The European explorers and settlers

Abstract

The Darling River Basin had been occupied by Aborigines for 30 000 years before the new white colonists pushed their way over the mountains and into the outback. For the clans that inhabited the Basin, the Darling was mapped out in stories and songs that described the rivers and the countryside. For the Europeans, the geography of the Basin was a perplexing jigsaw puzzle that took over fifty years to complete. The framework of the river system that made up this vast inland Basin was mapped out by the government appointed explorers who set off across the Divide in search of new pastures, imaginary rivers and dreams of an inland sea. The intrepid pastoralists who followed in their footsteps filled in the finer details of the landscape.