Explorations In Australia

Explorations In Australia by John Forrest, Illust by G.F. AngasSampson Low, Marston, Low, & Searle London 1875Important account of Forrest?s successful exploration, in which he became the first person to cross the Australian continent West to East. Full accounts of Forrest?s 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 ofgreatsignificancewhichshould 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?s party but to Robert Austin?s expedition. Forrest went on to the east of Lake Barlee to Mount Weld before returning to Perth.On Forrest?s 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?s 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?s 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