Australia is a continent of 7.7 million sq. km (3 million sq. miles) with much of it being searing desert or dense scrub. Hence, it could not be explored quickly or easily. If you look at the 19th century Australian map (picture, right), you will notice VERY LITTLE DETAIL ON THE INTERIOR (but plenty of names on the coast). It is now in a way humorous to think that in attempting to escape, some early convicts actually became the first �explorers� into Australia�s uncharted interior. The revelation of Australia�s intidatingly vast interior progressed sporadically over many years. There are many explorers� tale tales of courage and folly, some still carved as messages on tree trunks, or buried beside dried up billabongs. Others are just blood on the sand of the inland deserts.

a) The crossing of the Blue Mountains (1813). During the period 1788 to 1813, the new settlement of Sydney was restricted to the coastal plain east of the Great Dividing Range. The rugged Blue Mountains had prevented any further westward progression. [see panorama of the Blue Mountains] However, the urgent need to find improved farming and grazing land meant that this formidable barrier had to be crossed. Prior to 1813, many attempts had been made to find a suitable route but the explorers had ultimately been forced to abandon their full missions. The first expedition to succeed was undertaken by Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth in 1813 who crossed over to Mt. York and descended into the valley below.

b) Sturt�s journey to find the inland sea (1829) Early explorers believed that the westward-flowing rivers of the New South Wales interior led towards a vast inland sea. An answer � no! � was given in 1829-30, when Charles Sturt carried out one of the most heroic journeys in Australia exploration history. Charles Sturt and his party hauled a whaling boat over the hills and sailed down the Murrumbidgee River following its current to its confluence with the mighty Murray River. From there he continued downstream to the wide Lake Alexandrina near the South Australian coast. After traveling more than 1000 km (600 miles), they were within sight of the sea, but were unable to reach it. They had found the river mouth of the Murray which had so far been concealed from maritime explorers behind a huge sand bar area which today is known as the Coorongs. [see panorama of the Coorongs National Park area] Sturt�s return journey, rowing upstream against swelling current, was an epic of endurance. Their 47 days� rowing on meagre rations and against flood tides, nearly ended in disaster to the party. Sturt himself was left temporarily blind. Nevertheless, the myth of an inland sea had been dispelled.

c) Burke and Wills� ill-fated expedition (1860) One tragic failed expedition, but a fully documented one, was the expedition that set out from Melbourne in 1860 under the impatient leadership of Robert O� Hara Burke together with W.J. Wills. Burke was brash, inexperienced, supremely confident and a glory-seeker. Their tale of misadventure is now deeply ingrained in Australian fokelore, a bit like captain Scott and the South Pole. Their intention was to cross the continent from coast to coast. The expedition did reach its objective, the mangrove swamps of the Gulf of Carpentaria (north Australia), but when the 3 emanciated survivors (Burke, Will and King) returned to base camp at Cooper Creek, they found that their companion, who had waited 4 months for the, had abandoned the camp only seven hours earlier. After rejecting the potential assistance of local Aborigines, Burke and Wills died soon after. Only John King, cared for by the Aborigenes survived to return and tell the tale.

d) Stuart�s trek(s) across the center from south to north (1862) From Port Augusta on the Australian southern coast in South Australia, passing into Alice Springs and going right up to Darwin on the north coast of Australia runs the appropriately named STUART HIGHWAY. This is in tribute to John McDoull Stuart, a Scotsman from Scotland � one helluva explorer. His epic trek has an almost legendary quality. He tried 3 times to cross the Australian Red Centre on foot from the South (from Adelaide) to North (to now Darwin) but had been frustrated by spinifex (Australian desert bush scrubs & plants) and scurvy, and only succeeded on the last, 3rd. attempt. One route that McDoull Stuart used to pass through was the Oodnadatta Track (picture, right). I think the the picture conveys some of the vastness and tribulation that Sturt faced more than 100 years ago - and this was the easy part ! In 1862, nearly blind and with hair turned white, McDoull Stuart finally reached the coast near what was to become Darwin today. His return to Adelaide, was made partly on a stretcher. But he was mobbed by the ladies back in Adelaide and became a celebrity for his achievement. Not bad, huh?

e) Edward Eyre�s journey from East to West across the desert above the Great Australian Bight (1841) Similarly, from Port Augusta, South Australia to Norseman (near Kalgoorlie/Boulder), Western Australia runs the EYRE HIGHWAY in tribute to Edward John Eyre. Edward Eyre, with the support of his Aboriginal guide Wylie, reached on foot what is today Albany, having crossed the waterless desert going east to west of Australia along the coast of the Great Australian Bight. Today that route would be known as part of the Nullabor Plain � which is one helluva drive, not to mention going on foot as what Edward Eyre did. Edward Eyre began with an assistant, John Baxter, and three Aborigines. Four-and-a-half months and 2,000 km (1,250 miles) later, after an appalling journey mostly through desert, he and the Aborigine Wylie, walked into Albany. Baxter had been murdered by the other two, who had then run away.

f) The Legend of Lasseter�s Reef of Gold (1900) Lasseter�s Reef is one of the gold lodestone legends of Australia. In 1900, Harry Lasseter claimed that while traveling alone from Alice Springs to Carnavon on the west coast, he discovered a reef of gold one metre deep and 16 km (10 miles) long. Few believed him, and the task of relocating the vein seemed impossible. In the late 1920s, during The Depression, he again publicized his claims in Sydney. A search party was formed, and in 1930 it set out for the trove with Lasseter as guide. After months of fruitless searching, the scheme was abandoned and Lasseter was abandoned with two camels to continue his search for the mythical gold. He was never seen alive again but his diary was found. The diary tells how he pegged the gold only to have his camel bolt, leaving him to wander mad, and eventually die in the Petermann Ranges on the edges of the Gibson Desert.