John Oxley. Journal of a second expedition into the interior of New South Wales (151pp.), 20 May 1818-05 November 1818

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The purpose of the expedition was to trace the course of the Macquarie River. Oxley was accompanied by George Evans, Charles Fraser and twelve other men. They left Bathurst on 28 May 1818 and Wellington Valley on 6 June. They followed the Macquarie River in a north-westerly direction through fine country, but by early July they had reached a vast area of lagoons and swamps. Oxley recorded his belief that they were 'in the immediate vicinity of an inland sea, or lake'. Abandoning the Macquarie River, he decided to travel eastwards to the Castlereagh River, which Evans had discovered a few days earlier. They crossed the river on 2 August and journeyed across barren plains for a month until they reached the Peel River, where the country was far more luxuriant. The party then crossed the Great Dividing Range, with its ridges, precipices and gorges, and finally reached the mouth of the Hastings River on 8 October. He named the inlet Port Macquarie. The final part of the journal describes the journey southwards, crossing numerous inlets and rivers, and encounters with hostile Aborigines. Oxley reached Port Stephens on 1 November and Newcastle a few days later.

The journal is bound with the journal kept by George Evans of an expedition in the vicinity of Mount Harris, during which he discovered the Castlereagh River, 8 - 18 July 1818. (8 pp.)

The journal was forwarded by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to Lord Bathurst, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, on 1 March 1819. The two journals of Oxley, and also the diary of George Evans (July 1818), were published under the title Journals of two expeditions into the interior of New South Wales undertaken by order of the British Government in the years 1817-18 (London, 1820).

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