|
The following extract is from John Dunmore Lang’s An Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales, from the founding of the colony in 1788 to the present day, Vol. II, (Fourth Ed.); Sampson Low, Marston Low, Low & Searle, London, 1875.
pp. 279-305.
“On leaving Campbelltown, the course by the railway for the next nineteen miles, through a fine pastoral and agricultural country, is to Picton. The situation of the town, or rather township, of Picton, which adjoins the beautifully picturesque estates of the late Major Antill, J.P. - an old and highly respectable colonist, who had been a Major of Brigade under Governor Macquarie - and of the late George Harper, Esq., of Abbotsford, reminded me strongly of that of Stuttgardt [Stuttgart] in the kingdom of Wirtemberg, being a deep hollow almost completely surrounded by pretty steep hills.
“After passing a few whinstone hills beyond Picton, and crossing Myrtle Creek a few miles further on, where the ground is of an excellent undulating character, and the soil and water excellent, this formation suddenly disappears, and is succeeded by a miserable sandstone country, which is traversed by the Bargo River and called Bargo Brush. Beyond this, however, the trap again appears as the principal constituent of the Mittagong Range of mountains, and the country improves rapidly towards the town of Berrima, to which there is a very gentle ascent for many miles.
“Berrima, the county Town of Camden, is eighty miles from Sydney, and is situated, somewhat like Picton, in a hollow, on the Wingicarribbee River. It is 2096 feet above the level of the sea, and the climate is sensibly different from that of the low country towards the coast. The gooseberry and currant grow here, which they do not do at Sydney, while the potato and the apple acquire a sort of European character which they rarely exhibit on the coast; but maize and the orange, which succeed well below, refuse to grow in this higher region. The children also about Berrima have fine ruddy faces, as at home, unlike the pale faces of Sydney and the low country generally.
“Although the country a few miles from Berrima is of a superior character, it is very indifferent for a considerable distance around the town; and I confess, notwithstanding the undeniable fact of its possessing an abundant supply of good water, I was at a loss to know why a town should have been placed in such a locality at all. In a thinly populated country without manufactures, the first requisite in fixing the site of an inland town is plenty of good land in the neighbourhood, and the second plenty of good water. In most cases the water can be brought to the land, if it is not naturally abundant in the immediate vicinity, with comparatively little trouble or expense; but the land can never be brought to the water. Terra firma and ‘running water’ are phrases that have much meaning in this point of view, and they ought not to be forgotten on such an occasion as the fixing of a site for an inland town. No forcing on the part of the Government can create a town in an improperly chosen locality, as the case of Liverpool sufficiently proves; and the principal part of the population that will collect in such a place will in all likelihood consist of publicans of an inferior character, and the other useless drones that contrive to pick up a subsistence in some way or other along the highways of the colony, by preying upon honester people who are travelling to and fro in the way of their respective callings. This is remarkably the case in Berrima; for although the Government have expended a very large sum in the erection of a gaol and a court-house in the so-called town - where no such buildings ought ever to have been erected - the population, which does not exceed 475, consists chiefly of a few publicans and their dependants, who seem to have nothing to do but to look out for the next carriage or bullock-dray that may be passing along the road.
“About seven miles from Berrima, at a considerable rivulet called by the horrid name of Black Bob’s Creek, there is a pretty large extent of really good land and plenty of excellent water; and a few miles off to the left there is a fine tract of agricultural country at a place called Bong Bong. In such localities, villages and towns rise up naturally and without forcing on the part of the Government; and there is accordingly a considerable agricultural population in both of these localities.
“At twenty-eight miles from Berrima is Marulan * [Footnote - * Pronounced Maroolan, with the accent on the second syllable.], another incipient town situated at the turning-off of the road to Bungonia, Braidwood, and Queanbeyan; in which direction there is a large extent of very superior country both for cultivation and grazing, situated on the high table-land behind the Coast Range of mountains. The road to these districts turns off to the left or eastward - the road to Goulburn to the right or westward; the distance to Braidwood being about sixty miles.
“The country from Marulan to Goulburn is for the most part sterile and uninteresting; but the scene improves wonderfully on reaching the heights that look down upon the plain of Goulburn, which is really a fine tract of country; being fifteen miles long, with an average breadth of eight miles. It has evidently been at some former period the bed of a lake, and the ridges that run out into it from either side have quite the character and appearance of headlands. The stones with which it is covered in particular spots, or that are dug up in making excavations to a great depth, consist of quartz pebbles, rolled stones, and shingle, as if from a sea-beach or the bed of a river. I have already observed that there is a series of plains, of this peculiar character, some more and others less of alluvial formation, along a vast extent of the mountainous portion of Eastern Australia; their general elevation being 2000 feet above the level of the sea.
“The town of Goulburn, the present terminus of the railway, is 134 miles from Sydney, and is 2171 feet above the level of the sea. It is the capital of Argyle, and is admirably situated; being in the centre both of an extensive agricultural and of a much more extensive pastoral country. It is beyond all comparison the finest town in the southern interior of New South Wales, and the buildings generally are of a much more substantial character, as well as of a much finer appearance, than those of most inland colonial towns. It is a busy, bustling place for its size - quite a contrast to Berrima - its population being 4453.
“Goulburn is the residence and headquarters of a bishop of the Church of England, as also of a Roman Catholic bishop, with the usual accompaniment of a conventual establishment; the Episcopalian and Roman Catholic being much the largest communions in the colony. The Presbyterians and Wesleyans have also places of worship of a creditable character, besides other minor Protestant denominations. The schools, for Goulburn, both public and private, deservedly bear a high character, and the Mechanic’s Institute is a credit to the community. The press of Goulburn has always stood high in the colony, and been uniformly and highly influential for good.
“The railway from Goulburn is now progressing rapidly towards Yass, about sixty miles distant, and, on reaching that station, it is to be carried on with all convenient speed to Wagga Wagga on the Murrumbidgee River, 315 miles from Sydney; and from thence to Albury on the Murray, about 400 miles from Sydney. It will there meet with the line from Melbourne in Victoria, and complete the route between the two colonial capitals. The Colonial Government have been authorized by Parliament to borrow the necessary funds for the construction of this line, as well as for the projected extensions of the other two Grand Trunk Lines of the colony - to the Northward and Westward; and there is now no doubt of their all advancing with rapidity. There is a very beneficial moral influence which the construction of these lines of railway has in the Colonies, in shutting up most of the low public-houses along the different routes, and thereby preventing much useless expenditure and much riot and dissipation; besides enabling better disposed people to make their journeys to and fro much more economically, as well as much more speedily than they could possibly have done before.
“On reaching the extremity of the Goulburn Plains, the road crosses a ridge of rather indifferent forest-land, of about eight miles across. This ridge separates the Goulburn Plains from the Breadalbane Plains, which are not quite so extensive as the former, but of the same character. There is a fine tract of pastoral country around these plains; but, as their elevation is not less than 2278 feet above the level of the sea, and as they terminate to the south-westward in an extensive swamp, which throws up a sort of misty exhalation during the night, I found the cold bitter and piercing, although it was the night of the 17th of January, the hottest season of the year.
“The first stage on this part of the course is to Mudbilly [Mutmutbilly] or Millbank, eighteen miles. It is a fine open pastoral country. The next stage - to Gunning - is fourteen miles. Gunning consists of a fine flat of considerable extent, very suitable for growing wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, and fruit of the British varieties, and surrounded by a tract of grazing country of rather an inferior character. It appears to be on the same level as Breadalbane Plains, and the cold during the night, even in the midst of summer, on these elevated levels, is intense. I was shivering and benumbed when we reached the inn in the grey twilight, and a large fire which was kindled immediately on the hearth was very acceptable. I had travelled the road repeatedly before in daylight, but on my last journey to the southward, I had to avail myself of the night mail from Goulburn to Yass.
:From Gunning to Yass, a distance of twenty-eight miles, the country is generally uninteresting, but affording good pasture in many places. Towards Yass Plains there is a rapid descent from the higher level of perhaps 800 feet: for the Yass River, which is not much below the level of the plains adjoining it, is only 1311 feet above the level of the sea.
“The Yass Plains were discovered by Messrs. Hovell and Hume, on their overland expedition of discovery to Port Phillip, in the year 1824 [Yass in 1835]. They are from nine to twelve by five to seven miles in extent, and have a beautiful appearance from the heights that bound them in the direction of Goulburn. They are, properly speaking, rather downs than plains; the country for a great distance around being of limestone formation, and disposed into fine grassy hills, thinly covered with wood, and fertile vales clear of timber. The stones on these plains have the same rounded water-worn appearance as those on the plains at Goulburn, and evidently from the same cause - their having been subjected, in some former condition of the surrounding country, to the action of running water.
“Within a miles or two of Yass, on the Sydney side, are the residences of Henry and Cornelius O’Brien, Esqs., J.P., and of Hamilton Hume, Esq. [Cooma Cottage], J.P., all now, like so many of my other colonial contemporaries, deceased. They are all handsome cottages, with splendid gardens attached; particularly that of Mr. H. O’Brien, whose grounds are very tastefully laid out. Mr. Henry O’Brien was in two very important respects one of the patriarchs of Australia: he was the father of squatting, and also of boiling-down, two most prominent departments in the rural economy of the country. Mr. O’B. arrived in New South Wales from India, fifty years ago; and his uncle, who was then a merchant and an extensive proprietor in the colony, gave him some sheep and cattle, I believe on credit, to begin the world with in Australia. With these, and the convict servants he required to attend them, Mr. O.Brien struck out far beyond the settled districts of the colony at the time, and sat sown on the the beautiful plains of Yass, where he erected his bush-hut, cultivated as much land as was necessary to afford grain, potatoes, and vegetables for his establishment, and remained in the comparative isolation of the Great Australian Wilderness - not like Daniel Boon Daniel Boone], the American squatter and misanthrope, till civilization came up with him, and drove him farther back into the woods - but till his flocks and herds had increased to such numbers, that he could return to society much wealthier even than the patriarch Job. Mr. O’brien was for many years an extensive landed proprietor at Yass, and his flocks and herds roamed over a hundred grassy hills in the distance; but his fame as an Australian colonist consisted, like that of the antediluvian patriarch Jabal, in being ‘the father of such as dwell in tents,’ or bark huts, ‘and of such as have cattle,’ and sheep beyond the boundaries. * [Footnote - * I married Mr. O’Brien, who was himself a Roman Catholic, to his first wife, the daughter of the late Capt. M’Donald, of the 17th Regiment, whose family were members of my congregation.]
“From its central situation, Yass is necessarily an important town, and will doubtless advance rapidly when the railway comes up to it: it has now a population of 1167. The plains, or rather downs, around it are thinly, but most picturesquely, covered with ‘apple-tree,’ as they are called by the colonists, merely from their resemblance to the European apple-tree in their size and outline, for they do not resemble it in producing an edible fruit. The Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics have all churches at Yass: the minister’s field of labour in each case being very extensive and his flock greatly scattered.
“At the southern extremity of the town, the Great Southern Road crosses the Yass River, which in summer is an inconsiderable stream, but in winter, or after rain, a large river. About eight miles from Yass the road passes Mount Bunyong or Bowning, and a village of the same name, very well situated. Mount Bowning is a remarkable object in this part of the country, and forms an excellent land-mark, for both Whites and Blacks, being visible for fifty miles round. Twelve miles from Bowning is Bogielong, an interesting part of the country, and apparently well adapted for the site of an inland town, as it possesses the two important requisites of good land and good water. The country, from Yass to Bogielong, is an open pastoral country. From thence to Reedy Creek, eleven miles farther, it is rather thickly wooded, although affording good pasture. Reedy Creek is a highly picturesque locality, being surrounded by lofty mountain ranges that postpone the rising, and hasten, in the same proportion, the setting of the sun.
“Beyond Reedy Creek, the road for a few miles crosses a succession of ridges of rather indifferent pasture; but at the distance of eight miles it brings us to the valley of the Murrumbidgee, the beautiful river - La Belle Riviere (for it really deserves the name) - of Australia.
“Sir Thomas Mitchell has well observed that each of the great rivers in Australia has a peculiar and distinctive character, which it preserves, with astonishing uniformity, along the whole of its course; and this is remarkably the case with the Murrumbidgee. The course of that river is generally tortuous; its banks are fringed with the beautiful swamp-oak, a tree of the Casuarina family, * [Footnote - * Casuarina paludosa.] with a form and character somewhat intermediate between that of the spruce and that of the Scotch fir, being less formal and Dutch-like than the former, and more graceful than the latter; while it ever and anon leaves either to the right or left an alluvial plain almost entirely clear of timber, and generally of a square mile in extent, flanked by venerable trees of the genus Eucalyptus, and backed in by verdant ranges, or by an open forest country. And so finely disposed for effect are these ancient looking trees, that if one were suddenly conveyed from England, without the consciousness of distance, into the middle of these plains, he would conclude that the old lord, who had caused them to be planted about a century or two ago, must really have been a man of taste; and he would naturally be disposed to look out for the turrets of the ancient baronial castle in the first opening of the trees. The first of these plains or flats which the mail-route crosses is that of Jugiong, about nine miles from Reedy Creek, where there is a village reserve remarkably well selected. There is much fine land in this vicinity, and the country looks exceedingly beautiful.
“The mail changes horses at Munny Munny, a flat similar to that of Jugiong, situated five miles from the river, and surrounded with grassy hills. Five miles farther is Kooluck, the nearest point to the Tumut river and the plain of Darbillehra [Darbalara], situated at the point of its junction with the Murrumbidgee. The neighbourhood consists of grassy hills and a fine fertile country, and the intervening country to Gundagai, which is fifteen miles from Munny Munny, is all available for pasture.
Gundagai, with a population of 1008 souls, is situated on one of the the flats or plains on the banks of the Murrumbidgee at the point where the road to Melbourne crosses that river. The Murrumbidgee, I have already observed, rises on the north-eastern face of the Snowy Mountains, and pursues a northerly course as far as Yass, which it approaches within ten or twelve miles, receiving the Yass River into its current. It is then deflected to the south-westward to the point of its junction at Darbillehra [Darbalara] with the Tumut River, which descends from the northern face of the mountains about twelve miles above Gundagai, from whence the Murrumbidgee pursues a westerly course till it joins the Hume River, and both form the Murray.
“In crossing overland from Port Phillip to Sydney in the year 1845, I stopped for a few days at Gundagai, to perform divine service in this part of the country on the intervening Sabbath; and during my stay I rode up to the plain of Darbillehra [Darbalara], at the Junction of the Tumut with the Murrumbidgee, and from thence about thirty miles up the latter river, or rather, one of its tributaries, called the Adjinbilly [Adjungbilly Creek], a mountain-rivulet, with so tortuous a course that it crossed the route again and again in the course of my journey. The ascent was gradual, but constant, the whole way, and the change of level, as well as of climate, must have been very great from that of the plain. I reached at length the squatting station of the retired military officer Capt. M’Donald, formerly of the 17th Regiment, whom I have just mentioned, and who had for years belonged to my congregation in Sydney. He had sold out when the Regiment went to India, and settled with his large family, like one of the ancient patriarchs, in the midst of his flocks and herds, on the Tumut Mountains. The climate was evidently bracing and Captain M’Donald and his family were quite reconciled to their situation, living in peace, and plenty, and rural simplicity. On the invitation of my respected friends, I conducted divine service at their station during my stay.
“The Tumut traverses a finer country, generally, than the Murrumbidgee; its geological characteristics are limestone and whinstone - the land being equally fitted for agriculture and grazing. From its rapid descent from the snowy mountains, the water of the Tumut retains its coolness to the point of junction with the Murrumbidgee, whereas the latter river, having previously been exposed to the direct rays of the sun in a circuitous course of upwards of 200 miles on a lower level, has got considerably heated; and to a person standing at the point of the junction, and placing his hands at the same time in the two rivers, the singular phenomenon is distinctly observable of the one being delightfully cool, while the other is lukewarm. From the plain of Darbillehra [Darbalara], which is of the usual character of the plains on the Murrumbidgee, although of larger extent than most of them, I crossed the Tumut at a ford near its mouth, the water reaching the saddle-girths; and along the Murrumbidgee to Gundagai, I found a succession of these plains, some of which were occupied and in partial cultivation by small settlers, while the beautiful belting of swamp-oaks skirted the river all along.
“The Murrumbidgee at Gundagai is as large as the Clyde above Glasgow. It is subject, however, like most of the Australian rivers, to great floods. These, indeed, are not frequent, but they are very awful when they do come. There was such a flood in the month of October, 1844, when the river rose upwards of forty or fifty feet above the ordinary level - rising four feet above the floor of the parlour of the inn at Gundagai, and leaving a residuum or alluvial deposit of an inch thick on the flats. The people who had bought town allotments in Gundagai had done so in the belief that the locality was above the reach of floods; and as the place had been surveyed and sold by the Government for a town, they could not suppose that they could possibly be disappointed in that belief. But the flood undeceived them when it came, and they had consequently, after all the expenditure they had incurred on the old site, to memorialize the Government to remove the township to a place above the reach of floods, and to grant them other allotments there, in lieu of those they had unwittingly purchased within the reach of inundations. But Sir George Gipps, the Governor at the time, replied that they had purchased their allotments for better for worse - alluding, apparently, to the case of marriage - and must therefore do the best they could with their bad bargains, as the exchange they asked for could not be sanctioned ! As I can scarcely trust myself with the task with the task of making the proper comment on so heartless a reply, I shall leave the reader to make one for himself.
“As the flood-water that had overflowed the original site of the town of Gundagai was back water, and did no permanent damage to the place, besides the temporary annoyance of the immersion, the inhabitants unfortunately clung to the spot, notwithstanding repeated inundations, although not of so serious a character, in subsequent years. But on the 25th of June, 1852, the river came down suddenly with such overwhelming force and volume, as not only to inundate the country for miles around, but to shut up the unfortunate inhabitants from all possibilty of escape to the higher grounds, insomuch that out of a population of 250, not fewer than eighty-nine perished in the waters.
“The Murrumbidgee pursues a westerly course of nearly 400 miles from Gundagai to the point of its junction with the Hume or Murray. And in the year 1858, Captain Francis Cadell, a gentleman to whom the colony is much indebted for his spirited enterprise, demonstrated, to the great surprise and gratification of the colonists, that it was actually navigable for that distance, by bringing up his large steamer, the ‘Albury,’ to Gundagai, and mooring her on the river-banks. The lower parts of the river, as I have stated elsewhere, are now regularly navigated by steamers to and from Echuca, in Victoria, passing down the Murray and up the Murrumbidgee. The reaches of the river are seldom above half a mile in length, and the plains that characterize its valley extend along its banks the whole way down, as well as for 200 miles above Gundagai - the whole of the available land on both sides being held as squatting stations, or occupied by small settlers and free selectors, who cultivate the land and keep a few cattle besides. Towards the sources of the river the crops are uncertain, from the cold and frequent frosts in the vicinity of the Snowy Mountains; but as Gundagai is considerably below the level of Yass - which is only about 1350 feet above the level of the sea - the banks of the river in that neighbourhood enjoy a climate sufficiently hot for the cultivation of maize. One of the characteristics of the Murrumbidgee, as compared with the rivers farther south, is the fring of swamp-oaks on its banks. This tree is not found farther south, and it would consequently seem to indicate the commencement of a different climate on the parallel of that river - 36 degrees S.
“The Murrumbidgee is now crossed at Gundagai by a noble bridge; and the road, for the first thirty-five miles to Tarcotta Creek [Tarcutta Creek], follows the westerly course of the river, presenting a succession of beautiful flats and a most fertile country; ranges of hills, of moderate elevation and well clothed with grass, hemming in the view on all sides. The prevailing rock from Yass to Tarcotta Creek [Tarcutta Creek] is a species of schistus, or greenish-coloured clay-slate, of which the laminae are perpendicular to the horizon, or very slightly inclined. The ends of these laminae generally protrude a few inches above the surface, and are evidently undergoing the process of disintegration from exposure to the elements. * {Footnote - * This is quite the character of the formation of the gold country in the Bathurst district; the layers of schistus, which are generally harder there, being frequently traversed with veins of quartz.]
“Tarcotta Creek [Tarcutta Creek], on the Murrumbidgee River, is the Halfway Station between Sydney and Melbourne, at which the mails in the opposite directions meet - the two postmen merely exchanging the bags, and returning on their respective beats on the following day. The distance in round numbers is 300 miles from each of the two termini. There is a great extent of good land, as well for agriculture as for grazing, in the vicinity.
“The mail started from Tarcotta Creek [Tarcutta Creek] on the way to Albury at daybreak, the course being first south and then S.W. by W. from the Murrumbidgee to the Hume or Murray River. The general character of the country between the two rivers is hill and dale, with extensive plains, bounded by picturesque mountain-ridges, and abounding in excellent pasture. It is quite a fine pastoral country, and is extensively occupied with flocks and herds. Some portions of this tract of country, especially towards the Murray River, are surpassingly beautiful, as well from the undulations of the ground as from the distribution and character of the fine forest-trees that are thinly scattered over its surface, and from the abundance of the pasture.
“The first stage on the route from Tarcotta Creek [Tarcutta Creek] to the Murray River is Kiamba [Kyeamba], distant seventeen miles. There was a grazing-station in this locality belonging for many years to a mercantile house in Sydney, under the superintendence of a respectable Scotchman, of the name of Smith, from the county of Forfar, in Scotland. Mr. Smith had arrived as a free immigrant in 1832, and had married one of his fellow-passengers - a respectable young woman from the old country - and he had been always in the distant interior during the interval. His cottage was a comfortable bush-house, situated on an eminence by the wayside. He had a garden and some ground in cultivation, to raise grain for his family, around it; and the numerous sheep and cattle of his employers, including, in all likelihood, his own smaller herd, roamed on the hills and plains for miles around.
“The mail stopped at this station only to deliver some letters and papers. I was not previously acquainted with Mr. Smith, and did not even know that he was a Scotchman; but recognizing me on the mail, from having seen me in Sydney, he requested me to baptize his youngest child, which, the postman agreeing to halt for some time, I did accordingly. Mr. Smith informed me that there were several other Presbyterian families in that part of the country who had also children growing up unbaptized; and, reflecting on the conduct of a minister of his own communion, who had refused to visit the neighbourhood because it was nearly 200 miles distant. he added, with much feeling and with perfect truth, - ‘The Romish priests are the only clergy that seem to care about the people in this part of the country. No minister of any Protestant denomination ever visits us.’
“When the ordinance of baptism had been dispensed, and I had made the necessary memoranda, Mr. Smith observed, ‘that he believed there were some fees connected with the registration of the baptism.’ Perceiving that his object was to make me a pecuniary compensation, I told him, ‘there was nothing of the kind; for I kept the register myself, and no fees of any kind were received for baptism by Presbyterian ministers.’ ‘Well,’ said Mr. Smith, ‘I know you are travelling for the public good, and your expenses must be very heavy, so you will allow me to contribute towards defraying them;’ and he accordingly handed me an order on one of the banks in Sydney, which, on these terms, I could not refuse, and which was duly honoured on my return. I mention the circumstance chiefly for the information and benefit of those who tell us that a minister of religion who goes forth into the interior of Australia to seek the welfare of the children of his people, and to dispense among them the ordinances of religion, will receive neither encouragement nor support from the people among whom he goes.
“I found opthalmia, or, as it is called by the colonists, ‘blight,’ somewhat prevalent along the valley of the Murrumbidgee, and afterwards on the Murray and Ovens Rivers, in the course of my journey. As I have already observed, it seems to be much more prevalent in this part of the interior, than towards the eastern coast. The country, along these rivers, is but slightly elevated above the level of the sea, and is consequently very hot in summer. Besides, it is much nearer the Central Desert of the interior discovered by Captain Sturt; the hot winds from which blow with much greater intensity of heat in this part of the country than after they have crossed the Coast Range to the eastward. For the same reason, doubtless, the blight or Australian opthalmia is very prevalent in Adelaide, in South Australia. It seems to be the extreme aridity of atmosphere during these winds that occasions this peculiar affection, probably by causing indue evaporation from the moist surface of the eye. It is not at all dangerous, from anything I could learn respecting it, but it is very painful and very troublesome; for the patient almost loses the use of his eyes during the continuance of the affection, and must keep himself shut up, if he can, in a darkened apartment. I found a gentleman in this state at the inn on the Ovens River. He had been driving cattle and horses overland to Victoria, along with his men; and some of the herd having gone astray, he had been riding about in the open forest in search of them, under an almost vertical sun, when he was seized with this affection of the eyes, and confined to the inn. I have been obliged myself, when riding in the open forest right against a hot wind, to put a silk handkerchief in my hat, and let it fall down like a veil over my face, to protect my eyes from the burning heat of this Australian sirocco. People who are not exposed to the glare of the sun, and the current of heated air during a hot wind, are seldom affected in the way I have mentioned; but the colonists generally are very careless in this respect, and expose themselves needlessly to both sun and wind, as freely as they would in England.
“The stage from Kiamba [Kyeamba] to Billabung Forest is twenty-eight miles. The postman from Tarcotta Creek [Tarcutta Creek] to Billabung was a German from Leipsic [Leipzig], of the name of Johann Pabst, or John Pope, who arrived in New South Wales twenty-five years before, as a hired servant or shepherd, in the employment of the Australian Agricultural Company at Port Stephen, and who, after serving out his time, had married a reputable free immigrant from Dublin, and was now comfortably settled at Billabung. He had a good cottage, and cultivated a piece of ground for grain, roots, and vegetables, and he had some cattle grazing in the vicinity, while he drove the mail to and fro to Tarcotta Creek [Tarcutta Creek], a distance of forty-five miles, twice a week. I had made the acquaintence of this reputable and industrious man on a former journey. He had been a Lutheran at home, and his wife, who was also a Protestant, had been endeavouring to dischrge her duty to her children with the care and affection of a Christian parent. On the present occasion he requested me to baptize one of his children, which I did accordingly with great pleasure.
“Billabung is in ordinary seasons a fine grassy country, and the creek of that name, which passes the mail station, spreads out into a series of picturesque lagoons, at a considerable distance off, before it enters the Murrumbidgee, watering a fine level tract of grassy country, called Eurana Plains.
“The next stage, to Mullinjandra [Mullengandra], is eighteen miles, and the one to Albury, on the Murray River, is twenty-two; the country becoming gradually more open and picturesque towards the Murray.
“The mail reaches Albury on the right bank of the Murray River, the common boundary of New South Wales and Victoria, about an hour before sunset; the distance from Tarcotta Creek [Tarcutta Creek] being eighty-five miles. The valley of the Murray is remarkably different from that of the Murrumbidgee, and the plains on either side of the river are really splendid. These plains are generally traversed in a different parallel to the course of the river, and at a considerable distance from it, by long narrow lagoons, which are evidently supplied from the river in seasons of inundation; and both these lagoons and the river itself are flanked by lofty and umbrageous trees, that give a noble and park-like character to the scene. These plains consist of alluvial land of the first quality for cultivation; and although they are occasionally flooded, they can easily be cultivated with perfect safety notwithstanding, as there is always high ground at a moderate distance on the outskirts of the plains. A crop may doubtless be lost now and then; but the rich alluvium which the river leaves behind it will far more than counter-balance all the loss that can ever be experienced from its occasional inundations.
“What an immense population might not the beautiful and fertile valleys of these two great rivers, the Murrumbidgee and the Murray sustain ! The whole surplus population of Britain, for half a century to come, might easily be located on their banks; and there would be ‘ample room and verge enough’ in the pastoral country behind to rear sheep and cattle to supply the vast community with animal food to the full.
“The valley of the Murray is of various breadth, but generally twelve miles; and it is flanked on either side by a terrace or outer bank, that separates the agricultural land below from the pastoral or upland country. It is occupied on either side by squatting stations for upwards of 200 miles above Albury, and for a much greater distance below.
“The Murray, the Tumut, the Murrumbidgee, the Ovens, the Goulburn, the Yarra-Yarra, and the rivers of Western Port and Gippsland, all rise in the Snowy Mountains, or Australian Alps. Of this mounatinous region, as well as of the country in which the Murray River takes its rise, the following description is from the pen of Count Strzelecki, in his work entitled ‘Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Dieman’s Land.’
“ ‘The cluster of broken peaks which mark the sources of the Murrumbidgee, Condradigbee, and the Doomut [Tumut]; the ridges which form walls as it were for their respective courses; indeed, the whole structure of the spurs about this locality, imparts to them the character of bold outworks in advance of that prominent group of mountains, known in New South Wales under the name of the Australian Alps.
“ ‘Conspicuously elevated above all the heights hitherto noticed in this cursory view, and swollen by many rugged protuberances, the snowy and craggy sienitic cone of Mount Kosciusko is seen cresting the Australian Alps, in all the sublimity of mountain scenery. Its altitude reaches 6500 feet, and the view from its summit sweeps over 7000 square miles. Standing above the adjacent mountains, which could neither detract from its imposing aspect nor interrupt the view, Mount Kosciusko is one of those few elevations, the ascent of which, far from disappointing, presents the traveller with all that can remunerate fatigue. In the north-eastward view, the eye is carried as far back as the Shoalhaven country; the ridges of all the spurs of Maneiro [Monaro] and Twofold Bay, as well as those which, to the westward, enclose the tributaries of the Murrumbidgee, being conspicuously delineated. Beneath the feet, looking down from the very verge of the cone downwards almost perpendicularly, the eye plunges into a fearful gorge, 3000 feet deep, in the bed of which sources of the Murray gather their contents, and roll their united waters to the west.
“ ‘To follow the course of the river from this gorge into its further windings, is to pass from the sublime to the beautiful. The valley of the Murray, as it extends beneath the traveller’s feet, with the peaks of Corunal [Jagungal], Dargal, Mundiar, and Tumburumba [Tumbarumba], crowning the spur which separates it from the valley of the Murrumbidgee, displays beauties to be compared only to those seen among the valleys of the Alps.’
“Immediately after the mail had reached Albury, I took advantage of the remaining daylight by ascending a steep hill on the right bank of the river near the town, to learn something of the general character of the surrounding country, and to admire the scene from its summit. The hill seemed to be almost entirely composed of blocks of and angular pieces of quartz of various hues, with a considerable quantity of micacious schistus towards the summit. * [Footnote - * This is precisely the gold formation in Australia, and accordingly gold has recently been found at Albury.] The view from the top of the hill was exceedingly fine. From east to west, in the direction of south, the horizon was shut in by a succession of mountains and mountain-ranges of great variety and form, and some of them of great elevation; while the sun was slowly descending behind the distant peaks of a lofty tier in the far west. To the eastward, the noble river, which was flowing with a rapid current at the foot of the hill, could be traced for a great distance in the direction of its source in the Snowy Mountains, by the long line of beautiful plains on its banks, and the tall, umbrageous trees that either fringe the borders of the numerous lagoons parallel to the course of the river, or are thinly scattered over the surface of the plains. To the westward the river soon disappears among the hills that in this part of its course approach close to its banks.
“Albury is finely situated for a town - plenty of the finest land to grow grain and everything else for a city as large as London, and plenty of excellent water; the population of the town, by the last census, is 1906, but that of the police district in which it is situated is 9190. Of that population a large proportion consists of Germans, who have been attracted to New South Wales by Mr. Robertson’s Free Selection Act [see also], almost exclusively from the neighbouring province of South Australia, and have settled down under its very liberal conditions on the banks of the Murray. There is a township called Germantown [Holbrook], which has been settled in this way, at Ten Mile Creek on the Sydney road. There has also been much Free Selection in the Albury district by our own countrymen, as is evident in the recently erected slab dwellings and smiling farms all over the country.
“The western tier of mountains, over which the sun was going down when I had reached the summit of the hill near Albury, is sixty miles farther down the river; and there are no further elevations for hundreds of miles to the westward. The river also, in that part of its course, approaches within 150 miles of Melbourne; and the intervening country is nearly dead level, consisting of fine rich grassy plains, stretching across the whole way to the Murrumbidgee River.
“There are churches for the Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, and Roman Catholic communions, in the town of Albury, with all the other institutions of a secular character, usually found in country areas. The Germans in the neighbourhood have introduced and popularized the culture of the vine in the Albury district, and Albury wine, from the establishment of Mr. Fallon, the late member of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, who has an extensive vineyard near the town, bears a high character for its quality even in the home market.
“As the Murray River, after its junction with the Murrumbidgee, receives the Darling River from the northern interior, and discharges its waters into the Lake Alexandrina or Victoria, with the limits of the province of South Australia, the navigation of that river, and the the direction of the trade to created along its banks, became at a comparatively early period, questions of great importance in that colony; and a premium of 2000l. was accordingly offered by the Legislative Council of South Australia to the person who should first navigate the Murray by steam. I presume it was Captain Cadell, who first navigates the Murrumbidgee to Gundagai, who won this premium; at all events, there is a whole fleet of steamers on the Murray now. From Albury to the junction with the Murrumbidgee, the distance is 260 miles. From thence to the mouth of the Darling River, it is 110 miles; and from the mouth of the Darling to Adelaide, it is 280 miles; and as the distance from Sydney to Albury is in round numbers 400 miles, the whole distance by this route from Sydney to Adelaide is 1050 miles.
“In the lower part of the course of the Murray there is either an ancient channel or an ana-branch of the river, formed by its overflowings in times of inundation, called the Edward or Wakool, which taking a northerly direction towards the Murrumbidgee, diverges about forty miles from the Murray, and then pursues a westerly course for a hundred and fifty miles, till it returns again to the river. The tract of country included between the Murray and this ana-branch is a splendid pastoral country, called Boyd’s Plains, in honour of the late Benjamin Boyd, esq., who had an extensive squatting establishment on the Edward. It is considerably larger than the whole kingdom of Holland, and contains 5000 or 6000 square miles altogether. Deniliquin, the chief town of the Riverina, is situated on the Edward River, and an Act of Parliament has been recently passed by the Legislature of New South Wales to authorize the construction of a railway between Deniliquin and Echuca, on the Murray, a distance of fifty miles.
“As Albury is within two hundred miles of Melbourne, the intervening distance being principally a dead level, while Sydney is at double the distance, with ranges of mountains of upwards of 2000 feet high in between, it must have been evident that communication of all kinds on the part of Albury, must naturally be with Melbourne and not with Sydney. The natural course for trade in these south-western regions is to cross the Murray and to take the shorter course to Melbourne, instead of crossing the mountains on the much longer course to Sydney. So much is this the case that forty-one per cent. of the wool in New South Wales, * [Footnote - * A small portion of this forty-one per cent. of New South Wales wool goes down the Murray and is credited to Adelaide, but by far the greater portion goes to Melbourne, and swells the produce of Victoria] grown in the south-western parts of the colony crosses the Murray, and is credited to Victoria as the produce of that colony. But certain of our Colonial Legislators imagine that by carrying a railway to Wagga Wagga, they will be able to direct the trade of the south-western interior from its natural course and bring it to Sydney. I am confident they will find themselves mistaken.
“There is no doubt that Riverina, or the tract of country between the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers lies into Victoria and not into New South Wales; and in the year 1839, Lord John Russell proposed, at the instance of the Commissioners of Land and Emigration [Colonial Land and Emigration Commission], that the Murrumbidgee should be the southern boundary of New South Wales. But the late Bishop Broughton, who was than a member of the Nominee Leislative Council, protested, in a long speech on the subject, in the year 1840, against the Murrumbidgee being declared the Southern boundary instead of the Murray, which he advocated; alleging, as his strong reason, that New South Wales had paid for the discoveries in the south-western interior, in the expeditions of Captain Surt and Sir Thomas Mitchell; and other members coinciding with him, the Murray was accordingly declared the southern boundary of the colony. But it was not the fact that these expeditions were paid for by New South Wales, which Bishop Broughton, as a legislator, ought to have known. They were undertaken, by direction of the Secretary of State [Colonial Secretary], on the recommendation of the Governor of the day, and were paid for entirely from the land revenue of the colony, which was then undisputed droit [a legal right] of the Crown, and not from the Ordinary Revenue of New South Wales.
“It cannot be supposed that the inhabitants of the south-western districts of the colony will consent, when they become numerous enough to have a mind of their own, to be governed from Sydney, seven or eight hundred miles off. But this is one of the great Colonial questions of the future, that can stand over for the present for future adjustment.
“Returning to Tarcotta Creek [Tarcutta Creek], the half-way station between Sydney and Melbourne, the mail from Sydney - after passing for twenty miles in a westerly direction through a beautiful country, which I traversed so lately as in December last - reaches the important inland town of Wagga Wagga situated on the opposite or south bank of the Murrumbidgee River, and in the extensive pastoral district of the Murrumbidgee. It has a population of 1858 souls; but that of the Police District in which Wagga Wagga is situated is upwards of 5000 souls. The town is regularly and well built, and is approached by a noble bridge across the Murrumbidgee. There are churches of a superior architectural character for an inland town for Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, and Roman Catholic communions, as also public and private schools of a superior order; and as a great central point for trade of all kinds, the town of Wagga Wagga is rapidly rising in importance. I officiated in the Presbyterian church to a large congregation both morning and evening during the Sabbath I spent in Wagga Wagga, and took the road by the mail on the following day to Murrumburrah, Young, and Grenfell.
“The distance from Wagga Wagga to Murrumburrah, a rising town in the midst of a pastoral, agricultural, and gold-mining district, is eighty miles; and I have already stated that on the day on which I made this journey by the mail in December last, the thermometer stood at 110 degrees Fahrenheit at Wagga Wagga. The country through which the road passes is a hill and dale country, thinly inhabited, and presenting occasional towns and villages in an embryo state on the route, with grassy hills of moderate elevation, eminently suited for pasturage, interspersed with plains of greater or lesser extent, equally fitted for for cultivation, as the frequent occurrence of Free Selection settlements along the whole route abundantly proves. There is a gold-field to the left in actual working on the southern part of the route, and about half is the village of Cootamundra, where the future railway to Adelaide in South Australia, is to branch off from the Great Trunk Line, now in progress, to Wagga Wagga.
“I left the mail at Narrabine, the residenceof a Scotch magistrate of the territory, with whom I was acquainted, at eleven p.m., about eight or nine miles from Murrumburrah. He was not at home himself, but his nephew very kindly drove me across the country to Young in his buggy on the following day, passing Wombat, an abondoned gold-field, on the way.
“The town of Young, which is situated in a very interesting part of the country, about 255 miles from Sydney, was named in honour of the late Governor, Sir John Young. It occupies the site of an abandoned gold-field, discovered in the year 1861, and previously known as the Lambing Flat or Burrangong. The diggings were entirely alluvial, but so rich as to attract a population of many thousands from all parts of the territory, including some thousands of Chinese. A collision having taken place with these people, through the evil offices of some hot-headed Europeans, who accused them of all manner of imaginary offences, and endeavoured to expel them by main force from the diggings, a body of military had to be sent up from Sydney to keep, or rather to restore the peace. There was a very large quantity of gold obtained for a time from these diggings, as well as from various others in the vicinity, including Wombat. At length, however, the supply gradually diminished, and the diggings became exhausted. There was a large exodus from the diggings as there had been towards them in the first instance. But a certain number remained behind, who, on examining the surrounding country, found it to be a first-rate country for the growth of wheat and all other European produce; the soil being of a deep chocolate colour, and the country 1500 feet above the level of the sea. The result of the second and more important discovery has been a large development of the Free Selection principle all around the town of Young, and the abandoned gold-field has been thus speedily transformed into a highly agricultural community - in a locality, too, in which nobody would otherwise have ever thought of settling, at so great a distance from the capital, for perhaps half a century or more.
“Young is finely situated in the flat or valley of Burrangong, and the view from the heights on either side of it is interesting and beautiful in a very high degree. The population of the town proper is still but small, but that of the neighbourhood is already considerable and rapidly increasing. The Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Roman Catholics have all places of worship of a creditable appearance for their espective communions in the town and neighbourhood. Mt esteemed friend and brother, the Rev. George Grimm, M.A., a superior scholar, is the Presbyterian minister for both Young and Grenfell, another colonial town of similar origin, thirty-five miles distant; officiating alternately in each of these towns, and once a month at a third station, forty miles distant. It happened to be Mr. Grimm’s Sabbath for that distant locality the day I was at Young, when otherwise both of the churches at Young and Grenfell would have been unoccupied. But after preaching at Young to a good congregation in the morning, a personal friend drove me in his buggy to Grenfell, where we arrived in time for Divine Service in the evening, to a numerous congregation in the recently erected Presbyterian church in that locality.
Grenfell derives its name from a gentleman, a bank manager, who was unfortunately shot by a bushranger when travelling by coach to Sydney on public duty. It has had a somewhat similar origin and history with Young, and will, doubtless, have a similar future. I delivered a lecture in each of these towns during my short stay, on a subject of colonial interest; and it was when desiring to cross the Macquarie River at Cowra, and make a short cut to Orange, my next destination, that I was obliged, as I have already stated, to proceed thither by the circuitous route of Forbes.”
|
