store supplies. One month later, Burke, Wills and eight others left for Cooper Creek. Above: Huge crowds cheer as Burke and Wills leave Melbourne. 17 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? At Cooper Creek, the explorers set BURKE’S FIRST BIG MISTAKE up a camp. Three of the men Burke and Wills’ expedition was in trouble from the start. None of the members was an experienced returned to Menindee, leaving bushman, and no Aboriginal people were included in supplies in charge of a man named the expedition. Brahe. Burke, Wills, King and Gray set off to reach the coast. On 11 February 1861, the explorers reached the Gulf of Carpentaria. But the journey back was terrible. The men became sick, and they ran out of food. Gray died on 17 April. Burke, Wills and King reached Cooper Creek on 21 April, but Brahe had left only a few hours before. They found some supplies Brahe had buried, but soon finished these. Above: The route Burke and Wills took to cross the continent from south to north. 18 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? Luckily the Yantruwanta people THE PROBLEM WITH NARDOO gave them fish, and flour made from Aboriginal people knew that before nardoo flour could be eaten it had to be soaked to remove the seeds of the nardoo plant. But dangerous chemicals. But Burke and his men didn’t when the Yantruwanta moved camp, know this. The nardoo flour they made still contained these chemicals. The more flour the explorers made the explorers had to find their own and ate, the sicker and weaker they became. food. There were fish in the creek, but the explorers didn’t know how to On 26 June, Burke and King set catch them. They made nardoo flour, out to find the Yantruwanta. After but eating it made them weak. three days Burke died of exhaustion. King returned to camp to discover that Wills had also died. The Yantruwanta people rescued King and looked after him until a search party arrived. The bodies of Burke and Wills were taken back to Melbourne, where a Above: Burke dies of exhaustion, with King beside him. huge funeral took place. 19 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  10 John ? McDouall Stuart In March 1860, John McDouall Stuart led an expedition from Adelaide to reach the north coast of the continent. But after several months, the party turned back because of dense scrub, lack of water and hostile Aboriginal people. Stuart tried twice more to reach Above: Stuart’s 1862 journey. the north coast. On his last attempt, CENTRAL MOUNT STUART he reached the sea near where When Stuart reached the very Darwin now stands in July 1862. centre of Australia, he planted the British flag on a mountain When Stuart returned to Adelaide he he named Central Mount Sturt. was treated as a hero, but was It was later renamed Central Above: Stuart plants Mount Stuart in his honour. terribly ill from the journey. the British flag. 20 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? Later 11 JOHN FORREST In 1890 John Forrest became the first Premier of explorers Western Australia. He helped bring about Federation. In the 1870s several expeditions set In 1874, John and Alexander out to explore the centre and west of Forrest travelled from the coast north Australia. of Perth to the centre of Australia. In 1873 William Gosse explored In 1875 Ernest Giles set out to the country west of Alice Springs. travel from central Australia to the Gosse and his companions became west coast. He reached Perth, then the first Europeans to see Uluru. crossed back to central Australia. Above: Many explorers used camels when travelling in desert areas. Camels need less food and water than horses. 21 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? 12 What explorers did for Australia By the 1880s, colonial explorers had mapped almost every part of Australia. Their expeditions opened up huge areas of the country for farming and mining. For Aboriginal people, however, the coming of explorers often led to hunger, disease and the loss of their land. Many of Australia’s rivers, highways, towns and other places are named after colonial explorers. Today, the stories of the brave and determined explorers remain an important part of Australian history. Above: Flinders Street Station in Melbourne. Many places in Australia are named after colonial explorers. 22 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  ? Click on a word in bold to hear its definition. Glossary Words included here are printed in bold type the first time they appear in the book. Aboriginal people: The first people to live in Australia. Lake George: A large lake north of Canberra. Blue Mountains: A range of mountains to the west of mouth: The place where a river flows into the sea. Sydney. peninsula: A piece of land almost surrounded by water, circumnavigated: Sailed around the entire coast of an such as Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. island. Port Phillip Bay: A large bay in Victoria. Melbourne is colonial: Belonging to a colony. located on the shores of the bay. colony: A settlement in a foreign country controlled by a scrub: An area of small trees and thick bushes. mother country. springs: Places where water comes out of the ground. depot: A camp where supplies are stored. stock: Farm animals such as sheep and cattle. exhaustion: Feeling completely worn out. strait: A stretch of water separating two areas of land. expedition: A group of people who explore an area. surveyor: A person who is skilled at making maps and explorer: A person who travels through unfamiliar country. finding directions. extent: Size. Surveyor-General: The head surveyor of a colony. Federation: When all the Australian colonies joined Wiradjuri: An Aboriginal language group that lives in together in 1901 to form the nation of Australia. central western New South Wales. fertile: Good for growing crops and raising animals. Yantruwanta: The Aboriginal people who helped Burke Galmarra: Jackey Jackey’s Aboriginal name. and Wills at Cooper Creek. hostile: Unfriendly, warlike. 23 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP NEXT PAGE TO CONTENTS  Index To go to a page, click on a page number. Hume, Hamilton ? Aboriginal people..........................3, 5, 6, 7, expedition to Port Phillip Bay............6 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22 explores the rivers............................7 Wiradjuri people..............................5 inland sea...............................................7–8 Yantruwanta people.......................19 Jackey Jackey......................................15–16 Australia Felix.............................................9 Kennedy, Edmund...............................15–16 Bass, George..............................................3 King, John...........................................18–19 Bass Strait...................................................3 Lawson, William.........................................4 Blaxland, Gregory...................................4–5 Leichhardt, Ludwig....................................14 Blue Mountains...................................3, 4–5 Menindee...........................................17, 18 Burke, Robert O’Hara..........................17–19 Mitchell, Thomas.........................................9 Cape York Peninsula.....................14, 15, 16 Oxley, John.................................................5 Cooper Creek...............................17, 18, 19 Port Essington...........................................14 Eyre, Edward John....................................12 Port Phillip Bay............................................6 Flinders, Matthew.................................3, 22 Stuart, John McDouall...............................20 Forrest, John and Alexander......................21 Sturt, Charles.....................................7–8,13 Galmarra see Jackey Jackey Sturt’s Stony Desert...................................13 Giles, Ernest.............................................21 Uluru.....................................................21 Gosse, William.........................................21 Wentworth, William Charles........................4 Gray, Charles...........................................18 Wills, William John..............................17–19 Hovell, William...........................................6 Wylie.....................................................12 24 TO MAIN MENU GO BACK HELP TO CONTENTS