Australian exploration. No Water.

Scarce c.19th hand coloured engraving depicting an inland exploration party searching for water.

From the original edition of the Australasian Sketcher.

National Library Australia: Bib ID 914558
State Library New South Wales: REF1/MAV/FM4/9236-9239
State Library Victoria: PCINF AS 06-09-73 P.104

AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATION : NO WATER.  There have been many incidents of late to attract attention to the perils of the work of exploration of the interior which is always being carried on by the enterprise of bold and adventurous men. Prominent among these is the loss of the two young explorers, Messrs. Farie and  Woolley, who perished while looking for available country near the border between Western and South Australia. Then in the North Mr. Favene, the leader of the expedition sent out by the enterprise of the proprietors of the Queenslander, has lately succeeded in reaching Powell’s Creek, in Central Australia, where he rested before again proceeding on his way. And from Western Australia we have lately had the account of an expedition successfully conducted by Mr. Alex. Forrest, who has since again started in command of an important expedition sent out by the Government. Our illustration depicts an incident too common in the painful records of Australian exploration. A party has been toiling on through desert and waste, suffering from heat and thirst, on its way to a place where, either from the natural indications or the accounts of natives, they expect to find water. And when they arrive they discover that the watercourse is perfectly dry, its bed only  displaying a glaring white surface to the; sun. Experience, however, has often shown that in such dry beds of water- courses water can often be reached by a little sinking, and the hope of water is never abandoned until it is tried what can be done by sinking a hole in the bed of the creek.