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In 1827 Allan Cunningham already had vast experience
in the exploration of Australia, both by land and sea.
He was a Botanical Collector for the Royal Gardens at Kew, and
under the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks
when he arrived in Australia in the
Surry in
1816. His dedication to botany led him on many
journeys - he accompanied John Oxley to the Lachlan River in 1817 and
joined Phillip Parker King on many expeditions over the next ten years.
For his dedication and achievements in botany and exploration he
earned the respect of Government in this first decade, however
his best was yet to come.
The crowning
achievement of his career, came in
1827 when he offered his
services as leader of an expedition proposed by Sir Ralph
Darling. The expedition was to explore the inland country west
of the Great Dividing Range between the Hunter River and Moreton
Bay.
The expedition
consisted of six men, 11 horses and several dogs. Cunningham took with
him a Schmalcalder's pocket compass, a chronometer, barometer
and an odometer as a distance gauge. The horses were all sent
overland from Sydney to the Hunter River but Cunningham himself
travelled by sea to Newcastle on Sunday 15th April 1827 on the
Lord Liverpool probably captained by
Alexander Livingstone .
At Newcastle he loaded his supplies on to the Port Stephens
boat in readiness for sailing up river. The Port Stephens boat was one
of three boats used for carrying settlers and their supplies up the
Hunter River at the time and was capable of carrying four tons of goods.
Cunningham shared the vessel with others who were travelling north.
The members of the expedition
all met up again at
Glennie's farm
Dulwich
and proceeded together to
Segenhoe
near Scone. The expedition left Segenhoe on 30th April to cross
the Liverpool Range at the head of
Dartbrook Creek.
It
has been written that the Dartbrook was so called from
an incident when one of two government surveyors who
explored the area in 1824
had been wounded by a spear or dart during an
attack by Aborigines. (This was
Henry Dangar's expedition which crossed the
Liverpool
Ranges but retreated when attacked by the Wanaruah tribe)
There were no
attacks from natives on Cunningham's expedition but conditions
were arduous. In crossing the ranges the way was so steep that
pack saddles were taken from the horses and carried on the men's
shoulders. They camped high on the ranges where the Liverpool
Plains could be seen away to the horizon
After descending the northern slopes of the range on 5th
May Cunningham headed north to the
Peel River passing
through open bush composed for the most part of iron
bark and box.
He then crossed the Warrah and Quirindi
Creeks and observed marks of natives on the trees
and bark huts which had been recently occupied but the
first encounter with natives was not until they reached
Manilla River.
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Being a little in advance of the horses, he wrote,
I
had no sooner reached its right bank, than my attention
was arrested by the appearance of smoke, which was
rising from the forest
ground on the opposite bank and
immediately I perceived four natives and a child, who
having previously observed me were standing for the
moment in a state of extreme surprise and alarm.
On May 21 the
expedition reached a broad river later named the Gwydir by
Cunningham; after passing through barren wooded country broken
by ridges and gullies they passed close to the present site of
Warialda. They changed direction and came to the Macintyre River
finding it little more than a channel of sand, the country then
being in the grips of a devastating drought. Cunningham was
concerned about the scarcity of water for their own needs as
well. The horses were weakened by the journey and lack of
pasture and half the original rations had been consumed by the
end of May. Winter and the possibility of bad weather
became overriding considerations as he pondered how much further
he should penetrate north. He determined to turn more to the
east rather than persevere on a northerly course as originally
planned and consequently came upon the 'handsome westward
flowing river 30 yards wide and very deep' which he named the
Dumaresq (named for
Lieutenant-Colonel
Henry Dumaresq). The party crossed this river near the
present site of Texas and continued on for the next six days
through hard, monotonous country and dense thickets.
On 6th June west of the present site of Warwick, Cunningham
obtained a most agreeable view of open country. This was, in fact,
Cunningham's first sight of the pasture land which he was to name the
Darling Downs - more than 5,000 square miles of fertile black soil
plains and valleys west of Moreton Bay. Through these Downs flows the
Condamine River which they crossed on this day. Beyond the Condamine,
Cunningham found 'downs of a rich black and dry soil, clothed with
abundance of grass'. In a valley to the east of the Condamine which he
named Logan's Vale in honour of
Captain Logan,
commandant of the settlement at Moreton Bay, Cunningham rested his men
and horses. He climbed the ridge above where he had encamped and from
there observed at a distance of two or three miles to the north
east a very deeply excavated part of the main range 'So remarkable a
hollow in the principal range I determined not to leave unexamined.'
From Cunningham's Gap he could have made
his way across reasonable flat country to the Brisbane River and
Moreton Bay. But this was not his intention, and on June 16,
he left Logan's Vale to return. By July 9 he had crossed his outward
track near the Gwydir and continued south across the Liverpool
Plains and over the Liverpool Range by a pass slightly to the west
of that which they had used in May. The expedition reached Segenhoe
again on 28th July after an absence of 13 weeks. They rested at
Segenhoe and left on 5th August to travel by Bathurst to Parramatta
where he submitted a report of his expedition to Governor Darling
Allan Cunningham
returned to England and was later offered the position of
Colonial Botanist at Sydney. He declined this position in favour
of his brother Richard who was murdered by Aborigines on the
Bogan River in 1835. Allan Cunningham did return to Australia
(on the
Norfolk in 1837)
but his constitution was weakened by the hardships and
deprivations of his travels and he died in
1839.
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