Last Expedition
On his last expedition, Kennedy was sent to the far north of Australia to attack the problem of finding an overland route from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Sydney again.
On 28 April 1848 Edmund Kennedy and his men sailed out of Sydney Harbour in the barque Tam O' Shanter in company with the survey ship HMS Rattlesnake, for the journey to Rockingham Bay. Once landed, the party encountered terrible terrain such as mangrove swamps, mountains, lagoons, rivers, and thick rainforest that made it almost impossible to travel. After two months, they had only travelled about 20 miles into the interior.
The expedition separated into two groups. One group stayed behind, and the other group went north to meet the supply ship. On the way to the ship, one man accidentally shot himself and could not continue, so two men were left to help him. Kennedy and a young aboriginal man in the expedition called Jackey Jackey went on to try to find the ship. Kennedy was killed by aborigines near Cape York. He was 20 miles from the ship. Jackey Jackey made it to the supply ship alone on 23 December 1848. Jackey Jackey held Kennedy in his arms as he died before showing the sailors where Edmund lay, then sailed back home. Of the group of eight that stayed behind, just two survived; William Carron (botanist) and a labourer.
Read more about this topic: Edmund Kennedy
Famous quotes containing the word expedition:
“Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination.”
—Janet Frame (b. 1924)
“It is a sort of ranger service. Arnold’s expedition is a daily experience with these settlers. They can prove that they were out at almost any time; and I think that all the first generation of them deserve a pension more than any that went to the Mexican war.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)