The Governor referred the matter to Lord Stanley, whose reply was favourable, but the project still hung fire.

In 1844 Eyre again wrote offering to make the journey at a much more reasonable rate, but his offer was however declined as Mitchell's proposals held the field.

In 1845 the fund was increased to two thousand pounds, and Sir George Gipps ordered the Surveyor-General to make his preparations.
Mitchell favoured the search for a practicable road to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and hoped also that he would at last find his long-sought northern-flowing river.

In a letter which he then received from a well-known grazier, Walter Bagot, there is mention of an aboriginal description of a large river running northward to the west of the Darling.

But as natives in their descriptions frequently confuse flowing to and flowing from, they probably had Cooper's Creek in mind.
During the earlier part of the year, Commissioner Mitchell, the son of Sir Thomas, who was afterwards drowned during a passage to Newcastle, had made a flying survey towards the Darling, and the discovery of the Narran, Balonne, and Culgoa rivers has been attributed to him.
On the 15th of December, 1845, Mitchell started from Buree with a very large company, including E.B.Kennedy as second in command, and W.
Stephenson as surgeon and collector.