Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia; with Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Aistralia Felix, and the Present Colony of New South Wales.

The revised and improved second edition of Mitchell’s account of his three expeditions which Mitchell made himself. The account of one the landmarks of Australian inland exploration, covers the important discovery of Australia Felix by Thomas Mitchell and his expeditions in south eastern Australia. Two volumes 8vo, lithographed pictorial titles, large folding map with outline hand colour showing the route of the expeditions, folding geological plan and another of a cave, 49 lithograph plates including a number of smaller maps and portrait of aborigines, a number hand coloured.

In 1831 an escaped convict George Clarke, who had lived with aborigines in the area for several years, claimed that a large river called Kindur flowed north-west from the Liverpool ranges in New South Wales to the sea. Mitchell continued his northward push into new territory, taking local aboriginal guides of the Kamilaroi people to assist in finding water and to express his peaceful intentions. In early January 1832 he was in the vicinity of the present town of Narrabri, reached the Gwydir River in mid January and found the Barwon by the end of the month. Mitchell left the main party and made a reconnaissance down the Barwon until he found its junction with the Gwydir. On this expedition Mitchell had found that the Kindur river as claimed by Clarke didn’t exist. The expedition started in November 1831 northwards to Tamworth through known country. From Tamworth Mitchell explored to the Namoi and followed it down as far as Narrabri. He then cut across the plains to the Gwydir near Moree. Several weeks were spent charting the tributaries between the Gwydir and the Barwon without discovering the large river flowing to the north-west. In February 1832 after Aboriginals had killed two of his party and plundered the stores Mitchell returned to Sydney, not having disproved the existence of the mythical river, but rendering it, despite his hopes, much less likely. During the 1830s the spread of squatting and the large number of free immigrants needing land greatly accentuated the problems of the Survey Department. On 15 June 1833, alarmed by the situation, Stanley wrote to Governor Sir Richard Bourke demanding that Mitchell provide an explanation. None was forthcoming till 5 May 1834 when Bourke transmitted from Mitchell a map of the colony divided into nineteen counties with a description of their boundaries, together with a memorandum emphasising the necessity of a general survey before local surveys could effectively be made.

In March 1835 Mitchell began his second exploring journey. Its purpose was to trace the River Darling from the point where Charles Sturt had left it in 1828, down to its junction with the Murray. It was assumed, but not certain, that these points were on the same river. The party went by stages to Boree station, which was also the starting place for Mitchell’s later expeditions. The route lay north-west of the Bogan which was reached in April. There the botanist Richard Cunningham wandered from the main party and despite a prolonged search was lost. It was later discovered that he had been killed by Aboriginals. Mitchell travelled down the Bogan to its junction with the Darling and then down the Darling till the vicinity of Menindee was reached on 9 July. The Darling Aboriginals had been ‘implacably hostile and shamelessly dishonest’ and, after an affray in which shots were fired and several Aboriginals killed and wounded, Mitchell decided to return home by the way he had come. The course and terrain of a section of the Bogan and about 300 miles (483 km) of the Darling had been charted. Mitchell had little doubt that this river was the same as that which entered the Murray but he had not followed it to this junction. With Mitchell’s third expedition he was instructed to travel to Menindee, then down the Darling to find out if it flowed to the sea or if it flowed into the Murray to go up the Murray to the inhabited parts of the colony. He was also empowered to follow the most promising stream flowing into the Murray. He set out in March 1836 for Boree, then west to the Lachlan and followed that river until he reached the vicinity of Hillston on 20 April. Menindee was now about 200 miles almost due west. Lack of water in that direction persuaded Mitchell to follow the Lachlan to the south-west as the only practicable route. He reached the Murrumbidgee on 12 May and followed it to the Murray. While travelling along the Murray to its junction with the Darling, Mitchell’s party on 24 May encountered a large body of Aborigines who were at once recognised, according to Mitchell, as their old enemies from the Darling. Three days later near Mount Dispersion, fearing that his party might be subject to continual attacks, Mitchell set an ambush which was at once discovered. Firing broke out and, according to an Aboriginal with Mitchell’s party, seven natives were killed the remainder fled. At the end of May Mitchell reached the Darling and turned north upstream. He soon decided, while still about 130 miles in a direct line from Menindee, to abandon the survey of the deserts around the Darling and to use his resources to explore the more promising country along the Murray. For the second time he failed to complete the full exploration of the Darling.