Bushranger's story. My plan of exploration. Preparations. Departure
from Sydney. A garden. Country between Sydney and the Hawkes-
bury. Beyond the Hawkesbury. Summit of Warrawolong. Natives of Bris-
bane Water. The Wollombi. Valley of the Hunter. Fossils of the Hunter.
Men employed on the expedition. Equipment. Burning grass. Aborigines
and Colonists. Cambo, a wild native. A Colonist of the right sort. Escape of
the Bushranger, The Barber. Burning Hill of Wingen. Approach Liverpool
Range. Cross it. A sick tribe. Interior waters. Liverpool Plains. Proposed
route. Horses astray. A Squatter. Native guide and his gin. Modes of drink-
ing au naturel. Woods on fire. Cross the Turi Range. Arrive on the River
Peel. Fishes. Another native guide. Explore the Peel.
BUSHRANGER'S STORY.
The journey northward in1831 originated in one of those fabulous taleswhich
occasionally become current in the colony of New South Wales, respecting
the interior country, still unexplored.
A runaway convict named George Clarke, alias The Barber, had, for a length
of time escaped the vigilance of the police by disguising himself as an abo-riginal native. He had even accustomed himself to the wretched life of that
unfortunate race of men; he was deeply scarified like them and naked and
painted black, he went about with a tribe, being usually attended by two
aboriginal females, and having acquired some knowledge of their language
and customs.
But this degenerate white man was not content with the solitary freedom of
the savage life and his escape from a state of servitude. He had assumed the
cloak and colour of the savage that he might approach the dwellings of the
colonists, and steal with less danger of detection. In conjunction with the
simple aborigines whom he misled, and with several other runaway convicts
he had organised a system of cattle stealing, which was coming into extensive
operation on Liverpool plains when, through the aid of some of the natives,
who have in general assisted the detection of bushrangers, he was at length
discovered and captured by the police.
After this man was taken into custody, he gave a circumstantial detail of his
travels to the north-west along the bank of a large river, named, as he said, the
Kindur; by following which in a south-west direction he had twice reached
the seashore. He described the tribes inhabiting the banks of the Kindur
and gave the names of their chiefs. He said that he had first crossed vast
plains named Balyran, and, on approaching the sea, he had seen a burning
mountain named Courada. He described, with great apparent accuracy, the
courses of the known streams of the northern interior which united, as he
stated, in the Namoi, a river first mentioned by him; and, according to his
testimony, Peel's river entered the Namoi by flowing westward from where
Mr. Oxley had crossed it.
Now this was contrary to the course assigned to the Peel in the maps by early
travellers, but consistent nevertheless with more recent surveys. Vague ac-
counts of a great river beyond Liverpool plains, flowing north-west, were
current about the time General Darling embarked for England. The atten-
tion of the acting governor, Colonel Lindesay, was particularly drawn to the
question by this report of Clarke, and also by the subsequent proposals of
