Explorations In Australia by John Forrest, Illust by G.F. Angas
Sampson Low, Marston, Low, & Searle London 1875
Explorations in search of Dr. Leichardt and party - From Perth to Adelaide, around the Great Australian Bight - From Champion Bay, across the Desert to the Telegraph and Adelaide - With an appendix on the condition of Western Australia. Unlike other explorers, Forrest was fortunate with the rain & had access to earlier maps from Gosse抯 expedition which directed him to several water holes.
This is an important account of Forrest抯 successful exploration, in which he became the first person to cross the Australian continent West to East. Full accounts of Forrest抯 two expeditions of 1869 and 1870 as well as the main account of his most important expedition in 1874 across the interior, from the west coast to the Telegraph Line. A work of great significance which should be in everyones collection of Australiana.
Forrest began his first expedition as Government Surveyor in 1869, at the age of twenty-one, setting out from Perth in search of traces of Leichhardt. The expedition ascertained that rumours which referred to a party of white men being slain by local Aborigines twenty years before did not relate to Leichhardt抯 party but to Robert Austin抯 expedition. Forrest went on to the east of Lake Barlee to Mount Weld before returning to Perth.On Forrest抯 return another expedition in search of Leichhardt was mooted - this time to travel from the Murchison River to Carpentaria. However lack of funds prevented so extensive an expedition, and instead it was proposed that Forrest cross from Perth to Adelaide, around the Great Australian Bight, in search of farming land. By taking the coastal route, the crossing was achieved by Forrest in an extraordinary five months. This feat, which had taken Eyre over twelve months to complete, is a testament to Forrest抯 formidable abilities as an explorer and professional surveyor, and to that of his brother Alexander who was his second-in-command.The success of Forrest抯 first two expeditions spurred him on in 1874 to take on the last great challenge of Australian inland exploration: to ascertain the nature of the interior by crossing the continent from Perth to the Telegraph Line which ran between Darwin and Adelaide. Again Forrest triumphed and firmly established his reputation as one of the great Australian explorers of the western interior. Forrest later became premier of Western Australia and first Baron Forrest of Bunbury. |
