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Australian Theme - developing local, regional and national economies. NSW Theme - exploration. Local Themes - explorer’s route, marked tree, camp site, surveyor’s notebook, mountain pass, water source, map.
The first detailed reports on this area were recorded in the extensive journals of the explorer and botanist Allan Cunningham who entered northern New South Wales and travelled through the western fringe of the New England Tablelands. However he was not the first European to enter the lands as Cunningham noted cattle and a hut in his detailed exploration report. Aged 25 years, Cunningham arrived in New South Wales on the ‘Surrey’ in December 1816. A year later, he accompanied John Oxley, Surveyor-General of New South Wales on an exploration of the Lachlan River.
John Oxley travelled the lower part of the southern New England Tablelands close to present day Walcha and onto Port Macquarie in 1818. On two earlier occasions, Cunningham had discovered an entrance to the Liverpool Plains through the Warrumbungle Range in 1823 and two years later in 1825 he explored the Liverpool Plains.
On 30 April 1827 he set out from ‘Segenhoe Station’ on the upper Hunter River to explore northern New South Wales with a party of six men and eleven packhorses. He crossed Oxley’s tracks leading to Port Macquarie in 11 May and in his journal, Cunningham noted that the country north under meridian 1501/2 was densely wooded and barren. At the time the country was under extreme drought but on 19 May when he passed the parallel of 30 degrees, the party descended from stony hills to the head of a well-watered valley, bounded on either side by a bold and elevated rocky range. The grassy vale was followed northerly for some 16 miles to its termination at the left bank of a large river.
Cunningham ‘crossed the east-west traverse of the Nandewar Range, near the present Bingara-Barraba road, and entered the Gwydir Valley’ on 20 May. The vale was named Stoddarts Valley and it was here that the party found evidence of cattle. On the next day, Cunningham believed that he had found the Peel but on his return journey, he named the same river the Gwydir after Lord Gwydir, a Welsh nobleman. It was at this crossing that the town of Bingera (Bingara) was later established. On 22 to 23 May the explorers avoided the rough country and cypress pine hills to the east. He observed a ‘rocky ridge of hills’ (Mt Rodd); a lofty ridge, called Braco Peak now Balfours Peak and the high ridge Mastertons Range, now Mastermans Range. On 24 May Cunningham crossed a river described as Reedy or Warialda Creek about two kilometres downstream from the present town. From there the party encountered plains and black soil and noted the flood plains of Ottley and Seerey Creek. On 28 May Cunningham named a river Dumaresq after the Dumaresq brothers, whose sister was married to Governor Darling. Two days later he named the present Dumaresq River, the Macintyre Brook after the man who had guided him over the Liverpool Range.
Further north, Cunningham came to a vast tract of open grassland that he named Darling Downs after Governor Darling who was then Governor of New South Wales. He discovered a gap in the range of mountains west of Moreton Bay and he terminated his outward journey in the Yangan Valley east of the present town of Warwick, Queensland. On 16 June 1827, he started on the return journey from the Darling Downs. The return journey brought him close to Tenterfield, Inverell, Warialda and Horton River areas to the Liverpool Plains and then to ‘Segenhoe Station’.
From 7 to 8 July Cunningham encountered Warialda Creek and observed the large number of Aboriginal people in the Warialda area. On 9 July he located a temporary timber structure constructed by Europeans. Wiedemann believes that ‘the hut was probably located in the south-east corner of the Stonehenge State Forest, near the Gwydir Highway, 4 kilometres SE of Warialda’. The party continued through forest to Kelly Gully and passed some 3 kilometres close to the present village of Warialda Rail. Over the next two days, Cunningham reached the river that he had considered the Peel but which he subsequently named the Gwydir after Lord Gwydir. Continuing in a northwesterly direction, he discovered the junction of this river with another, which he named the Horton. Cunningham encountered difficult terrain as he proceeded south and encountered Rocky and Back Creeks. On 28 July 1827 he returned to ‘Segenhoe Valley’ in the Hunter Valley.
As noted by Barker:
The significant result of Cunningham’s journey is that the northwestern slopes and the Darling Downs became early goals of the squatters when they began their movement beyond the limits of settlement. It was certain, therefore, that some of the first stations to be taken up would be in the Peel, Namoi and Gwydir Valleys.
A monument is erected in Cunningham Park by members of the Bingara Apex Club, in honour of explorer and botanist, Allan Cunningham.
A detailed history of Cunningham’s travels throughout the shire has not been attempted in this thematic history but there is a need for a close investigation of his extensive journeys by a skilled surveyor who can relate the actual journey to modern geographical features. This could then develop cultural tourism in the Shire so that the actual route could be identified and related to names given by Allan Cunningham.
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