AUSTRALIANA
First Edition. Jardine Expedition.
The Jardine expedition is one of the
notable things in the annals of Aus-
tralian exploration. It is the story of
two boys, Frank and Alexander Jar-
dine, who set out from Rockhampton
for Somerset in the extreme north of
Cape York Peninsula, with orders to
explore the western coast of the Pen-
insula, map the ranges and the rivers
flowing west into the Gulf of Carpen-
taria, and ascertain whether any areas
of the country they passed over were
suitable for pastoral settlement. At the
same time, they were to take with
them horses and a small herd of cattle
to start a cattle station in the northern
part of the peninsula. In a word, their
job was to place a huge area of un-
known Australia on the map.
The story has, of course, been told
and retold, but never more vividly
and picturesquely than by Ion Idriess
in “The Great Trek,” published
by Angus and Robertson, of Sydney.
He has written this book because he
believes the story of the daring and
initiative of the two Jardines, and
their determination to push on to suc-
cess, despite all obstacles, should be
an inspiration to other Australian
boys. They were the sons of John
Jardine, Police Magistrate and Gold
Commissioner, of Rockhampton, who
had been entrusted with the task of
establishing a new settlement to be
called Somerset, far away in the ex-
treme north.
All of the great Cape York Penin-
sula, with the exception of one long,
thin, tragic line running parallel with
the eastern coast, was a big blank
space. The southern area of the map
below the peninsula was spider-web-
bed here and there with the lonely
tracks of the explorers—the ill-fated
Leichhardt, the dashing Gregory,
Landsborough, Walker and McKinlay,
names then ringing throughout the
continent. Along that North Queens-
land coast line were half a dozen dots,
settlements started within recent
years—Mackay, Bowen, Townsville,
Cardwell; and now John Jardine had
just placed a dot right at the farthest
north which represented the settlement
to be, Somerset.
That two beardless youths could suc-
cessfully lead an expedition through
country which had defied Leichhardt
and brought disaster to Kennedy was
doubted by many, but their father, who
was then making arrangements for the
Government vessel Eagle to load with
stores for Somerset, never doubted
their ability to pull through. And they
did pull through. They were born and
bred in the bush, and with them went
some of the best bushmen of North
Queensland and a number of reliable
aborigines. To these last the expedi-
tion owed a great deal. Many were the
disappointments, and great were the
obstacles, that were met with, including
a number of serious encounters with
the blacks; but after a trip of one
thousand eight hundred miles, the last
three hundred on foot and through
flooded country, with little in the way
of clothes remaining on their backs,
they completed the journey—”a jour-
ney of difficulties and hardships, of
dangers and escapes never surpassed
in the annals of Australian explora-
tion,” as Mr. Idriess says. “They got
through without the loss of a man.
Any of the great explorers of the day,
any of the hardy pioneers, would have
been proud to have led such an ex-
pedition. That it was led by two lads
makes it all the more remarkable and
memorable.”
Although the Jardine expedition
proved that much of the western coast
of Cape York Peninsula was poor
country, various pastoralists followed
the brothers’ tracks and occupied the
good country on the lower Einasleigh,
the Gilbert, the Mitchell, the Archer
and the Coen, thus furthering Austra-
lia’s development.
pp. viii, 222. Age-tanned pages, but a very solid copy. #010123