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it was decided to leave the carts. The country was too rugged and broken
for easy travel with them. With the carts, they also concealed part of
their stores.
For over a week they moved slowly southward,
sometimes following valleys, sometimes struggling with difficulty up
mountain slopes and across tablelands. Natives were numerous. One river
they crossed by following a native track that led them to a ford.
Clouds of flies and mosquitoes worried them very
much. The horses often moved into the smoke of the campfires, the dogs lay
in the water and the bullocks in the long grass, all trying to get away
from the insect pests.
A Wonderful Sight.
From the top of a hill that Hume and Hovell climbed they gazed upon a
sight that no white man had ever seen before. Away to the south loomed
ranges of mountains, parts of which were covered with snow--the Australian
Alps. Hume and Hovell decided to travel more to the westward to avoid
them.
A Big River.
A week later they came to the banks of a large stream, which they called
the Hume River. Lagoons stretched along both banks of the river. Large
numbers of ducks, swans, and pelicans were seen feeding in these lagoons.
Mussels were plentiful in the muddy banks. They heard the sweet notes of
the bell-bird. The river itself was about 80 yards wide. The water was
clear and deep, and in it they caught fine cod fish.
They built a boat of wicker-work and covered it
with a tarpaulin. With it they crossed the stream.
Beyond the River.
Continuing on to the south-west, they crossed several small streams that
ran between the mountain spurs. Much of the time they travelled through
fine forest country. A snow-topped peak to the eastward they named Mr.
Buffalo.
All through the next week they moved slowly
onwards. The cattle became footsore, and sometimes the party was forced to
camp to enable them to rest. Natives were numerous. They did not come
near, although sometimes they could be heard calling to one another in the
bush.
Their supply of food began to dwindle. Still they
had not won clear of the mountains, for the Eastern Highlands here run
from east to west. From each succeeding height they climbed, they hoped to
see the sea.
Beyond the Range.
At last, one day, they came over the range and descended on to a plain. As
they went on, they saw something that they thought at first was the smoke
of a bushfire. Imagine their joy when they realized that they were looking
at the sea! They had reached Port Phillip.
They would have liked to explore its shores, but
their food was running very low. Hume could see that the natives here were
not to be trusted. The party commenced the journey home on the following
day.
Onward Hume and Hovell journeyed. This time the
Hume River was much lower and was easily crossed at a ford.
A day or two later some friendly natives
appeared. The next day more natives arrived. Though armed, they were very
friendly. Two of them helped to find some horses that had strayed. They
begged the party to come to their camp, as they were about to hold a
corroboree.
Time was precious, however, to the party, and
they hurried on. Tired and thin, with boots worn out, feet covered with
kangaroo skin, and food short, they reached the place where they had left
their carts nearly three months before. Everything was as they had left
it. They pushed on, and reached Hume's station just four months after they
had set out on their long journey.
Twice going, and twice returning, they had
crossed the Great Dividing Range. North of Port Phillip the range runs
east and west. Our map shows us the western end of this great watershed.
It is called the Grampians. Major Mitchell was the explorer who gave it
its name.
For
more information
on Hume and Hovell, go to:
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