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Wednesday,
3 December
1823
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John
Oxley
(John
Oxley Library, Brisbane)
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...Station
4 - To this station soundings five or six fathoms. River
about 30 chains wide, water very muddy. Rich brush land on
both sides ....Much cypress on larboard shore. Landed
(Tennyson)
and examined the brush. It abounds with noble timber:
specimens of two new species we procured: one, a piece of
noble dimensions, the other a black heavy wood of great
size. The soil uncommonly rich, from 10, 15 to 30 feet above
the river. No floods. We also discovered that the tree which
we had hitherto taken for cypress is this new description of
pine, from 100 to 140 feet high (Araucaria
cunninghamii, Hoop
Pine).
...Station
5 - At the mouth of a small river, which we called Canoe
River (Oxley
Creek),
being the spot where Parsons and his companions found a
canoe in which they went down the river. To the next
station, forest land rising back two miles to a lofty
ridge....
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1828
(July)
Within
four weeks' provisions for eight persons and accompanied by
that gentleman (Captain
Logan) and
Mr Fraser, I commenced (on the 24th of that month) my
journey from the river's bank, opposite the settlement, from
which point a line of road had been marked about five miles
in a southerly direction, towards some very thinly and
lightly-wooded lands known by the title of "Cowper's Plains"
(Oxley
Creek at Rocklea)
to which salt water flows from the Brisbane River, through
the medium of Canoe Creek of the late Mr Oxley, the clearing
of which at its upper part of fallen timber, to render it
navigable (during the rise of the flood tide) for boats of
burden to the plains, which are said to contain two thousand
or three thousand acres of good available land, fit for
agricultural purposes, will doubtless be at some future
period worth effecting.
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Colonial
Botanist
Journal
1828
(accompanied by Allan Cunningham, Captain Logan, one soldier
and five convicts)
July 24th
"At
seven o'clock we set off towards Couper's
Plains
(Cowper's Plains, Cooper's Plains, on Oxley Creek at
Rocklea),
passing over a tract of indifferent land,.....
By eleven o'clock we had accomplished nearly six miles, and
then halted till one, to rest our cattle, at the edge of the
plain or , more properly speaking, of the Flats, on the
banks of a beautiful chain of ponds
(Rocky Waterholes Creek at Rocklea).
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Thence
we continued out way across these flats (Archerfield),
which are composed of excellent land, thinly wooded, and it
appears evident to me, that the water must often stand here
in many spots, on
account of the numbers of hollows on the surface. This
district probably contains 5000 or 6000 acres. The timber is
decidedly of little worth, but the ridges produce abundantly
the Iron Bark and Blue Gum trees.
We
encamped at three and a half miles from the entrance ot the
flats, on the west bank of Canoe Creek (Oxley
Creek),
by which they are bounded, having accomplished a distance by
the odometer of nine miles. There is nothing novel in the
botany of this district. The principal timber consisted of
Banksia Compar, Tristania robusta, Iron Bark, some stunted
Casuarinae, and a species of Acacia with long cylindrical
spikes of flower."
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July
25th
"The
temperature delightful, and sky cloudy. At half-past eight
we continued our course southward, which led us for a
considerable distance along the banks of Canoe Creek,over a
country varied with alternate strips of Tea Tree (Melaleuca
linariifolia) of swamps and sandy forest land, the latter
consisting of Honeysuckle Tree (Banksia integrifolia), the
Forest Oak (Casuarina torulosa) and stunted Gum Trees
(Eucalypti).
The creek now taking a sudden eastward turn, we were obliged
to ascend a range of low hills, leaving on the left some
beautiful flats of rich land. The hills are formed of a
light sandy soil, and clothed with a sward of good grass,
and I remarked several encampments of natives, the shape of
whose huts were different from any I had hitherto seen.
At half past seven
(or probably could be eleven),
we again fell in with the course of the creek, and rested
out cattle. Having carried their loads across the creek, and
reloaded with some difficulty, the animals, we resumed our
journey at one'o'clock. The way lay over a tract of
uninteresting country, interspersed again with swamps,
clumps of Tea Tree and flats of a poor argillaceous soil,
which however, produced some excellent timber."
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