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PP. 13-15.
“The method of establishing oneself in the woods, or, to use the colonial term, of ‘sitting down’ there, is simple enough. Having fixed upon the site most eligible for a dwelling - and this is generally determined by the facility of access to fresh water - the settler wields the axe, and attacks the ancient lords of the forest. The trees felled are split into lengths, and furnish the material for the domicile, which is covered with ‘shingles’ or wooden tiles.
“Huge ant-hills, nearly six feet in height, and formed of hard, strong, red clay, are found in the woods; and this clay, when well trodden, forms excellent floors. The settler carefully spreads it; and then, taking off his shoes and stockings, dances a hornpipe, until he has formed a floor to his satisfaction. Thus Virgil, in the first Georgic -
“ ‘Delve of Convenient depth your thrashing floor
With tempered clay, then fill and face it o’er;
And let the weighty roller (settler) run the round
To smooth the surface of th’ unequal ground.’*
[Footnote - *’Area cum primis igenti aequanda cylindro
Et vertenda manu et creta solidanda tanaci,
Ne subeant herbae, neu pulvere victa fatiscat.
Virg. Georg. i. 178.]
“Many floors are formed of weatherboards but imperfectly seasoned, and through their chinks the wind whistles most viciously. The settler’s hornpipe is probably akin to the Irish process of ‘welting the flure.’
“When housed, the next object is to split up posts and rails, and fence in a part of the bush, which is then called ‘the Bush Paddock,’ and is devoted to the use of the horses and working bullocks; but those who are wise live in a tent, or even a hammock slung in the trees, until this necessary enclosure is completed.
“In the great work of clearing land for cultivation, a strong team of bullocks and a logging chain are used, to draw together, for the purpose of consuming it, the timber that has been felled; and thus huge fires are formed that would eclipse the Staffordshire coke-heaps, and which, at night, illumine the dark recesses of the forest. When the trees felled have been thus ‘burnt off.’ their stumps are attacked. Many of these are grubbed up, and against others is piled a small fire which gradually consumes them. The land is now pronounced fit for the plough; which is, in fact, often put into the ground before ‘stumping.’ The operation of taming the stubborn soil is any thing but pastime -
‘They yoke the sturdy steer,
And goad him till he groans beneath the toil,’
and many a bullock dies of heat and exhaustion; whilst his master, on his part, has much to contend against. The plough is continually obstructed by roots and stones; the share or the beam is often broken, while the ploughman receives violent concussions, and is sometimes thrown headforemost amongst the bullocks.
“The average cost of clearing heavily-timbered land on the coast, and of putting in a first crop, is, even with the assistance of convict labour, about ten pounds per acre. The first crop is generally wheat; and, next to it in importance, is maize. At Ulladulla the wheat was very excellent, and on the best land averaged thirty bushels [ a bushel is the equivalent to approx. 32 litres] to the acre, and maize sixty-five; but the average produce of wheat per acre, throughout the colony, is fourteen bushels. Manure is rarely is used, and some think it burns up the land; but the ashes of the wood fires contribute much to the improvement of the soil; and a ‘stump hole’ is always indicated by the superior luxuriance of the wheat immediately around it. Couch grass spreads on cultivated land in every direction, and is a spontaneous production.”
So thats how our ancestors went about It !
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