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In A Tramp to the Diggings: Being notes of a ramble in Australia and New Zealand in 1852, Richard Bentley, London, 1852, John Shaw, M.D., records his impressions of a journey to Wollongong and Jamberoo.
pp. 262-271.
“TRIP TO WOLLONGONG.
“Wishing to see one of the best agricultural and grazing districts, I left Sydney, per steamer, in the month of December (then summer), for Wollongong - a distance of fifty miles. I was much pleased to find Mr. Swainson journeying to the same part.
“The town of Wollongong contains a population of 501 souls. It is expected to become the Brighton of New South Wales, from its beautiful shores, pleasant rides, from the very lovely country which is to be found in every direction; and from its being esteemed much healthier and much cooler than Sydney. The geological character of the country entirely differs from that of Sydney, having a trap-rock formation; while the vegetation possesses also many striking differences by having a more tropical aspect. The cabbage-palm (Corypha) is found here; the Ficus (or fig-tree), a tree of most peculiar growth, and immense proportions - so large as to resemble a little vegetable kingdom of itself. I found growing near the coast the Anagallis arvensis, Convolvulus arvensis, both British species; and a trifolium, probably belonging to the British flora. These were the only British species I met with during the whole of my peregrinations in New South Wales, and I should think it most probable that they were introduced, as there exists extensive cultivation of both grasses and grain all over the neighbourhood. There is a coal-mine in the vicinity, but the coal is not of the best quality in the world; it possesses one peculiarity, however, that of having no shaft to descend; the stranger can walk into it as into a cave, the entrance to it being perfectly horizontal.
“I remained a few days at the Marine Hotel, where I was remarkably well treated by the landlord. I then started on foot, quite alone, with the intention of going to Kiama, a distance of thirty miles, especially as every one informed me that the road was good, and so easy to find that none but an idiot could mistake it. I walked through a most lovely country, displaying to the right and left well fenced fields, with grass and clover growing most luxuriantly, and plentifully stocked with oxen and horses. I have seen points of breeding in some of the Australian cattle so fine as to surpass even many of our English breeds; and here I speak advisedly, having conversed with some of the best judges in the country: some of their horses are very well bred, having a good deal of the Arabian in their blood; a great majority, however, are ugly enough.
“The system of farming adopted here, as in all other parts of New South Wales, must amuse some of our agriculturists; it is as follows : -
“The land is scarcely ever manured - the crops are frequently self-sown - they are never cleaned nor hoed - and it is no uncommon practice to have seventeen white crops in succession. I very rarely met with hay; the Australians substitute oats for that article. I have been told that they are capable of growing sixty, seventy, and even eighty bushels per acre upon some of their richest soils. After passing Dapto, where I refreshed myself, I walked further on my way, and suddenly came upon two equestrian travellers (who looked at me with utter surprise to see a man with such a good coat on his back on foot - they evidently doubted my sanity), who very kindly informed me that there was a river higher up [Minnamurra River], which I could easily cross by tucking up my trousers, and taking off my shoes and stockings. But when I came to the river I thought on snakes, and suddenly turned again, and fortunately discovered a ferry, where I learnt that there was not much danger from the snakes, but that the sting-ray, Trygon pastinaca, was nearly as bad.
“The birds in the bush were the most lovely imaginable, and one of them  the ugliest of the family of Aves; but at the same time a most useful creature, inasmuch as he is a great destroyer of many kinds of deadly poisonous snakes, which he executes in the most efficient manner, by suddenly laying hold with his beak, and afterwards flying to great elevation and letting go, probably terminating his high calling with a considerable pecking at the reptile, after its senses have been pretty well stunned, and many portions of its vertebral column have undergone fracture from the fall. This bird is called the laughing jackass (Dacelo gigantea) [Kookaburra] from its laughing, I suppose, as loud as a donkey can bray. The laugh when executed as I have heard it at times, is the perfection of cresendo and diminuendo and the rallentando of music.
“After crossing the river [Minnamurra River], and passing some bush, I came to a beautiful grazing district, artificially cultivated, entirely stocked with cows, many of them most beautiful creatures. There was not a single sheep to be seen; sheep belong to the Squatting districts, a very different kind of country, previously described. In this district I saw such crops of wheat as I never beheld in the most fertile parts of England; and I am not speaking without some experience, for I have visited every county in England except two, and the whole of Scotland, and I am confident that nothing similar can be found in either country to equal the wheat I saw growing in the district of Illawarra for height, size of ear, and quantity of straw. After this I gain entered the bush, expecting (as I had been previously told) to find a certain and direct road to a place called Jambaroo [Jamberoo], where I intended to take up my lodgings for the night.
“The afternoon was advancing when I entered the bush and said good-bye to the fine cows, beautiful plains, to this bread-and-butter-and-cheese district of Illawarra, for such it is par excellence, having some of the best dairy stations in New South Wales. I walked on at a good pace, having no forebodings of what was going to happen, when it came suddenly into my head, that the seven or eight miles (the distance I had to go) ought to have terminated and brought to view the village of Jambaroo [Jamberoo]. I marched still further for some time, when I felt quite confident that the distance I had walked was nearer sixteen than eight miles. I continued on, and having no pocket-compass, I began to despair of reaching Jambaroo [Jamberoo] that night.
“It was summer-time, in the middle of a wild wood, containing snakes whose bite was deadly poisonous; many of them on the move at night, and more ferocious during the hot weather - this came with all its force into my cranium: next the pleasure of sleeping all night in a wood, with the possibility of having one of these poisonous reptiles for a bed-fellow; third, the unpleasant thought of going to bed without any supper (rendered more annoying from the gnawings of a hungry stomach at the time); and these heavy reflections were neither lightened nor brightened from the pleasing prospect I had in view, viz., that of getting up next morning without my breakfast. In the middle of all these moanings and lamentations a house appeared, where I learnt that I had blundered exceedingly, and I was put on the right road for Jambaroo [Jamberoo], which I reached just as it was getting dark, with a light heart but a very empty stomach.
“As I have mentioned the subject of snakes, I will relate a few particulars which I gathered in different parts of the colony. The most dangerous of all is the death or deaf adder, an extremely sluggish and indolent reptile, which never bites unless trodden on; it is almost certain death, and that in a very short time. The brown snake; very dangerous, but not fatal if the proper remedies are employed in time. The black snake; a very poisonous reptile, but not necessarily fatal. I had the following stories related to me. A person informed me that his ‘milk-pans were constantly skimmed for a length of time without his being able to unriddle the mystery, until one of his children observed something moving in one of the milk-pans, which turned out to be a snake, which, when attacked, retired to a hole at the end of the house.’ A shepherd on Bathurst Plains also told the following story : ‘Smoking my pipe in the bush, while standing, all of a sudden I observed one of the largest snakes I ever saw coiled round my leg, without my observing it approach me; it steadfastly stared me in the face for some moments, when all of a sudden it uncoiled itself and quietly retired. I debated with myself whether I should kill it or not, but concluded to act upon the Christian principle, that of doing unto it as it had done unto me. I spared it.’ On my way to the diggings, stopping to take rest in a little cottage, where I found a mother and several children, and observing on the earthen floor a large hole very near to the fire-place, I said, ‘Have you any snakes in the neighbourhood ?’ to which she replied. ‘Yes. One morning, when several of my little children were around the fire, all of a sudden a snake crawled out of the hole you see there; I immediately seized a hatchet and chopped at it. I don’t know whether I killed it. I never saw it again.’ A Nelson [New Zealand] settler who came over with me to Sydney to try his luck at the diggings, told me the following : ‘Working very busily one hot day at the bottom of a deep mine, all of a sudden a snake came bang on to my shoulder. I saw what it was; the fellow showed fight, for he appeared as much surprised as myself, and although it was a blunder of his own, he took me to be the cause of his accident. I, however, got the first stroke, and dispatched the reptile.’
“Besides the above noxious reptiles, there are scorpions, centipedes, tarantulas, and a curious insect (I think it is) that bores into the heads of dogs, through all the different tissues, until it reaches the brain, when the dog, of course, dies. It attacks people in the same way, but they generally contrive to put a stop to its excavations before it has proceeded too far [A tick]. Having experienced bad weather, and finding the road scarcely walkable from Jambaroo [Jamberoo] to Kiama, and having met with bad accommodation and a drunken set of people at the inn, with the recollection of my previous day’s threatened disaster, I determined to return to Wollongong with a dray, for a safe convoy through the wood. Let me now caution every stranger never to believe anything an Australian may say respecting the impossibility of missing your way. I am a very old traveller, and a very cautious one too; I have never perilled my life through being foolhardy; take my advice - never go into a wood without a guide.”
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