Starting in May 1823, Currie, together with Brigade Major John Ovens and experienced bushman Joseph Wild explored the country east and south-west of Lake George in New South Wales. After crossing several rivers and the Goulburn plains they arrived at the east bank of the lake, at about north of the southern end. They struck south-south-east and then west across the Limestone Plains through an area ideal for settlement (now Canberra) to an area which Currie named Isabella's Plain after Isabella Brisbane, the infant daughter of the Governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane. Today this is a suburb in the Tuggeranong district of Canberra. They came to the Murrumbidgee River and followed it in a southerly direction, crossing the Umaralla River thinking it to be the Murrumbidgee. There they came to fertile plains which they named Brisbane Downs. Today the aboriginal name Monaro has been restored to the region. It is likely that the fertility of these areas of New South Wales led him to underestimate the problems that would later be faced in the Swan River Settlement.