For Parts 1 to 3 of the re-tracing of Major Mitchell’s 1836 expedition see my Pieces to Share blogs posted, respectively, January 2023, October 2023 and November 2023.
I have said something about Major Mitchell the man in my opening remarks in each of these offerings on The Major Mitchell Trail and, in doing so again (and by way of recap), I plagiarise his abbreviated life story from a publication of some 70 years ago – written long before the release of the Trail book.
"Sir Thomas Mitchell: Explorer, soldier, inventor, writer and legislator born at Craigend in Stirlingshire, Scotland on June 16 1792. Offered the position of assistant to Surveyor-General Oxley, Mitchell accepted and, less than a year after his arrival in Australia, became Surveyor-General when Oxley died in 1828. As such he accomplished the survey of Eastern Australia and the division of its settled areas into towns, public reserves and highways. In 1831 he headed an expedition into the interior and traced the course of the Bogon and Darling Rivers. Five years later he set out again and coming upon the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers, pushed directly south into the unexplored country of Western Victoria and penetrated toward the coast. Mitchell was so enthralled with the new country that he named it Australia Felix (Happy Australia). He followed the Glenelg River for some distance and on August 17 1836 arrived at Portland Bay where the Henty brothers had established a large farm. Mitchell made other trips but eventually gave up exploration. He died at the age of 63.”
The Trail – Maps 18 to 25 [days 109 to 138]
20 September to 19 October, 1836
The expedition is heading towards Sydney. The Trail book does not cover the New South Wales section of the home journey, after the Murray had been crossed. Neither shall we.
Remember, Mitchell had split the expedition into two on 19 September 1836, and left the Stapylton group to follow once the cattle were sufficiently spelled. The sojourn was expected to be two weeks, and indeed it was – the following group resumed their journey on 3 October – but not before Stapylton had scored a eucalypt with the words “Depot”, “Stapylton”, and “Party of Nine”, and marked the engraving with charcoal and grease. The tree was “discovered” in 1877; and its stump is now in the Dunkeld and District Historical Museum.
Meanwhile Mitchell had encountered a small party of aborigines; and in his diary noted the contents of the women’s food bags: “three snakes, three rats, about 1kg of small fish resembling whitebait, crayfish, and a quantity of the small root of a plant Mitchell called ‘tao’ (yam-daisy).”
The Mitchell commemorative cairn beside the Willaura-Wickliffe Road, dating from 1986, with badly-weathered signboard
Our re-tracing as close as possible to Mitchel’s route took us through the township of Willaura – which rates a special mention because of its uniqueness, the uniqueness of a small settlement (population a little over 400) in having a thriving bakery. We noted the full range of bread and cakes: the baker having finished his day’s duties in the bakehouse now happily ensconced in the shop communing with all comers; a steady stream of customers, many of them tradies appearing from nearby (and, I suspect, distant) assignments. And fine produce.
Willaura Bakery, then (1920s) and now
Over succeeding days Mitchell travelled steadily north-eastwards, crossing the Western Highway nearby to Buangor. He climbed and named Mount Cole, and noted that the range ahead resembled the lower Spanish Pyrenees, although not so steep. Over time, a range some 25 km to the north became known as the Pyrenees!
We were not able to find the cairn shown on the map as being alongside the Western Highway some ten kilometres from Beaufort. We searched back and forth for an hour, and suspect that it may have been the victim of significant highway duplication works. There was no evidence, however, of the cairn having been re-located to either of the new roadsides. The transition from stone cairn to rubble is brief, and one way.
We had more success at Lexton, where the 24 September 1836 cairn is beside a secondary road, a little out of town - although we located it only with the help of a long-time local who “thought” there may be a monument up past the church. As you can see, the cairn is snuggled under an enormous eucalypt, and is anything but conspicuous. Although the Trail book advises that Mitchell camped at Lexton on 24 September 1836 the tablet on the cairn says he “passed through” on 25 September 1836. On reflection, I suppose both are correct!
The Lexton cairn and its guardian eucalypt
The next day Mitchell climbed Mount Greenock, near the Ballarat-Maryborough Road, and “enjoyed such a charming view eastward from the summit, as can but seldom fall to the lot of the explorers of new countries. The surface presented the forms of pristine beauty, clothed in the hues of spring; and the shining verdure of these smooth and symmetrical hills, was relieved by the darker hues of the wood with which they were interlaced.” Notwithstanding, Gary and Dan Andrews were unable to find the Mount Greenock cairn. Is it on the summit, or has it been nonchalantly tossed somewhere out of view? My frustration at once again having our quest stymied can be gauged from my notebook entry: “…..the directions were shit, and the track was shittier.”
However, as in every boys’ book of adventure, things got better – adversity always leads to triumph. By the Pyrenees Highway, Newstead, on the Castlemaine side of town, is the 27 September 1836 cairn – a little smaller than most of the others, with cut-in corners.
Major Mitchell tucked away near Newstead
Mitchell continued, bearing in a virtual straight line, through present-day Castlemaine, halting before the terrain became mountainous. And a little beyond Castlemaine, while camp was being set up on 28 September, Mitchell rode to nearby Mount Alexander; and later praised Tommy Came-last for their safe return to camp after dark.
At Golden Point, where the expedition passed the next day, there is a commemorative cairn – not erected in 1936 though, but earlier in 1914, funded by public subscription.
The cairn at Golden Point
During a three-day layover (near Faraday) for boat-carriage repairs Mitchell and some of his men took a round-trip journey to Mount Macedon, on the way passing Kyneton. The Trail map indicates a Mitchell cairn at Kyneton, but is otherwise unhelpful, and we searched the town before heading for the tourist information place away from the town centre, on the road to Melbourne – only to find the commemorative cairn nearby. At least we were spared the blank look of some tourist official having no comprehension of what we were enquiring about!
That’s not so hard to find, is it?
From Mount Macedon Mitchell gained an uninterrupted view of Port Phillip. “I ascended without being obliged to alight from my horse, and I found that the summit was very spacious, being covered towards the south with tree-ferns and musk-plant…….The summit was full of wombat holes, and, unlike the side I had climbed, was covered with the dead trunks of enormous trees in all stages of decay.” Given the (? tenuous) association with distant Port Phillip, Mitchell gave the mountain the name Macedon [Philip of Macedonia, get it? I don’t get it. The bay had been named after the first governor of New South Wales, Captain Arthur Phillip – different spelling!]. Mitchell later learnt that the aboriginal name was Gebour, which he thought was “a much better one”.
The Trail book indicates a Mitchell cairn at Mount Macedon, but we were unable to find it – nor was the leader of a group of touring students, who had no knowledge of its existence, or of Major Mitchell’s! There is, however, a plaque dedicated in 1976.
Mitchell’s encounter with Mount Macedon is eloquently described by Professor Geoffrey Blainey:
“Climbing Mount Macedon at sunset on the last day of September 1836 he wondered if he could see the new village of Melbourne. The bay was far away but the horizon became clearer in the fading light. He looked in vain for rising smoke but at the northern end of the bay he ‘saw a mass of white objects which might have been either tents or vessels’. The white objects were Melbourne, which was then one year old.”
The expedition re-grouped back near Faraday to the south of Mount Alexander; and then spent two nights (3 and 4 October 1836) in the shadow of Mount Lofty before moving on past the Coliban Falls and the spot for the village of Redesdale.
Beside the park in the centre of Redesdale, mounted on a boulder, there is a plaque unveiled by Geoffrey Blainey after a 1986 commemorative trek in Mitchell’s honour.
There were four campsites along the way from Redesdale to Nagambie, and two commemorative cairns – one at Mitchellstown, and one at Nagambie itself. Mitchelltown exists where the Mitchell expedition crossed the Goulburn River, although that claim to fame has yielded a population today of 59 souls only. Mitchell’s route is shadowed by today’s main road a few kilometres to its north. Mitchell’s diary of 5 October 1836 records the curious fact that in an abandoned native encampment Piper found a razor which, on it blade, had the words “Old English”. Another curiosity: The following day the expedition passed through an area where the red Ironbark eucalypts were in flower. Large quantities of the blossoms were collected under Piper’s supervision, and steeped overnight in water to make a sweet beverage that Piper called “bool”.
The Goulburn River at Mitchelltown was reached on 8 October.
Commemorative cairn in Major’s Creek Reserve, Mitchellstown
There was already another Goulburn River, in the other-side-of-the-Hume part of New South Wales, and Mitchell wanted to re-name this present river after the Aboriginal name, Bayunga. Nothing came of this – the “southern” Goulburn had been named by Hume and Hovell, and the name stuck. The Trail book continues: “Mitchell decided that the river was not fordable, so he immediately launched the boat to seek a suitable place for swimming the cattle and horses across. By evening all animals and equipment, other than the boat carriage, were safely across.” There is an oil, by Henry Gritten, depicting the crossing of the Goulburn by boat. The Trail notes that Gritten used artistic licence to include in the background a small cottage and a fence.
Mitchell’s progress thereafter might be described as steadfast, virtually in direct lines – near easterly to Wangaratta, then near northerly to the Murray. The absence of mountains, however, did not relieve the expedition of occasional troublesome terrain; indeed, before arriving at Nagambie on 9 October there had been “careful negotiation of a labyrinth of lagoons and low-lying land”. Lake Nagambie was described as a “deep lagoon”.
There is a Major Mitchell cairn in the main street plantation of Nagambie……
Major Mitchell, passed by, 9 October 1836
…..and another at Miepoll South, where the party passed on 11 October.
The Miepoll South cairn
On 11 October Mitchell recorded the sighting, far to the south-east, of mountains “of considerable elevation”, and alpine snow. From Mitchell’s field notes we can identify these peaks as Buffalo, Feathertop, Buller and Strathbogie. Camp that night was near Violet Town. The Violet Town commemoration dates not from 1936, but from 11 October 1986, the 150th anniversary. Better late than never! It is a large stone sculpted by nature rather than cast in cement.
The Mitchell stone at Violet Town
The Trail book graciously reminds us that Mitchell wasn’t the only explorer of note – by pointing out that also at Violet Town there is acknowledgement of Hamilton Hume and William Hovell, who passed by some twelve years earlier than Mitchell, in December 1824.
The Hume and Hovell cairn at Violet Town
Remember Stapylton? Back on 19 September his group had stayed behind the main expedition to allow the cattle to recover strength. He’d resumed his journey after two weeks; and the Trail book records that the Stapylton party arrived at the Goulburn River two weeks after Mitchell had moved on. As ordered, Stapylton made camp to await the return of the boat from the Murray.
13 October was the day of the expedition’s tragedy, when James (“Tally-ho”) Taylor was drowned while attempting to cross the Broken River (then known as the Swampy River). Taylor was Mitchell’s groom and trumpeter. The drowning occurred a little south of the present railway bridge in Benalla.
The Trail book states that near the entrance to the Benalla Art Gallery “is a granite boulder with a plaque, the wording of which most comprehensively recognises Mitchell’s stature”, and which states that Mitchell camped near there on 13 October 1836. Fatigue must have been upon us, for we failed to see the boulder. Searching my notes for some memory trigger I find one word only: “Demolished!”
The Trail book has fulsome praise for the country between Benalla and Wangaratta, that is the particular landscape traversed by Mitchell, taking in first Greta, then Glenrowan. Both are by-passed by today’s highway; and both are suffused today with Kelly Country legend, legend forged by Ned some 40 years after Mitchell passed by.
The Trail book attests to the presence of a Mitchell memorial cairn at Wangaratta, but having overnighted and breakfasted there we decided to continue on, and to locate the Wangaratta memorial on our return later in the day. That day was moving along quickly, and at Chiltern we were fortunate to find a branch of the Upper Murray Regional Library, and to find that library open. Chiltern, with a population fewer than 1600, is fortunate to have a public library, albeit one opening for three days a week only. We were twice lucky in that the librarian, although never having seen the cairn, had some knowledge of its location a few kilometres out of town. And so it proved.
About five kilometres from Chiltern, where Mitchell passed on 17 October 1836
There must have been some excitement in the air, for on the same day the party covered the more than ten kilometres from the Chiltern camp, and were able by nightfall to descend to the “low verdant alluvial flats of the Murray”. Here is the full entry from the Trail book for the next day, 18 October 1836: “The day was spent searching for and making a safe crossing of the Murray, which the cattle eventually achieved by evening. Mitchell and some of his party camped near the far bank of the Murray on the north-western edge of present-day Howlong. The rest of Mitchell’s men remained on the other bank for the night, with the horses and carts.” The balance of the expedition – carts, horses, and men – crossed the Murray on the next morning, and that is the last we hear of them in The Major Mitchell Trail book. Except that – late change of plan – rather than take back the boat for the Stapyleton party to cross the Goulburn, a four-man team returned with the objective of building a raft for that purpose.
Meanwhile, the present-day pilgrims were in the home stretch!....... but not without a final bit of confusion. The Trail book, more than once, directed us “towards” Howlong, Howlong across the Murray, Howlong in New South Wales. We took this as meaning “to” Howlong, and should have realised that the 1936 Victorian commemorative cairns project would not likely have resulted in a cairn across the river. So, back in Victoria, we found the final cairn in the grounds of the Gooramadda public hall.
The final cairn along the Trail – 17 October 1836
The gate was open, and we parked in the grounds of the hall. While inspecting the cairn we were approached by a woman, a local who was preparing the hall for a family occasion at the weekend. She was curious that we were curious, had always been aware of the cairn, but knew little of it. This is typical of the disinterest we have encountered along the Trail. Major Mitchell and his achievement seems no longer to be embedded in the popular consciousness.
Later, back at Wangaratta, we searched in vain for the cairn referenced in the Trail book. The Information Kiosk at the Performing Arts and Convention Centre [the Visitor Information Centre “has closed”] was devoid of information and we chased the wild goose for an hour before abandoning the chase…...but settled for the two plaques on the bridge over the Ovens River.
It’s unlikely that either of these is the “cairn” referenced in the Trail book but, as Ned from Glenrowan said, such is life!
One final look at Mitchell's achievement, from an old school wall map. Follow the red line, from Bathurst:
Postscript:
Mitchell returned to Sydney on 3 November 1836, 15 days after crossing the Murray. Under direction of the Governor, Mitchell’s report to the Governor was published in the Government Gazette a few days later “for general information”. That report includes the following passage – remember: nearly 190 years ago. It is a no nonsense and gracious conclusion to the remarkable expedition, and the mark of Mitchell the man:
“It has been in my power, under the protection of Providence, to explore the vast natural resources of a region more excessive than Great Britain, equally rich in point of soil, and which now lies ready for the plough in many parts, as if specifically prepared by the Creator for the industrious hands of Englishmen.
“I have much pleasure in stating that I have reason to be well satisfied with the zeal and perseverance of Mr. Stapylton on all occasions. It will be seen by this report, and, more fully, by my journal, how well I could rely upon both.
“All the men of the party have behaved well, and are returning in safety, with one exception, James Taylor, who was unfortunately drowned in endeavouring to swim a horse across a swampy river on the 13th instant.
“I beg leave to bring also under His Excellency the Governor’s notice, ‘Piper’, an aboriginal native of Bathurst, who has accompanied me throughout this eventful journey, and has proved a valuable auxiliary, as will appear in almost every page of my journal.”
I invite you, having read Mitchell’s foregoing words, to read them again to yourself aloud. Mitchell the soldier, the surveyor, the recalcitrant public official, the forceful leader through Victoria for 138 momentous days, was as eloquent as a poet………and his words may bring moisture to your eyes.
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I hesitate to add a cavilling endnote, but after having spent a number of days in the re-tracing of Major Mitchell’s epic journey with the Trail booklet as my guide, I must express my extreme disappointment that that booklet has not been updated since its publication in 1990. The booklet, admirable as it is, does not provide precise locations of the many Major Mitchell memorial cairns, and a number of them we were simply unable to locate from the descriptions provided. I can’t say that generally the cairns are in disrepair although some are, but after 88 years some curatorial attention would be welcome. But, more reprehensible, is the fact that the whole concept of the Trail has disappeared off the Victorian Government’s radar.
After some enquiry I was recently able to direct my concerns to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. I suggested that Mitchell’s achievement was significant – the instigators of the memorial cairns in 1936 certainly thought so – and surely there was some niche in Government that might be persuaded to revive the Mitchell cairns (and the Trail book) as a project. I offered to make direct contact with the responsible Minister. The senior public servant who responded to my entreaty first indicated that he had a copy of the Trail book “in a cupboard somewhere”, then indicated that he is in charge of “our Statewide State Forest recreation programme and all our visitor sites and trails are available through our More to Explore App”, and added: “We have no plans to add the Major Mitchell Trail to that.”
After my further persistence he confirmed that there are “no plans to resurrect the Major Mitchell Trail” and, moreover, that contacting the Minister would be a waste of time.............
Gary Andrews
