Journey Across the Western Interior of Australia.

Green cloth boards, lettered and decorated with gilt design of the explorers beside a camel and a gilt insect on the spine. 8vo, pp. xii, 308, 24pp. advertisements, frontispiece portrait and 8 other plates, large folding map with the route in outline colour.

First edition of Warburton’s Expedition in north Western Australian 1872-1874. Warburton, a retired South Australian Police Commissioner, was in command of an expedition consisting of seventeen camels, funded by Sir Thomas Elder and Captain Walter William Hughes for the purpose of making the first crossing from the centre to the west coast. At Charoltte Waters he fortuitously encountered Ernest Giles, who showed Warburton his maps and journal and suggested that Warburton attempt a course other than the one he had just taken. Warburton followed Giles advice and proceeded further north along the Telegraph Line before heading north-west towards Lake Gregory. Warburton went on to claim victory but at a high cost.

After leaving Lake Gregory Warburton found himself in the harsh Great Sandy Desert. His expedition became one endless search for water they needed to keep themselves and their camels alive. By this stage half their camels were dead, their provisions were low and much of their equipment had been lost. Warburton became blind in one eye and so weak that he had to be carried prone on his camel. Just in time they reached the fresh water of Oakover River. Warburton despatched two men to get help from the nearest station, over two hundred miles away. The remaining party were forced to eat the stewed hide of dead camel. They were finally rescued in January 1874.

Owing to the severe privations that Warburton suffered, the work of preparing the journals of the expedition was beyond him and the publisher arranged for a number of authorities to assist in its preparation for publication The scientific content was arranged by Professor Owen, Dr Hooker, John Gould and Dr Henry Trimen, the text of Warburton’s own journals was edited by H.W. Bates of the Royal Geographical Society, and the historical account of exploration in the western third of the Australian continent was added by Charles Eden.