Hume and Hovell set out from
Sydney 175 years ago for Western Port.
For the first two weeks they
travelled through country already explored and settled. They reached
the banks of the Murrumbidgee and found the river in high flood.
After waiting for three days for the river to fall they decided to cross
it using one of the carts as a boat.
They travelled for some time
over the hills and had to go from side to side because some of the hills
were so steep. After a while they decided to leave their carts because
travelling with them became difficult.
They saw lots of aborigines and
often followed their tracks which sometimes led them to water. After travelling
up for
a long time they reached
the top of the mountain only
to see more mountains
and some of these were covered
in snow.
Hume and Hovell turned
west at this point to try avoid
the mountains. A week
later they arrived at the now called
Murray River which they
called the Hume River. The river was very wide and so they made a boat
from materials they could find and covered it with tarpaulins. This is
how they crossed the river.
They continued on to Port
Phillip Bay.
On their return journey they
crossed the Hume (Murray)
River again, only this time
it was much easier as the water was lower.
to
find out more about Hume & Hovell
to
Robert Brown - Albury's first white settler
go
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