In the first year of the present century the Western Australian Government followed up Hann’s explorations north of the King Leopold Range, by a larger and better-equipped party instructed to make a thorough examination of the region.  It was placed in charge of F.S.  Brockman, a Government surveyor, who had with him C. Crossland as second, F. House as naturalist, and Gibbs Maitland as geologist.

Brockman was born in Western Australia in 1857, was educated at Bishop’s College, and after a spell in the bush on his father’s properties, he joined a Government Survey camp, as cadet.  In 1879 he started as surveyor on his own account.  From 1882 to 1897 he was employed by the Lands and Survey Department in many parts of Western Australia from Cambridge Gulf in the north to the Great Bight in the south.  At the time when he was selected to lead the Kimberley expedition, he was Controller of the Field Survey Staff.

Brockman was most successful in securing full information of this long-secluded region; of its geographical, geological, and botanical details.  Many interesting photographs were obtained of the different physical features and of the aborigines and their modes of life; amongst them being views of rock paintings similar to the mysterious scenes noticed by Grey during his first expedition to the Glenelg River.

[Illustration.  Aboriginal Rock Painting on the Glenelg River.  From a photograph by F.S.  Brockman.]

The party left Wyndham on Cambridge Gulf and proceeded first southwards and then to the westward to the Charnley River, which had been discovered by Frank Hann.  The tributary waters of the Glenelg and Prince Regent Rivers, and the tidal rivers that flow into Collier and Doubtful Bays were also visited, and Brockman traced the Roe River from its source to its outflow in Prince Frederick Harbour.  The Moran River was discovered, and its whole course traced to the mouth in the same inlet.  The head waters of the King Edward River were discovered at the watershed; and this river was again met lower down and its course traced to its exit.  Portions of the shores of Admiralty Gulf, Vansittart, and Napier Broome Bay were closely examined with a view to selecting a suitable port for the district.  The most important practical result of the expedition was the discovery of an area of six million acres of basaltic pastoral country covered with blue grass, Mitchell and kangaroo grasses, and many varieties of what is known as top feed.  No auriferous country was found, but some fine specimens of the baobab tree were seen, some of them averaging fifty feet in diameter.

[Illustration.  Typical Australian Explorers of the early Twentieth Century.]