Journal of an Expedition Into the Interior of Tropical Australia: In Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria

Journal of an Expedition Into the Interior of Tropical Australia: In Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848) by Thomas Mitchell. Sir Thomas Mitchell was one of the most controversial and enigmatic of Australian explorers. Born in Scotland in 1792, he arrived in Sydney in 1827 having accepted the position of Assistant Surveyor-General in New South Wales. Between 1831 and 1846 he led four expeditions — all investigating the country’s river systems, including his best known exploration into Victoria, through what he called Australia Felix. In his last expedition he endeavoured to find a route from Sydney to Port Essington. Harried by heat and water shortages, he pushed slowly north, discovering the rich Fitz Roy Downs, but was increasingly disappointed as rivers trended in the wrong direction. Finally Mitchell reached the Barcoo River, which he named the Victoria and which was later discovered to be the same as Charles Sturt’s Cooper’s Creek.