Exploration of the Gawler Range

The recent articles have dealt with tragedies and murders. The next series should have dealt with the extension of settlement along the West Coast, following the report by the whalers, Cummings and Harris, but that would have necessitated narrating more murder cases, therefore it is thought advisable to break away from the chronological sequence and consider the exploration of the northern frontier of the Peninsula.

It will be remembered that Eyre on his trip from Streaky Bay to Mount Arden in September, 1839, discovered a range of hills which he named the Gawler Range in honor of the then Governor of the Province. In his journey eastward, Eyre travelled along the southern base of the range. In the following year Eyre sent Baxter from the east to the west along the old dray tracks, preparatory to starting on the disastrous journey westward. In 1844 John Charles Darke, after whom Darke's Peak was named, entered into the range from the south, and his description of the range area was very bad country, principally granite hills. He said, "Considering that I had ascertained beyond doubt that no (good?) land existed beyond the Gawler Range, available to Port Lincoln settlers, decided to retrace my steps." A short account of Darke's exploration was published in this paper on September 14, 1934, and it is hoped that at a future date a much fuller account, as a result of recent intense search, will be given.

Both Eyre's account of 1839 and Darke's of 1844 seemed sufficient to debar any settlement, but our pioneers were determined men, who scarcely ever knew defeat. The extension of settlement northwards of Adelaide had been slowly progressing. Eyre's explorations seemed to indicate there was no route on the eastern side of Lake Torrens northward; the mysterious Horse-shoe Lake formed, it was thought, an effectual barrier. For some reason Eyre did not attempt the northern journey on the western side of the lake. Tolmer in 1842 had seen hills to the northwest of Mount Arden and imagined there must be good land there, and that a route northward could be found in that direction.

MARTYR TO EXPLORATION

In 1846 J. A. Horrocks attempted to explore the country, and got as far as Lake Gill, as he named it, but Babbage unfortunately called it Lake Dutton, after the Commissioner of Crown Lands. It was in the shore of that lake that Horrocks met with the accident that cost him his life, a martyr to science and exploration. It should be mentioned that at one time, Horrocks was the possessor of the first and only camel in South Australia, and had it with him on the journey; it was a sudden lurch of the camel that caused his gun to discharge, and inflict the wounds which proved fatal.

The next apparently in the field were Messrs. Hulkes and Oakden, in search of land. Unfortunately they have left but little record of their journeying; and probably nothing would have been recorded about the trip had it not been for Hulkes's expedition of 1857, with the premium to be paid for the discovery of good land in the north western district. This raised the desire on Hulkes's part to participate in some reward. Nothing came of his request, but as a result of his correspondence we get a little insight into their views of Gawler Range and northward. Miss Gwenneth Williams, in her book of exploration states, "In 1851 the elucidation of the problem (the northwest passage) was undertaken by Messrs. Oakden and Hulkes, who set out upon a private excursion in search of pasturage.'' They "discovered a fine lake of fresh water, called by the aborigines "Kardanyumbo". In addition they had learnt from the natives of other lagoons to the northwest, where luxuriant grass and abundance of game could be obtained." This was related to Government officials when they applied for a pastoral licence. The gold rush in Victoria delayed further action. Oakden left the Province, and Hulkes went to Victoria.

IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES

In 1857 Mr. Hulkes offered the Commissioner of Crown Lands to furnish him with details that would "demonstrate the vast importance of the discoveries" they (Oakden and Hulkes) had made, and offered in his letter of February 12, to aid in "the organization and conduct of the enterprise" for the purpose of making further discoveries in the district. To this letter Mr. Charles Bonney replied, under date February 25, stating he did not know in what way he could further the views expressed by Hulkes, and continued that "the north country is now taken up for nearly 400 miles north of Adelaide, no one has however got to the westward of the Lake, where Mr. Oakden once took up a run." The land was still available if Hulkes wanted it. This brought a rejoinder from Hulkes on May 5, 1857, he said, "I had an interview with you (in 1851) and confidentially related to you that Mr. Oakden and myself had penetrated further to the northwest than the site of that run, that we had discovered a lake of fresh water .... and that we had obtained from certain natives minute accounts of other lakes extending north westerly and some of them exceeding in area that which we saw."

Having to return to their run they could not then continue their exploration, and on top of that the goldrush to Victoria drew away all the laborers, making it impossible to do anything further then. Hulkes accused Bonney of divulging the confidential information given to him, and also stated that he secured two specimens of Grey's "Moloch horridus", or the beautiful and unique "Mountain Devil," which he stated that up to that time had only been seen by Grey, the explorer, in North Western Australia. It is most probable he was the first to see this animal in South Australia. The Director of the South Australian Museum (Mr. H. M. Hale; advises me that both Capt. George Grey and Mr. J. Gould submitted specimens to Mr. J. E. Gray, of the British Museum, from Western Australia. That zoologist gave the lizard its very distinctive name and in his description quotes both Grey and Gould as the finders. The assumption is that he was unable to say who had the prior right to the honor. Capt. George Grey arrived in England in September 1840 after his explorations of 1837 to 1840. Mr. John Gould in the year 1840 exhibited a specimen to the Zoological Society in London.

NATIVES' STORIES

Reverting to Hulkes's letter: He said the lakes described by the blacks he considered were connected with a large water course extending in a north-west direction, and the lakes were, according to the blacks, covered ed with grass and well supplied with all kinds of game. And then he relates, "They tell also of creatures which I doubt not are alligators; and of others less clearly which I supposed to be a kind of buffalo." The question as to, what animal was referred to will be discussed when Hack's exploration is dealt with. The name applied by the natives to the district was ' Ko-kat-tah,' presumably the district where all the lakes with game in abundance were situated. Hack in his explorations applied this name, but spelling it Cocotah, to a mythical range, doubt less the result of mirage, north of Moonaree, and subsequently a station owner named his property Kokatha. which is situated between Lake Harris and Lake Gairdner.

Hulkes proceeds by urging that an expedition be sent out to explore, and he felt sure that it would open a route which would possibly solve the great problem of the interior and at the same time connect the southern with the opposite coast of Australia, and ends his letter by giving Bonney, the right to make any use of the letter. I cannot say whether this correspondence had any effect on the Government, but in the same month (May, 1857) Parliament was asked to vote a sum of money for exploration, and in the same month Hack departed for Streaky Bay. Apparently Bonney made no reply to that letter of Hulkes, so in October Hulkes wrote direct to the governor (Sir Richard MacDonnell) sending a copy of the previous correspondence as well; this letter was answered by Mr. Frank Dutton, who had now become Commissioner of Crown Lands, and Hack's expedition was in the field. Dutton said that had time permitted Mr. Hulkes would have been considered as a leader of the party, but the season was too far advanced to permit of any delay and also stated that the lake mentioned by Hulkes was in Swinden's country (wherever that may be. — J.D.S.).

Whatever information given by Hulkes was not of material aid to Hack's explorations, although Hack no doubt tried to locate the places. Among the names of the lakes mentioned tioned by Hulkes — which the papers of the day refrained from publishing — there is only one recognisable on the maps of Hack or those of the present day, and that, instead of a lake, is applied to a lake and hill, using Hulkes's spelling, 'Koo-lee-mir-re-kah.'

Geharty in his report of 1858 states his party camped at Lake 'Nakalla' "one of the lakes mentioned in Mr. Hulkes's letter." In Hulkes's letter of March 5, 1857 (giving a list of native names of lakes) I cannot recognise the name unless it be 'Kal-da-buck-ah'. It will be remembered that Hailes stated that the natives some times dropped out the middle syllables, accepting this and then put before the remainder, the nasal 'n' which the natives were fond of using, would almost give 'Nakalla.'

This short trip by Oakden and Hulkes was the first up the western side of Lake Torrens, and produced a somewhat glowing account of the land north-west and probably to the north of Lake Gairdner. It therefore is of interest to the Peninsula, for it gave an impetus for further explorations.

Miss Bessie Threadgold, referring to a successor to Eyre to carry out such work, wrote, "There were none to follow in his footsteps all the way. But those who loved the juggle with Fate's black and red were tempted sore to stake high while Governmental policy was changing its color with the drift of years."