Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. For the text given here, see Daily telegraph (Melbourne), 27 August 1874, p. 3.

[Baron Von Mueller has just received preliminary written information from Mr. Ernest Giles, the Victorian explorer, concerning his last important geographical enterprise. The journal and maps are likely to appear in print very soon;

2

Giles (1874).

meanwhile the following data may be of interest to the supporters of the expedition,

3

M had raised £350 to help fund Giles's expedition, to which the SA Government had added a further £250.

or to others interested in the geography and the resources of Australia. After discovering magnificent ranges

4

The Musgrave Ranges, which Giles saw in an unusually good season following good rains; see Ericksen (1978), pp. 133ff.

far south of Mount Olga, where only desert was expected to exist, he found a lake about 100 miles south of Lake Amadeus; then continuing a western course, permanent water was discovered in several places. From the last of these permanent waters he pushed west for about 190 miles, encountering then low ranges and creeks lined with eucalypti. Two of these watercourrses were of some size. From the last (and not permanent) watering point, Mr. Giles carried water for storage forty miles, having no camels. At the local depot shocks of earthquake occurred at the time, and the party was there three times attacked by the natives. Only two thunder showers fell during the summer, one in November lasting about half an hour, one in January, which was of about two hours' duration. The state of our Australian Sahara under such circumstances few can imagine. After burying some tanks with water, Mr. Giles got away to new ranges, with many "gorges and glens of running water," a feature otherwise almost unknown in Central Australia, and most important, not merely for future pastoral pursuits, but also as early starting places for explorers in every direction of the widely surrounding as yet utterly unknown country. Permanent sheets of surface water exist here also. A fine pass opens through these new ranges to long. 127 deg. 20 min. and lat. 24 deg. 30 min. Mr. Giles thinks that Lake Amadeus extends widely in this direction. The range itself stretches 60 miles west of the pass, but the permanent water ceases for the last 25 miles of the range in seasons of drought without storage dams. Hence again deserts westward, which cannot be traversed without dromedaries or very extensive means for water-carriage. In a preliminary excursion into the next desert Mr. Gibson lost himself and found a sad death. The party having been also attacked by the natives in the last range, and water being only under the greatest dangers approachable in these mountain fortresses, Mr. Giles was compelled to retreat to the east, though more than half across to the west coast from the telegraph line, having then only two companions left. The natives at all watered camps could approach under cover of rocks and scrub. Spears were repeatedly thrown by them, but none of the explorers was hurt. Another range was discovered on the backway,

5

The Petermann Ranges.

remarkable for consisting of high wall-like hills, so deeply broken at intervals as to allow large creeks, rising in lower hills to the south, to pass on their northern courses through these higher mountains. These waters flow into Lake Amadeus, which thus is a most expansive receptacle for a number of central Australian systems of water. Amidst all his trying difficulties, sad distresses, and imminent dangers, this brave man, also during his new exploring journay (twelve months away from the settlement), while the country was paralysed with drought, yet found it possible to collect a large number of plants, which, just arrived, prove that also in this respect his modest expedition has brought permanent gain to science.]