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INDEX
WHO DID DISCOVER AUSTRALIA?
COLONIAL EXPLORATION
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Colonial Exploration: 1840 - John McKinlay
Three years afterwards, the settlement at the Northern Territory being in danger of total collapse, he was sent to explore in that region. It was one of the wettest seasons ever known. Land travelling became impossible, and while on the banks of the river Alligator the floods so environed the party that there seemed no hope of escape from a lingering death by starvation. It was extricated by an exploit that shows the kind of stuff explorers ought to be made of. Most of the horses had been killed for food, and McKinlay slaughtered the rest and stretched their hides over a rude framework of saplings to make a kind of punt, victualled the strange craft with their flesh, and voyaged in it for several days down the river and across Van Diemen Gulf to Adam Bay. Both alligators and sharks were attracted by the smell of the fresh skins, and the waves nearly swamped the frail bark again and again, but after several days of terrible toil and danger the party safely arrived at Escape Cliff at the entrance of Beatrice Bay. In person, McKinlay was one of the finest of South Australian explorers. He stood six feet three and a half inches high, upright as a poplar, and with a presence both commanding and majestic. In disposition he was mild and gentle, yet firm and resolute combining caution with intrepidity. His fellow-townsmen of Gawler, where he resided during the later years of his life, were peculiarly fond and proud of him. After his death they erected a monument to his memory, consisting of an obelisk of polished Aberdeen granite resting on freestone arches, over the footpath of their principal street. Its foundation-stone was appropriately laid by another distinguished explorer &emdash;John Forrest, of Western Australia &emdash;and on the face that overlooks an old and unused cemetery there is an inscription which, after recording his deeds, concludes with the following descriptive lines Brave, yet gentle; resolute, yet unassuming; |
While Charles Stuart was out on his fifth journey the tidings came of disaster to the expedition under Burke and Wills. Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia sprang to the rescue. John McKinlay, a practised explorer who knew the northern districts well, having occupied country near Lake Torrens, was in Melbourne. A telegram from Adelaide requested him to lead a relief party into the interior, and such was his promptitude that in three weeks he was on his way. On reaching Cooper's Creek, he found the grave of Gray, and shortly afterwards learned the fate of Burke and Wills, although the sole survivor, King, had been a month before rescued by E. J. Welch of the Alfred Howitt Relief Expedition, which left Melbourne the same year McKinlay had set out from Adelaide. Leaving Cooper's Creek, the latter then, according to his instructions, explored the country to the northwest towards Central. Mount Stuart, and running short of provisions made his way towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, which he reached by following the course of the river Leichhardt. Here he hoped to have met the Burke relief vessel "Victoria," but was disappointed; to save his party from perishing, he turned eastward through Queensland, seeking for a cattle-station. The travelling was excessively difficult, but eventually Port Denison was reached, and thence Melbourne, thirteen months after leaving Adelaide. The hardships endured were incredible. The fierce heat prostrated the men, and even the bullocks were sun-struck. Drought at one time and floods at another involved imminent peril. Sun-dried horse and camel flesh became the staple, if not the only food. In spite of all, McKinlay won the honour of being the first man to cross the continent from one sea-beach to another, and what is more remarkable, at the first attempt.