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Readings from Primary Sources on Moreton Bay & Brisbane

These "Readings" from John Oxley's field books on the first settlement in Moreton Bay, September 1824, are reprinted from J.G. Steele, The Explorers of the Moreton Bay District 1770-1830, Brisbane, 1972.
Note that Footnotes are per J.G. Steele.
Note that the introductory paragraphs below show heavy quoting from and extensive reliance on J.G. Steele's The Explorers of the Moreton Bay District 1770-1830, Brisbane, 1972. There has also been some quoting from Hector Holthouse's Illustrated History of Queensland.
Governor Brisbane, in view of John Oxley's favourable report on the 1823 expedition, decided to establish a settlement in Moreton Bay. On 1 September 1824, 14 soldiers and about 30 convicts left Sydney in the brig "Amity". Oxley was placed in command of the ship and instructed to choose the location for settlement and chart the environment. Accompanying Oxley, were Allan Cunningham, the King's Botanist, and Robert Hoddle, the surveyor.
This extract covers the ascent of Mt. Crosby, march west towards Mt. Walker, its ascent and remarks on the extensive views from the summit and the effect of the drought.

Make sure to look at Our Indooroopilly's Historical and Contemporary BRISBANE RIVER MAP
EXTRACT FROM OXLEY'S FIELD BOOKS

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 22ND
The weather continues very warm and sultry. I gave up the idea of taking the boats any further up the river, which indeed could not be effected in the present very low and depressed state of the stream without immense difficulty.

The whole country bears the marks of extreme drought, and I should judge it must have been many months since rain had fallen - at least, of any con sequence. Leaving the tent, accompanied by Mr. Butler, I ascended a lofty conical hill1 about four miles north from the tent2, having a rocky summit, from which I expected an extensive prospect. My expectations were not disappointed. A more magnificent view it has not often fallen to my lot to behold. The whole country to the south was before me, bounded by the noble range3 which extends about W.N.W. from the Coast Range of Mount Warning,4 a lofty peaks5 in which reared its head high above the surrounding mountains in the extreme southern distance, bearing N. 191°, distant 50 or 60 miles, possibly more6, from whence, gradually becoming less broken and elevated, was apparently lost in the lower and nearer ridges of forest hills, bearing nearly W. by S., and distant 25 or 30 miles, a broken hilly country, covered with pine forests intervening.

From west 22° south round to west 56° north, I saw no remarkable or distant mountains, the country being hilly and broken. My situation was quite sufficiently elevated to have seen any ranges or points of ranges, had they existed, at all comparable with the grand Western range of Mount Warning.7 The hills in this quarter might be generally considered as very thinly timbered, with the exception of some very extensive pine forests, to the S.W. by W. and W. by N. The most attentive consideration of the formation of the country, the direction and termination of the principal ranges all tended to strengthen my long-formed opinion that this river communicates with the waters of the Western interior, though certainly by no navigable channel. A very remarkable hill, conical, with a flat top, covered with pines, bore N. 210°, about 30 miles, I named Mount Forbes,8 and another under the Great Western Range, distant about 45 miles, and bearing N. 196°, 1 named Mt. Bannister.9 Flinders Peak bore N. 169°, about 20 miles.

The Southern range of mountains before mentioned appeared to have a stream of water washing its northern base, as a chain of fires of the natives could be distinctly traced nearly 40 miles to the eastd, and it may probably be ultimately found to be the Tweed River, which discharges itself under Mt. Warning into the sea. A conical, thinly wooded hill bore N. 307,10 and was the only remarkable object in that quarter and might be about 15 miles distant, the country between very broken. A distant peak11 in the Mount Warning Range on the coast, bore north 178°. The rocks composing the summit of this hill,12 which was named Belle Vue Hill, were of quartz and jasper, the latter predominant.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 23RD
Fine and clear. At 7.40 the barometer at the tent stood at 29.673; having no thermometer, the temperature was estimated at abput 65°. At the summit of Belle Vue Mt., barometer 29.155. Having made preparations for an absence of five days, Mr. Cunningham and myself set forward to the west ward, intending to reach the conical hill which bore N. 307° from Belle Vue, and from which we hoped to have an extensive Western prospect. Our course was on the north side of the river, which was seldom distant above two miles, and lay through a broken and very hilly country; we travelled along the ridges when possible, which caused us to make a very circuitous route to the point we had in view.

At 2 o'clock we halted13 on the south bank of the river under a lofty peak14 on the opposite side, south side of which was nearly perpendicular, but clothed, with pines and other timber to its summit, which was only thinly studded with gum and ironbark trees. We had come in a direct course west not more than about eight miles, but the difficulties and fatigue of travelling through a broken country and under a burning sun can only be properly appreciated by those who have been compelled to march on foot through a tropical country in the middle of the day. After we had refreshed ourselves we crossed the river and ascended the hill, at the summit of which we arrived in time to witness the last descending rays of the sun into the western interior.

The great Southern Range was fully developed, and we had the satisfaction to perceive its gradual dip to the lower western country..Between N. and N.15 nothing intervened but a ridge of pine hills16 laying north and south, declining from a slightly elevated centre17 to either extreme point, over the south point of which the Southern Range was lost in the abyss, while over its northern point was seen the rising of the northern chain of mountains18, gradually increasing in altitude as it extended Northward. The country on its eastern side being low,19 with two or three hummocks rising from the apparent level. The river was seen to wind round the northern end of the pine ridge of hills, flowing directly from the west,20 in which quarter there was no elevation whatever, and I felt a decided conviction in my mind that there was no natural barrier intervening between the point on which we stood and the western interior, and that consequently the stream of this river was the channel to convey those western waters to the sea.

The whole country bore the appearance of excessive drought, and, judging from its appearance, I should say little or no rain had fallen within the last twelve months. All the northern and southern watercourses, having their sources in the lofty hills in those quarters were dry, and the growth of grass and shrubs in those parts of the bed of the river (between its outer banks, were near a quarter mile wide), now dry proved that years had intervened since the accumulated waters of the interior had rolled down its channel to the sea, causing those numerous sandbanks and shoals which render the navigation of Moreton Bay so tedious and difficult. I do not think that the bed of the river where we halted was more than six feet above the level of tide water, and I have no doubt whatever that, in ordinary seasons, the river is easily navigable for boats many miles above the point which terminated our investigation. It is known that a very severe drought has affected the southern parts of New South Wales during the past year, and appearances justify the conjecture that a similar season has prevailed here, and that the low state of the western waters rising therefrom is the cause of the present depressed level of the river. A comparative series of observations made at Bathurst and in the vicinity of this river, carefully noting its rise and fall, would tend much to elucidate what may still appear to be obscure and doubtful in the question of connection between the Brisbane and the western waters.

We saw great numbers of the fish common only to Bathurst and the waters in its vicinity, but we were not so fortunate as to take any; its absolute identity, therefore, rests on the minute examination of the one found in the possession of the native on the 21st. Great forests of noble pine were observed to the S.W., and their useful applicability to naval and other purposes was contemplated with pleasure. The sides of the hills free from Pine were thinly studded with wood and well covered with grass, the summits stony and bad; the levels and valleys good and fit for cultivation. The soil of the hills on which the pine grows, though stony, is very rich and fertile, being covered with a multitude of new and beautiful trees and plants. The country did not seem ill-peopled, fires being seen in every quarter from the eastern ranges of Mount Warning to the distant west. Kangaroos were numerous, and there would be no want of food for a native population in a country whose waters nourished the nutritious fish of the Western rivers.

The following bearings of remarkable points in the country in connection with the general survey of the river being taken, we descended the hill, which we named (Mount Araucaria), and returned to our temporary wigwam or guniah for the night.
1. Mt. Crosby, 600 feet
2. The words "about four miles north from the tent" were inserted (presumably by Oxley) above a caret here; probably at a later date, for the actual distance is 2 miles, and Oxley did not usually exaggerate distances to quite that extent. Cunningham estimated this distance as 2 miles (Journal, 23 September 1824).
3. The Dividing Range.
4. This range includes Mt. Barney and Wilson's Peak, but not Mt. Warning.
5. Wilson's Peak, 4035 feet.
6. Oxley temporarily mistook Wilson's Peak for Mt. Warning.
7. The Dividing Range.
8. Mt. Walker, 1540 feet. Named after Sir Francis Forbes (1784-1841), Chief Justice of New South Wales, 1824-37
9. Mt. Edwards, 2079 feet. Named after Saxe Bannister (1790-1877), Attorney- General of New South Wales, 1824-26.
10. Probably Mt. England, 1007 feet.
11. The West Peak of Mt. Barney, 4469 feet. This is the earliest recorded sighting of Mt. Barney.
12. Mt. Crosby.
13. At Sapling Pocket, 3 miles north of Pine Mountain.
14. One of the hills opposite Sapling Pocket, about 450 feet high, called by Oxley "Mt. Araucaria", and variously named in Cunningham's charts.
15. Oxley left a gap after each "N", intending to fIll in the bearings.
16. The Marburg Range.
17. Mt. Stradbroke, 1150 feet.
18. The Dividing Range.
19. The Brisbane Valley.
20. The river ultimately flows from the north, but Oxley and Cunningham could not see that.