Through Hitherto Impassable Ranges:
Exploring the Heart of the Kimberley
1884-1906
PRINCIPAL EDITOR Ned Overton.
Published 2024.
READ EXCERPTS FROM THIS VOLUME
The second volume of Kimberley exploration.
The rugged King Leopold Ranges and adjoining ranges encircle Western Australia’s northern Kimberley district. When Alex Forrest traversed from near Geikie Gorge to Collier Bay in 1879, he found the ranges impenetrable.
Following Forrest, pastoralists and government surveyors confined themselves to the southern plains, although pastoral leases covered the entire district. Beginning in 1883, explorers began to find narrow gaps penetrating this barrier, worn by water to plain level; some of them were accessible, bypassing a dangerous climb.
Soon after the northern pastures had been initially explored the discovery of gold to the south-east gave lightly-equipped prospectors high incentive to find more gaps, opening access northwards. Shunning publicity, they made only rudimentary maps. When in 1887 Dr Thomas Lovegrove announced an expedition to investigate a new road through the “hitherto considered impassable Leopold Ranges”, he failed to appreciate the wide extent of recent traverses across the northern Kimberley – mostly initiated through, rather than over, otherwise impassable ranges.
ISBN 978-1-875778-34-8
Hardcover, Case Bound, Section Sewn, Dust Jacket, Illustrated, with Maps and full Indexes, 852 pages, 2.2 kg.
$280.00 plus postage.
Only 100 copies of this casebound edition have been printed.
Order this Volume from Hesperian Press.