A great river is believed to enter the Indian Ocean on the northwest of Australia, and if so, that the country it drains might be suitable for colonization.

British colonial administrator and army lieutenant George Edward Grey, in conjunction with Lieutenant Lushington, offers to explore this country and on July 5, 1837, sails from Plymouth in command of a party of five, the others being Lieutenant Lushington, a surgeon and naturalist named Walker, and two corporals of the royal sappers and miners.

Others are added to the party at Cape Town and early in December they land at Hanover Bay.

The expedition is catastrophically ill prepared—only one man of Grey’s party has seen northern Australia before.

Wrecked, almost drowned, and completely lost, with Grey wounded in a skirmish with Aborigines, they trace the course of the Glenelg River before giving up and retiring to Mauritius to recover.