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These extracts are taken from Samuel Butler’s The Hand-Book for Australian Emigrants; being a descriptive History of Australia, and Containing an Account of the Climate, Soil, and Natural Productions of New South Wales, South Australia, and Swan River Settlement published by W.R. McPhun, Glasgow, 1839.
We first look at his general descriptions of the Counties of Camden and Argyle; the County of St. Vincent is not described in his work.
pp. 23-25
“7. Camden lies below Cumberland, t the south-ward. Its physical aspect is more than undulating - it is a regular succession of hill and dale, the former sometimes rising into mountains, and the latter sinking down into ravines. It contains 2200 square miles, and although it occupies so wide an extent, it possesses tracts unsurpassed anywhere for fertility. Of these the principal are the Cowpastures, so called from the large herds of cattle recently found there, and which have all descended from a bull and two cows that escaped from H.M.S. Sirius soon after the founding of the colony. They contain an area of 60,000 acres, the greater part consisting of a fertile light sandy loam, resting upon a substratum of clay. Camden is celebrated for embracing within its limits the fertile, beautiful, and it may even be added, the romantic region of the Illawarra. This tract comprises 150,000 acres, and is almost entirely shut off from inland communications with the other parts of the colony by the mountain wall by which it is nearly enclosed, and which, although it may be surmounted on horseback, presents a serious obstacle to wheeled vehicles. The intercourse with Sydney is therefore carried on by sea. The Burragorang Valley is hemmed in by the Merrigang range and the Blue Mountains, with only one precipitous pass by which it can be entered. It consists of rich stripes of soil, carpetted [sic] by the richest herbage, variegated by over-hanging cliffs and rugged declivities, occasionally adorned with waving shrubs and verdant heaths. The ridges of the Merrigang tower up like the roof of a house, and leave but a narrow ravine between, forming a scenery which, in its reality, far exceeds the halo with which the imagination of Scott invested the haunts that he loved, and to which the steps of so many a tourist have been so often turned.
“8. The county of Argyle is to the left, or westward of Camden. Its nearest point to the sea is twenty-five miles. It is sixty miles long, and on average thirty broad, containing a superficial area of 1950 square miles. It is diversified by many swelling hills, with irregular plains between, and is watered by the various branches of the Hawkesbury and Shoalhaven rivers. Lake Bathurst is in this county, 129 miles S.W. of Sydney. Its waters are pure, but as they are principally collected from the mountain torrent, they vary in quantity like the source of their supply. Although Argyle is not absolutely deficient in timber, it is comparatively but thinly wooded. There are plains of great extent, such as those of Goulburn, containg 35,000 acres without a single tree, while in Eden Forest they are so sparingly spread as to resemble a baronial park than a natural forest. This district bears a striking resemblance to the once ploughed lea land of our own country. Although the most accomplished prize ploughman had formed the furrow and the ridge they could not have appeared more regular and workmanlike than has here, by some mysterious process, been effected by the hand of nature. These ridges always appear on some gentle declivity where there is a tenacious subsoil and a loose superstrata, and are, in all probability, produced by the agency of water which, according to Major Mitchell, is found so frequently, contrary to the expectations of the inexperienced, in large quantities on the higher ground. By flowing down, something like the present appearances might be produced; but we leave thier regularity, which has been a stumbling-block to the geologist, as a stepping-stone to the emigrant farmer.”
Later he describes individual roads, or travel routes, in detail.
pp. 77-82.
“5. The direct distance from Sydney to the town of Wollongong, in the district of Illawarra, or, as it is frequently called, the Five Islands, from five small islands on that part of the coast, is not greater than forty-five miles; and the communication with the capital, except for travellers, is managed chiefly by water: but as the intervening country is intersected by numerous ravines, as well as by several arms of the sea, the road to Illawarra describes two sides of an equilateral triangle, of which the coast line forms the base - running for a certain distance to the south-westward, and then suddenly breaking off eight points to the south-eastward after heading the ravines. The distance by land is therefore about seventy miles, the road passing through the towns of Liverpool and Campbelltown.
“The Liverpool road will be found very uninteresting, and is more polluted by the frequent appearance of the tavern than adorned by the cottage, or redeemed by the hospital of Sir Thomas Brisbane, so magnificently projected, but so inauspiciously placed.
“6. The distance from Liverpool to Campbelltown is thirteen miles; and along the whole intervening line of road there are neat cottages at irregular intervals, belonging to respectable resident proprietors. In the immediate neighbourhood the country, which consists of a succession of hills and dales, has much more of an English aspect than most other parts of the territory, and the proportion of cleared land is very considerable. The district of Campbelltown, however, is unfortunately situated in regard to water; the soil of the surrounding country being strongly impregnated with alum, which renders the water brackish. But he evil is not without remedy; and a substantial proprietor in the neighbourhood, Mr. Thomas Rose, of Mount Gilead, has deserved well of the colonial public in demonstrating the efficacy of that remedy, and the practicability of its general application. In the neighbourhood of Campbelltown, and in many other parts of the colony, the country is intersected by numerous water-courses, which in rainy seasons conatain running streams of considerable size, but which are quite dry at all other times. Across one of these water-courses, Mr. Rose formed a srong embankment sufficiently broad at the surface to serve the additional purpose of cart-road from bank to bank. The result has equalled his highest expectations: the embankment has permanently dammed up a large quantity of water of excellent quality, sufficient to afford an abundant supply at all seasons for his farming establishment, besides forming an ornamental sheet of water in the vicinity of his residence. Water dammed up in this way, or even collected in large basins formed for the purpose, is not liable to become putrid in New South Wales, as it frequently does in similar circumstances in Great Britain. There are many farms in the colony that have no other water than what is thus collected from the surface during heavy rains in natural basins, or water-holes, as they are called by the colonists; the water in such holes or basins remaining pure and wholesome to the last drop. It would be difficult to account for the formation of these natural basins or reservoirs, some of which are of great depth, and have more the appearance of artificial than of natural productions but their existence in all parts of the territory is a blessing of incalculable value to the colonial community.
“7. About three miles beyond Campbelltown, to the right, is the dairy-farm or estate of Glenlee. There is a large extent of cleared land on the Glenlee estate, the greater part of which has been laid down with English grasses, the paddocks being separated from each other by hedges of quince or lemon-tree - the usual but seldom-used colonial substitutes for the hawthorne. The country is an undulating character, and the scenery from Glenlee house - a handsome two-storey house, built partly of brick and partly of a drab-coloured sand-stone - is rich, and most agreeably diversified. On the opposite bank of the Cowpastuer river, which forms the boundary of Mr. Howe’s estate, is the much more extensive estate of Camden, the property of the late John Macarthur, Esq., and one of the largest and best-conducted establishments in the colony. Indeed, Mr. Macarthur’s family deserves the highest credit for the highly-judicious mode of treatment they have uniformly pursued towards the numerous convict-servants on their estate, and for the interest they have uniformly taken in promoting their comfortable settlement on their attainment of freedom. The Messrs. Macarthur, jun., who are both magistrates of the territory, have lately erected a a splendid mansion on the Camden estate, and their extensive gardens are a model to the colony. The vineyard at Camden is the most extensive and the most forward in the country. There are many other estates, however, besides these, belonging to respectable resident proprietors in this aprt of the colonial territory; and there is no part in the world in which families of moderate capital, and possessing ability to manage their affairs with the requisite discretion, could more easily assemble around them a large proportion of the comforts, I might even add the elegancies and the luxuries, of rural life.
“8. From Campelltown to Appin, a distance of eleven miles, the country continues to exhibit the same pleasing appearance of fertility, and the the proportion of cleared and cultivated land continues very considerable. About six miles from Campbell town, to the left of the road, is Brookdale cottage, the residence of Hamilton Hume, Esq., a Scoto-Australian, to whom the colony is under considerable obligations. The natives of New South Wales are noted for their ability to find their way in the forest, in places where the most sagacious European would be in the utmost danger of being irrevocably lost; and Mr. Hume possesses this quality of his countrymen in a superior degree, conjoined with a singularly enterprising spirit and indomitable perseverance. It was this gentleman who first ferreted his way, through a series of miserable jungles and across uncompromising ravines, to what is now called The New Country, or the district of Argyle; and he has since reached Bass’s Straits, in company with Mr. Hovell, a respectable settle in the same vicinity, by crossing the country to the southward. Mr. Hume uses neither compass nor quadrant; but, like the Indians of America, he manages to find his way through the forest to any particular locality with a precision often unobtainable by those who are most skilful in the use of both. Mr Hume is descended from one of the collateral branches of the ancient and noble family of the same name, to which the dormant earldom of March, on the Scottish border, anciently belonged.
“The remainerd of the old route to Illawarra is still a mere bush-road, the regular government road, on which a gang of convicts have been employed for some time past, being not yet completed. For many a long mile from Appin the country is exceedingly sterile and uninteresting; but, on gaining the summit of the Illawarra mountain - a lofty and precipitous range, running parallel to the coast, and supporting the elevated table-land to the westward - the view is indescribably magnificent; for all at once, the cast Pacific Ocean, stretching far and wide to the eastward, burst upon the view, whilst almost right under foot it is seen lashing the black rocks that form its iron boundary to the westward, like an angry lion lashing the bars of his cage with his bushy tail, or dashing its huge breakers on the intervening sandy beaches in immense masses of white foam, and with a loud and deafening noise. In short, after the long and uninteresting ride from Appin, the scenery from the summit of the Illawarra mountain is overpoweringly sublime.
“The district of Illawarra consists of a belt of land inclosed [sic] between the mounatin and the ocean, increasing in breadth, to the southward, and, though generally thickly wooded, for the most part of exuberant fertility. The descent of the mountain, which is probably about fifteen hundred feet high, is the most precipitous used in the colony for a road, and horses that are unaccustomed to the route betray the utmost unwillingness to proceed in certain parts of it. The rider uniformly dismounts at the top of the mountain, and precedes the horse, holding the end of the bridle in his hand; but on reaching any part of the descent more than usually steep, the horse occasionally stops short from absolute fear, and the rider has actually to pul him down by the bridle at the risk of his rolling over him.
“9. There are few respectable settlers in the neighbourhood of the thriving village of Wollongong, which is well situated on the sea-coast of an indifferent harbour, capable, however of great improvement; but the majority are of a humbler order. It is evident, however, from the natural fertility of the soil. that the district is capable of affording both employment and subsistence to a numerous agricultural population; and as the pasture at Illawarra is generally deemed less favourable for the rearing of sheep and cattle than that of the more elevated lands of the colony, it is evident that the formation of an agricultural population was just the purpose to which the district ought to have been appropriated, and for which indeed its immediate vicinity to water-carriage might have proclaimed its peculiar adaptation to incapacity itself. It is mortifying, however, to observe, at every step in the colony of New South Wales, fresh evidences of an entire want of foresight on the part of the former rulers of the colony, or rather of a most unjustifiable disregard of the best interests of the community; for, instead of reserving the fertile tracts of Illawarra for the settlement of industrious families of the humbler classes of society, on small farms of thirty to fifty acres each, to cultivate grain, roots, vegetables, fruit, vines, and tobacco, and to rear pigs and poultry for the Sydney market; the land in this district has in great measure been granted or sold off by former governors to non-resident proprietors, in tracts varying from two thousand to five thousand acres each. These proprietors will naturally suffer their land to remain in its present wild and uncultivated state as mere cattle-runs, till the increase of the population of the colony, and the extension of steam-navigation along the east coast from Moreton Bay to Cape Howe, shall have rendered every acre ten times more valuable than it is at present.”
Butler then goes on to discuss the availabilty of land for prospective emigrants and quotes from a letter written to Dr. Land from the Surveyor General:
pp. 91-92.
“ ‘I shall subjoin the names of such places as seem most eligible, and where the waste lands are of very good quality, and in general extensive.
“ To the southward, the limits of our present colony terminate on the borders of one of the finest regions I suppose in the world for the establishment of an agricultural population, - I mean the banks of the Yass, the Booroowa, and the Murrumbidgee, consisting of rich open plains, watered by copious never-failing streams. To that country level roads may be made the whole of the way from Sydney, and in time, the sea-coast nearest to it may be also rendered accessible by the same means. To enumerate particular parts of that extensive country is needless at present.
“ ‘The uper parts of the Shoalhaven river, are also, in general, very good, from Kurraduebidgee southward. There are many parts of the banks and valleys opening on this river which might maintain a very numerous agricultural population.
“ ‘The shores of Bateman Bay, and the lower part of the river, called Clywd [Clyde], are still very little taken up, and contain much very superior land for cultivation.
“ ‘To the westward of Burra-burra lagoon, is a tract of beautiful land; the situation is isolated, but to a small community it would prove, perhaps, eligible enough; it is watered by some fine mountain streams, and is in the immediate vicinity of the sheep stations of Messrs. McArthur, McAlister, &c.
“ ‘Goulburn Plains are still but thinly populated, although consisting in general of good wheat land, and every respect a good situation for a farming population. Northward of these is Tarlo, where some good land is still vacant.
“ ‘Bungonia, where a township has been laid out. In this vicinity there is much land very eligible for small farms. A few miles nearer Sydney, at Bumballa, near the Shoalhaven river, there is much good land still unlocated; and at Cambewarra, an excellent portion of table-land south of Illawarra, which consists of about sixteen square miles of the ricjest land, wholly unlocated, although overlooking the sea, and very near Jervis Bay, which is likely to become, in a few years, the port of Argyle, &c.
“ ‘The Kangaroo river, a branch of the Shoalhaven river, flows in a secluded valley, where the land is of an excellent description; this river is immediately behind Cambewarra; the Shoalhaven may be rendered navigable to within a few miles of it.
“ ‘Illawarra - there is a tract of land still vacant, very eligible for a small agricultural community.
“ ‘East Bargo - some good land still vacant, were it accessible by the road proposed.
“ ‘West Bargo consists of much land fit for cultivation, still vacant.
“ ‘Burragorang - (the bed of the Nattai and Wollondilly rivers) where the land is excellent, and capable of containing a very numerous population.
“ ‘Lake George (various parts of the shores of this lake).
“ ‘Breadalbane Plains. - Lake Bathurst.
“ ‘ Sutton Forest (about Nundialla, Black Bob’s Creek).
“ ‘Paddy’s river (near the new line of road).”
Butler also included a list of current wages.
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