15.2.  WILLIAM LANDSBOROUGH.

William Landsborough, the son of a Scotch physician, was born in Ayrshire and educated at Irvine.  When he came to Australia, he settled first in the New England district of New South Wales, and thence removed to Queensland.  In 1856, his interest in discovery and a desire to find new country led him to undertake much private exploration, principally on the coastal parts of Queensland, in the district of Broadsound and the Isaacs River.  In 1858 he explored the Comet to its head, and in the following year the head waters of the Thomson.

An old friend and erstwhile comrade, writing of him, says:  “Landsborough’s enterprise was entirely founded on self-reliance.  He had neither Government aid nor capitalists at his back when he achieved his first success as an explorer.  He was the very model of a pioneer —­ courageous, hardy, good-humoured, and kindly.  He was an excellent horseman, a most entertaining and, at times, eccentric companion, and he could starve with greater cheerfulness than any man I ever saw or heard of.  But, excellent fellow though he was, his very independence of character and success in exploring provoked much ill-will.”

Landsborough was recommended for the position of leader by the veteran A.C.  Gregory, and on the 14th of August he left Brisbane in the Firefly, having on board a party of volunteer assistants who had been stirred by the widespread sympathy with the missing men to take an active part in the relief expedition.  Unfortunately, those under Landsborough were, with one exception, unacquainted with bush life.  The exception was George Bourne, the second in command, an old squatter who had seen and suffered many a long drought, and whose services proved to be of great value.  After some mishap the Firefly, convoyed by the Victoria, reached the mouth of the Albert River, where the party was safely landed.

After starting from the Albert, Landsborough came unexpectedly upon a river hitherto unknown.  It flowed into the Nicholson, and both Leichhardt and Gregory had crossed below the confluence.  It was a running stream with much semi-tropical foliage on its banks, running through well-grassed, level country, and he named it the Gregory.  As they neared the higher reaches of the Gregory, they found the country of a more arid nature.  They ascended the main range, and on the 21st of December, Landsborough found an inland river flowing south, which he named the Herbert.  The Queensland authorities subsequently re-christened the stream with the singularly inappropriate name of Georgina.  In this river two fine sheets of water were found, and called Lake Frances and Lake Mary.  An ineffectual attempt was then made to go westward, but lack of water compelled them to desist.