Travel Story: leigh wilkins - australia
“The view was exceedingly beautiful over the surrounding plains. A land so inviting and still without inhabitants! “, Major Thomas Mitchell’s description of Australia Felix (Fortunate Australia) came to me as I sat in awe of the vast plain ahead.
The early explorer of Australia’s interior spoke of being the first European ‘intruder’ on untouched lands, of being conscious that he was ‘harbinger of mighty changes’, he understood that what he was embarking on would soon be followed by men and animals to change the land and people forever. I understood what Mitchell had considered, yet I needed to follow his footsteps, the tracks of his oxen, his sheep, I needed to follow the wheel tracks of his carts.
Mitchell’s third expedition into the far reaches of the new British colony of New South Wales took place 180 years ago, a seven-month expedition through 1836, with a party of 25 men, several Aboriginals, and many cattle, sheep and carts. I planned to follow as closely as possible his exact route on my 2016 BMW F800GSA, everything I’d need to be taken with me. I intended to face what he and his team faced, the same trials and tribulations, discoveries, excitement.
A land so inviting and still without inhabitants, Australia Felix. I needed to follow in Major Mitchell’s ox-cart tracks.