The Australian National University-Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service Archaeological Expedition to the Franklin River, 1982: A Summary of Results

Abstract

Dead logs and branches impeded us a t every step; and we were continually meeting with large tracts of dense thicket, from thirty to forty feet high so closely interwoven and matted together, as to be impenetrable below: and we were often obliged to be walking upon these never dry, slippery branches covered with moss, as much as twenty feet above the ground, which being in many instances rotten, occasioned us many awkward falls, and tore our clothes to rags. We were not able to force our way on five hundred yards in an hour, in some of these horrid scrubs [Henry Hellyer, field journal February 1827; Binks 1980:62].