Papuan Exploration
p. 36 · Read in the full issue
[To the Editor.] Sir,—In the article “Head Hunting as a Custom” (P.I.M., 19/5/32) your cor respondent is not quite correct in his statement that between 1890 and 1928 Macgregor’s feat of reaching a 600-mile point on the Upper Fly was not beaten.
As a matter of fact, Macgregor’s 610 mile point was on the Palmer River, the Fly River above Palmer Junction not being traversed until 1924.
During 1914, the Prykes, who were prospecting with Sir Rupert Clarke, reached a point above Macgregor’s 610 mile. This I know is correct for they have photographs which prove it.
In 1922, I was exploring the north west district between the Dutch bound ary and the Fly and eventually returned from a point on the Alice River, some 630 miles above the mouth of the Fly.
In 1924, when Mr. Thompson and my self were exploring the Tully district of the Upper Fly, Mr. Thompson tra versed the Tully River while I went on and discovered its source and then reached the main Fly 604 miles above its mouth, and traversed this back for the first time as far as Palmer Junc tion, Though Macgregor doubted the fact that D’Albertis ever reached Macrossan Island, I have tried to show in my paper, “D’Albertis’ Exploration of the Upper Fly River” (R.A.H.S. Journal, Pt. V., 1925) that D’Albertis actually passed Palmer and Thompson Junc tions and must have reached a point 580 miles above the mouth of the Fly on the Palmer River.
Considering that Macgregor “had all appliances and means to boot” and D'Albertis but few, I think the latter’s feat stands out alone until the Karius- Champion expedition.
I am, etc.,
Leo Austen.
Trobriand Islands, Papua, June 18, 1932.