Exploration In Northern Australia.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1610, 16 January 1886, Page 2

Exploration In Northern Australia.

The South Australian Register says : —Mr W. W. MUls, itherwelUknbwn explorer, has- just returned to Adelaide from a lon* trip m the Fir North. Hfe left last March after .the splendid rains that had broken up the long drought', and he travelled by rail to the Hergott, and there , commenced bushing. The creeks and rivers were running and the country was covered with Water. The Hamilton and the Stevenson, "where they join land form the Macumba," were Doth j strong, wide, f and shall^wf ruining 1 rivfers. . Frqmher.efor ten t miles, amongst the sand hills the party were literally wading through water ..until, after passing xh'e' sl 'Wodagate' * Swamp', which might well have been called a lake v teeming as it .was, with wild fowl, and picturesque with' its fringe" of gam tr.ees and banks of broken Isarid hills, almost hiddeji by their luxuriant herbage. Over the same description jof country; $hey£wetjt Jto the 'Dalhousie Springs, " the grandest water m .Central' Australia:"} From the Dalhdime' the' rduW 'lay towatd Charlotte Waters and the rivers > Goyder and Finke, with its permanent under current* From here, to Mount J3urrell they ha 4to cross the most trying portion of : the track to PortDarwinrsand flats and sand-hills, dead heavy p'ulli'tfgf *allj the way,, with some terrible pinches. Ifroin Itfo'urit Burrell the track winds through the gorges of the James and* this* Waterhouse fiahges, and the intervening undulating country,; and ;then approaches, the Mac Donald Ranges, with the'iblid wall-like^ridges on their south side, and on the north an almost impene ', trable jumble of' rough rugged" hills,' forming the source of the southern watersheds. Here luxuriant feed was abundant, j Near the site of Stuart's old camp, named Anna's Reservoir, where the' Barrow OreeK Pastoral Company now haye a ' cattle, ;st.ation, the horses of the party were "exchanged for camels, and .Mr ; Malls began his main work of sketching m detail 20,000 square miles of country, " most of which," he says, "will, ere long, prove itself to be one of our best pastoral districts."- After completing 'the crbsß-country work- he took to the Mhorses i^again, leaving the Wood«fprd about Uo inyes from., Central Mount Stuart on September 28ii;an3 m due time, arriving ia) Adelaide.- Trayejling downhe ibund ihe^.count^all fiard and dry, S andimany pf*the»isre^s*dpy^oo', but'the large holes were well r filled, .ready to withstand a drought. Th'e /Stevenson /in particular jopked^spjendid^ miles of _surface water; still resting on its sandy bed. The" feed jeverjfwere' Si^as gtfo'd; and m places still green. Givgn next March, like those exuefienced^last lv Mar > cl)^ and the Pc rt Darwin track will be open for Bei9ck8 e i9ck f:or the next three years. —