Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia

Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia was performed under the authority of Her Majesty's Government during the years 1844, 5, and 6, together with a notice of the Province of South Australia in 1847. The narrator says that, when the point at which Mr. Oxley had been checked was reached, the Macquarie was found not "running bank high," as he describes it, but almost dry. The text names two hills, to which Mr. Oxley gave the names of Mount Harris and Mount Foster, distant from each other about five miles.

The narrator ascended Mount Foster just as the sun was setting and looked in vain for the region of reeds and of water which Mr. Oxley had seen to the westward. The narrator proceeded with the whole party to the westward, anticipating that the salt formation existing to the north-west was merely local. An entry for Bourke's Parroquet calls it an elegant little bird that was also a visitant at the Depot and remained throughout the winter.