Spinifex and Sand

David Wynford Carnegie

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• Publié par: erdya
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 58
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Spinifex and Sand, by David W Carnegie
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Title: Spinifex and Sand
Five Years' Pioneering and Exploration in Western Australia
Author: David W Carnegie
Release Date: August 18, 2004 [EBook #4975]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPINIFEX AND SAND ***
Produced by Col Choat and Colin Beck
Spinifex and Sand
by David W. Carnegie
In 1896-1897, the Hon. David Wynford Carnegie, born in 1871, youngest son of
the Earl of Southesk, led one of the last great expeditions in the exploration of
Australia. His route from Lake Darlôt to Halls Creek and return, took thirteen
months and covered over three thousand miles. Carnegie financed his
expedition from the results of a successful gold strike at Lake Darlôt.
David Carnegie returned to England in 1898, was awarded a medal by the
Royal Geographic Society and in 1899 was appointed Assistant Resident and
Magistrate in Northern Nigeria. On November 27, 1900 while on an expedition
to capture a brigand he was shot in the thigh with a poisoned arrow and died
minutes later. He is buried at Lokaja, Nigeria and a memorial to his memory is
in St. George's Cathedral, Perth.
SPINIFEX AND SAND
A Narrative of Five Years' Pioneering and Exploration in Western Ausralia
By TheHON. DAVID W CARNEGIE (1871-1900)
Illustration 1: David W. Carnegie.
To MY MOTHER
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART I - EARLY DAYS IN COOLGARDIE
I. Early Days In The Colony
II. “Hard Up”
III. A Miner On Bayley's
PART II - FIRST PROSPECTING EXPEDITION
I. The Rush To Kurnalpi—We Reach Queen Victoria Spring
II. In Unknown Country
III. From Mount Shenton To Mount Margaret
PART III - SECOND PROSPECTING EXPEDITION
I. The Joys Of Portable Condensers
II. Granite Rocks, “Namma Holes,” And “Soaks”
III. A Fresh StartIV. A Camel Fight
V. Gold At Lake Darlôt
VI. Alone In The Bush
VII. Sale Of Mine
PART IV - MINING
I. Quartz Reefing And Dry-Blowing
PART V - THE OUTWARD JOURNEY
I. Previous Explorers In The Interior Of Western Australia
II. Members And Equipment Of Expedition
III. The Journey Begins
IV. We Enter The Desert
V. Water At Last
VI. Woodhouse Lagoon
VII. The Great Undulating Desert Of Gravel
VIII. A Desert Tribe
IX. Dr. Leichardt's Lost Expedition
X. The Desert Of Parallel Sand-Ridges
XI. From Family Well To Helena Spring
XII. Helena Spring
XIII. From Helena Spring To The Southesk Tablelands
XIV. Death Of Stansmore
XV. Wells Exploring Expedition
XVI. Kimberley
XVII. Aboriginals At Hall's Creek
XVIII. Preparations For The Return Journey
Appendix To Part V
PART VI - THE JOURNEY HOME
I. Return Journey Begins
II. Sturt Creek And “Gregory's Salt Sea”
III. Our Camp On The “Salt Sea”
IV. Desert Once More
V. Stansmore Range To Lake MacDonald
VI. Lake MacDonald To The Deep Rock-Holes
VII. The Last Of The Ridges Of Drift Sand
VIII. Woodhouse Lagoon Revisited
IX. Across Lake Wells To Lake Darlôt
X. The End Of The Expedition
APPENDIX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
(47 illustrations appeared in the original text, published in 1898. A number have
not been reproduced in the html version of the etext.)
1. Hon. D. W. Carnegie
2. Jarrah Forest, West Australia
3. General store And Post-office, Coolgardie, 1892
4. The first hotel at Coolgardie5. The “Gold Escort”
6. Grass trees, near Perth
7. Death of “Tommy”
8. Fresh meat at last
9. Bayley Street, Coolgardie, 1894
10. Condensing water on a salt lake
11. Fever-stricken and alone
12. Miner's Right
13. Typical sandstone gorge
14. Crossing a salt lake
15. Entrance to Empress Spring
16. At work in the cave, Empress Spring
17. Alexander Spring
18. Woodhouse Lagoon
19. A buck and his gins in camp at Family Well
20. Cresting a sand-ridge
21. Helena Spring
22. The only specimen of desert architecture
23. The Mad Buck
24. Southesk Tablelands
25. A native hunting party
26. Plan of sand-ridges
27. Exaggerated section of the sand-ridges
28. Charles W. Stansmore
29. Native preparing for the emu dance
30. Spears
31. Woomera
32. Iron Tomahawks
33. Stone Tomahawks
34. Boomerangs
35. Clubs and throwing-sticks
36. Shields
37. Quartz knife
38. Ceremonial sticks
39. Rain-making boards
40. Message sticks
41. Group Of Explorers
42. Just in time
43. A wild escort of nearly one hundred men
44. Establishing friendly relations
45. The tail-end of a miserable caravan
46. A karri timber train
47. A pearl shell station, Broome, N.W. Australia
INTRODUCTION
“An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.”
The following pages profess to be no more than a faithful narrative of five years
spent on the goldfields and in the far interior of Western Australia. Any one
looking for stirring adventures, hairbreadth escapes from wild animals and men,
will be disappointed. In the Australian Bush the traveller has only Nature to war
against—over him hangs always the chance of death from thirst, and
sometimes from the attacks of hostile aboriginals; he has no spice of adventure,
no record heads of rare game, no exciting escapades with dangerous beasts, tospur him on; no beautiful scenery, broad lakes, or winding rivers to make life
pleasant for him. The unbroken monotony of an arid, uninteresting country has
to be faced. Nature everywhere demands his toil. Unless he has within him
impulses that give him courage to go on, he will soon return; for he will find
nothing in his surroundings to act as an incentive to tempt him further.
I trust my readers will be able to glean a little knowledge of the hardships and
dangers that beset the paths of Australian pioneers, and will learn something of
the trials and difficulties encountered by a prospector, recognising that he is
often inspired by some higher feeling than the mere “lust of gold.”
Wherever possible, I have endeavoured to add interest to my own experiences
by recounting those of other travellers; and, by studying the few books that
touch upon such matters to explain any points in connection with the
aboriginals that from my own knowledge I am unable to do. I owe several
interesting details to the Report on the Work of the Horn Scientific Expedition to
Central Australia, and to Ethnological Studies among the North-West Central
Queensland Aboriginals, by Walter E. Roth. For the identification of the few
geological specimens brought in by me, I am indebted to the Government
Geologist of the Mines Department, Perth, W.A., and to Mr. W. Botting Hemsley,
through the courtesy of the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, for the
identification of the plants.
I also owe many thanks to my friend Mr. J. F. Cornish, who has taken so much
trouble in correcting the proofs of my MSS.
PART I
EARLY DAYS IN COOLGARDIE
CHAPTER I
Early Days In The Colony
In the month of September, 1892, Lord Percy Douglas (now Lord Douglas of
Hawick) and I, found ourselves steaming into King George's Sound—that
magnificent harbour on the south-west coast of Western Australia—building
castles in the air, discussing our prospects, and making rapid and vast
imaginary fortunes in the gold-mines of that newly-discovered land of Ophir.
Coolgardie, a district then unnamed, had been discovered, and Arthur Bayley,
a persevering and lucky prospector, had returned to civilised parts from the
“bush,” his packhorses loaded with golden specimens from the famous mine
which bears his name. I suppose the fortunate find of Bayley and his mate,
Ford, has turned the course of events in the lives of many tens of thousands of
people, and yet, as he jogged along the track from Gnarlbine Rock to Southern
Cross, I daresay his thoughts reverted to his own life, and the good time before
him, rather than to moralising on the probable effect of his discovery on others.
We spent as little time as possible at Albany, or, I should say, made our stay as
short as was permitted, for in those days the convenience of the passenger was
thought little of, in comparison with the encouragement of local industries, so
that mails and travellers alike were forced to remain at least one night in Albany
by the arrangement of the train service, greatly to the benefit of the hotel-
keepers.We were somewhat surprised to see the landlord's daughters waiting at table.
They were such tremendously smart and icy young ladies that at first we were
likely to mistake them for guests; and even when sure of their identity we were
too nervous to ask for anything so vulgar as a pot of beer, or to expect them to
change our plates.
Between Albany and Perth the country is not at all interesting being for the most
part flat, scrubby, and sandy, though here and there are rich farming and
agricultural districts. Arrived at Perth we found ourselves a source of great