Major Warburton's Explorations, 1866
Adelaide, Government Printer, 1866.
Foolscap folio, 9 pages plus a very large folding map, 'Explorations in the Northern Portion of the Province in 1866'.
Drop-title; a few tiny holes in the gutter where removed from a bound volume; crease down the centre; map very lightly marked and creased; a very good copy in a cloth folder and slipcase (the latter with gilt-lettered leather title-labels on one side).
South Australian Parliamentary Paper Number 177 of 1866. Peter Egerton Warburton (1813-1889), at this stage of his life also the Commissioner of Police in South Australia, 'examined the northern shores of Lake Eyre, searching unsuccessfully for Sturt's Cooper's Creek but finding instead a large river, now named the Warburton River, which he traced as far as the Queensland border' (Wantrup, in the Davidson catalogue). Offered together with 'Colonel Warburton's Explorations, 1872-3' (Adelaide, Government Printer, 1874; foolscap folio, 24 pages; South Australian Parliamentary Paper Number 28 of 1875). This is an account of a far more significant expedition. 'After leaving Alice Springs in April 1873, they endured long periods of extreme heat with little water, and survived only by killing the camels for meat. They reached the Oakover River with Warburton strapped to a camel. On 11 January 1874 they were brought to Charles Harper's de Grey station in northern Western Australia. They had conquered the formidable Great Sandy Desert to become the first to cross the continent from the centre to the west. Warburton was emaciated and blind in one eye; at a public banquet in Adelaide later he attributed their survival to his Aboriginal companion Charley' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). [2 items].
Item #114112
Price (AUD):
$1,200.00