As a frequent traveller through rural Victoria and, in particular, north along the Calder Highway, I have long been mindful of the roadside signposting of The Major Mitchell Trail; and have long had an ambition to follow the Trail, and thus traverse Victoria, from the far north, towards Portland, then back to the Murray. Given that I live in Melbourne, and that the Trail’s start-point is near Mildura, this re-tracing was not going to be a weekend trip, and I never made the time……..until recently, when I mentioned the idea to my son Dan; and with Dan as my companion, the re-tracing of Major Mitchell’s 1836 journey is happening. Here is the first instalment.
For historical perspective it should be noted that the so-called foundation of Melbourne – the arrival in Port Phillip by John Batman representing the Port Phillip Association – happened a mere year earlier: it was in June 1835, on arrival from Van Diemen’s Land (not yet Tasmania) that Batman was said to have declared on the bank of the Yarra that “this is the spot for a village”. By April 1836 Batman - just a few months before Mitchell and his party were entering the far north of the region - was building his home near Batman’s Hill to the western end of the present-day central business district. That CBD, often tagged the “Hoddle Grid”, was surveyed in 1837, not long after Michell had returned to Sydney in November 1836.
The Trail maps also indicate the location of each of the 35 cairns erected in the centenary year, 1936, to commemorate Mitchell’s journey. The cairns are typically pyramidal and have simple inscriptions, words leaving so much unsaid.
This was not a journey in a hurry. Mitchell was a surveyor, and he took time to take his readings and to make his maps, so much so that these maps were still being used generations later.
And Mitchell was circumspect in his dealings with the indigenous people; not for him the bag of beads and the shiny tomahawks, rather he was the cautious passer-by, avoiding friction where possible - not wholly successfully though.
Given the attention that had been lavished by the Victorian authorities in 1936 on the centenary of Mitchell’s expedition - notably the erection of the commemorative cairns - it is no surprise that the Trail book provides no maps and little reference to the New South Wales section of the journey. However, the authors provide the following preamble by way of background:
“Towards the end of 1835, the New South Wales Surveyor-General, Major Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, received orders from Governor Richard Bourke to complete a survey of the Darling River ‘with the least possible delay’. This became the third expedition Mitchell had led into Australia’s interior.
“The complex preparations for the journey were made even more difficult because the area which is now New South Wales had recently been drought-stricken. Serviceable horses and bullocks were scarce and available only at high prices, which the Government had no choice but to pay.
“By 16 March 1836 Mitchell had assembled his men and their equipment, their wagons and bullocks in a valley near Mount Conobolas (about 12 km south-west of present-day Orange). In addition to the 25 men, the party included 11 horses, 52 bullocks, 100 sheep, 22 carts and a ‘boat carriage’ with boat………..
“Each man carried a firearm, and was given a small case containing six cartridges which he was ordered always to wear about his waist. The men were also issued with a uniform of grey trousers and red woollen shirt which, when crossed by white braces, gave the party a somewhat military appearance.”
Mitchell’s Second in Command was Granville Chetwynd Stapylton, and the remainder of the party were convicts or ex-convicts. Stapyleton “knew most were dependable. Some had been with him on his two earlier expeditions and, although they had obtained their freedom as well-merited reward for their services, were willing to accompany him again. Mitchell accepted their services, having obtained a promise from the Governor that if the expedition was successful, their conditional pardons would be made absolute.
“Each night camp was set up in military fashion, generally according to a plan Mitchell had used successfully on previous expeditions based on his experiences in the 1808-1814 Peninsular (Spanish) War.
“Mitchell adopted Aboriginal names, when they could be identified, for geographical features. Otherwise, he named many features after soldiers and places prominent in the Peninsular War, and after figures from ancient Greek history.”
Mitchell gave the name Australia Felix to the country he explored to the south of the Murray River - Australia Felix meaning Fortunate Australia (or Lucky, or Beautiful). He later described the nature of the country he'd traversed:
"The land is open and available in its present state for the purposes of civilized man. We traversed it in two directions with heavy carts, meeting no other obstruction than the softness of the rich soil; and, in returning, over flowery plains and green hills, fanned by the breezes of early spring, I named this region as Australia Felix the better to distinguish it from the parched deserts of the interior country where we had wandered unprofitably and for so long."
The generosity of Mitchell's praise somewhat belies the experiences of 185 years of later visitors and inhabitants, but then those newcomers have moulded the landscape to their own purposes, and there have been consequences, bad and good. And 1836 may have been an uniquely "good" year. No matter. What cannot be gainsaid is that the success of the Mitchell expedition was a significant catalyst for the subsequent white settlement of the area that came to be known as the State of Victoria.
However, this is not the story of the subsequent times, but rather the day by day story of the 1836 Mitchell expedition itself. It should be said, as I recount Mitchell’s journey, that those wanting to inhale the full flavour and drama of the expedition, should find a copy of the The Major Mitchell Trail book. Much of the detail will not be reproduced here, although enough of the story will emerge, I trust, to do justice to Mitchell’s remarkable achievement. I intend to recount the journey – and my homage to it - in four stages, and these will, in time, be posted as separate blogs. Be aware that most of the geographic references are to place names not existing prior to Mitchell’s time.
The Trail – Maps 1 to 5 [days 1 to 25]
4 June to 28 June 1836
From the Mildura region, across the Murray, continuing on the New South Wales side of the river, then crossing back to the Victorian side near Swan Hill, following the River upstream (south-east) before turning south-west
Mitchell and his party of 23 men had set out from near Orange in central-western New South Wales on 17 March 1836. They moved first along the Lachlan River, then the Murrumbidgee into the Murray, establishing camp at Lake Stapylton some eight km from Boundary Bend on 21 May 1836. Mitchell then, with a small party, explored the Murray downstream to its junction with the Darling, and then the Darling upstream for 50 km. The Darling flows into the Murray (at Wentworth), some 23 km west (downstream) from Mildura, and it is at Mildura where The Major Mitchell Trail publication takes up the story.
It's not clear to me whether the Mitchell party travelled upstream from the Darling junction along the New South Wales side of the Murray, or along the Victorian side, but the text of the Trail unambiguously has the party on “Day 1” crossing the river back from Mildura – and then continuing upstream on the New South Wales side for the next eight days.
Mitchell’s route is steadfastly direct, and at times is some distance from the river, which veers and snakes away. Today there are oases of citrus and grape production at Gol Gol and Euston (across from Robinvale), but much of the route is parched mallee scrub, with access to the river only through privately-owned sheep stations.
The small Mitchell group re-joined the Lake Stapyleton party on 12 June 1836 preparatory to re-crossing the Murray. “After many days of being hauled overland the wooden planks of the boats had shrunk, so they were deliberately immersed overnight in the Lake to enable the boards to expand and join together.” The re-formed expedition crossed the Murray into Victoria near Boundary Bend on 13 June 1836 and camped at Gillick’s Reserve. Mitchell wrote of the crossing: “I directed them to take the cattle to the steepest portion of the bank, overhanging the narrow part of the river, and just opposite to the few bullocks which had already gained the opposite shore. Notwithstanding the weakness of the animals this measure succeeded, for on driving them down the steep bank so that they fell into the water, the whole at once turned their heads to the opposite shore, and reached it in safety. We next swam the horses over by dragging each separately at the stern of a boat, taking care to hold the head above water.”
Here, at last, with the return of Mitchell’s expedition to Victoria, is some on-the-ground acknowledgement of the Trail’s existence. Remember that thus far (eight days) Mitchell’s route had been on the New South Wales side of the Murray - and the signposting, and the Trail publication, were Victorian ventures! In the riverine scrub
This narrative from Gillick’s Reserve bears repeating:
“It is recorded that on the 18th June 1836 Mitchell’s crew camped the night near a small Lagoon. This lagoon today is a small depression in Gillick's Reserve, and it is this that makes Gillick’s Reserve an historical reference point. The importance of Mitchell’s expedition was soon proved, due to the 90% increase in settlement development of his route through Victoria when it came into productive use, mainly for wheat, sheep and cattle.
Major Thomas Mitchell’s expedition of 1836 was an exploratory one, the aim of which was to develop and expand the colony of New South Wales and to seek potential grazing and farming land, as well as sites for new settlement.
The Major Mitchell Trail is 2100 km in length and passes through Western, Central and North-Eastern Victoria. It passes through 26 towns and takes you along some rarely visited sites throughout rural Victoria.”
Some ten kilometres upstream, at Nyah, there is a memorial cairn,
not one commemorating Major Mitchell alone, but one dedicated to “The Pioneers”. The tablet reads:
THE PIONEERS
Major Mitchell
19TH June 1836
OVERLANDERS
Joseph Hawdon – Feb.
Edward John Eyre – May
Capt. Charles Sturt – Jun.
1838
SETTLERS
Beveridge Brothers
1846
Hawdon (among other journeys of exploration) headed an expedition that drove cattle from near Goulburn, along the Murray to Adelaide; Eyre, with eight stockmen, drove 1000 sheep and 600 cattle from Monaro to Adelaide, December 1837 to July 1838 (and later, in 1840-41, was the first to cross the Nullarbor Plain); and Sturt, aside from his several journeys of exploration, in 1838 herded cattle from Sydney to Adelaide, along the way establishing that the Hume and the Murray Rivers were the same. The inference of the Nyah cairn seems to be that the real importance of Mitchell’s exploration was the immediate impetus it gave to economic development.
The mention of the contemporaneous herding of cattle for commercial reasons puts focus on the herding that was a daily feature of the Mitchell expedition. From the Trail text covering 19 June 1836: “Departure was delayed until 12.30 pm as the cattle had strayed far up the river……….Mitchell acknowledged his indebtedness to the Aboriginal members of his party for their constant help: ‘The whole management of the chase now devolved on him (Piper) and the two boys, his humble servants; and this native party usually explored the woods with our dogs for several miles in front of the column. The females kept nearer the party, and often gave us notice of obstacles in time to enable me to avoid them.’”
On 21 June 1836 Mitchell wrote: “Among the reeds on the point of ground [on Pental Island] was a shallow lagoon, where swans and other wild fowl so abounded that, although [800 metres] from our camp, their noise disturbed us through the night. I, therefore named this somewhat remarkable and isolated feature, Swan Hill.”
From the Mitchell monument in Kerang we attempted to follow the Major’s route past the north and east of the town. Helpfully (provided you’re quick enough to spot it) there is a small plaque at the side of the Kerang-Koondrook Road (placed there in 2011) indicating that Mitchell’s party “camped 400 metres upstream from here on June 23 1836, on his Australia Felix expedition”. The plaque says that the campsite is marked, and indeed it is!
Beyond this the road peters out, and we were obliged to retrace to the Koroop-Gannawarra Road.
We passed by the 24 June 1836 campsite near the Koondrook-Cohuna Road where, the Trail records: “there were hastily vacated Aboriginal fireplaces and, hanging in a tree, net bags containing half-cooked vegetables, the indigenous variety of Hawkweed Picris.” The Trail continues: “Progress this day was across plains covered with excellent grass, flood-prone hollows, and a forest of Black Box.”
The Trail narrative continues in this positive vein the next day. “25 June: The country they passed through had a richer grass cover than any seen since they had left Sydney.” That day the party passed a few kilometres beyond Cohuna, and pitched camp for three nights near Gunbower Creek at Wee Wee Rup. The art nouveau plaque on the cairn in the roadside parkland in Cohuna is delightfully different from others of its ilk.
The three days spent at Wee Wee Rup were days of local exploration. This included Mitchell’s climb to the top of Mount Hope with a small party. “After riding 10 km through box forest they crossed a creek, and immediately entered an extensive plain ‘beyond whic
The next day, 29 June 1836, instead of following the Murray upstream from Wee Wee Rup in a south-easterly direction, Mitchell took a ninety degrees turn to the south-west – into central Victoria. “Mitchell could not resist the temptation to explore the inviting land he had seen from Mount Hope, and decided to turn generally south-westwards. With a typical display of independence he thus went against instructions to return (to Yass) via the Murray River.”
It is at Mount Hope that we leave this first part of Major Mitchell’s expedition…………except to note that a few kilometres from Mount Hope there is a cairn observing that the members of the Burke and Wills expedition passed that way on 1 September 1860; passed that way from Melbourne, a town established a mere 24 years prior, its growth in no little way due to the success of the Mitchell expedition; passed that way heading for the far north coast of Australia; passed that way on their path to foolhardy fame.
To be continued………….
Gary Andrews
