drush quickstart-create errors

I am trying to get a site set up using quickstart in virtualbox. I am on a learning curve here but as I understand it, the correct command is: drush quickstart-create --domain=drupal1.dev (where drupal1.dev is the name of the site to be created).

I am getting a whole slew of errors when I run this and I think I must be missing something fundamental. I am running the command from within a terminal in the quickstart virtual machine within virtualbox (is this correct?).

I can post the contents of the whole terminal session but to start it seems that the first few lines (copied below) must give some indication of what the problem is. Any help would be gratefully received - I am keen to try and use the system to build a development site and am frustrated not to be able to make any progress.

drush quickstart-create --domain=drupal1.dev
[ok]
Creating dns config (add drupal1.dev to /etc/hosts) ... [ok]
... done. [ok]
Creating database: drupal1_dev [ok]
... done. [ok]
Downloading code to /home/quickstart/websites/drupal1.dev (takes a [ok]
minute, check network activity) ...
The external command could not be executed due to an application [error]
error.
simplexml_load_string(): Entity: line 109: parser error : Opening and[warning]
ending tag mismatch: meta line 3 and head drush_make.drush.inc:273
simplexml_load_string(): drush_make.drush.inc:273 [warning]
simplexml_load_string(): ^ drush_make.drush.inc:273 [warning]
simplexml_load_string(): Entity: line 132: parser error : Opening and[warning]
ending tag mismatch: br line 131 and div drush_make.drush.inc:273
simplexml_load_string():

drush_make.drush.inc:273 [warning]
simplexml_load_string(): ^ drush_make.drush.inc:273 [warning]
simplexml_load_string(): Entity: line 139: parser error : Opening and[warning]

(lots more simplex_load_string errors which I have omitted to keep this shorter)

simplexml_load_string(): ^ drush_make.drush.inc:273 [warning]
Could not retrieve version information for drupal. [error]
Non-existent project type on project drupal [error]
Drush command terminated abnormally due to an unrecoverable error. [error]