A Chart of Part of the Interior of New South Wales by John Oxley Surveyor General.

A RARITY – FIRST EDITION OF ARROWSMITH’S MAP OF OXLEY’S EXPLORATIONS 1822

First edition of this very rare, separately issued chart, with John Oxley’s explorations in New South Wales, by Aaron Arrowsmith.

The map extends from the Solitary Isles (near Coffs Harbour) in the north, to Pigeon House in the south and inland to the marshes of the Lachlan River. Below the title is a note providing information for navigating in Port Jackson and navigable distances for Hawkesbury, Parramatta, Georges, Shoalhaven, Hunter and Hastings Rivers. Three counties are delineated, Camden, Argyle and Northumberland, the latter has major roads and distances marked.

This is the most comprehensive mapping of the colony and records the progress of colonisation and the extent of inland exploration of New South Wales in its first thirty-five years.

Following the discovery of the Lachlan River by George William Evans in 1815, Earl Bathurst, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, instructed Governor Macquarie to send an expedition to explore ‘the country westwards’. In March 1817, Macquarie selected Oxley to lead an expedition with Evans as second in command, with instructions to determine the course of the Lachlan River and to ascertain whether it entered the sea or an inland lake.

Oxley’s first attempt to trace the Lachlan in 1815 had not been successful. On his second attempt, he left the depot at Mt Prospect 28 April 1817, turned south-westwards at Dissapointment Hill on 16 May, onto Mount Brogden on 4 June 1817, heading north, back to the Lachlan at Strangford’s Plains on 23 June. On 8 July 1817, he headed west to the Marshes ‘where the morasses closing on the exploring party rendered all progress impossible’. A note states ‘The River contains abundance of Fish some of which are very large, the largest which the expedition caught weighing 70 pounds’. From there he headed along the river to Staples Plains 1 August, then proceeded north-east to the depot on the Macquarie River 22 August 1817, arriving at Bathurst on the 29 August, completely exhausted. The expedition had taken nineteen weeks and travelled about 120 miles through previously unexplored country.

In May 1818, Macquarie sent Oxley and Evans on a second expedition to determine the course of the Macquarie River. The explorers travelled from Sydney to Bathurst and to the Macquarie River arriving at the depot previously established in Wellington Valley on 2 June 1818. Once again running into marshes as he followed the Macquarie, Oxley split his party.  While he traced the Macquarie through the swamps, Evans was sent to the north-east, where he discovered the Castlereagh River. Oxley, unable to proceed at the Macquarie Marshes 3 July 1818, became convinced that the Macquarie drained into an inland lake or sea, with a note stating ‘They however deemed themselves in the vicinity of an inland Sea or Lake.’ The possibility of an inland sea would be in the minds of the colonist for several decades.

After joining up again, the parties headed for the Castlereagh where Oxley and Evans explored eastwards, discovering the rich land of the Liverpool Plains, Peel River and fine pastures of the New England tableland. At the end of September they discovered the Hastings River and then Port Macquarie Harbour on 8 October 1818. At Port Stephens they returned by boat to Sydney in early November.

Other tracks shown include; explorations south-westwards from the Cow Pastures to Lake Bathurst, tracks of Meehan from Camden to Wellington Valley 1820, Commissioner Bigges and his party to Lake George, as well as those from Windsor along the Paterson River, to the Hunter Valley.

References: Prescott 1822.A01, Tooley 939, p.126, Wantrup pp.180-182.