The Morning Chronicle (London) 21 June 1824

Mr. Oxley, Surveyor General, had returned by January from surveying part of the coast to the northward, and succeeded in discovering a river in Moreton Bay, lat. 28 (which he has named the Brisbane), superior to any yet known in New Holland. He ascended it for 50 miles, and saw its course from an eminence for 30 or 40 farther, being compelled to return from further examination from want of provisions. It is three miles broad at the entrance, and has usually from three to nine fathoms water up to where he left off the survey; but about twenty miles from the sea it is crossed by a ledge of rocks, over which there are only twelve feet at high water. At the distance to which he penetrated, the tide rose four feet and a half, and ran upwards of four miles per hour. The country all around was an undulating level, abounding in very superior timber, the soil rich, and well covered with grass, but rather stony.

The river came from the S.W. in the direction of the Macquarie marshes, of which it may probably prove the outlet, being at the termination of Mr. Oxley's survey, about three hundred and fifty miles in a direct line from where he lost the Macquarie river among reeds in his former trip into the interior. The country around was not subject to flood, no marks of it being seen higher than seven feet above the then level of the river, which was considerable within the banks It contained abundance of fish, and several parrots were shot in the vicinity of the same species as have hitherto only been found near the banks of the Macquarie.

A river of tolerable magnitude called the Tweed, was also discovered behind Mount Warning, a little to the southward of the last, with a fine bar harbour of 14 feet, and the country seemingly good around. A smaller one, called the Boyne, was also found in Port Curtis. The Governor intended proceeding to survey the Brisbane in April, in his Majesty's ship Tees, lately arrived from India. Mr. Oxley's health having been materially injured by his two former hazardous expeditions, the hardships encountered in this last had given it a still severer shock, but he had nearly recovered at the period of the Competitor's departure, and was anxious to set out on a further journey of discovery for the benefit of science, and the colony to which his patriotic and meritorious exertions have already been so serviceable.