Was he not to reap some reward for his heroic efforts along the Lachlan, to enjoy the realisation of some of his ambition as geographical discoverer?
The Macquarie seemed a favourable subject for the exercise of his talents.

Would it not lead him westward to the conquest of that mysterious inland country which had hitherto guarded its secrets with an invincible obstinacy?
Poor Oxley, who can help rejoicing with him in his short-lived joy?
Without knowing it, he was the first of a long line of brave spirits who were doomed to lose health and life in carving their way into the heart of Australia.
As they returned homeward up the bank of the Macquarie, the river seemed to him to glitter with the bright promise of a crown of success.

For almost the first time the entry in his journal has a cheery ring of hope:-- "Nothing can afford a stronger contrast than the two rivers -- Lachlan and Macquarie -- different in their habits, their appearance, and the source from which they derive their waters, but, above all, differing in the country bordering on them; the one constantly receiving great accession of water from four streams, and as liberally rendering fertile a great extent of country, whilst the other, from its source to its termination is constantly diffusing and diminishing the water it originally receives over low and barren deserts, creating only wet flats and uninhabitable morasses, and during its protracted and sinuous course is never indebted to a single tributary stream." 3.3.THE LIVERPOOL PLAINS.
The disappointment occasioned by Oxley's return to Bathurst and his failure to trace the course of the Lachlan was in part atoned for by the high opinion he had formed of the Macquarie.

A second expedition was planned, and the command again offered to the Surveyor-General.
Evans was again second, and Dr.Harris, a very able man, accompanied the party as a volunteer.

Charles Fraser was botanist, but Allan Cunningham did not go.