The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: ¶ The accomplishment of a safe and easy communication with India would very much add to the importance of the Australian colonies, and has, therefore, long been the subject of deep consideration. Thr...

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Letter not found. The original German text was published in the Adelaide Deutsche Zeitung, 24 December 1851, but no copy of this issue has been found. The text given here is an English translation published in the Empire (Sydney), 27 January 1852, pp. 2-3 (B52.02.01), where it is introduced as follows: ‘The following able remarks by Dr. F. Mueller lately appeared in the Adelaide Zeitung, a paper which circulates amongst the German emigrants in that colony:–‘. The English text was reproduced in the Moreton Bay courier (Brisbane), 21 February 1852, p. 3 (B52.02.02), with the following introduction: ‘We find the following extract from the Adelaide Zeitung, in the Empire. The remarks, excepting those having reference to the employment of prison labour, are worthy of attention in these districts. As regards the point excepted, although we had always before been favourable to the founding of new colonies to the northward, by means of penal establishments in the first instance, it may well be doubted whether such a course would be at all advisable now that there is so much reason to believe that the Australian gold fields extend all along the flanks of the great coast ranges. The remarks are from the pen of Dr. F. Mueller:–‘.

The accomplishment of a safe and easy communication with India would very much add to the importance of the Australian colonies, and has, therefore, long been the subject of deep consideration. Three celebrated travellers have sought to open a route through New Holland, as being the most advantageous. The settlements at Raffles Bay and Port Essington

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The sites of two unsuccessful attempts, in 1827-9 and 1838-49 respectively, to establish a British settlement on the Cobourg Peninsula, NT.

were intended to pave the way to it; and it is by no means improbable, had these settlements been established on the southern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria, with the advantages of a cooler climate, a more fertile soil, and the greater proximity to the extra-tropical provinces, that by this time the northern and southern parts of Australia would have been profitably connected.

But however great the advantages of such a communication may be—however hopefully we may cast our eyes towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, and on its fertile shores recognise the most favourable spot for bartering the productions of our temperate zones against those of the tropics; and however much we may desire to substitute a safe and easy way to India for the dangerous and difficult passage of Torres Straits, we could scarcely hope at the present moment, when the magical and overpowering force of gold drives everything else into the back-ground, to accomplish so desirable a plan, were it not that other and more weighty grounds call for the further investigation of the Australian tropics.

The want of pasture land, although at present not much felt, increases with every year. In South Australia, which, for the most part is bounded on the north by a belt of at least desert land,

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It was at this time believed that Lake Torrens extended as a barren salt lake in a huge arc across the north of SA, an impassable barrier to the northward extension of settlement.

it will not be possible for the squatters to extend their stations much further into the interior; and beyond a certain distance from either a harbour or market, their labour or produce ceases to be remunerative. How advantageous, therefore, would it not be if these pioneers of civilization would turn to the rich tropical plains on the northern coast, and there spread their herds along the grassy banks of the numerous rivers which flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria. They might then supply India with horses and other cattle with increased facility, especially if the establishing of a settlement there were facilitated by employing convict labour in the cultivation of cotton and other tropical plants.

The driving the cattle over seems certainly, from the great distance, difficult and dangerous. Still, we think that nothing is required to make it practicable but the discovery of the nearest route, especially as the intermediate country is probably rich in both grass and water, and the distance is but little more than from Adelaide to Sydney.

But the search after this new overland route can be successfully carried out from the north only, perhaps along the Albert River, whose sources probably lead to a far inland mountain chain, which acts as a division between the northern and southern streams. In this case, a direct road to Sir Thomas Mitchell’s track might, beyond doubt, be discovered; and since the rivers which that traveller discovered flow partly into the Darling and partly into Cooper’s Creek, three colonies would at once have the benefit of communication with the north coast.

When we consider that constantly recurring reports of the fate of Leichhardt still reminds us to seek for him; that it will be much more difficult to discover his fast-fading traces from New South Wales, as was proposed, than with fresh energies to bear down upon a distant point of his track with a party sufficiently strong to resist the attacks of the natives, especially as it was his firm intention to seek the sources of the Albert River, we do think that our duty to that enterprising traveller, as well as our interest in the discovery of a new field for our energies, call for the despatch of a party in the direction named.

That which we already know through Captain Stokes and Dr. Leichhardt of those parts of the north coast, is in the highest degree promising and attractive. A rich alluvial soil, free from sand and stone, covers the broad and well-watered plains, and the heat is comparatively less than, from the low degree of latitude, one would be led to expect; for it is greatly moderated by the sea-breezes, as well as by the cool southerly winds which came over the high table-land of the Burdekin. The fact of Dr. Leichhardt and his party having enjoyed perfect health in these parts, after having undergone excessive fatigue and privation, is a guarantee of the salubrity of the climate.

The “Investigator Road,” which is a safe harbour, and for which either monsoon is favourable, is one more of the striking advantages which should draw our attention to this country, were it not that its geographical position alone is calculated to raise the most sanguine expectations from its colonization, and which led Captain Stokes prophetically to name it “Plains of Promise.” The favourable accounts given by this discoverer are powerfully confirmed by Dr. Nicholson in his talented speech on the occasion of the public acknowledgment of the services of Dr. Leichhardt:–

“It is difficult, if not impossible, to over-estimate the importance of the discovery recently made of an all but boundless extent of fertile country extending to the north, soon to be covered with countless flocks and herds, and calculated to become the abode of civilized man.”

But if these great expectations should not be quite fulfilled, if even the fate of the unfortunate Leichhardt should still remain undiscovered, the exploration of an entirely unknown part of Australia, will yield a valuable supplement to our knowledge of the earth and its productions, and show whether the extension of our colonies northward is really opposed by an impassable boundary.

The correspondence of

Ferdinand von Mueller

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