Two expeditions started almost at the same time for this new market.  In February 1838 Mr. Hawdon moved from the Goulburn and Mr. Eyre from Port Phillip.  In April 1838 Mr. Hawdon arrived in Adelaide and shortly afterwards was followed by Mr. Eyre, who had attempted to take a direct route from Port Phillip to Adelaide, but coming upon an impassable country he had been compelled to turn to the northward, and then to make it by the same route which Mr. Hawdon had pursued.  Just eight years before this period a hardy party of explorers under Captain Sturt had first ventured in a whale-boat to descend a river traversing this unknown land.  Rapidly had the fruits of this enterprise ripened to maturity; the river was now made a highway of commerce, a connecting link between two countries.

In the remaining portion of 1838 and in 1839 the energies of the Overlanders were fully employed in supplying South Australia with stock; and during this period several new and shorter lines of route were struck out, the last great improvement of this kind being made by the adventurous C. Bonney, Esquire, who connected Port Phillip with Adelaide by a direct road running nearly parallel to the coast, so that the portion of the continent of Australia which lies between Moreton Bay and Adelaide is now connected by a passable route.

During 1839 it was felt however that the markets of South Australia no longer afforded such large profits; but Port Lincoln was then occupied and a new country opened, to which cattle and sheep were conveyed across Spencer’s Gulf.  This for a time afforded some employment to the Overlanders; but their spirits were secretly chafed by the thought that the limits of their career were attained.  Several expeditions to the westward of Port Lincoln were undertaken, and in August 1839 Mr. Eyre, still anxious to open a new market, pushed as far to the westward as Denial Bay; but the journey to King George’s Sound seemed so vast an undertaking that although such a scheme was often contemplated the hazard and risk of property appeared, even to a daring Overlander, to be too great.

Yet although none ventured, many an eager heart turned that way, and many a thoughtful face lighted up when a promising plan was unfolded.

Whilst the Overlanders were thus speculating upon the possibility of connecting the Eastern and Western portions of Australia by one great line of communication, the new settlements of South Australia and Port Phillip were making such rapid advances in prosperity as almost exceed belief.

The settlements of Swan River and King George’s Sound, which had now been established nearly ten years, were truly in a most miserable condition.  So late as the month of September 1839, when I landed at King George’s Sound to assume the situation of Government Resident there, the population had been in a state bordering upon want.

But in the lapse of years the mismanagement and other causes which had weighed down the settlers in Western Australia had been swept away; and in 1839 an ameliorated system began to be introduced, the energies and resources of the colony were allowed to unfold and develop themselves, and a period of colonial prosperity commenced which bids fair, if not again checked, to run as rapid and astonishing a career as it has done in South Australia and Port Phillip.