The dry weather had put its mark upon the country.  Though the degree of aridity was much less than that afterwards experienced in Australia by the explorers of its interior, nevertheless conditions were sufficiently dry to compel the leader to exercise great forethought, and Cunningham determined to pursue a more easterly course, keeping nearer the crest of the range, where he was more likely to find grass and water.  The country he passed through was inferior, but on the 28th he came to the bank of a river “presenting a handsome reach, half-a-mile in length, thirty yards wide, and evidently very deep.”  This river he named the Dumaresque, and it led him to the northward, through what he considered poor land, until the new-found river took an easterly direction, when the party left it, still keeping north.  At the end of the month, after passing through much scrubby country, they were agreeably surprised to meet with a stream, the banks of which presented an appearance of great verdure.  “It was a subject of great astonishment to us to meet with so beautiful a sward of grass permanently watered by an active stream, after traversing that tract of desert forest, and penetrating brushes the extremes of sterility in its immediate vicinity.”

This was named McIntyre’s Brook, and Cunningham writes that they had some difficulty in fording it on account of its extreme rapidity.  The party continued on, now in a north-easterly direction, passing again through dense thickets such as they had formerly met with.

On the 5th of June, Cunningham, from a small elevation, had a view of open country of decidedly favourable appearance:  “A hollow in the forest ridge immediately before us allowed me distinctly to perceive that at a distance of eight or nine miles, open plains or downs of great extent appeared to extend easterly to the base of a lofty range of mountains, lying south and north, distant by estimation about thirty miles.”

This was Cunningham’s first glimpse of the now world-famous Darling Downs.  On reaching the commencement of the great plains, they came to the “bank of a small river, about fifteen yards in breadth, having a brisk current to the North-West.”  As there was deep water in the pools of this river, the men anticipated some good fishing, and they were not disappointed.  Cunningham named this river the Condamine.

Although their provisions were failing them, Cunningham remained for some time on the site of his new discovery, fully impressed with the certainty of its immense importance in the future settlement of Australia.  Peel’s Plains and Canning Downs were named by him, and to the north-west “beyond Peel’s Plains an immeasurable extent of flat country met the eye, on which not the slightest eminence could be observed to interrupt the common level, which, in consequence of the very clear state of the atmosphere, could be discerned to a very distant blue line of horizon.”