CHAPTER III. THE BRISBANE RIVER. Ille terrarum mihi praeter omnes Ver ubi longum, tepidasque praebet Invidet uvis. HORAT. OD. II. 6. Fair land where smiling Summer reigns Nor gloomy Winter's shivering trains Hymettian sweets, Falernian wine, HORACE IN AUSTRALIA. 66 ON his return to Sydney from his examination of Port Curtis, and his discovery of the Boyne River, in the month of November 1823, Mr. Surveyor-General Oxley anchored in Bribie's Island Passage, the Pumice-Stone River of Captain Flinders. Scarcely was the anchor let go," observes his fellow-traveller, Mr. Uniacke, "when we perceived a number of natives, at the distance of about a mile, advancing rapidly towards the vessel; and on looking at them with the glass from the mast-head, I observed one who appeared much larger than the rest, and of a lighter colour, being a light copper, while all the others were black. This I pointed out to Mr. Stirling, so that we were all on the look-out when they approached; and to our surprise and satisfaction, when opposite the vessel, the man hailed us in English. The boat was immediately launched, and Messrs. Oxley, Stirling, and I went ashore in her. While approaching the beach, the natives shewed many signs of joy, dancing and embracing the white man, who was nearly as wild as they. He was perfectly naked, and covered all over with white and red paint, which the natives make use of. His name, it appears, was Thomas Pamphlet: he had left Sydney on the 21st March last in an open boat, to bring cedar from the Five Islands, about fifty miles to the south of Port Jackson. There were three others with him; but the boat being driven out to sea by a gale of wind, they had suffered inconceivable hardships, being twenty-one days without water, during which time one of them died of thirst, and they had at length been wrecked on Moreton Island, which forms one side of Moreton Bay, in the upper part of which we were now lying. He was so bewildered with joy that we could make very little out of his story that night; so having distributed a few knives, handkerchiefs, &c., among the friendly blacks, we returned on board, taking him with us. He now informed us, that his two surviving companions, Richard Parsons and John Finnegan, after having travelled in company with him to the place where we found him, had, about six weeks before, resolved to prosecute their way towards Sydney; that he had accompanied them about fifty miles, but that his feet becoming so sore that he was unable to travel further, he had resolved to return to the blacks, with whom we found him, and who had before treated him with great kindness; that a few days after they parted, Parsons and Finnegan having quarrelled, the latter also returned, and had since remained with him, but had been absent the last fortnight with the chief of the tribe on a hunting expedition, and that Parsons had not been heard of since his departure. Mr. Oxley, on hearing that Finnegan was gone towards the south end of the bay, resolved to seek him on Monday morning, and hoped, by keeping along the shore, and occasionally firing a musket, to be able to find him. But on Sunday afternoon, at low water, a man was observed walking out on a sand-bank, from the opposite shore towards us, and holding in his hand a long stick with a skin on it; upon which, I took the whale-boat and pulled towards him, when it proved to be Finnegan. Both he and Pamphlet concurring in a story they told us of A LARGE RIVER which they had crossed, falling into the south-end of the Bay, Messrs. Oxley and Stirling started next morning in the whale-boat, taking Finnegan with them, and four days' provisions, in order to explore it.* It was scarcely fair in Mr. Oxley to take no notice of this very important fact, in the following account of his discovery, forsooth, of the Brisbane River, contained in his Report to His Excellency Sir Thomas Brisbane. It was in reality not Mr. Oxley, but these two poor unfortunate shipwrecked men who discovered it, and reported their discovery to him. He only verified that report, and followed it up. But Mr. O. is not the only geographical explorer in Australia who, Turk-like, could bear no brother near the throne. It seems to be a family-failing. "I sailed from this port (Sydney) in His Majesty's cutter Mermaid, on the 23rd of October, 1823; and early on the 2nd day of December following, when examining Moreton Bay, we had the satisfaction to find the tide sweeping us up a considerable inlet between the first mangrove island and the mainland. The muddiness and taste of the water, together with the abundance of fresh water mulluscæ, assured us we were entering a large river; and a few hours ended our anxiety on that point, by the water becoming perfectly fresh, while no diminution had taken place in the size of the river after passing what I called Sea Reach. "Our progress up the river was necessarily retarded by the necessity we were under of making a running survey during our * Uniacke's Observations, ubi supra. passage. At sunset we had proceeded about twenty miles up the river. The scenery was peculiarly beautiful; the country along the banks alternately hilly and level, but not flooded; the soil of the finest description of brushwood-land, on which grew timber of great magnitude and of various species, some of which were unknown to us. Among others, a magnificent species of pine was in great abundance. The timber on the hills was also good; and to the southeast, a little distance from the river, were several brushes or forests of the cupressus australis, of a very large size. "Up to this point the river was navigable for vessels not drawing more than sixteen feet water. The tide rose about five feet, being the same as at the entrance. The next day the examination was resumed, and with increased satisfaction. We proceeded about thirty miles farther, no diminution having taken place either in the breadth or depth of the river, excepting in one place for the extent of about thirty yards, where a ridge of detached rocks extended across, having not more than twelve feet on them at high water. From this point to Termination Hill, the river continued of nearly uniform size. The country on either side is of a very superior description, and equally well adapted for cultivation or grazing; the timber being abundant, and fit for all the purposes of domestic use or exportation. The pine-trees, if they should prove of good quality, were of a scantling sufficient for the topmasts of large ships. Some measured upwards of thirty inches in diameter, and from fifty to eighty feet without a branch. "The boat's crew were so exhausted by their continued exertions under a vertical sun, that I was reluctantly compelled to relinquish my intention of proceeding to the termination of tidewater at this time. At this place the tide rose but four feet six inches, the force of the ebb-tide and current together being little greater than the flood-tide, a proof of its flowing through a very level country. Having concluded on terminating at this point the examination of the river-being seventy miles from the vessel, and our stock of provisions expended, not having anticipated such a discovery-I landed on the south shore for the purpose of examining the surrounding country. On ascending a low hill, rising about twenty-five feet above the level of the river, we saw a distant mountain, which I conjectured to be the High Peak of Captain Flinders, bearing south 1 east, distant from twenty-five to thirty miles. Round from this point to the north-west the country declined considerably in elevation, and had much the appearance of extended plains and low undulating hills, well, but not heavily, wooded. The only elevations of magnitude were some hills seven or eight hundred feet high, which we had passed to the northward. The appearance and formation of the country, the slowness of the current, even at ebb tide, and the depth of the water, induced me to conclude that the river would be found navigable for vessels of burden to a much greater distance, probably not less than fifty miles. There was no appearance of the river being ever flooded, no mark being found more than seven feet above the level of the water, which is little more than would be caused by flood tide at high water forcing back any accumulation of water in rainy seasons. "A consideration of all the circumstances connected with the appearance of the river justified me in entertaining a strong belief that the sources of this river will not be found in a mountainous country. Most probably it issues from some large collection of interior waters, the reservoir of those streams crossed by me during an expedition of discovery in 1818, and which had a northerly course. Whatever may be its origin, it is by far the largest fresh-water river on the east coast of New South Wales, and promises to be of the utmost importance to the colony; as, besides affording a water communication with the southern country. bounding upon Liverpool Plains, it waters a cast extent of country, of which a great portion appears to me capable of supporting the culture of the richest productions of the tropics. I afterwards proceeded a few miles to the south-east from the river, through a gently broken country of good soil, declining in elevation towards the south; the high peak before mentioned being the only remarkable eminence from north-east to south. "As the position of the entrance of the river was still to be fixed, and the channel to be examined, I lost no time in returning down the river with the ebb-tide, and stopped for the night at the base of the Green Hills; the highest of which was ascended the next morning, and the view from it was found more extensive than I anticipated. "So much time was spent in the examination of the country above Sea Reach, that it was quite dark when we got to the entrance of the river; which, out of respect to His Excellency the Governor, under whose orders the bay was examined, was now honoured with the name of Brisbane River. The whole of the next day was spent in sounding the entrance and traversing the country in the vicinity of Red Cliff Point, and we did not reach the vessel until late in the night of the fifth of December, amply gratified in the discovery of this important river, as we sanguinely anticipated the most beneficial consequences as likely to result to the colony by the formation of a settlement on its banks." In the year 1824 a Penal Settlement, for the safe custody and coercion of Convicts found guilty of crimes punishable with transportation in the colony, was formed at Moreton Bay; of which the head quarters were originally fixed in the bay to the northward of the Brisbane, but afterwards at Brisbane town, on an elevated ridge on the left bank of the river, about twenty-five miles from its mouth. The buildings at the original settlement being left standing when the place was abandoned, the black natives, whose nomenclature is |