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RECOLLECTIONS
OF
SQUATTING IN WICTORIA.
J) LL
3 |O
. c.47
RECOLLECTIONS
OF
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA
THEN CALLED THE PORT PHILLIP DisfriCT
(From 1841 to 1851)
. c."
\ º'
BY * Sº
./
W.S.*
EDWARD M. CURR
GEORGE ROBERTSON
MELBOURNE, SYDNEY, AND ADEL AIDE
MDCCCLXXXIII
_s = ºocº
• ? * #2 f .* }
Sºw. sº *~~ ^^Ag AA ºw.".9
- * - * - \
-- A. i
sº '...) cº -- 3, }. ..º.ºvºv-9.3%.
\- ? - ?, ?
P R. E. F. A. C. E.
IN laying the following pages before the public the
writer has little to say by way of preface. An excuse
for the publication of mere personal matters will, it is
hoped, be found in the contrast their relation exhibits
between the past and the present state of things in
Victoria. The champagne-loving little town of Mel-
bourne in 1839, for instance; the ways of its jolly
denizens; the Blacks; the expiree-convict shepherd; the
Commissioner of Crown Lands, who ruled it so bravely
in bush matters ; the life of the squatter in the forties,
are (even when seen through the medium of indi-
vidual experiences, possibly of not a very representative
sort) features so markedly different from those of the
present time, that a sketch of them may, it is hoped,
find some interested readers. -
Having devoted his leisure hours for the last ten years
to the collection of information from gentlemen resident
in the bush on the subject of the aboriginal tribes spread
over our continent, the writer takes this opportunity of
informing such of his contributors as may chance to see
this work, that he has succeeded in obtaining vocabularies
vi PREFACE.
of over two hundred of our languages, and detailed
accounts of about one hundred of our tribes; there being
at present in print, scattered through many works,
only sixty vocabularies and accounts of about twenty
tribes. This accumulation of material the writer expects
will be ready for publication in a few months, when it
will be at the disposal of our Government, or of any
scientific body which might desire to print it. Collating
the information on this subject which the writer has in his
hands with the languages and accounts of the other dark-
skinned people, no possible doubt seems to remain that
the aboriginal race of Australia is of African descent.
Other important facts connected with the past history of
the Australian race also become evident.
C O N T E N T S.
CHAPTER I.
ARRIVAL IN MELBOURNE.
MY FIRST WISIT TO MELBOURNE IN 1839—THE SCHOONER
Eagle — THE YARRA YARRA – THE BRITISH HOTEL —
HOSPITALITIES -
~!
CHAPTER II.
MELBOURNE IN 1839.
SYDNEY OFFICIALDOM–LAND SALES IN 1837—SQUATTERS OF
THE PERIOD–CHAMPAGNE LUNCHES-THE OLD BELLMAN
—THE MELBOURNE CLUB—TOWN ALLOTMENTS MANIA—
SANDRIDGE sm sº - * - - x-
CHAPTER, III.
JOURNEY TO WOLFSCRAG.
A SHEEP STATION PURCHASED–A COUNTRY INN–THE JILTED
SWAIN–ARRIVAL AT WOLFSCRAG-A BUSH SUPPER
CEIAPTER IV.
PAGE.
22
PROSPECTS OF SHEEP-FAIRMING AT WOLFSCRAG.
WAYS AND MEANS-SHEPHERDING—A BAD PURCHASE -
CHAPTER, W.
TROUBLES OF A BEGINNER.
ENGAGING A BULLOCK-DRIVER—BUSH LIFE—BULLocks Lost
—MY SHEEP ON BURNT FEED
34
40
viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
ALONE AT MY HUT.
PAGE
ALONE IN THE BUSH-I PRACTISE COOKING—A VISITOR.—
NATIVES IN WAR-PAINT—AN ANXIOUS TIME - - 49
CHAPTER VII.
BUILLOCKS RECOVERED AND A NEW RUN DIS-
COWERED.
NEW SERVANTS-IN SEARCH OF LOST BULLOCKS-OVERLANDERS
—TONGALA PLAIN - gº º tº es - 61
CHAPTER VIII.
REMOVAL TO TONGALA.
MY PONY “PUNCH*—LAKE COWPER—CAMPING OUT-ON THE
MOVE-TASMANIAN EXPIREES.–COLBINABBIN * - 70
CHAPTER IX.
A STATION FORMED AT TONGALA,
THE GOULBURN RIVER—A VISIT FROM THE BLACKS.–NATIVE
BOATBUILDING—“JACK THE SOLDIER ‘’ tº * * 83
CHAPTER X.
SHEARING, AND THE RESULTS OF MY FIRST
YEAR’S SHEEP-FAIRMING.
SHEARERS AND SHEARING—RUM-FINANCE—A ComNERCIAL
STORM - * tº , sº * * * - 95
CHAPTER, XI.
A RIDE TO THE MUDDY CREEK.
A LETTER FROM MY BROTHER—GO IN SEARCH of HIM—
“PRINCE CHAIRLIE’—FRAZER AND FORBES—TALLAROOK.—
UPPER GOULBURN MEN–THE FUTURE LEGISLATOR-
RUMOUR ABOUT GOLD - º ... s. º gº - 101
CONTENTS. ix
CEIAPTER, XII.
A VISIT FROM THE COMMISSIONER OF CROWN
LANDS.
- PAGE.
1842—A COMMISSIONER—ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE—AN
OLD-MAN KANGAROO—THE LAUGHING-JACKASS - - 115
CEIAPTER, XIII, t
CORROBOREES, AND GIVING IN MARRIAGE.
NOTHING To Do–ABORIGINAL LADIES, YOUNG AND OLD-
POLYGAMY—THE NGOORAIALUM BLACKS-A CORROBOREE
—CAN-CAN DIABOLIQUE–MARRIAGE OF KILBANGAROO - 125
CHAPTER, XIV.
THE DESERTED CAMP.
BUSH TOILET— DEPARTURE OF THE BLACKS-THE DINGO
Sejant—HIS DEPARTURE * sº * - - 148
CHAPTER, XV.
STEELE'S CREEK.
A NEW RUN–NEW-CHUM NEIGHBOURS — THE GHOST-A
SERIOUS LOSS - - - * - - - 151
CHAPTER, XVI.
THE MOIRA,
OCCUPATION LICENSES — THE SINGING LUBRA – AN ABO-
RIGINAL BELLE–AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE—CANOEING—
THE MOIRA COUNTRY - - •- sº - - 165
CHAPTER, XVII.
CHANGES IN CONNECTION WITH FLORA AND
FAUNA,
EARLY EXPLORERS' IDEAS OF COUNTRY-OXLEY AND STURT-
THE KANGAROO PLAGUE—THE FIRE-STICK - - 180
JK CONTENTS.
CEHAFTER, XVIII.
A VISIT TO THE MOIRA. IN COMPANY WITH
THE POLICE.
TROOPERS AND NATIVE POLICE—A DANDY OFFICER—SHEEP-
STEALING—A COSTLY FEAST-STRATEGY—A CAPTIVE
BLACKFELLOW-BROUGHT TO TRIAL–SET AT LIBERTY -
CHAPTER, XIX.
A SUMMONS.
A LEGAL NOTICE—HURRY TO MELBOURNE—THIRTY HOURS
IN THE SADDLE &= * - sº * gº
CHAPTER, XX.
CORAGORAG,
FLOODS—A DOZEN BATHS A DAY-NEW COUNTRY-A ROUGH
|NIGHT-STALKING AN EMU - sº tº- gºs gº
CHAPTER XXI.
THE BANGERANG TRIBE.
NATIVE TRIBES.–ESTIMATE OF THEIR NUMBERS–THEIR STEADY
DECREASE — NATIVE OVENS AND COOKERY — FISHING —
CUSTOMS-DOMESTIC HABITS-MARRIAGE-INFANTICIDE—
EDUCATION.—GOVERNMENT — FOOD — CANNIBALISM – CRE-
MATION.—CHANGE OF NAME—WEAPONS.–SUPERSTITIONS.–
DRESS—GAMES-FIRE BY FRICTION.—PHYSICAL CHARAC-
TERISTICS.–INTELLIGENCE—LANGUAGE = tº gº
CHAPTER XXII.
THE WARS OF THE BANGERANG.
ANECDOTE OF THE WIZARD OF THE NORTH-NATIVE FIGHTS.–
IHOMICIDES–MASTER PEPPER.—HIS DEATH AND BURIAL–
REVENGE — WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER — THE FATE OF
JIMMY-JACK–DUELS - * gº gº º º:
PAGE
190
206
216
230
307
CONTENTS. xi
CEIAPTER, XXIII.
COLBINABBIN TAKEN UP.
MORE NEW COUNTRY-APPLY FOR COLBINABBIN–CROSSING
THE GOULBURN-A DISCONCERTED NEIGHBOUR—DISPUTED
BOUNDARIES.–A CURT SETTLEMENT - * tº - 331
PAGE
CEIAPTER, XXIV.
A MAIL ON THE LOWER GOTULBURN_NEWS-
PAPERS AT TONGALA — OUTCRY AGAINST
THE SQUATTERS.
MOAMA—A REGULAR MAIL–THE FIRST SETTLER—SEPARA-
TION FROM NEW SOUTH WALES * wº * - 347
* CEIAPTER, XXV.
PROGRESS IN SHIEEP-FAIRMING AND DAILY LIFE
ON THE STATION.
STATION PROFITS AND EXPENSES-BURNING OFF — SMALL
ECONOMIES-LITERARY TREASUREs—GRANADA IN 1851–
NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE–BUSH AMUSEMENTS.–HUNTING
ON FOOT —DUCK-SHOOTING—A DANGEROUS SWIM - - 352
CELA PTER, XXVI.
HUNTING WITH FOX-HOUNDS.
MAIDEN’s PUNT—A PACK OF FOX-HOUNDS—THE FIRST MEET
—“BOOTIFUL COOL *—A “CANNY BODY ‘’-NOCTES AM-
BROSIAN A3–NATIVE WIT-BUSH TALK iº º - 380
CHAPTER, XXVII.
LAW IN THE BUSH AN INTRUDER ON THE
- RUN.
MASTERS AND MEN–CAVEAT COMMISSIONERS–A MISGUIDED
FRENCHMAN–PARLEYING WITH THE FOE-BROUGHT TO
HIS SENSES-COURT OF PETTY SESSIONS—BUSH JUSTICES - 394
xii CONTENTS.
CEIAPTER XXVIII.
OLD DAVIE.
SIX-FINGERED POLLY—SINGLE-EYED CHARMERS–THE JUMBUK-
MAN–A. CRAVING FOR MURDER—THE RIGHT TO KILL-—A
SATANIC APPARITION - sº 4- ſº sº tº
CHAPTER, XXIX.
RAMBLES IN UNOCCUPIED COUNTRY.
THE PATHLESS WOODS—LONELY EXCURSIONS-PIGS'- FACES
FRUIT-ARTISTIC SCENERY — A FALSE ALARM — LAKE
BOGA TRIBE–ADIEU TO MY SOOTY FRIENDS sº º
CHAPTER, XXX.
MY SERVANTS.
CONVICT SERVANTS–FALL IN WAGES.–EFFECTS OF A SOLITARY
LIFE—A LITERARY SHEPHERD–SOLDIERS' YARNS - º
CEIAPTER, XXXI.
CONCLUSION.
RESULTS OF MY SHEEP-FARMING—DISCOVERY OF GOLD —NEW
CHUMS - tº gº es tº * º s
PAGE.
405.
418
436
449
RECOLLECTIONS OF SQUATTING
IN WICTORIA.
CHAPTER I.
ARRIVAL IN MELBOURNE.
My first visit to Melbourne was in August or
September, 1839. I had come in company with
my father from Circular Head, in the schooner
Eagle, which was freighted with cattle, horses, and
sawn timber. We had a pleasant run of twenty
hours across the Straits, and after a delightful sail
up the Bay we anchored off Williamstown, at
eight o'clock in the morning. After breakfast we
got into a whaleboat, which had come alongside,
and proceeded up the Yarra Yarra (as the river
was always called at that time) to Melbourne.
The day, I remember, was crisp and exhilarating,
and well fitted to give favourable first-impressions;
the stream bright and clear, and clad with the
verdure of the ti-tree and other shrubs to its edge,
vistas of grassy land presenting themselves here
2
2 RECOLLECTIONS OF
and there. What struck me most—though birds
were not wanting—was the stillness of the bush.
As for signs of civilization, they were as com-
pletely absent from the lower portion of the river
as when Batman first steered his boat to the Falls.
They were, however, close at hand; and we
were not long in reaching the bustling little town
of Melbourne, where one of the crew, in the
absence of a wharf, fastened our boat to a friendly
stump, and we jumped on shore, carpet-bag in
hand, and proceeded to take up our quarters at
the British Hotel, which, if I recollect rightly,
was one of only three inns then in Melbourne,
and stood at the south end of William-street,
at about a hundred yards from the landing-place.
Arrivals in Melbourne not being quite so numer-
ous then as they are now, ours soon became
known to some of my father's friends, who came
to our hotel to welcome him to the new colony.
Invitations to dinner ; to take up our quarters,
during our proposed stay in Melbourne, at the
houses of friends; and to the gaieties of the hour,
were numerous and cordial. Our little sitting-
room was soon filled, and conversation became
animated, there being notably prevalent a general
tone of high spirits, based, as it appeared, on the
unexpected prosperity and unbounded hopes of
the young community, which was as delightful as
it was infectious. The next day my father removed
to the Melbourne Club, of which he had been
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 3
elected an honorary member; whilst I went to
take up my quarters at the cottage of a friend
(a few months before a fellow-passenger from
England), who resided en garçon on the Yarra,
close to its junction with the Merri Merri Creek,
his family not having yet arrived to join him.
Of course I felt a good deal of curiosity to see
Melbourne, which I had heard much talked of in
Tasmania, whence it had already seduced a good
deal of the enterprise and capital. It was also the
first colonial town I had been in since boyhood,
and was already spoken of as destined to become
the leading city of the Australias.
CHAPTER II.
MIELEOTURNE IN 1839.
MELBOURNE has had its alternations of activity and
depression, like other cities, of course ; but, on the
whole, I think we may say that it has been a
bustling, stirring sort of place from the very pip.
Going back to the days of its founders, we find
that they had hardly got their tents pitched, and
local quarrels properly established, when they
raised a hue and cry and insisted on the Govern-
ment of New South Wales unlocking the lands,
4 PECOLLECTIONS OF
having the site of the future city surveyed, allot-
ments put up, a police magistrate sent down, and
who knows what besides; so that, evidently, the
youngster was in a hurry. Of course, all this
impatience was quite irregular, and probably to
the official mind (if current ideas concerning it are
correct) must have seemed very much on a par
with a three-days-old baby declining its pap and
clamouring lustily for beefsteak and bottled ale.
No doubt officialdom in the good city of Sydney
must have groaned from every pigeon-hole (ab
dimmo pectore); and if the eccentricities of the new-
comers did not bring on their devoted heads a
visitation of gubernatorial displeasure, and the
pioneers had their wishes complied with (after a
year or two), it may no doubt be attributed to the
fact that the prospect of a speedy contribution to
the Treasury, from land sales, was at the bottom
of the business. However that may be, we know
that the first sale of town allotments took place
in Melbourne in June, 1837, or about two years
subsequent to the first settlement, and rather more
than two years prior to the period of which I
write, and that the half-acre allotments realized
on the occasion an average of some £33 all
round. As characteristic of how things had
gone on during these two years I may men-
tion that, on the occasion of this visit, I
was present at what was known as Ebden's sale,
when three of these allotments sold at auction
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 5
for something over £10,000, from which an idea
may be formed, not only of the rise in prices, but
of the insane spirit of speculation at that time
rampant in the colony.
The town allotments sold in 1837 had, as a rule,
generally been built on when I saw them, display-
ing structures of every variety of plan which
might suit the tastes or the pockets of their
Owners, those which could not boast of a tenement
being generally enclosed with a two-rail fence.
Any approach to continuous rows of uniform or
similar buildings such as one expects to find in
streets there was none, as everyone built as he
liked, in the most independent way, and to suit
the requirements of the moment. Here and there
houses were of brick, some of one, and a few of
two stories; others were of weatherboards, wattle-
and-dab, or slabs. In some cases there were two
cottages on the same allotment, in others one ;
some of the buildings hugged the footpath which
was to be, and others stood back from the
street, amidst trees and stumps, in semi-rural
retirement; whilst here and there considerable
intervals occurred entirely destitute of buildings.
The size, too, of the structures, in many cases,
could hardly be considered commensurate with
the uses to which they were put ; the operations
of the Bank of Australasia, and of the Post-
office, for instance, were each carried on in a small
four-roomed brick cottage, in which some at least
6 RECOLLECTIONS OF
of the officials connected with them also dwelt.
In another instance, the front of a wooden hut of
the dimensions of eight feet by twelve, which
stood near about where the Argus office now
is, displayed on a signboard in large letters the
waggish announcement “Universal Emporium,”
and in its window a few pipes and sticks of
tobacco arranged crosswise. As regards the
streets, no attempts had yet been made to
pave or macadamize them, and very little to
separate the footpath from the roadway; whilst,
in the absence of drains, chasms, in many places—
notably in Elizabeth-street—some eight feet deep
and fifteen or twenty feet wide, had been excavated
by the rains. At the intersections of streets the
perpendicular banks of these gullies were broken
down by drays, and tolerably practicable crossing-
places established, which answered well enough
except during heavy rains, when they got flooded
six or eight feet deep, and had to be crossed some-
where north of Lonsdale-street. In most of the
streets stumps were plentiful, and in all but one
or two, trees were occasionally to be met with ;
whilst by no stretch of imagination could the
limits of the town be said to extend beyond the
area enclosed by William-street, Lonsdale-street,
Swanston-street, and Flinders-street. Straggling
houses, of course, there were outside that area,
and Collingwood—at that time called Newtown—
was a rising suburb of a dozen or two houses.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 7
But if the appearances of the streets and build-
ings were unlike those of the old country towns,
the ways of the inhabitants, as far as they met the
eye, were not less decidedly dissimilar. Perhaps
the first thing one noticed was the almost total
absence of women from the streets, as well as the
paucity of old men. In those days anyone over
thirty was spoken of as old So-and-so. Of the gen-
tlemen one saw, a good sprinkling were squatters,
who had brought their flocks and herds from New
South Wales or Tasmania. As a variety of the
genus homo they were distinguishable by their
hirsute appearance; whiskers, beards, and mous-
taches being decidedly in the ascendant among
them. Many of them, I noticed, indulged also in
blue serge shirts in lieu of coats, cabbage-tree
hats, belts supporting leather tobacco-pouches, and
in some few cases a pistol, which, with breeches,
boots, and spurs, completed the costume. The
horse, too, seemed an animal all but inseparable
from the young gentlemen I am attempting to
describe, who, if not engaged chatting in twos and
threes at the corners of streets, or in the act of
coming Out of or going into one of the inns,
might generally be observed hurrying on horse-
back from one end of the little town to the other,
occasionally, to avoid detours, taking their nags
over one of the gutter chasms which intersected
the streets. One young squatter, I remember,
was particularly noticeable, as it was his custom to
8 BECOLLECTIONS OF
have a black boy in livery mounted on his horse's
croup. Nor did such little eccentricities seem to
surprise the residents or attract much notice, the
accepted idea seeming to be, that bushmen were
not by any means amenable to the slow ways of
the dwellers in towns, and that many things
were proper enough in them which might have
been esteemed strange, or even objectionable, in
Others.
The squatters of that period—generally new
arrivals from home, and young men who had
brought with them more cash than experience—
were a good deal discussed by the townsfolk,
and more especially by the ladies, who, it struck
me, had vague and curious notions concerning
them. As far as I could gather, the prevailing
notion seemed to be that the squatters' habitat
in all cases was some fearfully remote and lonely
locality which it would be quite impossible for
ordinary persons to reach ; that without his horse
the squatter could not exist ; that he wore habit-
ually Hessian boots and spurs, of which it was
uncertain whether he ever divested himself; that
he was much given to emu and kangaroo hunt-
ing ; had constant encounters with hordes of
blacks; rode as a rule fifty miles a day, chiefly at
a gallop—a performance which seemed as neces-
sary to his horse as to himself—and at night slept
anywhere, with his saddle for a pillow. It was
also surmised that some sense, peculiar to the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 9
young squatter, enabled him to find his way in
the most unerring manner through trackless
forests and waterless wastes; that (when out of
town) he lived solely on tea, mutton, and damper,
and enjoyed, when in the saddle, a perfect immu-
nity from fatigue. All this of course was mere
surmise; what townspeople really did know about
the squatter was, that in town he was lavish in
his expenditure, affected tandem driving, had a
decided penchant for beer and brandy, smoked
continually, and was not as a rule over-punctual
in his payments, or versed in the ways of mer-
chants or bankers. His peculiarities, however,
real or imaginary, did not survive the very early
days of the colony; he was too lively a bird for
our forests, so that, eventually, lawyers and courts
of justice put out many a shining light of those
times. In the early days the young men took to
the bush and the neighing steed, as naturally as
they now become bank clerks, lawyers, and
cricketers. -
But if the squatter was what perhaps first
attracted the attention of a stranger in the streets
in 1839, he was not by any means the only
subject of remark. These were numerous.
Amongst other noteworthy matters which one
met with in Melbourne at that time was the
champagne lunch. To account for this institu-
tion (which, by-the-bye, was thought worthy of
mention by Sir George Gipps in one of his
10 BECOLLECTIONS OF
despatches to the home Government), it must be
borne in mind that the moneyed portion of the
population consisted in the main of individuals of
a more or less adventurous turn of mind, who had
left Great Britain in search of new homes; or of
unquiet spirits wearied with the jog-trot ways of
the elder colonies, already effete after their pro-
longed existence of fifty years, who had come to
Port Phillip to take possession of a magnificent.
territory ready for immediate use ; and that from
the congregation of such a population, the ele-
ments of pastoral wealth ready to hand, the too.
facile accommodation afforded by the banks, and
the artificial stimulus which resulted from Sir
George Gipps's system of land sales, a spirit of
speculation, as hair-brained as ever the world saw,
had taken root in the colony, at that time known
as the Port Phillip district.
The consequences of this state of things per-
vaded all the relations of life, and a general mental
inebriety seized on the people. I suppose we may
say they were drunk with speculations and visions
of wealth. That a man had bought a horse for
4,100, or a town allotment for £1,000 one day,
seemed almost to be accepted as a guarantee for
their purchaser realizing at auction #150 or £1,500
on the next ; and champagne lunches seemed the
natural adjuvant and appropriate stimulant to
business conducted on such sparkling principles.
People said it “ kept the steam up,” and so lunches
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 11
were to be met with daily, at one auction room or
another, cold fowls, hams, beer, brandy, and
champagne being provided for intending buyers,
and in fact for anyone who chose to partake of
them. Without such accessories it would have
been thought imprudent to put property on the
market—the mise en scène would have been criti-
cally wrong; and so they became an “institution,”
as the Yankees say. To these spreads (there
were usually one or two daily), in addition to those
who proposed to buy, anyone who was disengaged
seemed to Saunter in ; no questions were asked,
but as a rule each one seemed to take a bottle of
his favourite beverage for himself (no matter how
many stood open to his hand), knocked the head
off with a knife, drank, chatted with his acquaint-
ance for a few minutes, stayed to see a lot or two
disposed of, had another drink, pronounced the
champagne refreshing, or the brandy “nippin”
(as the term was), lit his pipe or cigar, and left.
Why people always knocked the heads off the
bottles in those days I cannot say, but I remem-
ber I used to incline to the belief that there were
no corkscrews in the colony at the time. Whether
the colonists, in their hurry to reach Australia
Felix, had neglected to supply themselves with
that time-honoured utensil, or whether they had
worn out on the passage those with which they
had left home, or whether they were contraband
of the Customs, I never learnt. Whatever the
12 RECOLLECTIONS OF
cause, however, a corkscrew was certainly seldom
seen in public.
Another thing which struck the stranger in
connection with business matters was, that the
community seemed urgently bent on ascertaining,
by the test of auction, the value of every horse,
house, and acre in the colony. I was the more
confirmed in this view by observing how few
persons seemed to have any idea of retaining
permanently any property purchased, as it was
no sooner acquired than the new owner seemed
to set himself to calculate what it would fetch
when put more advantageously on the market,
and resold at the expiration of a week or two.
This seemed to be specially the case as regarded
town allotments, and people were always arguing
that the value of that commodity increased in
proportion to its subdivision, and hence buying
large lots, subdividing, and reselling was con-
stantly going on. In connection with this business
I remember there was a grey-haired old man who
was quite a character about the town. Mounted
on an old white horse, this individual might be
seen daily perambulating the streets between the
hours of nine and twelve a.m., ringing a bell, and
carrying a red flag elevated on a staff, a few feet
above his head, on which appeared in large letters
the word Auction ; whilst two boards, on which
were posted bills of the sale to which the old
man drew attention, dangled at his back and
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 13
chest. As he rode down Collins-street, I often
noticed that the board which hung in front
rested on the pommel of the saddle, and, coming
under the rider's chin, elevated his line of vision
far above the horizon. As he could see little of
what was passing around him, and hear nothing
for the noise made by his bell, his look naturally
became abstracted, if not solemn. Somehow this
old man, always gazing upwards, apparently at
some distant hills, with banner upreared and
locks floating in the wind, has become mixed up
in my mind with Longfellow's Alpine hero—
whimsically and improperly enough, I admit—
and when I think of him, the poet's verses seem
to vary into something of this sort —
Onward the old man spurred his horse;
Adown the street he took his course,
Bearing a banner with strange device,
Re town allotments at a price,
Excelsior
This old man, with horse, flag, bell, and board,
served, it might be, more than one useful purpose;
and I certainly, as the result of a limited ex-
perience, came to consider that, at the auction
announced by him, the beer and champagne would
be found cooler and more choice than elsewhere ;
indeed, I was often led to debate in my mind
whether he did not carry out a hospitable device
of the jovial dwellers of the town for letting
14 RECOLLECTIONS OF
strangers know where the principal commercial
spread of the day would be, at which, Sams façon,
their company was expected. - -
The Melbourne Club, which at that time
occupied the corner of Collins-street and Market-
street, was another object of note. The number
of its members seemed considerable, and it was at
the club door—which stood what I may call three-
quarters face to the street—that the orderlies and
horses of the Commissioners of Crown Lands (the
former in spruce uniform, and the latter be-
holstered and be-cavessoned) were to be seen in
attendance several hours daily; their masters
being probably engaged with brandy and cigars
within. Those were the palmy days of Commis-
sioners, when licenses for runs, the settling of
disputed boundaries, &c., depended on their fiat.
They were also in command of the mounted
police, and in some instances, at least, displayed
in their costume and manner decidedly military
proclivities. Another peculiarity of the town at
that period was, that the time-honoured black hat
and dark clothes of the old country had given
way to straw hats and white suits; and I well
remember, later, a few men donning dark clothes
and black hats, and bringing back the old country
costume. On the first day of my arrival in
Melbourne (of which the population was estimated
at about 5,000 souls) I remember being somewhat
struck by the leading article in the newspaper,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 15
which was a diatribe on the doings of the wife of
the principal merchant. From the article in
question it appeared that the lady had given a
ball the night previously, to which all the élite of
the place had been invited, and congenially, per-
haps, with the advanced lights prevalent at the
moment in the future capital of Australia Felix,
she had thought fit to receive the company seated
on a chair, which stood on a dais beneath a
canopy. The name of the editor, however, from
some cause or other had been omitted from the
list of invitations, and, to mark his disapproval of
such treatment, he had indited a leader, making
savage sport of the lady and her doings. The
scene, no doubt, was provocative enough of mirth,
and the editor's explosion was the more interesting
to me as I was that evening to be a guest of
the fair hostess of the dais and canopy, who, I
may remark, dispensed very pleasantly the
hospitalities of her house, in which the tout
ensemble of furniture, wines, cookery, attendance,
&c., would have passed muster in a more settled
country, and was little to be expected on the spot
where, not four years previously, Batman had
stepped from his whale-boat into the primeval
bush.
But at this epoch the Melbourne craze, par
eaccellence, was town allotments. On this subject
ran conversation principally, and probably dreams
entirely—a circumstance not to be wondered at
16 RECOLLECTIONS OF
when we remember that in two years favourite
lots had increased ten or twenty fold in value, and
were still steadily rising. With this mania men
and women were all bitten alike, and it was per-
petually cropping up in the most ridiculous and
unexpected ways. My father used to relate,
as an instance, a conversation he heard one
evening at the club. The parties conversing were
a doctor and a lawyer. The doctor, whose im-
ported blood-horse was daily paraded about the
streets in the usual bravery of ribbons and rugs,
was talking over his grog to his friend the solicitor
on the subject of a profit of £8 per head on a lot
of mares on which he reckoned.
“Look here !” said the doctor, holding the palm
of his left hand before his friend's eyes, “look here !
here are eighty mares at £8 a head,” and he
accompanied the words with an invisible writing
of the figures on the outstretched palm. His
friend bent his energies on the aerial figuristic
statement, under which the doctor proceeded to
draw a line in the time-honoured way. “That's
clear,” said the doctor. “Quite,” replied the
lawyer, with that air of thorough assent which
people not infrequently put on when what they
should understand appears at the moment a hope-
less muddle. “Well then, eight times nought are
nothing—put down nought and carry One,” and
the doctor drew a nought with the index finger of
his right hand on the palm of his left, which the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 17
lawyer carefully noted, winking his eyes to clear
his sight, as the calculation was growing intricate.
“Eight times eight are sixty-four, ar’nt they,
C 2 ” “Quite so,” said the lawyer ap-
provingly.
“Just so; eight times eight are sixty-four, and
one are sixty-five. Six hundred and fifty pounds
in three months,” continued the son of Esculapius,
and he turned the quasi slate full to the light, so
that his friend might more clearly discern the
interesting calculation. The lawyer, my father
used to assert laughingly, gazed for a moment on
the hand, as if thoroughly enjoying the beautiful
demonstration, and then turned his face, radiant
with groggy good-humour, on his friend, exclaim-
ing “Nippin l’ and a slight hiccough disturbed his
utterance, “ nippin, doctor; SO come on and let
ws have another glass of town allotments /* The
horsey allurements had seduced the steadfast mind
of the man of briefs but for a moment from their
accustomed shrine.
But though my father amused himself with
the oddities of the town allotment mania, some
purchases which he made during his visit seemed
to show that he himself had not quite escaped the
malady. Fortunately, however, he only took it
in a mild form.
It was also on the occasion of this visit that I
was present at, I believe, the first land sales at
Pascoeville and Sandridge, or the Beach, as the
3
18 RECOLLECTIONS OF
latter was then called. To arrive at Sandridge
the Yarra had to be crossed on a punt. Of
those who went there, some rode and others
drove, the pace of the horses being decidedly
fast, and so far in keeping with the ways of
their owners. A carriage or two, and dog-carts
galore, whirled along, and there was a consider-
able sprinkling of ladies out to see what was
to be seen. One eminent lawyer I noticed driving
several of the fair sex in an ammunition waggon,
with a pair of horses with which he had got into
difficulties; in fact, the steeds, which did not
appear to understand the man of briefs, had
demurred to his pleadings to proceed. Altogether
he was not happy with horses, for I remember
hearing some time afterwards that one of them
had broken his leg with a kick—his “polka leg,”
as he said. Arrived with a friend at the future
Sandridge, we met, as usual, hams and turkeys,
beer and champagne. I do not recollect seeing
any land sold. It might have been that the
company had only come to view the allotments,
which were shortly to be offered for sale in
Melbourne. What I do remember is that the
gathering was a very pleasant one ; everyone
seemed in the best of spirits, and several tents
had been set in a prominent position, in which
the company lunched as they arrived. That im-
portant preliminary over, we broke up into twos
and threes, some strolling on the beach with the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 19
ladies, some examining the surveyor's lines in the
future township, whilst others sat down to enjoy
their cigars in the shade. Altogether, anything
more like a picnic, and more unlike the usual
routine of business, I never saw. In these ways
two or three hours were passed, when by degrees
the ladies and their escorts left to return home,
after which town allotment talk flowed for a time
triumphant ; except in the case of a few young
squatters, who got up races on the sands, or tried
their horses over a jump of boughs which they
had improvised.
When people could tear themselves from town
allotments, the leading topics of conversation in
Melbourne at that time were the expected
arrival from England of the Superintendent, Mr.
Latrobe, and the position he would take up with
respect to the local revenue, which heretofore had
been expended in Sydney. Then there was the
anticipated news from Adelaide of Messrs.
Hawden and Mundy, who had left town in a
tandem to explore a route between the two
capitals. The uncertainty of whether these
explorers would succeed in passing through
several hundred miles of unexplored country
beset with blacks, or whether they would get
their brains knocked out on the way, was, of
course, the principal feature of interest in the
affair, and that which commended it to the
sympathies of a society, the daily transactions of
20 RECOLLECTIONS OF
which might fairly be placed midway between the
chance of the dice, pure and simple, and the cold
prudence which regulates the business of more
staid communities.
Another feature of Melbourne was the blacks,
who constantly wandered about in large numbers,
half-naked, and armed with spears in the usual
way. To hear them cooeying and shouting to
one another, in shrill voices and strange tongues,
in the streets had a strange effect. These once
free-born lords of the soil seemed to make them-
selves useful under the new régime by chopping
firewood, bringing in brooms for barter, and occa-
sional buckets of water from the Yarra; and
might be seen a little before sundown retiring to
their camps on the outskirts of the town, well
supplied with bread and meat, and followed by
packs of half-starved mangy dogs, which had
spent the day in performing scavengers' duty in
the streets, in which employment they were clearly
not without their advantages. But whilst speak-
ing of the town, I must not forget the cottage of
the kind friend who had asked me to make it my
home during my visit. It was a rustic-looking
little wattle-and-dab building of three rooms, well
shaded by trees, and situated within ten yards of
the bank of the Yarra, at about three hundred
yards from its junction with the Merri Merri
Creek. The floors were the ground, ceiling there
was none, and around the outside was a verandah,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 21
up the posts of which were trained creepers. In
front there were three French windows, which
looked on the river flowing by amidst lovely
wattle trees. As a servant my friend had a
rough man, not used to the ways of towns; in
fact, a bush hutkeeper, who baked our damper,
fried our chops, and went to town once a fortnight
to purchase groceries and get drunk. The kitchen
and servant's room were detached, and a little
further off was a stable. The approach was across
a thickly grassed alluvial flat studded with hand-
some and shady trees—some of them blackwoods
—and the Merri Merri Creek was crossed by a
stony ford. Nothing, in its way, could be prettier
than this spot; more Australian, or more secluded.
One of its features was the great quantity of birds
congregated thereabout. The voice of the bell-
bird—“which never was mute’—I heard there
for the first time, ever ringing amidst umbrageous
river trees. Magpies and other songsters dwelt
there also in considerable numbers; and as I sat
alone in the verandah one evening watching the
sun go down, I heard, for the first time, the
laughing-jackass's nightly adieu to that luminary.
22 RECOLLECTIONS OF
CHAPTER III.
JOURNEY TO WOLFSCRAG.
My father had formed a very high opinion of the
colony in 1839, and being again in Melbourne in
January, 1841, he purchased a sheep station
which was situated on the Major's line,” about
Seventy miles from Melbourne, and five miles
South-west from where the town of Heathcote
now stands. This station, which was called
Wolfscrag, had been taken up for an absentee
Tasmanian proprietor by his overseer, and had
been represented at the sale to have improve-
ments on it to the value of some £300 or £400.
The number of sheep depasturing at Wolfscrag
was said to be 2,300, more or less ; and my father,
who had not seen the property, purchased it at
the price of 15s, a head on the sheep delivered
to him—a figure then unprecedentedly low.
As regards the value of runs or stations at that
time, it must be borne in mind that anyone was
at liberty, on payment to Government of a yearly
fee of £10, to “squat " on country not already
occupied ; so that, as there was plenty of country
* The “Major's line * is a term signifying the track, or line
of road, formed by the drays of Major (afterwards Sir Thomas)
Mitchell in his explorations. In some localities the track or
road which his drays left behind is called “the Major * to this.
day.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 23
vacant, the selling value of a run was very little
more than the cost of the improvements—that is,
huts, fences, woolsheds, &c.—which had been
erected on it.
On his return to Tasmania, my father sent me
over to take delivery of the sheep, and manage
his new purchase, directing me to engage a com-
petent overseer, from whom I should be able to
learn sheep-farming, of which I knew nothing,
and for which, at that time, I had little inclina-
tion. Accordingly, I left Tasmania without delay,
and reached Melbourne on the 9th of February,
1841. On arriving there I met the person who
was to give delivery of the sheep and run ; and,
though I was not at all prepossessed with him, I
was glad to engage him as my overseer for three
months at a salary of £100 per annum, as servants
of any sort were most difficult to obtain ; which
being arranged, I directed him to return to Wolfs-
crag, where I purposed following him in the
course of a few days.
Being, as I have said, perfectly ignorant of
everything connected with sheep and their man-
agement—never having, in fact, seen a station
or counted a flock of sheep, I was very desirous
of getting some friend experienced in such
matters to accompany me to see delivery taken,
as well as to obtain an opinion of the property;
the more so as I had got an idea into my head,
during my interview with my overseer, that I
24 RECOLLECTIONS OF
should find things on the station very different
from what they had been represented at the sale.
In this, fortunately, I succeeded, as I met a
friend of my father, who was on the point of
starting with a companion to his own station, and
who kindly consented to make a détour and see
me through my first difficulties at Wolfscrag.
I had brought an excellent saddle mare with
me from Tasmania, and set out accordingly with
my two companions about three o'clock one
evening, a few days after my arrival, our destina-
tion that night being the Bush Inn, distant some
thirty-five miles from Melbourne. As the weather
was excessively hot, and our horses fat, we rode
slowly, and did not reach the inn until a couple
of hours or more after sundown, when my experi-
ence of Australian bush life began. The inn, we
noticed as we approached, was somewhat noisy,
and on going up to it, a hostler, summoned by
the barking of a bloodhound, came out of the
front door, and, taking possession of our horses in
a very free-and-easy manner, directed us to enter
the house at the door by which he had left it.
Having got rid of our horses, a step took us into
the sitting-room, which opened on to the verandah.
The building was of slabs, roofed with shingles in
the usual way ; its dimensions were about thirty-
five feet by twelve, with a skillion in addition in
the rear, which ran the whole length of the
structure. The exterior and division walls were
/
A
squartisa IN VICTORIA. 25
seven feet high. Whe ceiling was of white-washed
canvas, and a Cévering of the same material lined
the walls in lieu of plaster. The sitting-room,
into which we have found our way, was about
fifteen feet long. In the middle of it was a deal
table, one end of which was laid with washing
utensils for the morning. In the centre of the
table was a large brass bell, such as is used by
criers, and a single tallow candle in a disreputable
candlestick, which guttered complacently on to
the oilcloth covering. On the mantelpiece were
a few gaudy ornaments, Phillises in china with
lambs to match, and the figure of a Spanish bull-
fighter or two, if my memory serves me.
There were also in the room four sofas, of the
poorest sort, on two of which beds had been made,
the one having an occupant who was already
asleep. He was probably a squatter, travelling
between his station and town. His boots, hat,
and clothes had been thrown on the floor beside
him ; a tobacco-pouch hung suspended by a
leather belt from the head rail of the sofa or bed-
stead (the one by day, and the other by night),
and from under his pillow protruded the end of a
valise and the butt of a horse pistol. Besides
visible discomfort, a conglomerate aroma of
tobacco, beer, and mutton-birds, new to me at
that time, pervaded the atmosphere ; whilst now
and then the canvas ceiling, shaken by a pass-
ing air, which fortunately found ingress under
26 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the eaves, gave a sort of plunge which re-
minded one of the sails of a ship in the light
weather of the tropics. Two of the sofas, as I
have said, were doing duty as beds, in one of which
the occupant was asleep. On the second was a
man who had apparently been laid down shortly
before, but was now sitting on the edge of his bed
in strong déshabille. He was evidently of the
working class; his shirt was unbuttoned at the
throat; he had on slippers and trousers; his hair
was dishevelled, and his suspenders hung down
behind him. To our entrance this character paid
no attention, if, indeed, he saw us at all, but
continued smoking his pipe with an abstracted
look, his eye being wild, haggard, and restless.
Now and then he strode up to the fireplace,
wrung his hands with the air of a maniac giving
vent sotto voce to a string of bitter imprecations
on some, to us, unknown individual, and then
reseated himself in his former position. The
feeble cry of a child from the adjoining skillion we
soon noticed to be in some manner connected with
his excitement, and, indeed, to judge from appear-
ances, it only required the presence of a sharp
razor to ensure a case of suicide before morning !
From the tap, in the meantime, which was within
a yard of us—the only separation being the walls
and ceiling already particularized—proceeded the
wrangling, laughter, and oaths of half-a-dozen
drunken men.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 27
Such was the coup-d'azil which presented itself
to us on our entering the sitting-room of the Bush
Inn, which might, at the period, have been con-
sidered, in the main, a fair specimen of bush inns
in the colony generally at nine o'clock in the
evening. Supper being desirable after our ride,
the startling sound of the big brass bell, which
stood on the table, brought the barmaid into the
room, who having promised us some bacon and
eggs and tea without milk, and tried with a spoon,
which she happened to have in her hand, to stop
the candle from guttering, removed the washing
utensils to a corner on the floor, and proceeded to
lay the table. Having supped, we adjourned to
the open air for a smoke; after which two of our
number took possession of the vacant sofas in the
sitting-room, on which beds had been made in the
interim, whilst the third was accommodated for
the night in some other part of the house. Our
rest in such a place, it may easily be imagined,
was of a very equivocal description; in fact, the
songs and shouts of those drinking in the bar,
which continued till nearly daylight; the remon-
strances of the landlord, the cries of the child, the
mutterings of the dishevelled one, and the un-
savoury odour of our mutton-bird feather pillows,
together with certain animalculine inconveniences,
made sleep all but impossible.
When morning came, having performed Our
ablutions in the creek (doubly welcome after a
28 RECOLLECTIONS OF
feverish night) and our toilet on its banks, we
called for our bill, whilst discharging which, an
account of the dishevelled occupant of the sofa
was elicited from the landlord. From him we
learned that this mysteriously excited individual
was an overseer on a station about ten miles from
Wolfscrag, on which his brother, a lately married
man, had also resided in the capacity of stockman.
This stockman, it appeared, had died not long
since from a wound received in an encounter with
the Blacks, leaving a young widow and a child
behind him; the former of whom, after bemoaning
her loss with great constancy for six weeks, had at
length dried her tears and consented to become the
wife of her brother-in-law. In consequence of this
arrangement, the young widow had started for
town with the proprietor of the station, who had
obligingly offered her a seat in his dog-cart, the
bridegroom-elect being to meet her at church two
or three days later. In the meantime, it appears
that the capricious fair one was wooed by her master
On the road down, and wedded forthwith on their
arrival in town, and was on her return to the
station in all the glories of a new bonnet and
husband, when the pair met the discarded lover
face to face at the inn door ; who, in ignorance of
what had occurred, had just been experiencing
that delicate badinage to which “happy men”
have been victims from time immemorial. A
stormy &claircissement, under circumstances so
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 29
embarrassing to all parties, had, it seems, taken
place and as what had occurred was past remedy,
the disappointed overseer had flown for consola-
tion to brandy-and-water, of which the landlord
informed us “he had taken a heavy lap" before
going to bed. .
Mounting our horses after hearing this little
relation, we rode over to the quarters of the
Crown Lands Commissioner, which, with the bar-
racks of the mounted police under his command,
were only a mile or so from the inn, and, in
exchange for his breakfast, gave him an account
of our miserable night, of which that official, I
remember, took a more serious view than we had
done ; debating whether he would renew the
license of a publican who allowed his customers
to drink and conduct themselves uproariously
after 10 o'clock p.m., as that seemed to him the
hour at which travellers who were not drunk
should be allowed to go to sleep.
After leaving the Bush Inn, it took us two
days of leisurely riding, and following wrong roads,
to reach Wolfscrag. The hour of our arrival was
a little before sundown, and certainly the aspect
of my new home and its surroundings was any-
thing but inviting. The run, a good deal of
which we had passed through on our way to the
huts, might be described as a mass of barren
quartz ranges, between which were a few long
narrow flats, watered by small creeks, and very
30 RECOLLECTIONS OF
poorly grassed. The establishment consisted of
two slab huts, each about fifteen feet by ten; one
occupied by the men, and the other by the over-
seer and his servant. They stood on a hillside
not far from the creek, and a little removed from
them, in the flat below, were three flocks of sheep
in hurdle-yards; a movable watch-box, in which
the hutkeeper slept, standing in the space between
them. On the side of the range, some three hun-
dred yards off, the shadows of the trees fell on a
tumble-down edifice, constructed of bark and poles
lashed together with thongs of bullock hide, which
I learned was the shed in which the shearing and
wool-pressing were carried on. From the huts
no grass or herbage could be seen ; the dust from
the lately yarded flocks slowly drifted in a cloud
down the desolate valley, and the whole scene,
from a sheep-farmer's point of view, was as dis-
heartening as could well be imagined. The
sterility of the spot indeed was more noticeable,
of course, when contrasted with the rich country
through which we had travelled from Melbourne,
and it will be easily imagined that my companions
offered no congratulations on my prospects.
Having unsaddled and tethered our horses in
one of the gullies on some coarse grass, we entered
the overseer's hut, the interior of which was
scarcely an improvement on its outward appear-
ance. It consisted of three rooms, one of which
was a store, in which were kept the flour, tea,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 31
Sugar, meat-cask, &c., of the establishment ;
another was the bedroom of the overseer's female
servant ; whilst the principal apartment did duty
as kitchen, diningroom, and overseer's bedroom,
and was arranged in this way —On one side, and
close to the fireplace, stood a rough bedstead, an
opossum-rug spread over, which concealed the
bed-clothes beneath. In the centre of the room
there was a large sea-chest, which served as a
table ; and at the fireplace, which occupied the
whole of one end of the building, and was alumost
as large as one of the smaller rooms, the supper
was being cooked—to the no small increase
of a heat already excessive. Against the walls,
around which were hung a pair or two of horse-
hobbles, a gun, stock-whip, some tin dishes,
pannikins, a rickety looking-glass, and other odds
and ends appertaining to the gentle craft of
squatting, were set three rough stools; and on
the mantelpiece were disposed, evidently with
some regard to effect, a couple of Hall's powder
canisters, of a flaming red colour; a horse's hoof;
some blue paper boxes containing Seidlitz powders
(the overseer's substitute for sodawater); a
meerschaum pipe, with a large glass-stoppered
druggist's bottle as a centrepiece, containing
some three pints of a sherry-coloured liquid, and
labelled butyr of antimony. In one of the walls
of the hut there was an aperture of about a foot
square, cut through the slabs as a window, before
32 RECOLLECTIONS OF
which was drawn, on strings, a little curtain of
white calico. The outer door, which always stood
open by day, was secured at night by a bar; and
a couple of woolpacks, nailed to the tie-beams and
reaching the ground, supplied the place of doors
to the two smaller apartments.
On arriving, we had been met by the overseer,
who ushered us into the hut, and formally put
me in possession of the premises, with the air of
one who was relinquishing what he evidently
looked on as a very complete little establishment.
Of the correctness of his views on this subject it
hardly needed the smile, which I thought I
detected on the faces of my friends, to remind
me that some diversity of opinion might exist.
There was a momentary lull as we sat down, and
the eyes of each wandered involuntarily over the
hut, and took stock of its contents. It was clean
in its way, but very comfortless as I thought
then ; later on I got used to things still rougher.
After a moment, the friend who accompanied me
broke the silence, remarking, as he turned towards
me—“The hut is well enough, though rather
small ; I assure you we don’t think this bad in
the bush.”
“As tight as a nut, sir,” said the overseer,
interposing and looking up at the ridge-pole,
evidently pleased ; “I had it new barked in the
spring. You'll find everything very comfortable
and dry,” continued he, addressing me. “A
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 33
grand thing, sir, a dry hut ; a grand thing ! My
old one at Western Port used to leak like a
sieve, and we were always wet. But, I dare say,
gentlemen, you are hungry after your ride.” And,
turning to the servant, he ordered supper.
In due time the sea-chest table was covered
with a clean towel; three willow-pattern plates, in
more or less dilapidated plight, were placed on it ;
an old pint pannikin, partially filled with clay and
topped up with mutton fat from the frying-pan,
with a bit of old shirt wrapped round a stick
stuck in the centre for a wick, did duty as a lamp;
some odd knives and forks made their appearance
from the store-room, whilst a round wooden box
(marvellously like a lather box) supplied the place
of a salt-cellar. Beside each plate the servant
laid a pint tin pannikin and a slice of damper;
and a large tin dish was placed in the centre of
the table. Everything was clean at least, and the
tinware bright as silver. After these preliminary
steps had been taken, some rather coarse brown
sugar was put in the pannikins, which were then
filled with tea from an iron kettle which was
simmering by the fire, and finally a leg of mutton
was transferred on the end of a large iron skewer,
amidst clouds of vapour, from the iron pot in
which it was boiling, to the tin dish on the table,
the overseer at this stage of the proceedings
inviting us cordially to “sit in " and have supper
whilst it was hot. It certainly was hot, and so
4
34 RECOLLECTIONS OF
were we, and no danger of us, at least, getting
cool. The atmosphere of the room, the fire, the
vapour, the odour of the “fat lamp,” the scalding
hot tea and reeking mutton, were neither pleasant
nor inviting ; but as there was no preferable
alternative, we did “sit in " to the edge of the
sea-chest on Our three-legged stools, and, setting
to work manfully, acquitted ourselves as well as
could have been expected of novices under the
circumstances. “Messieurs, vous étes servis /" said
one of my friends, laughing, as we began our meal;
probably some hotel on the Boulevards suggesting
itself to his mind as a contrast !
* CHAPTER IV.
PROSPECTS OF SHEEP-FARMING AT WOLFSCR.A.G.
VERY anti-Capuan were the couches of Wolfscrag,
and conducive to early rising ; and before the sun
was two hours high the sheep had been counted
by my friend, delivery of the station had been
taken, and I had shaken hands with my late com-
panions, and watched them as they rode slowly
down the grassless valley, which extended some
distance before the hut which I was now to call
my home. A momentary spasm of regret, I must
say, passed over me as I stood at the door watch-
ing their departure, and thought of the altogether
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 35
uncongenial surroundings amidst which I was to
remain behind. But indulgence in such feelings
could serve no purpose, so, as my mare was tired,
and there seemed heretofore to have been no
recognized pastime or occupation at Wolfscrag—if
I except Smoking negro-head tobacco and drinking
green tea—I thought it desirable to innovate a
little, and vary my amusement and that of my
overseer by turning our attention for a short time
to the financial matters connected with the estab-
lishment. Before, however, laying the result of
my investigations before the reader, I may premise
that the sheep on the station (which were badly
scabbed and suffering from foot-rot) were depas-
tured in three flocks, each of which was under
the charge of a shepherd, who, as was the custom,
took it out to feed from sunrise to sunset, when
he brought it home and put it into a fold of hurdles
for the night. The care of the three flocks during
the night, and their protection from wild dogs, de-
volved on the watchman, or hutkeeper, who slept
in a movable watch-box close to them ; whose fur-
ther duties also were to remove the folds daily on
to fresh ground, and to cook for the shepherds.
The number and description of my three flocks
were about as follows:—
650 very old eves.
650 two, four, and six-toothed ewes.
800 | 300 wethers.
500 weaners of both sexes.
2,100
36 RECOLLECTIONS OF
I may add that there were belonging to the
station neither horses, dray, nor bullocks, and
that the small supply of rations in store was, by
the terms of sale, to be paid for at invoice prices,
cartage added.
As regards the wages current on the station,
they were as follows:–
Bullock driver do. do. e s e 52
Overseer's servant, per annum • ‘º s 40
Overseer, per annum ... tº e - ... 3 100 0 0
Three shepherds, at £1 per week each 156 0 0
One hutkeeper do. do. © a º 52 0 0
0 0
0 0
In addition, I also found that the following
outlay would be necessary —
A team of bullocks, with dray, &c. ... £100 0 0
One mare (already purchased) • * * 75 0 0
One horse • * * gº 55 0 0
Twenty rams (those which had been
on the run having been destroyed
for scab) ... º, º e $ tº º tº $ s 80 0 0
Rations for eight persons, flour being
£60 per ton; and tea, and sugar,
and tobacco at corresponding rates 200 0 ()
Yearly license of run * - © s º is 10 0 0
Assessment on 2,100 sheep ... e º º 8 15 0
Sheepwashing, shears, woolpacks, &c. 12 O 0
Shearing 2,100 sheep 21 0 ()
Dressing materials for scab and foot-rot 10 0 0
Expenses, travelling and unforeseen ... 100 0 0
Total estimated expenditure for
the year 9 & © tº e º ... ſ.1,071 15 0
Against this outlay, the only asset to be looked
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. - 37
forward to was the wool on the sheep, which
might be estimated at the price of Is, per lb.,
each sheep yielding about 2% lbs., which brings
out £262. 1s., which would leave a deficit, if
everything went on well, of £809 14s.—certainly
a very charming prospect for a beginner
As regards fattening my 300 wethers for
market, I found, next day, that the scarcity of
feed on the run made this quite out of the
question. Indeed, the bare keeping the flocks
alive seemed to me very problematical, as they
appeared to be existing in a state of chronic semi-
starvation; as a proof of which, if any were
needed, it appeared that from the 1,300 breeding
ewes only 500 lambs had been weaned after the
last dropping.
On talking to the overseer of this ruinous
position of affairs, he informed me that I should
find on inquiry that the number of sheep in each
flock, as well as the rate of wages paid to the men,
were the same as on all the runs in the neigh-
bourhood, which, in fact, I afterwards found to be
the case.
Such a state of things could not, of course,
last for ever, and in the next and subsequent
years, as I shall have occasion to show, produced
the only possible results—viz., embarrassment to
the sheep-owners generally, and ruin to a large
proportion of them. Why flocks depasturing on
ground so flat, open, and richly grassed that
38 - RECOLLECTIONS OF
5,000, or even 7,000 sheep, could be easily kept in
sight by a single shepherd, as was really the case
in many parts of the colony, should be limited to
500 or 700 (though it did not interest me
pecuniarily at the moment amidst the scrubs of
Wolfscrag) was a matter which often suggested
itself to my mind, and it was not until long
after that any probable solution of the ques-
tion occurred to me. I then learned that the
localities in which sheep were first kept in
New South Wales being generally scrubby
and difficult to shepherd in, it had been de-
cided by the country police magistrates that.
shepherds (who were chiefly convicts) should
not be held responsible for sheep lost from
flocks which exceeded 520; and that the
flocks had, consequently, in order that the
shepherd might be made responsible for their
safety, in almost all cases been limited to that
number. º
This custom having obtained in the elder
colony, had, it seems, been brought by the
overlanders to Port Phillip in spite of the
difference of the circumstances, of its rich open
plains and free shepherds; indeed, it was long
argued by old Sydney colonists that depasturing
any number in a flock over the time-honoured
520 could only lead to loss; one of the reasons.
advanced being, that larger numbers defiled and
wasted the grass over which they daily travelled,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 39
whilst the strong sheep in the flock got all the
best of the feed.
My stay at Wolfscrag on this occasion did not,
I think, extend much over a week, three or four
days of which I passed shepherding with my over-
seer, who, waiting the arrival of some passer-by
looking for work, was obliged to take charge of
the flock of one of the shepherds who had de-
manded his wages and taken his departure the
second morning after my arrival on the station.
Whilst so employed, I naturally picked up some
information on the subject of sheep-farming
generally, and I became thoroughly convinced
that my father's seemingly cheap purchase was
in reality a very bad one: in fact, that the
sheep were of bad quality, diseased, and one-
third of them worn out; that the run itself
was as bad as could be ; that very vigorous
measures would need to be taken to put matters
on a proper footing ; and that in any case a
considerable loss would have to be submitted to.
What steps could be taken I was at that time
unable to decide. One thing was very clear, that
nothing could go on properly until the sheep
were removed to more suitable country than
Wolfscrag. This I was informed was impossible
for the present, as scabby sheep, which mine un-
doubtedly were, were prohibited from travelling,
under a heavy penalty, except during the month
of February, which was now drawing to a close.
40 RECOLLECTIONS OF
Under these circumstances, I determined, waiting
further experience, to put off any radical measure
until I could hear from my father, and in the
meantime to apply myself to the work in hand.
Having so decided, I proceeded to town after
a few days, where I purchased a dray, a team
of bullocks, a horse, a supply of rations, sheep-
dressing, tobacco, &c., at the prices already par-
ticularized, and engaged for six months a lot of
fresh men at the rate of £45 per annum, thus
making some slight reduction, at least, in the
current expenses of the establishment.
CHAPTER V.
TROUPLES OF A BEGINNER.
I HAVE just said that shortly after I took charge
of Wolfscrag, I engaged a fresh lot of servants.
I may add that hiring men in Melbourne in 1841
was not by any means an agreeable job, as wages
were high, and labourers (almost all old gaol-birds
and expiree convicts) exceedingly independent and
rowdy, so that my first experiences in this line were
anything but pleasant. They occurred in this way.
Having learnt from my acquaintances in town that
the only places at which men were to be found for
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 41
hire were the public-houses at which they were
accustomed to spend the proceeds of their labour,
I went, about ten o’clock one morning, to one of
these establishments, and walked into a front room
I saw open. In it a scene presented itself which
surprised me not a little; the more so as this was
the first time I had ever been in a place of the
sort. The room into which I had found my way
was a lengthy apartment, in the centre of which
was a long narrow deal table, on which stood, here
and there, a number of bottles of ale, brandy,
champagne, &c., together with tumblers, glasses,
and pewter-pots. On each side of the tables,
against the walls, were benches running the
length of the room, on which were seated some
thirty men in every stage of intoxication, from
maudlin imbecility to that of the maddened
bacchanal, vigorous and rampant, in the first
stage of his debauch. Some of the men were
drinking out of pots and glasses, and others out
of the bottles; some were singing, others quar-
relling; one, with vacant lack-lustre eyes, sat
silently staring on the ground, another into an
empty pannikin; whilst three or four were
trying to dance to an air which was being played
on a fiddle by a man seated in a corner of the
room—a sort of resident musician to the establish-
ment, I believe, whose bestial face was a study in
itself. Many also were smoking, and others trying
to smoke. As far as I observed, the conversation
42 - BECOLLECTIONS OF
of these heroes seemed to be carried on in a yell.
One man cut a ludicrous caper when he saw me
enter the room ; but it was a last effort, for he
staggered and rolled under the table, where he
probably fell asleep. Another burly ruffian, who
stood in the centre of a small group near the door
and was flattening a pewter-pot with his fingers
probably for a wager, turned on me, and accosted
me in a savage and impertinent tone with “What
the devil do you want, bloke, eh?” “A.
bullock-driver,” I replied, looking him in the face,
and grasping firmly the hunting-whip which I
held in my hand. My answer elicited from the
company a roar of laughter, with oaths, yells, and
imprecations. “Bonnet him, Tom ; bonnet him l’
screamed one. “Break his back ſ” yelled
another. “Come on, young 'un, have a drink,”
shouted a third. Whilst one poor fellow, with
sodden wasted features and stony eyes, kept
drawling out in a hoarse undertone, frothing at
the mouth as though he were going to have a fit,
“Put him out and break his neck, I say. Put
him out and break his neck;” which words he
never ceased spluttering forth for the short time
I remained in that pandemonium of debauchery.
Having neither seen nor heard of such sights
previously, I was naturally astonished and dis-
gusted at what was before me. Fortunately, no
one laid hands on me, though several threatened
to do so, when the publican came to the rescue,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 43
and, withdrawing me from the room into which I
had stumbled, bundled out for my inspection, into
a dingy back parlour, some six or eight men,
whose money being spent, were no longer of any
use to him, and only remained on the premises on
sufferance. From amongst these worthies I
hired the number I required—making each of
them an advance of a pound. The same day I
purchased a team of bullocks, and also a dray,
which, with infinite trouble, I got loaded with
supplies the day after, and then accompanied on
the road a few miles out of town, having my
patience cruelly exercised for some hours by my
drunken servants, who tried hard to induce me to
buy them a bottle or two of brandy. Having
got them so far, and seen that they were
getting sober, and knowing that there was no
public-house within several miles of them, I
returned to Melbourne for a day or two, reaching
Wolfscrag just in time to see my dray arrive
without accident, install my new servants and
discharge the old ones. But though I had now
got a dray and bullocks (indispensable requisites
on a station), fresh men, and a supply of rations,
I only came home to encounter new troubles. In
the first place, my men were anything but satisfied
with their master's run—for servants in those
days were fastidious and outspoken—and mine
complained that the station was scrubby, without
feed, and almost impossible to shepherd on ;
44 RECOLLECTIONS OF
telling me that they had never seen so miserable
a station, such a lot of “crawling” sheep, and so
forth. The bullock-driver, too, was not less dis-
satisfied than the shepherds, complaining that
there was no grass, and that he would walk his
legs off trying to keep his team from straying.
As far as the shepherds were concerned, getting
them to their work was a matter requiring some
tact, and it was only effected, after much trouble,
by the overseer and myself going out with them
for a day or two so as to accustom them a little
to the run, and to some extent talking them out
of their objections to the place. As for compelling
them to perform their agreements, under which
they had all received money advances, it would
have been simply impossible under the circum-
stances. The bullock-driver was more easily
managed than the shepherds, as I rendered his
duty easy by directing him, as there was no
stockyard, to chain the bullocks to a tree at night
until something better could be done with them,
and take them out to feed during the day on what
little grass there was on the scrubby ranges.
Having arranged matters in this way as well
as I could, I proposed, partly on the advice of a
friend of my father, whom I had consulted in
town, but principally because I did not see how
things were to be put on a better footing, to
endure a while longer the troubles of sheep-
farming at Wolfscrag. For some time after I
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 45.
got home I was glad to find that my business
went on more comfortably than before, though of
course, as I have already pointed out, the whole
concern was a losing one, and I did not see how
it could be made otherwise. To me a squatter's
life was a great change from my previous expe-
riences; my not very delightful occupations at
this period being helping to dress the sheep for
scab and foot-rot, a little bullock-driving, learning
to find my way about the bush (an art which had
been sadly neglected in my education), getting
used to the ways of my men, and in the even
ing reading Youatt's book on “The Sheep.”
Things were in this position, and scab and foot-
rot were being pretty well got under, when an
incident occurred, provoking enough at the time,
the results of which were to lead eventually to a
very decided and advantageous change in my
prospects as a sheep-farmer. I allude to the loss
of four of my six working bullocks. These
wretched animals—in those days always a source
of trouble—had seized an opportunity for ab-
sconding, taken to the bush, and gone no one knew
whither. To the uninitiated this may appear a
very small matter; but it was not so in reality,
as horses and bullocks are, in fact, the principal
means by which station work is carried on.
Without them little can be done, so their recovery
was a matter of necessity. In this emergency,
the overseer, the bullock-driver, and myself rode
46 B.ECOLLECTIONS OF
out daily to try and find the truants, each going
in a different direction into the bush; and a most
tiresome business it was, this weary looking for
tracks, examining Creeks, and following gullies.
For my part, whilst attempting to find the missing
animals, it was only with great difficulty that I
managed not to lose myself. The country being
rangy, somewhat scrubby, and destitute of promi-
ment features, was exceedingly perplexing to a
“new chum,” so that, if I rode ahead for four
hours looking for the bullocks, I generally found
that it took me six, with good luck and all my
ingenuity, to retrace my steps. But to anyone
who knows anything about the bush I need not
dilate on the subject of bullock-hunting. Day
after day for a fortnight we persevered in our
search from daylight till dark, when, being
unsuccessful, I gave it up as hopeless, concluding,
new-chum like, that the wretched animals had
made good their escape into those boundless
forests, as yet unexplored by civilized man, on the
verge of which Wolfscrag was situated, and out of
which their recovery was hopeless. How dif-
ferently I should have thought and acted a twelve-
month later
This was my first real dilemma, and sadly I
pondered on it ; not that I had any work for
bullocks on the station at the time, but that there
loss rendered my leaving Wolfscrag impossible,
which, notwithstanding the Scab Act, I hoped to
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 47
do in one direction or another at no distant date.
Of course, the animals might be replaced, but to
do so would cost £40 ; and though the funds at
my disposal had not got so low as that, they
were getting sensibly less, and I was unwilling to
ask my father for more money. After worrying
myself in vain, and turning the matter over in
every way, I made up my mind to wait as
patiently as I could for a few weeks, before
buying a new team, and see what chance would
do for me in the interim, consoling myself with
the reflection that, at all events, I was getting
day by day more conversant with my business,
of which, indeed, on my first arrival I knew
absolutely nothing.
Affairs were in this position, and my sheep,
which were to lamb in three months, were be-
coming daily more reduced in condition, when
chancing to inquire one evening of my overseer
whether it was not possible that a little more feed
might be found in some distant corner of the run,
he said to me, with an expression of face which I
could not understand, but noticed at the time—
“Oh you should take the sheep over the ranges;
there is lots of feed there now.” And on my
expressing some surprise that as often as I had
spoken to him on this subject he had never sug-
gested that step before, he replied, “that on
the part of the run he spoke of the grass had been
burned by a bush fire just before my arrival, and
48 RECOLLECTIONS OF
that before this it had not had time to grow
again.” .
In consequence of this information he and I
set out next day and followed up the creek to the
range referred to, climbed its rather rugged side,
and, on descending its southern slope, found our-
selves in the midst of an abundance of grass and
water. Gently sloping hills, which as far as the
eye could see had been run over by a bush fire.
a few months ago, were now clothed with the
greenest and freshest of kangaroo grass, inter-
spersed with yams, murnong, and other herbs in
which sheep delight; whilst two small creeks, well
supplied with water, met in the valley in which
we stood. To my inexperienced eye no track of
foot or hoof was visible, whilst the grass-covered
hills, lovely as a view, were doubly so in the eyes
of an owner of three famishing flocks. To make
up my mind to bring my sheep to the spot
required, of course, no lengthened consideration ;
so, after gazing on the beauties around me, we re-
mounted our horses to return, and on our road
home I saw from the top of the range, far away
to the north, a large tract of open country, con-
cerning which my overseer could give me no
information. Later on I found this to be the
Colbinabbin and Coragorag plains, little dreaming,
when first I saw them, that the rocks and scrubs
of Wolfscrag were one day to be exchanged for
that then unexplored country. Having thus dis-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 49
covered an abundant supply of feed and water for
present use, a day sufficed to bring my sheep
to the spot, and the scanty requirements of an
out-station of the sort were quickly supplied.
Merrily with saw and axe we felled the trees
around, and with them constructed the required
yards, a tarpaulin and a few forked sticks and
poles being all that was necessary in the way of a
hut for the shepherds. Then, having stripped for
the men a sheet of bark each, on which to lay
their beds, I left them almost as pleased with the
change as the sheep themselves, and returned
with my overseer to the head station.
CHAPTER VI.
ALONE AT MY HUT,
FoR a time after I had got my sheep on to the burnt
feed just spoken of I had very little to do but
revel in the reflections that my miserable flocks,
with dressed backs and pared hoofs, had at length
their wants fully supplied; that I should have
some prospects of a tolerable lambing; and that
my shepherds were no longer discontentedly
scrambling up and down the sides of grassless
5
50 RECOLLECTIONS OF
ranges after their hungry wandering charges, but
were now watching their sheep feed around, and
in the enjoyment of that thorough idleness which,
everyone knows, of course, is so congenial to the
pastoral mind. As for me, I could not help
Wondering that such feed existed on the station,
and that I had never heard of it ; and this set me
thinking about the boundaries of the run, a subject
upon which, up to that time, I had never been
able to obtain any information, the overseer having
always told me that he was the last comer in the
neighbourhood, and that the question of boun-
daries had never turned up, remarking that when
my flocks met those of my neighbours some day
in the bush it would be time enough to move in
the matter. -
It was a few days after my sheep had been
located in the midst of plenty, that the term for
which I had engaged my overseer expired; and
as I had found that instead of making himself
useful, or giving me an insight into the business,
he had systematically tried to deceive me on
every occasion, I determined to pay off both
him and his servant, and let them go. This
I did. We had no words on the Occasion, how-
ever, and I gave him the use of my remaining
pair of bullocks, dray, and driver to remove his
luggage to town. As he had four bullocks of his
own running on a neighbouring station, the team
was made up with them, and it was agreed that
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 51
I should have the use of the lot to bring back a
small load of supplies for the station.
The departure of my overseer forms one of the
little epochs in my reminiscences which are par-
ticularly stamped on my memory, as it was on
that occasion that I took on myself the responsi-
bility of management. It was on that occasion,
also, that I first found myself quite alone in the
bush ; all my servants, with the exception of the
bullock-driver, who was now leaving with the dray,
being stationed, as the reader is aware, with the
sheep some six miles away, so that there remained
no one but myself to look after the stores and
plant at the head station.
First impressions of things generally remain,
and I well remember seating myself on a log near
the hut, the morning the overseer left, and watch-
ing the dray as it toiled slowly and noisily up the
gully which led to the road. For some time I
could see the many-coloured bullocks; the driver, in
his cabbage-tree hat, walking near them with his
whip over his shoulder, and the overseer and his
servant following a little in the rear. I thought
they were a long time getting out of sight. At
last they disappeared into the scrub ; and when
no longer visible, I still sat and listened to the
creaking of the wheels, the voice of the driver,
and the crack of his whip, till the sounds, growing
fainter and fainter, at length ceased altogether.
What appeared to me an unusual stillness and
52 RECOLLECTIONS OF
loneliness then seemed to settle around me.
Afterwards I got used to be alone, and very in-
different on the subject, but it was not so then ;
and I don’t know whether it will strike the reader
that the position in which I was placed was a
nervous one, bearing in mind that with very little
experience of the bush I was suddenly left by
myself, probably for three weeks, in an unfre-
quented spot, and in a neighbourhood in which a
considerable number of exasperated and hostile
Blacks were known to be. At all events I was
not without anxiety, knowing, as I did, that not
many months since the owner of a station not
ten miles away had been wounded, and some of
his men killed, by the Blacks, and that four or
six soldiers had been sent from Melbourne for his
protection, whilst I, a lad just Out of my teens,
was here without a comrade, indifferently armed,
and quite inexperienced. It should also be remem-
bered that at this time I had never seen the
Blacks, except in Melbourne, and was totally
ignorant of their ways. These circumstances,
which I had hardly thought of the day before,
now came distinctly to my mind. My reflections
on them were not, however, of very long duration,
for the sounds of the retiring dray had not long
ceased, when I set to work to put myself into a
position to meet whatever danger might occur.
To effect this my preparations were simply—
loading carefully my two guns, chaining up my
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 53
pair of kangaroo dogs in such positions as to
render surprise impossible, and seeing that the
door of my hut could be effectually and easily
secured. -
The first day of my solitude passed over slowly
enough, the stillness around weighing a good deal
on my spirits, whilst such occasional sounds as
did occur made me start involuntarily. The wind,
the noise of a falling bough, the cawing of a crow,
or the whistle of a hawk—which yesterday failed
to arrest attention—made me now look carefully
round. Unused to solitude and to the feeling of
my life being in danger, I was much on the alert,
and in a very prepared state of mind for fighting,
magnifying a good deal the risk I was running.
At that time I realized (though from boyhood I
have always been satisfied to be a good deal alone)
how necessary to me were a certain amount of
conversation and fellowship. As regards my
occupations when left to myself, some of my time
of course was taken up with cooking (a novel
industry to me at the time), with chopping wood
for my fire, and other little household jobs; as
well as looking after my two horses, which were
hobbled about half-a-mile from my hut. These I
used to bring to water twice a day. In the
morning, as generally happens to those who live
alone, I rose with the Sun, when the monotonous
routine of the previous day recommenced. A
good deal of my time was naturally passed in read-
54 BECOLLECTIONS OF
ing; and, when tired of my occupations, my only
resource was to walk up and down before my hut,
sometimes watching the few almost voiceless little
birds that disported themselves on the trees
around. If a flight of cockatoos passed screaming
over the valley, I used to wonder whether they
had been disturbed by anyone; and if so, by
whom—by a White man or Black? and look care-
fully around to see if I could descry anyone
coming.
After the first day or two, however, my feelings
of loneliness and apprehension in a great measure
left me. I got used to the position, and though I
continued to live, as it were, gun in hand, my
mind occupied itself with other thoughts, and
dwelt but little on the subject of danger. The
forced confinement to one spot troubled me, indeed,
more than anything else, and I used often to
regret that I could not now and then spend a
morning in hunting or shooting. About ten days
had passed in this manner, and I was sitting at
my door with a gun in my hand, smoking my pipe
and watching the sun go down, when I caught
sight of a horseman riding at a walk up the
valley. The prospect of having some one to talk
to for the evening pleased me not a little, and I
anxiously kept my eye on the stranger to see that
he did not pass by without coming to the hut.
My visitor, when he arrived, turned out to be a
mounted policeman doing patrol duty, who came
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 55
to ask a night's lodging. This, of course, I very
willingly granted, putting him in possession of the
men's hut, and giving him whatever provisions he
required. Before going to bed, I also went to the
hut and had a long yarn with him, when I learnt
amongst other things, that four bullocks with
yokes on, such as I had lost, and which from his
description I made no doubt were mine, had been
seen on the Goulburn, and were then running on
a station about eighty miles from Wolfscrag,
where they could easily be had. This of course
was great news for me. The trooper also informed
me that the Blacks had been committing depra-
dations in my neighbourhood down the M*Ivor
creek; that he had been sent to look after them,
and recommended me to be on my guard, as he
said that if they came upon me unarmed they
would certainly kill me in revenge for some of
their people who had lately been shot at a place
about fifteen miles off, on the banks of the
Campaspe.
In the morning the trooper got on his horse
and started for his station, near the old crossing-
place of the Goulburn, which he told me was
about thirty miles distant, and I was again left to
my own devices.
I think some three or four days must have
passed after this visit, when I noticed, as I was
dressing about sunrise, some wild ducks alight in
a water-hole not far from the hut. A drizzling
56 RECOLLECTIONS OF
rain was falling at the time—the first I had seen
at Wolfscrag—and, without waiting to finish my
toilet, I hastily put on a cloak, and, taking one of
my guns, Sallied out to try if I could get a shot at
them ; but though I took some pains to stalk
them, they proved too wary for me, and flew off
without my being able to get near them. After
returning to the hut I had scarcely washed and
dressed when the same, or a similar flight, of ducks
again settled in the water-hole. Being in doubt
whether the gun which I had had in the rain
would go off, I hastily took up the other and
again Sallied out, and had a second time to return
unsuccessful. Replacing my gun, I proceeded to
cook my breakfast, and was thoroughly intent on
that interesting occupation, when the kangaroo
dog, which I had tied up at the back of my hut,
suddenly sprang to the end of his chain and
commenced barking furiously. Feeling sure that
something unusual was afoot, I laid down my
frying-pan, and, taking up one of the guns, stole
cautiously around the hut, keeping close to the
slabs, to ascertain what was the matter. Arrived
at a position from which I could see behind the
building, I discovered the cause of the commotion
was a small dog close at hand, which, in my
ignorance, I supposed to be a wild one. This
seemed to me a lucky chance for a shot; so, quite
inapprehensive of danger, I levelled my carbine
and was about to fire, when something which
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 57
moved amongst a clump of bushes a few yards
off attracted my attention. Quick as thought I
turned the muzzle of my gun from the dog to the
bushes, at which, though I could distinguish
nothing for the instant, I nevertheless held it
pointed, keeping myself still partly covered by
the hut. This proceeding, I have no doubt,
saved my life, for the next moment I caught sight
of a pair of spears quivering amongst the boughs,
from which, after a moment's delay, lowering
their weapons, there stepped two Blacks, stark
naked, and in all the beauties of war-paint. If
any confirmation of their murderous designs were
wanted, the expression of their faces supplied it.
Laughing in a confused way, and in a hollow,
unnatural tone trying to make some joking sort
of apology for being found in such an equivocal
position, the two worthies sauntered easily towards
me, I, dropping my carbine into the hollow of my
arm, keeping my finger always on the trigger.
Though we began to talk on both sides in a
friendly way, and as if things were just as they
should be, I never saw anyone more put out
than these two savages, who had probably been
watching my movements since daylight, and
counted on my falling unarmed into their hands.
They seemed more put out than I was, and I was
a good deal “skeared,” as the Yankees say, and
more, perhaps, by the murderous looks which
even now my two friends were unable to get rid
58 FECOLLECTIONS OF
of, than by the thought of the danger which I
had escaped. The hatred which their looks could
not hide disconcerted me, whilst the effect of
their painted faces and chests, white circles round
the eyes, and ribs like those of a skeleton, first
seen under such circumstances, was most striking
and forbidding. Whatever the reason of their
attempted attack, and whatever might be the
result of their visit, I made an effort to conceal
my feelings, and, well on my guard, walked
side by side with the two Blacks to my door,
which (saying “Stop a minute, my boys,” and
without turning my back to them) I entered
at once ; a savage dog which was chained to
the door-post preventing them from following
D].62.
The reader will readily believe that I drew a
long breath of relief when I reached my strong-
hold. The Blacks, spears in hand, wearing the ex-
pression of men who had been sorely baulked, stood
quietly beyond the reach of the dog, which made
furious efforts to get at them, and I took up my
position a little within the doorway. My visitors, I
fancy, still entertained hopes that, being young and
evidently unused to their ways, I should sooner
or later expose myself, when they would kill
me. If so, however, they reckoned without their
host, for I had made up my mind to trust myself
with them no more, but to fight it out, when the
time came, at the doorway, where I should have
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 59
the assistance of the dog, and where two could not
get at me at once. Had I known the ways of our
aboriginal race I might have been quite certain that
no attack of the sort would be made, as open war-
fare is not their system. My sable friends seeing,
I presume, at last that I intended to stick to my
cover, began protesting their friendly intentions,
and asking me for food. Stepping back, as if to
reach the damper on the table, I seized a toma-
hawk and placed it beside me, ready for the hand-
to-hand fight which I anticipated would follow,
being in great doubt whether either of my guns,
which the reader is aware had been in the rain,
would go off. In reply to their demands for food
and assurances of friendship, which were made in
quite intelligible English, I told them to be off;
that I would give them nothing ; that I knew
they had come to kill me, and that if they came
an inch nearer my door I would shoot them. In
return they threatened to spear me, but did not
raise the points of their spears from the ground ;
so, with my gun at my hip, covering myself partly
with the door I invited them to come on. In
this manner we stood confronting each other for a
bit, both sides hesitating to begin—I, because I
was afraid the gun would not go off, and they, be-
cause they were sure that it would. Had it not
been for my doubts on this score, I should have
shot one of them at once in self-defence, as it
seemed to me that blows were inevitable. Ever
60 RECOLLECTIONS OF
afterwards I was glad that I had not done so.
Had the Blacks had an older man to deal with,
I have no doubt they would have retreated at
once ; but probably they did not like being
baffled by a very young man, combatants of
that age not being much respected amongst
themselves. -
Finally, however, the prudence of the two
worthies got the better of their valour, and seeing
that nothing was to be got without running the
risk of being shot, not even a smoke of tobacco,
for which they begged hard, they retired to some
bushes behind which they had left their opossum-
rugs and other effects, and after a few minutes I
had the pleasure of seeing them disappear in the
scrub. When all was over, I wondered that
when I reached my hut I had not shut the door
and brought the matter to an end ; but it never
occurred to me. It was a great relief to me when
I got rid of them. That they did not succeed in
killing me I have always looked on as a special
interposition of Divine Providence, for which, I
trust, I have been grateful.
After the Blacks had fairly gone I tried my
guns, which both missed fire. Of course I was
not long in drawing the charges, rubbing out, and
reloading them. I had had a narrow escape,
and took it as a warning which never required
repeating, being from that time scrupulously
attentive to the state of my fire-arms. When
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 61
next in Melbourne I also purchased an excellent
pair of pistols, which I learnt to use well, and
had constantly at hand for several years—in fact,
as long as danger existed.
CHAPTER VII.
BULLOCKS RECOVERED, AND A NEW RUN
DISCOVERED.
WITHIN a week after the visit of the two Blacks
my dray arrived from town, bringing a married
couple with two children, whom my agent in
Melbourne had engaged for me—the woman as
domestic servant, or hutkeeper, and her husband
as shepherd. After my lonely time, these few
persons and the little business of unloading the
dray made Wolfscrag seem by contrast a centre
of population; and of course it was quite a
blessing to be relieved from my solitude, though
I had still no one to converse with.
The servant woman, an active body, seized at
once on my not very extensive batterie de cuisine,
and transported it in a trice to the kitchen, whilst
a course of sweeping, dusting, and arranging my
hut was instituted forthwith. Fearing that I
myself might be whisked off by my inexorable
domestic, I was fain to give up possession tempo-
62 RECOLLECTIONS OF
rarily to the new arrivals; so, mounting my horse,
it being yet early, I proceeded to visit my shep-
herds, of whom I had only once heard during the
absence of the dray. In the flocks I found that
the succulent feed of the burnt hills, and the quiet
which they had enjoyed for the last month (being
able to get their food without much walking), had
brought about a very perceptible change, so as to
lead to the probability of a tolerable dropping of
lambs. I also found, as I rode along on the flats
near the head station, from which my sheep had
originally been removed, that the grass was
springing nicely after the late rains. The shep-
herds, who had seen nobody in the interim,
were glad to have me break upon their solitude,
hear a little news, and get a newspaper from
which they might learn something of what was
doing in the world; so, after chatting an hour
with them, I cantered home in the twilight, not
altogether indifferent to the prospect of a little
change of food and cookery.
After allowing matters at Wolfscrag to settle
down a little, taking rations to the shepherds,
and initiating my new arrivals into the routine
of their work, I determined to start with the
bullock-driver and make an effort to recover my
lost cattle, of whose whereabouts, the reader will
remember, I had heard from the passing trooper.
On my last visit to Melbourne, finding the showy
grey mare which I had brought from the clover
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 63
fields of Tasmania but ill adapted to the rough star-
vation ways of Wolfscrag, I sold her, and bought
instead, for £55, a powerful old horse, well bred
and used to the country, and a hardy little Timor
pony, for which, with the saddle and bridle, I paid
.#35. Giving the pony, therefore, to the bullock-
driver, who was a light-weight, and taking the
horse myself, we set out on our travels.
Our first day's stage of about thirty miles
brought us to the old crossing-place of the Goul-
burn, some seven miles lower down that river
than where the town of Seymour now stands.
Our road so far was the Major's Line.
The stillness, so common a feature in Australian
woods, I constantly noticed during my ride.
Equally characteristic was the sinuous creek,
and not a bit like what I had seen in Tasmania.
I saw nothing to remind me of the Blacks, and
yet they must have wandered along the creek,
built their huts on it, killed opossums on its
banks and ducks on its waters, for who shall say
how many ages 2 whilst the single party of white
men who had passed that way had left a road
behind them which one might follow unaided.
At one of the ponds (so round that they might
have been the work of man) which occurred
every here and there in the bed of the creek my
companion and I, availing ourselves of a shady
wattle-tree, sat down at midday to eat our lunch,
and allow the horses an hour to feed, as is the
64 RECOLLECTIONS OF
custom with travellers in the bush. Mounting
again and beguiling the way with a little con-
versation and a good deal of smoking, we arrived
shortly before sundown at our destination for the
night. This was an eating-house on the banks of
the Goulburn, which, with a log punt, were kept
by the owner and his two servants for the con-
venience of overlanders travelling with sheep or
cattle to Port Phillip or South Australia. With
him we put up for the night. Hearing from my
host that an overlander and his party were
camped close by, I strolled out after sunset to
have my first look at a bushman's camp, a sort of
thing of which in after years I was destined to
have a good deal of experience.
The sound of the bullock-bells soon guided me
to the spot, where, on some four acres of ground,
Surrounded by a number of large fires, I saw
encamped a flock of five thousand sheep. Passing
by a host of dogs which sallied out to meet me,
two teams of bullocks, and six or eight saddle-
horses grazing in hobbles, I got to the fire,
where the men of the party—about a dozen in
number—were eating their supper. They were all
seated on the ground except the head of the
party, for whom the water-keg did duty as a
stool. Having quieted the barking of the dogs,
the master invited me warmly to “ have a feed;”
but, as I had already supped, I was obliged to
decline his invitation to join in the attack which
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 65
was being made on some fried mutton, and a
damper of about the circumference of the front
wheel of a phaeton. Altogether the scene was
picturesque enough, and the overlanders seemed
to be enjoying themselves. The camp-fire, made
against the butt of a fallen tree, was on the brink
of the river, which ran noiselessly through the
towering gum-trees which over-shadowed its
course. Around the fire were the shepherds
and bullock-drivers of the party, seated, as I
have said, at their suppers, each expectant
sheep-dog waiting for his share from his master.
Before us, contentedly chewing the cud, were
the sheep, gazing at us by the light of the
fire, and in the background were two tents;
whilst scattered around, or hanging from neigh-
bouring branches, one noticed bridles, bullock-
gear, saddles, and other articles of that sort. A
couple of guns leaned against a stump close at
hand, and the large fire threw its mellow light
alike on the leafy arches overhead and on the
travellers and their belongings beneath.
In the course of conversation I learned from
the head of the party that he had started with
his stock from the neighbourhood of Bathurst ;
that he had already been over ten weeks on
the road; and that it would still take him
several months to reach his destination in South
Australia.
By eight o'clock the smoking and yarning of
6
66 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the Overlanders had nearly come to an end ;
the horses and bullocks had been looked to, and
their whereabouts reported to the leader ; the
first watch was set ; and as some of the shepherds
had retired to one of the tents, and I saw others
making their beds under the drays, I thought it
time to retreat to my own quarters. The party
were of course accustomed to their airy lodgings,
and I noticed that they were in good spirits, and
in the enjoyment of superlative appetites.
In the morning I mounted my horse, and,
followed by my little bullock-driver, Dan, on his
Timor pony, took the road which led from station
to station down the river. We rode slowly, and
about midday, I remember, were passing a station,
when Dan trotted up and asked me if I would
not call and get dinner; which, in my ignorance of
bush customs, I declined to do, being unwilling to
trespass needlessly on the hospitality of strangers.
Accordingly we rode on, my follower seeming
somewhat downcast, until a little before sundown
we reached the Protectorate Station, at which
any aborigines who chose to locate themselves
were supplied with food and blankets at the
public cost. This establishment, which consisted
of several slab huts in the occupation of the
Brotector and the half-dozen white men in his
service, and, in some cases, of their wives and
families, was prettily situated on the banks of the
river. The buildings were neatly constructed,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 67
and surrounded by trim gardens, with cultivation
and horse paddocks, the whole giving promise
of comfortable accommodation, as well as of
dinner, a matter at that moment not without
interest in my eyes. -
In this way we went jogging on from day to
day, and from station to station, with little
variety. But though I have so far—in order
to give some idea of the life of an early squatter
in Port Phillip—entered into details about all
sorts of trifles, it is clear that I must have some
regard for the reader's patience, and carry on
my narrative with longer strides. In view of
this, then, I will cease to drag him with Dan and
myself along our monotonous road through end-
less gum forests and over far stretching plains,
contenting myself with noticing what is important
in relation to the results of my journey.
After the delays usual in such cases—any
amount of cattle-hunting and going from one
station to another—I succeeded in recovering
my bullocks, and having accidentally met a
fit person out of employment, I engaged him
as overseer, put him with Dan in charge of
the truants, and directed him to take them
back to Wolfscrag by the road which I had just
travelled. In the meantime I had learnt from
the stockman at Wyuna, the station at which I
had found my bullocks, which was also the outside
station in that direction, that there was abundance
68 RECOLLECTIONS OF
of excellent unoccupied country close at hand,
which, with the consent of his master, he volun-
teered to show me. This was quite a godsend to
me, and of course I accepted his offer, and, the
day after my new overseer left with the bullocks,
rode over Tongala Plain in his company; and, as
it appeared to me well adapted for stock, I made
up my mind to abandon Wolfscrag, and take it
up as a run with the least delay possible. To do
this there were, in those days, no hindrances of
any sort, the custom being to drive one's stock on
to any unoccupied country, and then apply to the
Commissioner of Crown Lands for a license to
depasture, the application being granted as a
matter of course. The extent of land licensed
by the Commissioner was proportioned, in a rough
way, to the quantity of stock owned by the
applicant ; this permission to occupy country
being renewable yearly, until the ground should
be required by Government for other purposes,
on the annual payment of £10 into the Treasury.
Lesides this fee for a license, which, except in
the vicinity of Melbourne, everyone thought
would last for a generation or two, there was also
a small capitation tax payable yearly on the sheep.
The extent of country which I applied for, when
I got back to Wolfscrag, was fifty square miles,
half of it on each bank of the River Goulburn.
Having determined to remove my flocks from
Wolfscrag to Tongala, as I called my new run, I
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 69
started with the stockman (to whom I gave £5
for his trouble) direct for the former run through
the bush, by the places now known as Bundari,
Coragorag, Colbinabbin, and Redcastle. By this
time, as is usual with a little practice, I had
become a tolerable bushman for a new chum, and
the distance saved by the route I took going
home, across entirely unexplored country, was
about fifty miles, the distance through the bush
from Tongala to Wolfscrag being about eighty
miles. -
Hence the reader will see that the most for-
tunate thing which befell me at that time was the
loss of my bullocks, as it was the means of making
me a bushman, and of my getting an excellent
run; so right glad was I to leave the barren
scrubs of Wolfscrag and its wretched creek for
the well-grassed plains of Tongala and the ever-
flowing Goulburn. The occasion was one of
unmixed satisfaction ; and the country between
the two places being unoccupied, I took it for
granted that the “Scab Act” offered no obstacle
to the removal of my flocks in the proposed
direction.
70 RECOLLECTIONS OF
CHAPTER VIII.
REMOVAL TO TONGALA.
THE ride from Wyuna to Wolfscrag, which should
have occupied two days, took in fact three, owing
to the Timor pony which I now rode (as I had
mounted my overseer on my old horse) having
knocked up, or nearly so. Punch, as he was
called, was rather a character in his way. Bay,
with black points, he was but little bigger than a
full-grown sheltie, with a beautiful head, a thick
tail which reached the ground, and a perfect cloud
of mane, from which pricked out just the tips of
his restless little ears. Nothing in the shape of
horseflesh could be more beautiful in its way, nor
more thoroughly put together. Head, neck, legs,
shoulders, quarters—in fact, the whole animal—
might have served as a model. Though I rode
over twelve stone, sixty miles in a day on an
occasion hardly overtaxed the little fellow, nor a
hundred miles in two days; but, on the other
hand, he was so incurably wild, self-willed, difficult
to catch even when hobbled, and so addicted to
rearing over when mounted, that few could even
saddle, let alone ride him, when in condition ; so
that, on a journey in the bush, it became impos-
sible to let him take full advantage of the feed
which offered, and hence his failing me on this
occasion.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 7I
The first night after leaving Wyuna, we camped
without water at the end of thirty miles, near
Paboinboolok, or Lake Cowper as it is now
called, the day having been pretty hot, and the
next day Punch gave in, on the head of the
Colbinabbin Creek. Indeed, matters just then
were not going altogether smoothly with me. A
drizzling rain, which seemed likely to continue,
had begun to fall; the ground was soft, the sun
obscured ; my compass, which was too small, had
proved useless, and declined to traverse ; my
pony, as I have said, had jibbed ; the small
supply of food with which we had started was
nearly consumed, and the face of my companion,
the stockman, was becoming a sort of standing
reproach to me, too clearly conveying the im-
pression that he thought me a very unsafe
guide in the bush, and likely to get him into
all sorts of difficulties. However, as I knew
we could not be more than thirty miles from
home, to which, in the absence of sun and
compass, I knew I could find my way by the
watershed, it did not seem to me that anything
very serious could occur. Things being so, I
proposed to the stockman that we should camp
for the rest of the day and rest the pony, who
would then take me home well enough on the
next. To this I found him rather averse ; and
I have often noticed that men of his class
commonly never think of camping in the bush
72 RECOLLECTIONS OF
until their horses have come to a complete
standstill.
However, I turned a deaf ear to his sugges-
tions; so, hobbling out our nags on excellent grass,
with abundance of water at hand, the stockman
undertook to make a mia-mia to keep our camp
dry, whilst I sallied forth on foot with my dog
and a brace of pistols to look for something to
eat, in which I was so far successful, as to secure
an old-man kangaroo, whose tail and a few steaks
fully supplied our wants. On my return to camp
I found that my companion had made the mia-
mia with forked sticks, some pieces of bark
stripped from a fallen tree, and our saddle-cloths,
in which we should be very well sheltered from
the cold, drizzling rain which was falling; so that,
with a roaring fire, a bed of boughs, and a saddle
and a blanket each, plenty of tobacco and a kan-
garoo, a morsel of bread and a pot of tea, we
stretched ourselves out in luxury for the night.
Our nags, too, were enjoying great times amidst
the plentiful feed; my dog had a haunch of
roasted kangaroo for his supper, so that I think
on the whole we might be regarded at the moment
as a decidedly happy family. The conversation
of my companion also was not without interest to
a new chum, being made up of accounts of fights
with the Blacks on the Upper Murray, and
relations of his doings amongst wild cattle. In
this way, smoking and yarning, we passed the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 73
hours till bed time; and, after a good night's
sleep, were awakened by a fine sunny morning,
of which we took advantage, reaching Wolfscrag
that evening without further let or hindrance.
Home, after absence, even to the dweller in a
slab hut, and in despite of there being only the
“watch-dog's honest bark,” and no bright eyes
“to mark his coming and look brighter when he
comes,” still brings feelings of pleasure, as I found
on this occasion, though I was about to leave the
old home and make a new one.
Matters had, I found, been going on all right
in my absence ; my sheep had now got into good
condition, and I anticipated a favourable lamb-
ing. It is true I found awaiting me a short but
trenchant note from a neighbour, requesting me
to remove my sheep from what he termed “the
very centre of my Emu Flat station,” which
annoyed me a little at first ; but when I came
to reflect that he had failed to discover my in-
voluntary intrusion with three flocks of sheep for
several weeks, I contrived to make myself easy
with the conclusion that if my sheep had benefited
exceedingly by the trespass, his cattle could not
possibly have been much the worse for it. At
the same time, the cause of my late overseer's
sinister manner, when he suggested the removal
of my sheep across the ranges, became now
obvious enough. In fact, he was proposing to
me, in his usual style, what he knew was a
74 RECOLLECTIONS OF
trespass, which possibly might be the cause of a
quarrel with my neighbour.
I had, I think, been only three or four days at
Wolfscrag, during which period I had despatched
a letter to my agent in Melbourne, directing him
to take at Once the necessary steps for securing
me a license for Tongala, when my lately-engaged
overseer gladdened my heart by arriving with my
four lost bullocks. As I had determined to effect
my migration at once, for which I had also
explored a route, I lost no time in bringing my
flocks from the “Emu Flat” to the head station,
and loading the dray with my stores and effects.
This took only a day to do, and on the next, a
little after sunrise, in the most hopeful of moods, I
started with my possessions for the banks of the
Goulburn, leaving behind for the time at Wolfs-
crag, where the grass was now tolerable, one of
my ewe flocks, which had already begun to lamb.
The order of march was as follows:–Knowing
how the country lay, I led the way for Dan and
the bullock-dray. On our tracks followed the two
flocks of sheep at short intervals, each driven by
two men, looked after by the overseer. I had
almost forgotten to notice that my servants, from
fear of the Blacks,” were exceedingly averse to
the journey which I was beginning.
* It happened that several of my men were fresh arrivals
from Tasmania, where the Blacks were a very hostile race,
and much dreaded.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 75
The shepherds, indeed, who as a rule are the
persons who get speared in new country, had
tried to persuade me to pay them off and let them
go, a proposal which I could not entertain, as
procuring fresh hands would necessarily entail ex-
pense and loss of time; besides, I counted on the
wages I owed these men as to a certain extent a
guarantee for their good conduct, which I should
not have in the case of servants newly hired.
My party on setting out consisted of eight
persons, each of whom I armed with a carbine
and half-a-dozen buckshot cartridges, as much
perhaps to give them confidence as from any
likelihood of a collision with the Blacks. At
starting our route lay along the Major's line for
about five miles, when we crossed the Pinch,
after which I struck north-east, in the direction
of the head of the Colbinabbin watershed,
camping for the night after having accom-
plished about eight miles, which is a fair journey
for sheep. The spot selected for the camp was
on the bank of one of the tributaries of the
Major's Creek; and after having something to
eat, and the never-failing cup of tea, I proceeded
to have things arranged on the plan of the over-
landers' camp which I had seen. Of course, now,
after many years of diversified bush experiences,
I look back with amusement to my youthful
ignorance of such matters, and can only attribute
my not coming to grief in one way or another to
76 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the fact that there was more luck than good
management in my affairs just then. The spot
at which we had camped—a very suitable one, with
abundance of feed—appeared not to find favour
with my shepherds, who were not in a frame of
mind to be satisfied with anything. They not
Only objurgated it as “wild,” but I overheard one
of them appealing to his neighbour as to whether
the water in the creek, which they were drinking
at the time, was not “the wildest water as ever
was.” At that time I was unable to guess what
it was which was affecting my men disagreeably
about the camp, and in what the uncongenial
“wildness” consisted—and, indeed, why wildness
should be thought objectionable. Since then,
however, I have often remarked that unoccupied
country produces very opposite effects on different
persons, either raising or depressing the spirits as
the case may be. This fact may be noticed in
the printed accounts of our explorers. Some,
when the country they were travelling through
was remote from the settled districts, or its
features on a large scale, such as extensive forests
or horizon-bounded plains, got quite dispirited,
and have described such districts (we all know
now how incorrectly) as destined to be for ever
useless to man. The Darling, Lachlan, and
Murray countries are instances of this, and notably
the Cooper's Creek and Barrier Range districts.
Sturt always speaks of such country as a region,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 77
and Mr. Giles uses the same word in a like sense.
Others, again, the further from civilization, the
more satisfied they seem to become, and the more
roseate their descriptions of the land. On my
men, all of them old hands, unoccupied country
had a very depressing effect, their idea being that
we should be all killed by the Blacks.
In this way we kept on without anything
worthy of notice occurring for two or three days,
accomplishing about eight miles a day; some of
the party, as I regretted to notice, getting appa-
rently more nervous and dejected as we proceeded.
It was after supper, I think on the fourth day, as
I was about to turn into my blanket, that the
men in charge of the sheep formally complained
to me that they knew we should be killed by the
Blacks; that they objected to proceed any further,
and that they were determined that I should pay
them off and let them go. Being probably some-
what excited, they displayed a good deal of temper
in what they had to say, telling me that I was too
young to lead them, and that they would not be
trifled with. Though it was unpleasant to hear
expostulations from my ci-devant convicts, backed
up as they were with an implied threat of employ-
ing force if necessary for obtaining compliance with
their demands, I thought it prudent to reason a
little with them on their groundless timidity, and to
endeavour to shame them into a more courageous
frame of mind. My efforts, however, though
78 RECOLLECTIONS OF
prolonged for some time, proved quite ineffectual;
in fact, the men had made up their minds to bully
me into paying them off and letting them return
to the settled districts. At the moment I could
think of nothing better to say to them than that
I would take the night to think over what they
had said ; that in the meantime two of them must
keep the first watch as usual, and call the overseer
and myself at midnight. Without further remark
I then turned in under the dray, where I lay for
some time reflecting on the course I should take.
The position of affairs was not pleasant, as I could
not hope to get any men where I was going to ;
besides, huts had to be built, shearing was drawing
nigh, and it was most desirable to meet the
Murray and Goulburn Blacks, who bore the
reputation of being numerous and troublesome,
with a fairly strong party. On the other hand,
to pause was to upset all my plans; water would
be getting scarce on the plains which I had to
cross, and my ewes would be beginning to lamb.
Things, it is true, might have been worse than
they were, as the overseer, the bullock-driver, the
cook, and myself could have continued the journey
well enough by boxing the flocks, though we
should not have been able to put up the necessary
buildings and do the shearing. Having pondered
the matter for some time, I made up my mind as
to the course which I would take, and then, with
the happy facility of youth, forgot my troubles and
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 79
fell asleep. The determination to which I had
come was to proceed on my journey; to coerce
the men, if possible, to accompany me, as they
were bound to do by their agreements, and, failing
this, to go without them.
At midnight the shepherds, who had been
watching the sheep, called the overseer and
myself as they had been directed ; and I heard
them declaring, as they betook themselves to
their beds, “that they had kept their last watch
this heat.” During the night I had a long talk
with my overseer (who, with the bullock-driver
and cook, remained thoroughly staunch), and told
him what I intended to do; and, though he
thought there might be some risk with the
Blacks, he agreed to support me. To enforce my
views on the shepherds, and to compel them to
fulfil the terms of service for which they had
hired, I had determined to seize the guns with
which I had armed them, and lock them up in a
large chest which I had in the dray, so as to
leave my refractories no choice but to proceed
with me on the journey, or to leave my camp
without arms, food, or wages. Accordingly, when
all was still, I took the guns, drew their charges,
and locked them up, taking special care to see
that those of the overseer and myself were fit for
immediate use, as it was possible that my gaol-
birds might resort to violence. By sunrise the
bullocks and horses were brought up as usual,
80 RECOLLECTIONS OF
when we all sat down to presumedly our last
fryingpan of chops together, a dogged silence
prevailing on both sides. When breakfast was
over, the sheep being still on the camp, I thought
it time to bring matters to an issue, so I spoke to
my four rowdies, all Tasmanian expirees, saying,
I understood it was their intention to abscond ;
if they were so determined, of course they must
have their way for the present, but at their own
risk; that I should not prevent them removing
their “swags" from the dray, but food or wages
they should have none; and that they would have
to take their chance of being speared by the
Blacks, who, even now, for anything I knew,
might be watching us from the scrub, as I would
not allow them to take any of my fire-arms; and,
finally, that on the first convenient opportunity
I would proceed to take out warrants for them.
This announcement of my intentions coming
unexpectedly on my recalcitrant worthies took
them somewhat by surprise. I ordered the
bullock-driver, without more ado, to yoke up his
bullocks; the cook took charge of the sheep,
and the overseer and I lit our pipes and sat
smoking with our arms in our hands. Of course,
threatening speeches were made, and there was
loud grumbling, but no violence ; and just as the
dray was about to move on my four shepherds
gave in and returned to their duties.
After this little fracas things went on quietly
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. Sl
enough, more especially as at night I held out the
olive branch, by declaring that I would allow
any of my men to leave me, who might wish to
do so, as soon as I could get fresh hands to
take their places. I think, also, that emerging
from the scrubby country on to the beautiful
plains of Colbinabbin and Coragorag tended to
raise the spirits of the party and allay their dis-
content, which arose entirely from fear; in fact, I
heard some of them declare the plains to be less
“wild” than the scrub, and more homely—an idea
which, of course, I did not call in question.
Though between the spot on which Mr. Winter's
house at Colbinabbin now stands and Tongala—a
distance of thirty-five miles—no water was to
be found at that time, except in one or two
crabholes, still the country was most pleasant
to travel over, differing somewhat in its aspect
from that which it now presents. Altogether,
fences and tree-ringing have not improved the
scene. At the epoch of which I write the
grass, though at a distance it presented the
appearance of a sward, consisted of sparsely-
scattered tussocks of the primest descriptions;
the wire-grass, however, largely predominating
over the kangaroo grass. As it was then
winter, the interstices were filled with luxuriant
herbage ; the yam generally, and in some cases.
the myrnong, or native carrot, prevailing. The
bed of Paboinboolok, which seemed to have
hºp
d
82 RECOLLECTIONS OF
been long dry, was almost one field of myrnong,
whilst the inferior grasses and weeds—now unfor-
tunately abundant—were almost, if not entirely,
absent. Colbinabbin was a handsome piece of
country, with its timber-dotted ranges, richly-
grassed plains, and pleasant little creek embowered
in gum-trees, and so superior in the matter of
grass to Tongala that I should have ended my
travels there had it not been for the scarcity
of water. As it was, I was very loath to
leave it.
Allowing my party to follow down the creek, I
galloped over to the ranges, to obtain from their
summit a view of the country through which my
route lay. From them I first saw Lake Paboin-
boolok—waterless, as I have said, at the time, and
covered with myrnong. The features of the land-
scape were sunshine and stillness; my little party,
now and then discernible amongst the lines of
trees on the banks of the Creek, was creeping
slowly on in a northerly direction; here and
there a flock of emus, or a few bustards, were
feeding on the green herbage; and on the eastern
side of the plain, fifteen or twenty miles away, I
could just make out a faint line of smoke, rising,
no doubt, from a native encampment on the edge
of the forest. .
With no further inconvenience than a scarcity
of water, which was obviated to some extent by
carrying a small supply for the use of the party
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 83
in a harness cask on the dray, we arrived in due
time at Tongala, the journey having occupied
altogether about ten days.
CHAPTER IX.
A STATION FORMED AT TONGALA.
IT was in the month of July, 1841, that I arrived
at Tongala, as I called my new station.” Whether
Bunch on the occasion “bounded beneath me as
a steed that knows his rider” or not, I cannot
say—probably not, however, for as a rule neither
horses nor ponies indulge themselves in that way
at the end of a journey, whatever they may do
at the beginning, especially when their riders are
on the sunny side of twenty. Punch's master,
however, I remember, rejoiced in the best of
spirits on that particularly bright and sunny
morning, when he pitched his tarpaulin on the
little plain of Thathumnera (as that particular
portion of Tongala was called, and for the first
time watered his sheep, now pretty thirsty, at the
Goulburn River.
Of course, on arrival there was much to be done,
* The name was not by any means an apt one, as it is the
Bangerang name for the River Murray.
84 B.ECOLLECTIONS OF
so, after a hasty dinner I set all hands to work to
make a bough yard for one of the flocks, as it
was important as early as possible to get rid of
the nuisance of watching the sheep at night. To
effect this the men went to work, some with their
axes felling the small trees on the edge of the
plain, the bullock-driver with his team drawing
them to the spot selected for enclosure, the rest
of the party building the fence as the materials
came to hand, so that by Sundown we had one
substantial yard completed. -
Whilst engaged at this work, my attention was
attracted by a cooey, and, looking in the direction
whence it proceeded, we saw three Blacks on the
opposite side of the stream. Their appearance on
the scene caused some little trepidation in my
old Tasmanians, whose idea, as I heard one of
them express it, was “to kid (entice) them over
and shoot the lot.” Walking to the river,
close to the perpendicular bank of which our
yard was being constructed, one of my men,
a Sydney hand, who was accustomed to the
Blacks, called out and asked them what they
wanted; to which they replied, in very broken
English, that they had come to see us, and would
cross over the river if we liked. On learning
that I should be glad to see them, they laid down
their bags, drove the blunt end of their spears
into the ground, and, after examining the trees
at hand, set to work to cut a canoe, in which to
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 85
float themselves and their effects over the water.
This operation was speedily effected, and in
about half-an-hour I saw them in Indian file
briskly approaching the camp-fire, at which I
had seated myself. They were all muscular,
active men, two out of the three being about
five feet nine inches in height. Their dress
consisted of an opossum-skin cloak, which was
fastened at the chest, passing over the left
and under the right shoulder, so as to leave
the right arm at liberty. The fur was worn
next the person, and the skin, which was out-
side, was painted in various carpet-like patterns
with a sort of red clay which the Blacks burn
and make use of for this and other purposes
of ornamentation. The garment fell in not un-
graceful folds as low as the knee, and around their
necks they had necklaces of small reeds, cut into
lengths of about an inch and a half, and strung on
twine made from wild flax. In a sort of rude
kangaroo-skin bag carried on the left shoulder,
which opened out so as to be available for sitting
or sleeping on, were conveyed their tomahawks,
shields, waddies, and other utensils ; their spears
and throwing sticks being carried in the hand.
Their hair, which was straight and black, was
confined round the forehead by a narrow net,
through which were thrust the barbed switches
with which they extracted the edible grubs from
the trees; and around their arms, near the
S6 RECOLLECTIONS OF
shoulder, were twisted strips of Opossum-skin
with the fur on. Erect as reeds, my new
acquaintances stalked in grave silence up to the
camp-fire, and on my invitation, after warming
their feet for a moment in the blaze, took their
seats before me.
The crash of the trees falling on the edge of
the little plain which had so long been their
property, and of which we were unceremoniously
taking possession, and the general devastation
which accompanies the white man, naturally
attracted their attention. Their eyes seemed to
take in what was being done, and every strange
object around them, but neither word nor gesture
of curiosity or surprise escaped them. All three
of them, no doubt, had had some little communi-
cation with whites, and picked up—chiefly at
second-hand, from their neighbours, the Ngoo-
raialum Blacks—a smattering of English, so that
we were able to understand each other to a
certain extent. After they had come to compre-
hend that I was going to remain permanently at
Tongala, and heard what I had to say about the
heinousness of sheep-stealing and shepherd-spear-
ing, the power of fire-arms, and the beauty of my
kangaroo dogs—which they very much admired—
I thought it well to address myself to the better
feelings of my guests by directing the cook to
give each of them as much meat, tea, and damper
as would serve two ordinary whites for a meal.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 87
On his handing it to them, they seemed much
pleased, and began to eat, but without hurry or
the interruption of our conversation. In fact,
their manners generally were easy and pleasing,
and there was a sort of propriety about their
ways, and an absence of awkwardness which I
little expected to meet in savages; besides a cer-
tain politeness, which made them, for instance,
prepare a firestick when they saw me cutting up
tobacco, and offer other little attentions.
What with their erect carriage, dignified bear-
ing, graceful postures, novel appearance, and the
frank and courageous way in which they had
entrusted themselves amongst armed strangers, I
found myself considerably interested in these
children of the woods; though I still bore vividly
in recollection my late unpleasant interview with
two of their colour. Having got through what
seemed the proper preliminaries of an acquaint-
ance (they having, as it were, come to leave their
cards on the new arrivals), I thought it well to
utilize my new friends a little, lest they should
come into the erroneous idea that my camp was
an elisium of food, leisure, and tobacco-smoke.
In fact, as I had determined to transport one of
my flocks across the river, for which purpose a
canoe would be necessary, I thought the present
a favourable occasion for supplying myself with
that indispensable article, and proposed the matter
to the Blacks, who at once acceded to my request,
88 RECOLLECTIONS OF
and stripped to the work. As they stood before
us in ebony, tomahawk in hand, their well-propor-
tioned busts, strong shoulders, and light but
sinewy arms at once attracted the attention of
the party. I also noticed their well-curved
spines, a formation on which, I fancy, grace of
carriage and elasticity of motion chiefly depend,
and which seems more common to the Savage
than the civilized man. It occurred to me, also,
how much less unpleasantly the nude strikes one
in the Blackfellow than in his white brother,
leading one to contrast the perfect aplomb, solid
tread, and disregard of the wind or sun of the
first, with the hooped back, colourless skin, and
ill-assured step with which the latter painfully
shambles over the pebbles from his clothes on the
brink to the stream hard by in which he is about
to bathe. Possibly it was in such a predicament
that the rhymer gave vent to the
“Oh, ye gods and little fishes,
What's a man without his breeches 7 °
which we all remember.
As the reader may be interested to know how
the Black makes his boat, I will take this oppor-
tunity of describing the process, as so doing may
serve to illustrate not only the ready way in
which he obtains from nature all that he requires,
but also the skill with which he avails himself of
the few implements of which he is possessed.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. S9
And it is in such little matters that one is par-
ticularly led to contrast the ways of the savage
and the civilized man. The first, arriving at a
stream, with the aid of a stone tomahawk
provides himself in half-an-hour with a boat–frail
and perishable, no doubt, but sufficient for the
occasion, and passes over ; whilst the white man,
checked for the time, sits down deliberately, and
after a long delay produces an article of wood or
iron which may serve him for years.
In the first place, then, as the canoe required
was to be large and durable—that is, fit to last
several months—an old tree was selected, as well
for its size as for the thickness of its bark, and
also a little curved, in such a way that the canoe,
which was to be peeled off it, might have its bow
elevated a little above the water; the entrance of
water at the stern being usually prevented by a
little wall of well-kneaded clay in that part. The
tree chosen (an old river-gum of about twenty
feet in circumference), a few notches were cut
with the tomahawk, one above the other, in its
bark just outside of what was to be its edge, or
gunwale of the canoe. The operator having
then roughly marked out on the tree the lines of
his vessel, commenced cutting the bark along
them with his tomahawk down to the wood, so
as to detach from the tree an unbroken sheet of
bark, which would be the canoe. To effect this
the tree was ascended gradually, by placing the
90 RECOLLECTIONS OF
big toe in the notches before mentioned, which
were used as steps, the Blackfellow holding on
with one hand and one heel, whilst he plied the
tomahawk with the other hand. He also, I
remember, assisted himself by rearing against the
tree a stout branch which happened to be at
hand, and using it as a ladder to stand on whilst
he chopped. The bark thus cut all round, it only
remained to detach it from the tree, to which it
still adhered. This was effected, as the sap was
not well up, and the bark clung to the wood, by
hammering the future canoe gently with the butt
of the tomahawk, and by forcing the end of a
pole here and there under the edges of the bark
and prizing steadily. Gradually, in this manner,
it was neatly detached from the tree. The canoe
being a heavy one, my sable friends then produced
a cord which they passed round the centre of the
canoe and round the tree, and then tied somewhat
loosely, in order to prevent the canoe from coming
down with too much violence. The last bit of
bark by which it was suspended was then severed,
and the little skiff gently lowered to the ground.
Once landed, it was placed in the position of a
boat turned upside down ; some dried leaves and
boughs were put under it and set fire to, the
object being to dry up the sap, and so toughen
the bark as to allow of its being moulded into the
required shape. In a minute or two the fire had
burned out, the canoe was righted and placed on
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 91
a level spot ; two or three pieces of stick were
inserted after the manner of thwarts to keep
the sides distended; the bow was permanently
elevated, being forced into the required position
by means of a log placed under it, and in this
way the canoe is usually left for a day or two to
set and harden. The canoe I speak of (which
could have been used as soon as it came off the
tree) was about 18 feet long by 2 feet 6 inches
wide, floated eight inches clear of the water, and
would carry five persons.
Having thus got a canoe, I set to work in the
morning to erect yards at a convenient place on
the bank of the river, and the next day, with the
assistance of my men and the three Blacks, I got
one of my flocks transported across the Goulburn.
The operation was performed by placing the
sheep, six at a time, in the canoe with their legs
tied, when a Black punted them over. This wet
and troublesome job accomplished, my men set
vigorously to work to provide the first necessaries
of a station, which consisted in a hut for them-
selves as well as yards for the bullocks and the
other flock, the completion of which occupied
about a fortnight. The hut was made in the
usual way, the walls being of slabs, and the roof
of bark stripped by the Blacks and carted in on
the dray. The erection of a hut for myself, a
store for my supplies, a woolshed, and a paddock
for my horses and bullocks, works which it would
92 IRECOLLECTIONS OF
take some time to complete, I left, together with
the care of the flock, which had just begun to
lamb, to my overseer to look after, and, accom-
panied by Dan, I started with my dray and
bullocks once more to Wolfscrag to bring up the
flock which I had left there, as well as the wool-
packs and other stores necessary for shearing ;
and, I may add, some fresh hands to supply the
places of those who wished to leave. Of the
Blacks, of whom my Tasmanian servants were so
“skeary,” considerable numbers gradually made
their appearance and camped at the station, which
I encouraged them to do, both because I found
their services useful, and thought them far less
likely under such circumstances to attack the
shepherds, or steal my sheep, than if I drove them
away and placed myself in a hostile attitude
towards them. In order, however, that no temp-
tation to violence might be given, from the very
beginning I kept my party armed, and insisted
on the shepherds carrying guns and keeping them
in a serviceable state—which, after their first fears
were lulled, they would have neglected to do, had
I not insisted. In this course I persisted for
several years—in fact, until danger was at an
end.
From the first I had a good deal of curiosity
about the aborigines, constantly observed their
ways, talked a good deal with them, and rapidly
picked up a smattering of their language. What
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 93
struck me, on first acquaintance, was their freedom
from all the business cares and responsibilities of
the white man. They constantly reminded me of
children, whose anxieties were about matters to
which the average white man is not called on to
pay much attention. Besides, they had but little
care of the future, their existence being literally
from hand to mouth. .
But notwithstanding many differences between
the Black and the White man, their sympathies,
likes, and dislikes were very much what ours
would have been if similarly situated ; so that
a very limited experience enabled both parties
to understand and appreciate the position of the
other. This fact only gradually dawned on me,
as I had somehow started with the idea that I
should find the Blacks as different from the
White men in mind as they are in colour.
Whilst on the subject of my sable neighbours,
I may mention a characteristic brutality which
occurred in the neighbourhood a day or two
before I left for Wolfscrag. As I was dressing
one morning rather late, I saw a Blackfellow
sitting alone at some distance from my camp. On
going up to him I found him rather a stupid-
looking fellow, who knew nothing of English, and
was turning away, when I noticed a spot of blood
on his opossum rug. On examining I found that
he had a wound through the thick part of his
arm, and, calling one of the other Blacks, I
94. RECOLLECTIONS OF
learned that Nosie—as he was named—had been
that morning to the cattle station at Wyuna,
about three miles off; that he had laid down his arms
before going up to the hut, and that the hut-keeper,
who was alone, had apparently ordered him off.
Nosie, understanding neither his words nor ges-
tures, remained where he was, inapprehensive of
danger, when suddenly a gun was protruded from
the hut ; then followed a great noise, as he
described it : he saw smoke, and a part of his
beard was torn with considerable force from his
chim. Greatly frightened, the unfortunate, it
seems, took to his heels and ran off as quickly as
he could ; but he had not gone far when he heard
a repetition of the loud noise, and something
which he did not see tore through his arm.
Having got the poor fellow's wound bound up,
I rode over to Wyuna in the course of the day,
where the hut-keeper, who had been both a convict
and a soldier, under the impression that neither
shot had taken effect, related what had occurred,
apparently with much satisfaction. As I told him
roundly what I thought of his cowardly and
barbarous act, he replied, looking at me with the
most self-satisfied air, his hands in his breeches
pockets, “As many of them as comes here when I
am alone I'll shoot.”
“And if it comes to my ears,” said I, “that you
do anything of the sort, I shall certainly report
the fact to the Government.”
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 95
At this speech “Jack the soldier,” as he was
called, seemed quite taken aback At first he
appeared to doubt his ears, and I believe weighed
within himself the propriety of making all safe by
shooting me on the spot. Ever after, I dare say,
be looked on me as a sort of dangerous lunatic for
troubling myself about the lives of a few Blacks,
which he evidently thought he had a perfect right
to dispose of as he chose, so long as he did not
get into trouble. What expiree convicts meant
by “getting into trouble,” the reader may be told,
was simply their being brought in contact with
the “cat,” the gaol, or the hangman's rope; pre-
sumably because nothing short of such stern
realities ever did trouble them.
CHAPTER X.
SHEARING, AND THE RESULTS OF MY FIRST
YEAR'S SHEEP-FAIRMING.
ONE journey with sheep across a country is so
like another that it will be unnecessary to enter
into particulars respecting the removal of my last
flock from Wolfscrag to Tongala; and, indeed,
except that I had very nearly lost a large number
of lambs at the source of the Colbinabbin Creek
96 RECOLLECTIONS OF
from poisonous herbs, which produced a swelling
of the head and ears, which I cured by copious
bleeding, very little occurred on the trip which,
even amongst a squatter's not very exciting
reminiscences, might pass muster for relation.
On reaching Tongala I found my sheepwash
and woolshed, such as they were, nearly ready
for use. Of course, in these days of sheds replete
with conveniences, and usually much surpassing
the village church in dimensions and cost of con-
struction, one can hardly look back without a
smile on the humble ways of the early times.
My first shed, for instance, was nothing but a
common bark building of about twenty-five feet
by twelve, with a wool-press of splitstuff outside,
to match. Nor was I behind the times in this
particular, for if some were better provided, there
were others who were worse. Of course the
artificial reservoir, which one now meets every-
where, had not then been thought of; nor those
luxurious shower-baths, hot water soaks, douches,
&c., supplemented with soap and soda, with which
the sheep's summer toilet is now made in Victoria.
Indeed, twenty years ago, however it may be
now, I fancy few towns in England had half the
accommodation for human bathing that is pro- -
vided for sheep at one of our first-class Victorian
washingpens of the present day. Neither did
one see in the old days those retinues of washers,
shearers, wool-pressers, &c., which crowd the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 97
modern shed ; so that in fact I thought myself
very fortunate, under the circumstances, in being
able to muster just three extra men for shearing
and washing, and to avail myself of their services
with the humility which became a master of those
times.
These three worthies of course fixed the rate
at which they were to be paid, which was, in
addition to their rations, one pound sterling per
hundred sheep, with four glasses of rum a day.
The last requirement I thought very hard and
arbitrary, as rum, or spirits of any sort, formed no
part of my stores; and I tried hard to get it
commuted to double its money value. But for
the moment the men were masters of the situation,
and their ultimatum in this particular, immutable,
on the approved pattern of the celebrated laws
of the Medes and Persians. Of course, I felt
myself to be a much abused master, and should,
no doubt, have struck employing men entirely,
had it been possible to conduct the business of
sheep-farming without them.
Inwardly groaning under the tyranny to which
I was subjected, I found myself obliged, very
much contre-cour, to mount one of my men on
poor Punch, now in very low condition, and
start him off furnished—not with money, for none
was ever kept at stations, but with an order for
six gallons of rum, addressed to the nearest pub-
lican, who lived rather more than a hundred
- 8
98 RECOLLECTIONS OF
miles away, and with whom I was totally unac-
quainted. For this duty I selected a man who
had some £20 of wages coming to him, and who,
fortunately, was not so immoderate a drunkard as
the generality of my party. His instructions
were to ride to the public-house and get the rum
in a pair of three-gallon kegs, one of which would
hang on each side of the saddle, with which load
he was to lead the pony home.
As Punch was weak, I allowed my messenger
ten days to do the two hundred miles; and as
regards time he was punctual enough, but instead
of getting the spirits put into two small kegs, he
was only able to obtain one large one, which he
balanced on the other side of the saddle with a
bag of stones. I also learned afterwards that this
worthy had himself ridden on the top of this load,
and made all the shepherds on the road drunk,
replacing with water in the morning the spirits
abstracted for the evening's jollification. This
sort of thing, however, I had calculated on ; nor
was it of much consequence, as the spirit was
strong and fiery—fit, as they say, to give D.T. at
fifty paces, so that a little water did no harm.
The wishes of my servants having been thus
complied with, I had to put up with one or two
rather boisterous scenes, as I found that the cove-
nanted dose of rum made my men drunk, when
fights and disturbances ensued. However, I got
the first flock washed, and in due time commenced
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 99
shearing with one man, as the other two could not
attend until the next day. I will leave the reader
to imagine what a bother it was to look after one
man shearing, and yet I thought it prudent to do
so and make a beginning. Whether or not it was
the effect of the four glasses of rum on this occa-
sion I cannot say, but instead of the sixty or one
hundred ewes which are usually shorn by each
man, poor old Tom with difficulty got through
twenty-five, after completing which he complained
of having a headache, and certainly was very red
in the face ; in view of which abnormal symptoms
I thought it desirable still further to dilute Messrs.
Young and Nicol's rum, which I did liberally, and
with the best results.
As the sheep-owner's financial year closes with
his shearing, it will not, perhaps, be out of place
here to state succinctly the result of my first year's
sheep-farming. In a former chapter the ruinous
conditions under which squatting was at that time
generally carried on have already been particu-
larized, so that the reader will be prepared to
hear that, irrespective of interest on the purchase-
money, the outgoing in wages, the purchase of
horses, bullocks, rams, and supplies exceeded my
receipts on wool by about £1,000; against which
there was to be placed a thousand lambs—worth,
say, a shilling a head—and the difference in value,
whatever it might have been, between the excel-
lent country which I had taken up and the
100 RECOLLECTIONS OF
scrubby desert which I had abandoned. In addi-
tion, I may also mention that I found, when I
arrived in Melbourne with my clip of wool, that
the depreciation which had occurred in station
property since the date of my father's purchase
was not less than fifty per cent. In fact, a stag-
nation of business was preceding the commercial
storm which was just about to burst, and the sins
of reckless speculation, easy-going banking, cham-
pagne revels, and fast living were about to be
atoned for by something very like the general
insolvency of the community. Town allotments
were rarely mentioned now ; for the time people
had had enough, Or, perhaps, too much of them.
Even the old bellman, “Excelsior,” had, like his
prototype, struck his flag. Everything was very
dull. The merchant and squatting agent seemed
to have nothing to do but trot from one bank to
another, “financing,” as it was termed. Cham-
pagne, that once too familiar libation, was now a
thing of the past; in fact, the drawing of a cork
of any kind was now as startling from its rarity
as the report of a pistol. The squatter who
formerly strode so gaily up Collins-street in his
Pſessian boots, with the “action” of one who, even
when on foot, could not altogether get rid of the
feeling of having a horse between his legs, was
now seldom seen. Probably he had returned to
his hut in the bush to philosophize on life in
general and his own outstanding acceptances in
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 101
particular. As regards the merchants in the old
country who had made consignments of goods to
Melbourne—well, I presume they might as well
have consigned them to the “vasty deep” at
once, and that “writing off” must have been
very common in their counting-houses just about
that time.
CHAPTER XI.
A RIDE TO THE MUDDY CREEK.
IN after years I had plenty of experience of a
business I very much disliked—I mean looking
after the wool-shed—but on the Occasion to which
I have referred in the last chapter, a better
fortune befriended me. I was sitting, I remem
ber, in front of my hut, a little after sundown on
the second or third day of shearing, taking my
evening smoke, when a traveller on the look-out
for work (the first who had found his way to
Tongala) put a letter into my hand, and called
my attention to an endorsement on the back of it,
which ran—“Please give the bearer half a pound
of tobacco.—R. C.” The letter I found was from
one of my brothers, who, it appeared, had come
from Tasmania, some weeks before to join me,
and, waiting for an opportunity of writing, had
accepted an invitation to the station of a squatter
102 RECOLLECTIONS OF
friend on the Muddy Creek, about one hundred
and twenty miles from Tongala. Delighted at
the prospect of having a companion, I made
up my mind to go in search of him at once.
As regarded leaving the shearing, I felt no
misgivings on that score, as my overseer was a
thoroughly competent person, and would be
assisted in picking up fleeces, wool-packing, &c.,
by some of the Blacks, who had already begun to
make themselves useful about the place. Neither
was any further difficulty anticipated with the
shearers, as they had now got fairly to work, and
the talisman of a properly-watered rum keg in
the overseer's possession (not to speak of wages
due) was an ample guarantee for their good
behaviour. Accordingly, next morning I mounted
my old grey horse, Sweepstakes, and leading
Bunch for my brother, set out on my travels—
glad, I own, of an excuse for getting away. Men-
tioning the old grey reminds me that in those
days, when horses were scarce, and many persons
had only one, on whose back they were also
pretty constantly, that with the estimate of the
rider the capacity and peculiarities of his horse
were often whimsically mixed up. Everyone
in the neighbourhood knew all about his neigh-
bour's nag, and the animal's powers and speciali-
ties, even to the minutiae of his saddle and
bridle; so that, as much of our work was done
on horseback, an active man, ill mounted, with
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 103
difficulty escaped the character of a “Crawler.”
In this way I remember a neighbouring
squatter, of rather cantankerous temper, whose
horse, Dangerous, was constantly throwing him,
acquiring the sobriquet of “The Buckjumper,”
a name which was laughably thought suitable
to the rider as well as the horse.
In those days bush business altogether was
carried on very differently from what it is at
present, for squatting has now, for many years,
become in all parts of the continent, however
remote, what the Yankees term “an institution,”
and is conducted in a well-understood routine
way by persons brought up to the occupation ;
so that now one only sees about stations what is
suitable to the circumstances. But in the early
days of inexperience, not only was stock ill
managed, and comforts as a rule little thought
of, but the establishments of new arrivals from
home frequently exhibited the most amusing
incongruities. Few of our immigrant squatters,
indeed, had at all correctly forecast what their
new homes would be like, or what they would
require for use or comfort in the bush; whilst
just as few (I refer particularly to the neighbour-
hood in which I lived) thought of availing them-
selves, at the outset, of such natural advantages
as further experience proved to be abundantly at
hand. Hence discomfort and a ludicrous inter-
mixture of the useful and inappropriate were
i04 RECOLLECTIONS OF
constantly met with. For instance, on the bark
table of a hut in which the rafters were begrimed
with soot, the earthen floor in holes, and the slab
walls anything but weatherproof, might be noticed
occasionally, cheek by jowl with the poorest table
knives, some handsome silver forks ornamented
with the family crest. Occasionally, also, hanging
on the rude walls with more suitable articles,
might be seen a cavalry sabre or a hunting horn,
or perhaps some handsome volumes arranged on
a box turned sideways, which, suspended from
the tie-beams by thongs of bullock-hide, did duty
as a bookshelf; whilst a complex coffee-pot, an
expensive canteen, or a stretcher for buckskin
breeches were consigned ignominiously to some
out-of-sight corner. Looking on such tell-tale
articles, the accuracy with which De Foe realized
in his “Robinson Crusoe” the exigencies of bush
life has often struck me as remarkable.
On this journey I passed the first night after
leaving home at the hut of a squatter newly
arrived in the colony, who had, unfortunately,
fallen into very bad ways. I believe he had been
a small land-owner at home, and brought out
41,000 with him. The hut, which he occupied
in common with his men, consisted of a single
apartment, with the addition of a skilling, which
served for store and master's bedroom. Around
the common room were several bunks, or bed-
places in board-of-ship style; the table in the
squaTTING IN VICTORIA. 105
centre being a sheet of bark nailed on to the
top of four posts driven into the earthen floor.
On each side of the large fireplace was a rough
wooden bench, which was moved to the table
at meal times; two or three joints of meat were
simmering in an iron pot on the fire, and a
quart-pot for tea was set to boil for each person,
after the old Sydney fashion. Kettle, cups, or
teapot there were none. It was nearly sundown
when I arrived, and in the hut were several of
the station hands, some smoking, some dozing on
their nasty beds; one had pulled a boot off, and
was mending it, whilst the master—a rough
diamond, in no wise distinguishable from his
servants in the matter of dress—was busy cal-
culating something on a slate, most likely the
yield of his coming clip of wool. In keeping with
the rest of the establishment were three or four
semi-domesticated black picaninnies seated on
the ash-heap before the door, who were engaged
in sucking the canes of a discarded sugar-bag—a
delicacy, the enjoyment of which a swarm of flies
disputed with them. They were naked, or, if you
like, dust-clad, big-bellied, rheumy-eyed, disgust-
ing little urchins, who, nevertheless, eventually
grew to be strong men. An oldish lubra (woman)
also sat a little apart from the sugar-cane group
with her boy of about three years of age, whose
only article of clothing was an old sock which he
had picked up somewhere, and who seemed to
106 FECOLLECTIONS OF
divide his time pretty equally between the pipe,
which he was smoking, and the maternal breast.
However, if my host was living in an altogether
exceptionally rough way—indeed, in almost more
discomfort than I recollect ever to have met any-
where else—there was no want of hospitality
about him, and whatever was to be had, either
for myself or horse, was frankly placed at my
disposal. -
Shortly after my arrival the cook lit the fat
lamp and announced supper, when all hands came
forward to help themselves from the smoking mass
of meat which had just been extricated from the
iron pot. The master sat at one end of the table,
on a sheepskin-covered stump, which had been
conveniently planted in the floor for his accommo-
dation, and I took up my position on the bench by
his side. Quart-pots of tea, here and there at
random, one for each person, were on the table,
which stood four inches or so higher than is usual,
probably as a security against the dogs. Of
plates and knives and forks the supply was limited,
and the patterns various. Indeed, the arrange-
ments altogether were charmingly simple. Some
of the men ate off plates at the table, others put
their meat on a slice of damper and took their
seats on their beds, or stood in the fireplace,
whilst quite a little pack of dogs assisted at the
ceremony, to secure the scraps which were thrown
on the ground. Supper did not detain us very
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 107
long, and we passed the evening smoking and
drinking tea, conversation running on the prospects
of sheep-farmers, and afterwards on some passages
in the history of Scotland (of which country my
‘host was a native), concerning which he and I did
not quite agree. In this way we got on till bed-
time, when my host, with his clothes off and his
pipe lit, ready to turn in with, summed up the
“Young Chevalier,” whose doings we had been
discussing, by vociferating in rather an excited
way, “You may talk of Prince Chairlie and Prince
Chairlie, but I say hang Prince Chairlie ' If it
had na been for Prince Chairlie I’d a bin Lord
Oliphant the day!” with which exclamation for a
5
climax he betook himself, pipe and all, to the
blankets, and was no doubt soon asleep. Poor
C !, he ever kept a keen look-out after the
bawbees, and soon got to have a considerable
share of the world's gear; but it must be now fully
thirty years since the “barley bree,” which he
loved so well, sent him to join the departed
Oliphants and Prince Chairlie.
The next morning I was approaching the Pro-
tectorate station when I overtook a gentleman
riding a magnificent Peter Fin horse, whose
grand legs, superb carriage, and aristocratic head
were a pleasure to look at. Of course we
entered into conversation, as people always do
who meet in solitary places. My new acquaint-
ance turned out to be the doctor to the Protec-
I 08 RECOLLECTIONS OF
torate station, and he very kindly insisted on my
spending the night at his quarters, which I did.
Naturally he had a good deal to say about the
Blacks ; and he mentioned, amongst other circum-
stances, that a large number of them had been
employed a few days before, under the super-
vision of a white man, in planting potatoes for
the future consumption of themselves and
families, receiving for their labour a ration of
flour and meat as usual. It appeared, however,
that these primitive worthies, not being well
versed in agriculture, thought the burying of
food in the ground (a proceeding unheard of in
their annals) a gross folly, so they turned out
during the night and surreptitiously dug up, as
far as practicable, the potatoes planted during the
day, and made a late supper off them. The
doctor also told me that they were very much
subject to panics, and that on the occurrence of
a death, some time back, the tribes had deserted
the station for several months; that they took
but indifferently to civilization ; and that the
best of them were incorrigible wanderers.
Leaving the Protectorate late in the morning
for Baylestown, the next station (as I was only
making short stages), I had jogged on quietly for
some miles, when a kangaroo dog I had with me
bounded past in full pursuit of a kangaroo. As
Punch led like a shadow, I joined the chase, .
and, cutting off the turns, was close up to the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 109
kangaroo when he took to water. Into the
lagoon he went with a glorious bound, the dog
close behind him ; when a Blackfellow, who had
seen us coming, stepped from behind a tree and
plunged in after the pair. Hand over hand the
Savage seemed to slide along the surface of the
water, so that he soon overtook the kangaroo.
He then seized him by the tail and steered him
quietly towards the other bank, on which was his
camp, and knocked his brains out with his nulla-
nulla, which he had brought with him, just as he
was on the point of getting bottom. After
obtaining my consent, he and his lubra dragged
the animal on shore, and no doubt a great feast
ensued. On reaching Baylestown Station I was
hospitably received by the owners, two brothers
from one of the midland counties of England,
who had been some time in the colony. Their
hut, which they had built themselves, was a com-
modious, substantial structure, and was looked
after by a female servant; the establishment
being in marked contrast to my lodgings of
two nights before, and well supplied with
vegetables, dairy produce, and horse-fodder.
After dinner, or supper, as some called it, we
smoked, of course, and brandy and water took the
place of tea, which was not of course. Then
ensued conversation about sheep and horses, and
what the neighbours (any stock-owners within
forty miles) were doing. One of my hosts, who
110 RECOLLECTIONS OF
was quizzically inclined, related with a good deal
of humour a colloquy which he had overheard at
an inn on his way from town. The inn was a hut
of many rooms without ceilings. The inter-
locutors on the occasion (two canny Scots, whom
we'll call Fraser and Forbes) were, it seemed, the
joint owners of the inn, and it was the custom, as
the narrator said, for Mr. Forbes, the junior
partner, to rise a little before daylight to attend
to the wants of such early birds as desired “to
pick the worm” at the bar, whilst Mr. Fraser
made his appearance a little after the grand
luminary had risen. On this particular occasion
it seems that the senior partner, before emerging
from his bedroom, recognized, proceeding from
the tap, the voice of a customer, the last of whose
money had been invested in grog some forty-
eight hours before, and concerning whom he
proceeded to call the junior partner to account.
“Mr. Forbes | Mr. Nichol Forbes : * shouted
the senior partner, in an authoritative manner.
“Aye, Mr. Fraser,” replied Mr. Forbes, in a
tone of voice which our host described as
obstinately assertive of an equal importance on
the side of the junior partner, “What is it !”
“How is this, Mr. Forbes 4 That fly-blown
party (person whose money was all spent) not
gone yet I will not have it, Mr. Forbes
Give him a nobbler of brandy, if you please, and
start him at once.”
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 1 II
“Nobbler l’’ said Mr. Nichol Forbes, in whose
veins probably ran the blood of the Bailie Nicol
Jarvie, or some other noble ancestor, and in whose
bosom the assumption of any shadow of authority
over him raised quite a storm. “Nobbler! he's had
a nobbler of brandy,” and here the voice became
slightly sarcastic, “a nobbler of brandy, a nip of
gin, and a go of rum, already this morning, and
now he says he won't move.”
“Aye! what's that ?” said Mr. Fraser, “three
drinks gratis I will not have these disorderly
ways in the house, Mr. Forbes. I’m surprised at
you—quite surprised at you ! Start him on the
wallaby track at once, if you please, neck and
crop. Bundle him out, and set the dogs on
him.” -
On this mild reproof, Mr. Nichol Forbes, like
one of Ossian's heroes, “On his hill of storm
arose in wrath.” Then was heard a peremptory
order to leave the house, and a rollicking refusal
to comply with that request. A short scuffle
ensued, one or two blows were heard, the
trampling of boots on the floor, and a rattle of
tumblers; a suppressed objurgation on one side,
and an out-spoken drunken protest on the other;
and the fly-blown party was violently ejected,
and the door slammed in his face. How the
junior partner, who, seemed a good deal “raised,”
felt after his exertion is not known; but that he
did join the senior member of the firm shortly
112 RECOLLECTIONS OF
after in the usual matutinal tumbler of rum and
milk I understood to be the fact.
The next day I crossed the Sydney-road, which
runs between the ranges and the flat country.
On the east side of the road I found the moun-
tainous district abounding in green grass and
running streams—what a new chum would think
the beau ideal of a sheep country; and in effect
this neighbourhood was in high repute at the
time, whilst the flat country to the west, which
was noticeable for its dry, burnt-up appearance,
and the prevalence of Salsolaceous vegetation, was
considered to be very inferior. On this head the
mountaineers at that time plumed themselves not
a little, rather looking down on the dwellers on
the plains. Of course we all know now that the
estimate formed on this subject was quite an
erroneous one, and, as a fact, that those over-
landers who took up country to the eastward of
the Sydney-road, amidst abundance of water and
green grass, met but with scant success as sheep-
farmers; those whose fortune led them westward,
or down the rivers, as a rule doing exceedingly
well. Indeed, now-a-days, green-grass country
and bad country are pretty generally synonymous
terms.
However, causes had not yet produced their
effects, and at Tallarook, where I was kindly
received by the proprietor, I found a very
pleasant hut, floored and well furnished; good
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 113
stabling, an excellent table, and a picturesque
look-out; in fact, all the necessaries, and most
of the luxuries, attainable in the bush. The
country in which I now found myself bore
the reputation of being in the hands of a
number of rather fast-going men, one of whose
favourite amusements was cards; and it used
to be said at the time that flocks of sheep
occasionally changed hands as the result of
an evening's unlimited loo. Whether these
reports were strictly accurate I cannot say :
nor whether, at a later period, when over-drafts
were less common at the banks, the merry men of
those parts did, as was rumoured, actually settle
down quietly to whist, with sheep points and a
bullock on the rub. At all events, many a wild
prank of the Upper Goulburn and Devil's River
men furnished matter for gossip at the time ; and
so, for the rest, se mon e vero, e ben trovato.
At Tallarook that evening I met a few choice
spirits. The Honourable G FC , a guest
stopping at the place, I remember, was there
when I arrived ; and, a little before sundown, two
neighbouring squatters, both sons of colonels,
one of whom was well known subsequently in
Victorian political circles, rode up to the door.
The company were all young men, and in high
spirits; and being friendly, intimate, and of a
kidney, a good deal of very lively gossip ensued,
which gave one a pretty fair idea of the ways of
9
114 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the neighbourhood. During dinner (which was a
good one, and well served) it was related that a
shepherd in the neighbourhood was said to have
discovered gold; at all events, it was known that
he was constantly digging in the gullies and
creeks, and that when he had completed his
term of service he purchased a small stock of
provisions and started for some distant ranges
with a spade and pickaxe. Of course, his success
as a gold digger, if he had any, was kept to
himself, as the precious metals, at that time,
were held to be the property of the Crown.
After dinner, and the post-prandial pipe in the
Verandah, the company sat down to loo, which
was kept up with little intermission till three or
four o'clock in the morning. Being sleepy, I
retired comparatively early, and was awakened
about sunrise by a piston-cornet with which our
host was calling the sleepers to breakfast. There
were two beds in the room in which I slept, on
one of which (his Hessian boots and spurs still on)
lay the future legislator, who regretted to me
that he had not gone to bed when I did, as he
said his head ached, and that his losses had been
.#30.
Next evening I arrived at the station where
my brother was awaiting me. Like that which I
had just left, I found everything very comfortable
there—in fact, too comfortable under the circum-
stances ; for the owner, like the other squatters
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 115
in that neighbourhood, was living beyond his
income, as results shortly proved. Besides,
generally, the jovial mountaineers paid but little
attention to their stock; and then their bills in
town, outlay in racehorses, loo, and so forth,
must have been something considerable. Besides,
there were the high rates of provisions and
wages, and the depreciated state of the wool
market; so that, even if they had from the
beginning confined themselves strictly to whist
and the economical stakes indicated, it seems
very doubtful whether they would have got
through the bad times. -
After resting a few days at this station, I
returned with my brother to Tongala, where I
found the shearing had gone on swimmingly, and
was nearly completed.
CHAPTER, XII.
A VISIT FROM THE COMMISSIONER OF CROWN
TANDS.
ONE evening in the beginning of 1842 I was
startled by a sudden outcry from the Blacks'
camp hard by, and on going to the door of my
hut to ascertain the cause of the hubbub I was
met by a blackfellow, evidently in a state of
excitement. In the hurry of the moment he had
116 RECOLLECTIONS OF
dropped his opossum-skin cloak and seized a
bundle of spears, which he held in his hand; and
I noticed that the lubras were bundling their
picaninnies on to their backs and hurriedly pre-
paring to decamp.
“Massa (" said the blackfellow, “you see ?
Policemen come up now. Towsan (thousand)
policemen I believe that fellow directly
shootum all about blackfellow !”
With some trouble I quieted the apprehensions
of my sable neighbours so far as to induce them
to sit down again in their camp, telling them that
the policemen (whom I could not yet make out)
never interfered with any but wild Blacks. Of
course the Bangerang (as the people of the
Tongala tribe were called), having learned a few
words of English, and acquired a relish for
tobacco, tea, and roast mutton, so far from sus-
pecting for a moment that they could be looked
on as wild Blacks, thought, no doubt, that they
had reached a very high stage of civilization, and
that they were not, therefore, after what I had
said, in any way concerned in the approach of
the police, who bore a villainous name amongst
them. -
In a few moments I saw several horsemen,
with a spring-cart in their train, coming over the
sand hill. The cortège turned out to be that of
the Commissioner of Crown Lands, who led the
way on a magnificent chestnut horse, followed by
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 117
his orderly, a sergeant, three troopers, and a man
in charge of the cart.
This latter proved to be a native of Africa,
who, as he came in sight, sounded a call on the
bugle, to the great edification of the whole of us,
white and black, who had turned out to witness
the approach of the cavalcade. This was the
party which the blackfellow had described as
consisting of “Towsan,” which, all the country
over, is the aboriginal English for any number
over half-a-dozen. The police were armed with
carbines and pistols, the sergeant carrying a
cavalry sabre only. Their dress was the usual
uniform of their corps; and their horses, with the
exception of tether-ropes round their necks, were
turned out in a decidedly military way, with
inconvenient bits, peculiar saddle-cloths, awkward
saddles, and sore backs. The Commissioner's
horse was likewise accoutred much in the manner
of the charger of a cavalry officer, and his dark
green costume, fixed spurs, Hessian boots, blue
cap with braided band, &c., were decidedly
military in their effect, and might easily have
passed for the uniform of an officer of some
regiment of irregular mounted rifles. On dis-
mounting, he threw the reins to his Orderly, and
accepted my invitation to take up his quarters
with me for the night ; his party proceeding to
tether their horses and pitch their camp under a
shady tree on the river bank.
118 RECOLLECTIONS OF
The duties of a Commissioner in those days
were numerous and varied. The most important
of them had reference to the Crown lands of his.
district, on which he issued licenses to squat.
He also settled disputes about boundaries.
Disagreements on this score, which in later
times would have taken a judge, with his jurors,
barristers, witnesses, and attachés of the court, a
week to dispose of Bah! the Commissioner
settled them in half-an-hour, or less; sometimes
probably hearing only one of the claimants, and
sometimes neither. The Commissioner of the
district in which I had settled was not what one
would call a bright man, but he did such business
off hand, his jurisdiction in the matter being
possibly summary in more senses than one.
From what came under my own observation, I
should say that our particular Commissioner kept
few records of his official acts, if any ; and never
caused any marks to be made on the trees or
land in connection with the boundaries of the
runs. Indeed, I fancy he considered things of
the sort mere red tape nuisances; his custom in
cases of disputes, as far as it came under my
notice, being to hear but short statements, give
his decision in few words, change the conversa-
tion, light his pipe and ride away. This style of
doing business, it is true, was called in question,
later on, by ill-disposed persons, and even spoken
of in a disparaging and jeering manner, and
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 119
some, no doubt, suffered inconveniences from it ;
but it used to be thought generally that, though
our Commissioner's method did not secure accu-
racy, it was well enough suited to the times, and
so gave satisfaction; and possibly it might have
gone on giving satisfaction indefinitely, had not
malcontented individuals and busy-bodies got
attorneys and barristers to spy out little imper-
fections, make disturbances, and bring into court
matters which were never dealt with in expecta-
tion of such proceedings in any way. But if
our Commissioner's rule did give a fair amount of
satisfaction in the early days, it was mainly
owing to the confidence which the public had in
the impartiality and honour of the gentlemen
who filled the office. Besides, the squatters, I
think, generally held to the opinion that the
Commissioner, whilst decidedly more expeditious
than juries, displayed about the same appreciation
of fact as those time-honoured bodies, after
counsel on both sides has been heard and their
brains properly mystified with contradictory
swearing.
In addition to such matters, it was also one of
the functions of the Commissioner to adjust the
frequent differences which occurred between the
original lords of the soil and the Anglo-Saxon
parvenus. Now, though the reader may fancy
that this was easily done, it was not, in fact,
without difficulties. Disturbances were constantly
120 RECOLLECTIONS OF
occurring. Generally the first intimation the
Commissioner got of a case was a letter from a
stock-owner complaining that after having treated
the Blacks with uniform kindness and considera-
tion for a length of time, they had suddenly killed
one of his shepherds under circumstances of pecu-
liar atrocity, and roasted and eaten two hundred
of his flock. On the receipt of reports of this
sort the Commissioner proceeded, as soon as he
was able, to the scene of the outrage, where he
heard the complaint repeated viva voce. Strange
to say, the Blacks habitually neglected to give
their version of the tale, though we know that
they had constantly very serious charges to ad-
vance against shepherds, in connection with their
conduct towards the females of the tribe. As the
Blacks, therefore, neglected to appear before the
Commissioner in what might be termed his judi-
cial capacity, nothing was left for him as guardian
of the public peace but to appear before them,
which he did at a gallop, sabre in hand, sur-
rounded by his troopers industriously loading and
discharging their carbines. Now, it may seem
strange to the reader that there were a few well-
intentioned visionaries, at the time, who made the
Government policy, as carried out by the Com-
missioner, a subject for unfavourable comment.
Some asserted there was no statute which autho-
rized proceedings of the sort; that the Blacks
were unable to represent wrongs, which everyone
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 121
knew they suffered, from want of knowledge of
our language; that fire and sword were carried
into their camps, and death indiscriminately dealt
out amongst them, without any proper examina-
tion of the complainant having been made
or a single deposition taken. In fact, that less
evidence was required to condemn a tribe to
destruction than to consign an habitual drunkard
for four-and-twenty hours to the lock-up. Other
persons indulged in poetic flights, in the very
worst taste, in connection with the subject, and
describe John Bull as landing on foreign shores,
the Bible in his pocket, a blunderbus in one hand
and a rum-bottle in the other, leaving the Savage
no alternative but to give up his land and die by
one instrument or the other, drunk or sober.
All this being as tedious to answer as it is
trifling in itself, we will pass on to another
complaint, which was, that the Commissioner and
his troopers occasionally administered justice with
sword and carbine to the wrong tribe in mistake.
In connection with this, Veracity compels me to
admit that the aborigines, being a very homoge-
neous race, much alike in colour and features, with
but little variety of costume—there being also but
little evidence, and that purely circumstantial, as
to which of them had committed any particular
outrage—cases of mistaken identity would, and
did, occasionally occur. *
But though one must always regret occurrences
122 . RECOLLECTIONS OF
of this sort, it is consolatory to remember now—
a fact of which we were ignorant at the time,
—that whilst our troopers were busily shooting
down in mistake individuals who had not injured
us in any way, but whose acquaintances had, that
we were absolutely acting—by a fluke, no doubt—
in accordance with a law in force in all our
tribes, which makes vengeance fall not only on
an offender, but equally on the first of his tribe
or kind who may come to hand. From this we
see how constantly our busybodies were in the
wrong.
But, besides duties of a composite judicial and
military character, the Commissioner had other
functions. For instance, he determined on the
issue and renewal of licenses for bush public-
houses in his district, and had his say as to the
rates chargeable at such places for refreshments
and fodder. If to the above we add that Com-
missioners were a good deal about town, active
on the subject of Assembly balls, took an
interest in club matters, mixed a good deal in
society, and were very constant in their attendance
on the Governor (or Superintendent, as he was
styled), it will easily be allowed that they did not
eat the bread of idleness.
As regards the Commissioner of our district,
he was popular and highly respected, and his
visits acceptable to the sheep-owners. Besides
the welcome novelty of having our solitude
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 123
broken in upon by a pleasant, chatty person, well
up in current news, he generally carried with him
a few newspapers, the perusal of which was, of
course, quite a treat. That they were often
dated several weeks back was of little conse-
quence, as their contents were generally quite as
new to us as if they had been only a day old.
On this occasion the Commissioner accepted
my proposal to take a ride with me next day to
the river Murray, which he had never seen, and
which is only three miles from Tongala. On our
way to it we crossed the Madowla Lagoon, now,
and for many years past, a fine sheet of water,
but at that time dry and full of saplings, several
years old. On reaching the river, which was
very low at the time, we forded it, and crossed
into New South Wales proper, continuing our
ride along the sandhills to the northward.
Amongst the pines and she-oaks scattered over
the ridges the grass was so green, and looked so
inviting, that the place quite took my fancy, and
I applied on the spot for a block of five miles'
frontage to the river by eight miles back, which
was granted without difficulty, the Commissioner
and myself both forgetting that we were actually
in a district to which his authority did not extend.
However, nothing was ever said on that point,
and I occupied the country in question until it
suited me to leave it. Later on it formed a
portion of Sir John O'Shanassy's Moira station.
124 RECOLLECTIONS OF
After several hours' riding we were again ap-
proaching the Murray, when my dogs got sight of
an old man kangaroo. A halloo, as we started,
giving him notice of our presence, he made tracks
for the river, which was close at hand, taking the
water with a magnificent bound from the top of a
perpendicular bank some thirty feet high. The
dogs, getting down as they could, dashed after him
into the stream, and we stood on the bank to see
him worried. A skirmish followed, in which
several ugly claw-wounds were received, the dogs
swimming in a circle around their prey, closing
with him as opportunities offered; but as the
water just there was too deep for the kangaroo to
bottom, and the mode of warfare not suited to his
nature, it was his fate to succumb, which he did
nobly, making his final plunge head foremost, tail
On high. As the sun disappeared, we, the first
white men who had been in those parts, paused a
moment to admire the scene. Whilst we stood
in silence in the shade, gazing on the noble
stream, a laughing-jackass, his serenity disturbed
probably by the sight of our party, gave out his
note from a branch overhead, and broke the still-
ness of the woods. Another and another of his
kind, from the tall trees right and left along
the river bank, took up the singular laugh, which,
growing less and less distinct as it receded, gradu-
ally died away. A smart canter of twenty
minutes brought us to our dinner at Tongala.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 125
CHAPTER XIII.
CORROBOREES, AND GIVING IN MARRIAGE.
By February, 1842, or thereabouts—just a year
after my arrival in Port Phillip—the little troubles
incident to removal and settlement had been got
over at Tongala, and having now my brother to
assist me, I paid off my overseer, and so reduced
my expenditure by £100 per annum.
At that date my clip of wool had been delivered
in Melbourne; winter's stores carted up ; sheep-
yards, huts, and paddock completed ; out-station
huts put up, and the bushman, who had with
the assistance of myself and the overseer finished
these jobs, been paid off and got rid of, so
that there remained on the ground, besides my
brother and myself, three shepherds (whose flocks
had been increased by a thousand lambs), a hut-
keeper, and a bullock-driver. This staff of men,
it is true, would have sufficed for a much larger
number of sheep, and yet could not well have been
reduced, as it is necessary for the proper manage-
ment of sheep that there should be on a station,
besides the ewe flock, one of weaners and year-
lings, and a third of wethers and rams. As far
as my brother and myself were concerned, we
were now very much at a loss for something to do.
This was the first time we had to complain of
what in after years we suffered a good deal from.
126 RECOLLECTIONS OF
IPersons who have not had experience of such
situations will perhaps hardly realize how heavily
time hung on our hands. We read a good deal,
of course, but after one has done enough of that
sort of work for the day, a weary portion of the
twenty-four hours still remains to be got through.
|Besides, a hundred and fifty volumes do not con-
stitute an inexhaustible supply of literary food.
Conversation not unfrequently halted a good deal
for want of fresh subjects. Nor could it be other-
wise, cut off, as we were, from the outer world.
Around us was nothing but the same everlasting
gum-trees basking in changeless sunshine, whilst
the rarely-varied meal of tea, mutton, and damper
made its appearance on the table three times a
day with such dyspeptic regularity that I used to
loathe the sight of it. Of course, in self-defence,
we did what we could with horses, dogs, and guns
to relieve the monotony of our days, but our
pastimes gradually lost their charms. However,
something had to be done ; so, like sailors snowed
up in an Arctic winter, we cast about for fresh
trifles to elevate into importance, and expend our
surplus energies on. Unfortunately, of botany
and bird-stuffing, and things of that sort, we were
both ignorant; neither did it occur to us to take
up the aboriginal languages, or grapple with the
traditions of the ancient and singular race with
which we had been brought in contact, or we
might have found pleasant and unfailing occupa-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 127
tion at once in a rich field for inquiry; so, in
default of something better, we took to much
swimming, throwing spears, climbing trees after
the native fashion (by means of tomahawk-
notches), in all of which exercises we became
tolerably proficient, especially as regards the first
and last of these accomplishments. Not that the
spear-throwing was altogether a failure, as by dint
of practice we not only arrived at such a stage of
excellence as to be able to make the Blacks, at
whom “we hurled the light Djreed,” look out
pretty sharply, but at last I actually succeeded, I
recollect, in spearing one poor fellow through the
foot, which of course was looked on as a grand
success, though my brother, who I think was a
little jealous, hinted that it was only a fluke.
|However, fortunately for us, incidents of one sort
or another did turn up now and then to relieve
our dull days a little, and we got used to making
the most of them, such as they were. As no road
passed Tongala, which was a sort of ultima thule,
white strangers in those days scarcely ever found
their way to the place, so that anything in the
shape of novelty which reached us usually came
by means of our black neighbours.
On one occasion, I remember, after the arrival
of a pair of our sable friends from up the river, it
became evident that something of interest had
occurred. What this was did not at first appear.
From the animated harangues at the camp that
128 RECOLLECTIONS OF
night, it was evident that there was something in
the wind. Next morning, too, there was a decided
movement in the direction of the manufacture of
personal ornaments; so that reed necklaces, red
ochre, pipe-clay, armlets of fur, plumes, bones to
wear through the nose, and other adornments
began decidedly to look up in the aboriginal
market, and come into strong request amongst
the youthful of both sexes; and, in fact, not with
the young people only, as it was noticed that
several ladies who must long since have passed
the grand climacteric took to forcing combs
through their tangled locks and beautifying
their faces with a compound of ruddle and fat.
The doings of these ancient dames, indeed, we
found, were quite matters of amusement to some
half-dozen hearty young bachelors in the camp—
roystering blades, who, in greasy grandeur, slyly
watched their doings with much zest. Besides
the ladies of uncertain age, there was another
little class of individuals who were evidently
affected by the something—whatever it might be
—which was going to happen—I mean that por-
tion of the maiden section of the community
which was considered to have reached the mar-
riageable age. Bangerang girls, the reader should
know, were promised in infancy to men of some
neighbouring tribe in exchange for other girls,
for none married within their own tribe; and as
such promises were almost invariably kept, these
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 129
aboriginal young ladies were, of course, spared
the trouble of taking any 'steps on their own
account in a matrimonial direction. Hence, at the
juncture in question (for it leaked out, at last,
that the Ngooraialum, a neighbouring tribe, were
shortly expected down the river, to exchange
betrothed females), these interesting young per-
sons, who were about to be delivered over to their
natural enemies—as, rightly or wrongly, they
regarded their future husbands—not only took no
part in the reed-necklace and ochre-and-fat move-
ment, but absolutely relinquished their ordinary
attentions to personal appearances, and sat in the
camp in that discontented, pouting mood which
they, as well as their civilized sisters, can occa-
sionally assume. As a rule, these girls would be
about twelve or fourteen years of age, and their
husbands-elect some five and thirty years older,
and already the lords of one or two spouses ;
for if the civilized man of our day is perhaps
somewhat undecided as to the advantages of
matrimony, the Australian savage is unmistak-
ably an advocate for that state; so that not only
do the influential men get as many wives as they
can, but no lubra is allowed to remain single after
the age which I have just mentioned, nor widow
on the sunny side of forty-five to wear her weeds
above a week. In this way it happened that one
seldom saw a couple in which both the parties
were young.
10
130 RECOLLECTIONS OF
At first I had some little difficulty in entering
into the spirit of what was going on, and the
proposed exchange of girls, spears, and stone
tomahawks, as well as the corroborees which I
heard were to take place, interested me but
slightly ; but, on the principle, I presume, that
strong feelings are infectious, I at last, from
constantly hearing the matter discussed as a most
important event, ended by becoming almost as
anxious about the arrival of the Ngooraialum as
my Bangerang neighbours themselves. Indeed, I
entertained serious thoughts at last of asking to
be allowed to give away the brides, and should
probably have moved in that matter had not my
very imperfect knowledge of aboriginal tongues
prevented me.
At length, one evening, a low murmur in the
camp, which somehow reminded me of the sound
which proceeds from the poultry-yard when the
shadow of a hawk sailing overhead is noticed by
the feathered community, attracted my attention,
when an excited blackfellow, his eyes adance,
entered my hut in a very unceremonious manner,
exclaiming, “Massa Old man Wong come up
now ! Postman, that fellow belonging to Ngoor-
aialum;” or, in other words, that old Wong
(crow), the anxiously-expected avant courier of
the Ngooraialum, was at hand. Of course I turned
out to see what would occur. In due time old
Wong approached the camp, whither I expected
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. I31
he would have bent his steps and received a
hearty welcome. Such, however, it seemed was
not the orthodox mode of procedure.
As to the Bangerang, after they had satisfied
themselves by a glance that it was really Wong
who was at hand, they continued each what he or
she was engaged about, as if entirely unconcerned
at his arrival; taking care, however, to keep their
eyes averted from the direction in which he was
coming. This little peculiarity, I may notice, is
very characteristic of the Blacks, who never
allow themselves to give way to any undue
curiosity as regards their fellow-countrymen, and
as a rule refrain from staring at anyone. Wong,
when he arrived within twenty or thirty yards of
the camp, slowly put his bag off his shoulder
without saying a word, gazed around him for a
moment in every direction except that of the
Bangerang camp, and sat down with his side face
towards his friends, and quietly stuck his spears
one by one into the ground beside him, with the
air of a man who was unconscious of anyone
being within fifty miles of him ; the Bangerang,
in the meantime, smothering all signs of impa-
tience, continued pegging out their opossum-skins,
conversing with those near them, or whatever
other matter they might be engaged in. Probably
five minutes passed in this way, when an old
lubra, on being directed in an undertone by her
husband, took some fire and a few sticks, and,
132 RECOLLECTIONS OF
approaching the messenger, laid them close before
him, and walked slowly away without address-
ing him. Old Wong, as if the matter hardly
interested him, very quietly arranged his little
fire, and, as the wood was dry, with one or two
breaths blew it into a blaze. Not long after an
old fellow got up in the camp, and, with his eyes
fixed on the distance, walked up majestically to
the new-comer and took his seat before his
fire. Though these men had known each other
from childhood, they sat face to face with averted
eyes, their conversation for some time being
constrained and distant, confined almost entirely
to monosyllables. At length, however, they
warmed up ; other men from the camp gradually
joined them ; the ice was broken, and complete
cordiality ensued; and Wong having given the
message of which he was the bearer, that the
long-expected Ngooraialum were coming, the
conference broke up, the new-comer being at
liberty to take his seat at any camp-fire, at which
there was no women, which might suit his fancy.
As was generally the case, he selected the
bachelors' camp, at which no doubt he kept the
young men awake till a late hour with gossip of
all sorts, and odds and ends of native news.
The next evening, from amongst the branches
of a tree in which they were playing, some young
urchins announced the arrival of the Ngoorai-
alum. As the Blacks usually hunt as they
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 133
travel, they seldom move in bodies, and hence
the new-comers straggled up in twos and threes.
The bachelors, being unencumbered, arrived first ;
next, perhaps, couples without children ; then the
old and decrepit; and, lastly, the families in which
there was a large proportion of the juvenile
element. As they arrived they formed their
camps, each family having a fire of its own, some
half-dozen yards from its neighbour's; that of
the bachelors, perhaps, being rather further off,
and somewhat isolated from the rest. On this
occasion the Ngooraialum were accompanied
by several Pimpandoor Blacks, a tribe from
the Campaspe, their immediate neighbours, who
spoke the same language as themselves, and were
at that time friendly.
After the strangers had arranged their camps
(which, as the weather was fine, consisted merely
of a shelter of boughs to keep off the sun), and
each group had kindled for itself the indispen-
sable little fire, which the aboriginal always
keeps up even in the warmest weather, they
began to stroll about, and some of them came to
my hut with the usual request for tobacco.
Though displaying all the distinctive marks of
the Australian race, the new-comers, as a lot,
differed in some respects from the Bangerang.
Besides, for instance, speaking a different lan-
guage, and pitching their voices in a lower key,
they were as a rule smaller and more muscular
134 RECOLLECTIONS OF
men, with a carriage which I have never seen
surpassed in dignity. Byron proposes, as typical
of this sort of thing—
“The Andalusian dame from mass returning,”
but though I have had, perhaps, more opportu-
nities than his lordship of seeing and admiring
the stately Andaluza, I can hardly give her the
preference, in the point of erect and graceful
bearing, over the Ngooraialum stalking forth from
his camp wrapped in his Opossum-rug. In Spain
it was the women, and amongst the Ngooraialum
the men, who excelled in this way; the muscular
opossum-eaters of the male sex exhibiting a dignity
of bearing which was not found amongst their
women, nor in the same degree amongst the more
loosely knit, semi-fishermen Bangerang septs.
Of these tribal meetings, one of the principal
always, and sometimes the only object, used to be
the performance of their corroborees, in which
they took the greatest delight. On this evening
the Bangerang corroboried, the Ngooraialum
being the spectators; the character of the per-
formance being rather that of an exhibition than
a dance, as we understand it. From this cause,
perhaps, tribes rarely corroboried unless they had
another tribe as spectators, except for the purpose
of practice. When a new corroboree was in-
vented, neighbouring tribes were very anxious to
see it, and took it up at once if it pleased them, so
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 135
that a production of the sort which satisfied the
aboriginal critic, both as to figure and melody,
often found its way to very distant tribes, who, as
I have frequently noticed, sang it without any
idea of the meaning of the words.
On this occasion the men of the Bangerang
withdrew after dark to a smooth piece of ground,
shaded by towering river gums, two or three
hundred yards from the camp, and after lighting
a couple of large fires, in the space between
which the performance was to take place, they
sat down to what I suppose I must call dress
for the evening. Between the blackfellow's
evening costume on gala occasions, and those to
which my town reader has been accustomed, it
will readily be understood that some differences
exist, and that the appearance of a blackfellow
at a ball in corroboree costume would create
quite as great a sensation among our countryfolk
as would one of our carpet knights in Orthodox
evening costume indulging in a balancé in the
front rank of a corroboree.
The blackfellow's mode of adorning himself,
besides being picturesque and effective, is in
excellent keeping with his surroundings, and, like
everything else about him, fits his circumstances
admirably. On the suit of well-fitting black with
which nature sent him into the world (his
opossum-rug being discarded for the occasion) he
Smudges on forehead, cheeks, arms, chest, and
I 36 FECOLLECTIONS OF
thighs a groundwork of rouge made from a sort
of clay which is burnt for the purpose. On this
he inscribes lines or draws figures with pipe-clay;
and though the get-up of no two men is exactly
the same, they all have a decided family resem-
blance, and harmonize well. Around the eyes, for
instance, there are often streaks of pipe-clay, some
of which enclose both eyes, whilst others sepa-
rately encircle each eye. The hair of the head, in
every case on this occasion, was confined either by
a netted fillet or a narrow band of twisted
opossum skin, which was tied behind, the ends of
the strings hanging down between the shoulders;
a plume of emu or cockatoo feathers being fre-
quently inserted in it. The chest also was
adorned with some device in pipe-clay, a favourite
one being the tortoise ; others drew white streaks
along the ribs, which gave the individual the look
of a skeleton, and so on. In all cases the per-
formers wore a belt round the loins, from which
depended, both before and behind, a thick bunch
of opossum-skin thongs, which hung half-way
down to the knee. In addition, tufts of green
leaves were bound tightly round each ankle, and
rolls of fur around the thick part of the arm.
There were, besides, strong lines of pipe-clay
which extended from the ankle upwards, along
the leg, both inside and out. The aim proposed
in the get-up seemed to be to produce as Savage
and terrible an effect as possible, which probably
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 137
was the style which found favour with the weaker
sex. In great measure the object of these exhi-
bitions seemed to be the portrayal of battle or
hunting scenes—generally the former.
When the men had completed their preliminary
arrangements, the women of the tribe came to the
ground, and were stationed by an old black-
fellow, who acted as master of ceremonies, all
huddled closely together a little on one side of
the spot which was to be occupied by the dancers.
They were a good deal in the shade, so as to be
but little seen, their part of the performance being
to supply the music, which consisted of wild and
peculiar airs sung in chorus, to which they kept
time with a sort of rude drum, extemporized by
rolling up their opossum-rugs—which they held
between their knees—into hard lumps, and beat
with their hands, the fingers being open and
extended. It is exceedingly curious to notice
how very closely all this resembles our theatrical
arrangements, which could not by any possibility
have been known to the Blacks for many years
after. Indeed, practically, they are still unknown
to them at this moment, after a lapse of forty
years.
Preparations being in this advanced stage, the
Occasional clash of shield and boomerang, snatches
of song in female voices, or the wild yell of
delight of some warrior, who, as he rose from his
toilet, executed a short pas-Seul to test the
138 - RECOLLECTIONS OF
security of his trappings, and his vigour for the
dance, warned the Ngooraialum, who had begun
to gather about the point of attraction, and seat
themselves on the ground, about ten yards in
front of where the performance was to take place,
that all was ready. Suddenly, as the last of the
spectators were seated, some light fuel was thrown
on to the burning logs; the fire shot up into a
blaze; the master of ceremonies struck together
the two short sticks with which he marked the
time, and the shrill voices of the lubras (women)
burst into song. At the same moment the sable
performers, until now unseen, one by one issuing
from the outside gloom with the silence of shadows,
if we except the rustling of the boughs round their
ankles, took up their position in a row between
the fires; each man, as he came into line, extend-
ing his arms and legs into that peculiar attitude
which makes one of the marked singularities of
the corroboree. The effect of the whole scene
was startling enough ; the impression produced on
my mind being, that I had before me what might
not be a bad scene for a diablerie comedy of a lot
of fiends escaped from their dungeons, and intent
on a hell-dance in celebration of the event. This
was the first time my brother and I witnessed a
corroboree, and we sat on the ground in a some-
what prominent position on the left side of the
dancers, three or four yards from them, a good
deal in advance of the Ngooraialum spectators,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 139
who, just visible by the reflection of the fire,
might be seen to watch the show, motionless as
statues cut in ebony. Never on any succeeding
Occasion did I see the corroboree danced more
successfully. The Blacks themselves, as yet unin-
fluenced by civilization, and wrapped up in their
own customs, were in a highly excited state,
and thoroughly in the humour; the night, though
fine, was dark ; not a breath of air was stirring;
so that the whole of the surroundings were pre-
cisely what suited the performance.
Without troubling the reader with the details
of an exhibition which has been so frequently
described, I may remark that I was strongly
impressed with the scene on this occasion. The
extraordinary energy displayed by the dancers;
their singular attitude; the quivering thigh ; the
poised spear; the whitened shield borne in the
left hand; the peculiar thur ! thur ! thur ! which
their lips emitted in unison with the measured
tramp of their feet; their ghastly countenances;
the sinister manner in which the apparition had
noiselessly stolen from the surrounding darkness
into the flaming foreground, and executed—now
in open order, now in a compact body, to the
sound of wild voices, and the clash of savage
arms—their cam-can diabolique, made up a picture
thrilling from its novelty, its threatening charac-
ter, and its entire strangeness. Then, when the
tumult grew hotter, and heavier the tramp of
140 FECOLLECTIONS OF
naked feet, and the voices of the women trem-
bling with emotion waxed shriller and shriller,
these wild warriors, worked up apparently to
uncontrollable fury, with heaving chest and
glaring eyes, their heads turned to their left
shoulder, and their savage eyes fixed on my
brother and myself, suddenly as one man threw
back their right arms and brought their right
shoulders forward, as if to plant in our breasts
their spears which now converged on us, the
display seemed to have passed from the theatrical
to the real. The idea that all was over with us,
and an intense longing for my pistols, flashed
through my brain. But before I could attempt
to move, the climax had been reached, and the
performers, dropping their spear-points to the
ground, burst into one simultaneous yell, which
made the old woods ring again, and then hurried
at once out of sight, a laughing mob, into the
forest's gloom. Was that yell, fancy suggested,
the farewell cry to pleasant earth of a rabble-rout
of fiends hurrying back to subterranean prisons in
obedience to some mysterious power ? -
This might be termed the first act of a play
which was gone through in a very different spirit
from the tame exhibitions got up by our broken-
spirited tribes during the last thirty years or
more, there being but a faint resemblance between
the corroborees danced by the savage in his wild
and subdued state.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 141
To pass on from the corroboree, the reader will
remember that the chief object of the meeting of
the two tribes was the delivery of the betrothed
girls to their husbands. These young persons
were now to quit their relatives and the scenes of
childhood, and take their places in a strange
camp amongst another people. On this occasion
two or three Bangerang girls found husbands
amongst the Ngooraialum, who returned the
compliment by making as many Bangerang men
happy. In every instance it was noticeable that
the husband was considerably older than the wife,
there being generally twenty years—often much
more—between them ; indeed, as I frequently
noticed, few men under thirty years of age had
lubras, whilst the men from forty to fifty had
frequently two, and occasionally three, better
halves. The day before the young ladies were
given in marriage, the Blacks, for some reason or
other, perhaps because they desired to be alone,
removed their camp across the river, so that I
did not witness what occurred on the occasion ;
but the following account, which a blackfellow
who was present gave me of the proceedings, is,
I have no doubt, pretty accurate.
The girl about whom he spoke was called Kil-
bangaroo. A couple of hours after nightfall she
was directed by her father to go to the camp of
Wawgroot, the man to whom she had been pro-
mised years before. Wawgroot had already a
142 RECOLLECTIONS OF
lubra of some twenty-two years of age as his wife,
who was decidedly a belle amongst the Blacks; a
sprightly, arch-spoken, laughing young lady. At
this particular time, my informant said that
Polly—as Mrs. Wawgroot No. 1 was called—
was sitting beside her husband in the mia-mia,
looking a thought sulky, and as though some
outburst of feeling on her part was imminent.
Whether the fact of her being likely to give her
husband a little of her mind on the occasion did
not make her as much a person of interest to the
camp at large as the bride is doubtful. In the
meantime Polly's lord and master sat before the
fire, smoking his pipe in silence. Probably he
was at a loss for some subject of conversation
which would be welcome to Polly at that par-
ticular time. Altogether, it was said that he
was a little bashful as regards the young wife,
and a good deal in awe of the coquettish young
lady sitting at his elbow, who he knew was quite
capable of making a scene which would be par-
ticularly amusing to the camp, and, of course,
correspondingly disagreeable to himself.
As it grew later, however, Kilbangaroo's father
began to urge on her that it was time she went
to the camp of her husband-elect. At first he
spoke in a low tone of voice, and suggestively as
it were, and as though the matter was not to his
liking ; then, as he got no answer, in a half angry
key. In the meantime the bride was lying at
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 143
the camp fire enveloped in her opossum-rug and
pretending to be asleep. She was, of course,
keenly alive to what was being said to her, and
well knew what she was expected, and what she
would be made, to do; but whether her hesitancy
in going to Wawgroot's mia-mia proceeded from
shyness, or whether she was reluctant to give up
all ideas of a certain young bachelor of a neigh-
bouring tribe who was said to be far advanced in
her good graces, or whether, as I suspect, it was
considered the proper thing to give as much
trouble as possible on such occasions, it would be
difficult to say. At all events, for the present
she neither stirred nor spoke. -
After some delay the father again took up the
theme, and this time he reasoned a little with his
daughter—“Why are you stupid, Kilbangaroo !
Were you not promised to him long ago 2 Are
not all the young girls sent to their husbands'
camps?” Still the obdurate maiden lay motion-
less and gave no sign. The father, at this
juncture, my informant mentioned, gave one of
his dogs an unmerciful blow with his nulla-nulla
(or club) for some trifling offence, and sent the
animal howling lustily through the camp. This,
I surmise, might have been to remind the bride,
through the instrumentality of the dog, of what
might happen to herself if she tried his patience
too far. About an hour passed in this sort of
way, the girl still pretending to be asleep, when
144 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the father's endurance began to waver; so, having
given vent probably to one or two of those
untranslatable phrases with which the Bangerang
were wont to ease their minds when strongly
exercised, he gave his daughter a rude thrust
with the point of his nulla-nulla. Of course
Kilbangaroo could no longer feign sleep—she
knew that matters were growing serious; so she
sat up, her dishevelled and dusty hair shading a
face expressive, I have no doubt, of the most
sublime sulkiness. “Go,” said the father,
following up his advantage, “Be off”—and here
he let fly such a string of expletives, and grew
so hot, that he was likely soon to strike—so the
mother interfered, and called on her daughter to
go. “Make haste,” said the father ; still the
maiden budged not. So he raised his nulla-nulla
—“Will you go?” said he; and, receiving no reply,
was about to bring down the heavy weapon on
her head, she in no way seeking to avoid it, when
the mother caught his arm, as she opened in
vociferous abuse of her daughter, and, raising her
by the shoulders from the ground, lifted her on to
her feet. By this time, I presume, what was
held to be the proper amount of unwillingness
had been acted ; so Kilbangaroo, with her bag
containing her few trifling personal effects slung
over her shoulder, walked noiselessly to Waw-
groot's camp, at about a yard from which she lay
down, completely enveloped in her opossum-rug;
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 145
and in this way, like her antepasados, was she
given in marriage.
Eſaving interested myself in this phase of
aboriginal life, there was one individual connected
with it whom I thought myself bound to see, and
that was the youth who was said to have lost his
heart to the bride; so I went to the bachelors'
camp, and, after chatting to the lot for some time,
I said, as if accidentally, to the desclichado, “So
Eilbangaroo's gone; is it not a good job? In the
Ngooraialum country she will always have fat
iirip opossums to eat and a fine warm rug to sleep
in, and that is more than she would have in this
part of the country.” The poor fellow tried to
smile, but I saw he was hurt. He merely said,
“She will eat fat irip opossum, but I shan’t see
her.” This touch of nature was brought to my
mind, not long since, by some verses of a trouba-
dour ditty, which set me thinking of how little
real difference there is in the feelings of men,
civilized or savage, and how near akin we all are.
The lines are these:–
“Mais voil que sia castellana
E qu'ieu la veia la semana
O’l mes, o l'an una vegada,
Que si fas reina coronada,
Per tal que no la vis jamais.”
The next day, as I heard, whilst Wawgroot
was out hunting, his domestic troubles began to
11
146 RECOLLECTIONS OF
crop up, as the first wife, after abusing the younger
one in the choicest Billingsgate, took the oppor-
tunity of beating her soundly with her yamstick,
no one offering to interfere, and as a consequence
the injured young lady left the camp and took
refuge in the bush. When the husband came
home and found what had occurred, he proceeded
at once to admonish the lady of his early affections
with his nulla-nulla, in a style which would
probably have killed most white women, reducing
her temporarily to complete obedience, after which
he set off with Kilbangaroo's father in search of
the fugitive, who in due time was seen following
them back to the camp. Interrupted occasionally
with outbursts of jealousy, I heard afterwards that
matters on the whole, from that time, went on
tolerably well in Wawgroot's camp, as the good-
man was known to have a heavy nulla-nulla, and
to use it freely if provoked; otherwise he was
naturally a quiet person, and a great valuer of
peace in his domestic circle.
As far as I could learn, what took place at the
nuptials of the bold Wawgroot and the juvenile
Kilbangaroo was an average instance of what
occurred in these tribes when girls were given in
marriage. To be sure, it was hinted that when
the bridegroom happened to be a bachelor there
was less reluctance to be overcome ; but generally
I noticed that it was not until a year or so had
elapsed, and the young wife had received two or
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 147
three severe beatings, that obedience became
habitual, and quiet thoroughly established in the
family. As a proof of the general prevalence
of such wooden admonitions, it may be noticed
that most women bore about their persons proofs
of Savage treatment at the hands of their hus-
bands; but, putting aside occasional ill-usage, it
always seemed to me that the women were happy
enough, and got on very comfortably with their
lords. -
The next time I saw Wawgroot was about
two years after the epoch of his marriage. I had
been wild-dog hunting near Toonaiba, and was
making my way home, when I heard a shrill
cooey, which, on looking round, I found to pro-
ceed from a camp on the edge of the plain.
Riding up to it, I found its tenants were
my old friend Wawgroot and his family,
so I dismounted to light my pipe and ask the
news. I then noticed that Kilbangaroo's sulki-
ness had been replaced by her constitutional
good-humour; her cheeks were red with moro-
moro ; her well-greased hair was neatly combed
and tied up ; she had on quite a showy Opossum-
rug, elaborately scored with approved aboriginal
designs, enveloped in which, peeping over her
shoulder, was a little black thing, which seemed
the delight of its mother. Even Mrs. Wawgroot
No. 1 appeared to have got reconciled to her
presence, and to be fond of the baby.
148 RECOLLECTIONS OF
CHAPTER XIV.
THE DESERTED CAMP.
ONE morning, a few days after the young lady of
whom I have spoken in the last chapter had been
disposed of, I awoke rather later than usual, and,
on proceeding to the river to take my matutinal
plunge, I found that my black neighbours had
decamped without leave-taking; and hence the
stillness which had led me to oversleep myself.
However, I took my bath and was soon dressed,
our costume in those days being of a very simple
character—shirt, boots, breeches, belt, spurs, and
a cabbage-tree hat being the principal matters;
collars, coats, razors, studs, braces, buttons, and
abominations of the sort not having yet taken
possession of us. After breakfast, having nothing
to do, I took up my gun and canoed myself across
the river, with the object of getting a brace of
ducks for dinner, as well as of seeing whether any
of the Blacks had remained behind at the camp.
On approaching it, however, I found that the
flitting had been general. The fires which still
smouldered sent up their blue smoke, in shadow
and sunlight, amongst the trees. Of the mia-mias,
some were standing ; others had, wholly or in
part, been thrown down by their late occupants,
the more easily to collect their effects at starting.
About them were lying some discarded odds and
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 149
ends; a broken shield, the toy-spears belonging
to the picaninnies, the remnants of an old net, a
scrap or two of Opossum-rugs, and similar objects.
There were some bones, too, on the ground,
covered with flies; whilst a solitary hawk and a
bevy of crows seemed to have taken possession of
the spot. The former, indeed, had not yet
entered on active measures; but, Surveying the
scene from an overhanging branch, seemed to
meditate in grave uncertainty the course which
he should pursue. The crows, on the other hand,
with their usual impertinence, hopped smartly
about with half-loosened wing, picking up some
scraps of food, but avoiding rags and other sus-
picious-looking articles. As I leaned unseen
against a tree, cogitating over the wandering
ways of my black friends, admiring a certain
picturesqueness which attaches to all their belong-
ings, and debating with myself whether the time
had come for knocking over one or two of the
crows—with whom I was constantly at feud, in
consequence of their depredations on my young
lambs—I noticed a dog, evidently the lost property
of some blackfellow, skulking noiselessly among
the deserted mia-mias. He was of the breed
indigenous to the continent, his growth stunted
by the starvation which he had endured with his
thriftless master, for whom, apparently, with
pricked ears, he was smelling about. Not finding
him, after a little the animal jumped on to the
150 RECOLLECTIONS OF
trunk of a fallen tree and sat down, his tail
gathered carefully under him. The dingo Sejant,
as a herald might call him, was, poor brute, bereft
of hair from back to foot, being, as is common
with Blacks' dogs, in an advanced state of mange.
After looking about him for some time, and
giving utterance to a few plaintive whines, he
raised his nose towards the sky and broke into
the dreary howl common to his kind. The crows
hopped off a little at the sound, evidently sus-
picious that something was wrong; the meditations
of the hawk apparently remaining undisturbed.
Again and again beginning at his lowest and
ascending to his highest note, Pokka gave out his
melancholy cry, reminding me of Campbell's
melodious line—
“The wolf’s long howl from Oonalaska's shore.”
I did not wait for him to finish his solo. A shot
from my gun rolled him over in the midst of his
melody, the contents of the other barrel going to
the crows; terminating at once misery and mange,
as well as some danger to my flocks.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 151
CHAPTER XV.
STEELE'S CREEK.
I HAVE already mentioned that the district of
Bort Phillip, now the colony of Victoria, origi-
nally formed a portion of New South Wales,
better known in England in those days as Botany
Bay. Like other colonies, it had its youthful
trials, being from its cradlehood treated by its
elder sister as a future rival, and put upon
accordingly. The principal complaint of the
Port Phillipians was that the revenue derived
from their Customs and the sale of their Crown
lands, instead of being disbursed on local wants,
was, in spite of every remonstrance, expended on
the public works of Sydney, six hundred miles
away, or on the roads and bridges of New South
Wales proper, a tract of country in which the
people of Port Phillip had about the same
amount of interest as the citizens of Manchester
might be supposed to have in the roads and
bridges of Moscow. This unworthy treatment
was, of course, keenly felt by the rising settlement,
and my father, a resident in Tasmania, whom busi-
ness used to bring here occasionally, even at that
time sympathized very warmly with the young
colonists in the matter. Early in 1842 he left
Tasmania, where he had lived for some twenty
years, and came to reside in Port Phillip, bring-
152 RECOLLECTIONS OF
ing with him considerable experience in public
business, and what was in those days a large
capital. What his intentions were when he left
Tasmania. I cannot say, but what he did was to
devote himself from the first to the public
business of the young settlement, and especially
to the object of obtaining from the home Govern-
ment its separation from New South Wales; and
with this in view he took up his residence in
Melbourne, to the great detriment of his personal
interests.
As it was his intention to invest still further
in pastoral property, the management of which
would no doubt have been his occupation had it
not been for public matters, he sent for me soon
after his arrival, and directed me to look out for
the purchase of another station ; and finally, in
July, 1842, he bought one with four thousand
sheep and a small herd of cattle on it, for which
he paid, if I recollect right, about £2,000. The
run was known as Steele's Creek, and was situated
some four miles to the westward of Kilmore. On
this new purchase I took up my residence as
manager, having a younger brother to live with
me as a companion. Though Steele's Creek was
in the centre of a comparatively well peopled
neighbourhood, and in every way much better pro-
vided with comforts and appliances than Tongala,
somehow it was not to my fancy. In the first
place, as regards my neighbours, though I was on
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 153
amicable terms with those around me, except in
one instance there was no intimacy, so that I did
not reap much advantage on that score. Besides,
the hunting and shooting were indifferent ; and
during my residence at Tongala I had got so
accustomed to roaming over large tracts of
unoccupied country, that I felt myself disagree-
ably straightened in a place which was only
twenty, or five-and-twenty miles round at most.
The solitude, too, of Tongala, sooth to say, suited
me pretty well on the whole, and the character-
istics of the country were more congenial to me
than those of Steele's Creek. Particularly I
missed the pleasant river, about which much of
my idle time was spent in swimming, shooting, or
canoeing.
As an investment Steele's Creek turned out
well; though, had its purchase been delayed for
some months, it might have been had probably
for a third of the price, so great was the fall
which took place in all property. Shortly after
taking charge I marked two thousand lambs,
which brought the flocks up to six thousand;
whilst the shearing produced a very satisfactory
clip of wool, both as regards quality and quantity.
Of this period of my squatting experiences com-
paratively few incidents remain in my memory.
As a rule I had even less to do than at Tongala,
and, with the exception of reading Corneille's
and Racine's Tragedies, which were almost the
154 BECOLLECTIONS OF
only books I had, my chief sources of amusement
were my visits to the hut of two brothers, my
near neighbours, who had lately arrived from .
England. These gentlemen—stark new-chums,
who knew nothing of bush life, and were but ill
provided with station requisites—had purchased a
small run, with a thousand ewes, close to my
father's, just after my arrival at Steele's Creek;
and as we got on well together, I used to pass a
good deal of my leisure time with them, and was
able to help them with the loan of a team
of bullocks now and then, and things of
the sort ; as well as with the result of my ex-
perience in bush matters, such as it was. The
youngest of the brothers was hardly out of his
teens; the other a man of about thirty, who, as he
termed it, with evident and mysterious satisfac-
tion, had “seen a great deal of the world;” in
which process, it appeared, he had also, as some-
times happens, pretty well seen the end of his
cash, and had come to Australia for the purpose
of retrieving his position. He was a genial
companion, full of energy ; a good Smoker, an
interminable yarner, and well up on the subjects
of guns, pointers, hounds, horses, pigeons, &c.;
having likewise some Smattering of rat-catching
lore. He was not what one would call a reading
man ; and, if not very intellectual, his talk at all
events was amusing ; and I was of course glad,
whilst we smoked and drank coffee, to avail
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 155.
myself of the opportunity of acquiring some in-
formation on his subjects, concerning which I was
in lamentable ignorance. On the occasions of my
frequent visits to the hut of my neighbours, and
of theirs to mine, conversation often reverted to
some of the matters just enumerated, when my
friend not unfrequently indulged in somewhat tall
statements. That he had come to believe his
yarns of nine-feet walls and mouths of coal-pits
leaped by astonishing hunters, and covies of
partridge shot down with marvellous precision
with guns which must have had the range of field
pieces, I think there can be no doubt.
Whilst on the subject of mom ami vèridique,
I may relate one of the only occurrences
which took place during my residence of eight
months at Steele's Creek which has impressed
itself with much vividness on my recollection;
a narration which, though given in all serious-
ness and good faith, my friend of the leaping
horses and long-range fowling-pieces could never
be brought to look on as anything but a joke
on my part. The matter in question was the
appearance of a ghost, and the facts are these –
One cold, starry, winter's night my younger
brother Charles and I were sitting beside the
fire in our comfortable little hut, chatting and
smoking as usual. He was about sixteen years
of age, and had not long returned from col-
lege in the old country; was of great physical
156 RECOLLECTIONS OF
strength, and of decidedly good health, courage,
and nerve. In other respects there is little to be
said about him. He is dead long since, poor
fellow ; was well read for his years, unimagin-
ative, and altogether, I should think, a very
unlikely subject to conjure up “spirits from the
vasty deep.” As has been said, he and I were
leading a very humdrum sort of life, riding a
little now and then, now and then doing a little
work amongst the sheep, and so on. Our even-
ings were divided between reading and conversa-
tion ; we both smoked a good deal, and drank
nothing stronger than tea—circumstances which
I think it right to mention, as the esprits forts,
I believe, have made up their minds that the only
ghosts seen in the nineteenth century are those
begot of bad nerves and disordered brains;
neither of which explanations, it seems to me,
are in the least available in this instance.
On the fine, starry, winter's night in question,
then, my brother and I were sitting quietly
in our hut, one on each side of the fire which
glowed in the capacious chimney. We had been
talking about the business of the station, and
every-day matters of that sort ; the fire had
burnt low, and it was getting on towards bed-
time ; so my brother, like Corporal Trim,
knocked the ashes out of his pipe, stood up
and stretched himself, saying that he would go
to bed. Replying that I would follow him in
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 157
a few minutes, I continued to smoke, my eyes
fixed on the embers. In the meantime my
brother did not go direct to the bedroom, but
to the front door, which led out of the room
in which we were sitting ; opened it and went
out. The door shut behind him, and not long
after I heard him speak, as I thought, to a pair
of kangaroo dogs, which were always about the
place, when I sank into a reverie as I gazed on
the flickering flames on the hearth before me.
I had passed a few moments in this abstracted
state, when I became conscious that my brother,
instead of going to bed, had returned to his seat
by the fire.
“I thought you were off to bed,” said I; and
receiving no answer, I looked up at him. For a
moment I was completely staggered. Instead of
the smooth face untouched with emotion and
somewhat sleepy, which I had just before looked
on, I saw one so ghastly, so startled, so horror-
stricken, that for the moment I could hardly
believe it to be that of my brother. After gazing
on him for a moment, I asked him what was the
matter—whether he was ill ? He opened his
mouth to reply, but, unable to utter a word,
cast an apprehensive glance in the direction of
the front door, towards which he pointed faintly
with his hand. Considering for a moment, I
thought it might relieve him to be left alone, so
I walked to the door and went out, without
I58 RECOLLECTIONS OF
being able in the least to conjecture what was
the matter with him. In the bright starlight
nothing unusual met my eyes. The lamp in the
shepherd's hut I could see was out, and my
kangaroo dogs were not there, but everything
seemed quiet. Above, the lamp of heaven was
“Riding near the highest noon,”
and around everything was as cold and crisp as
might be, so I paced backwards and forwards for
a while, thinking of my brother, and perhaps, as I
looked up to the sky, recalling Shelley's verses—
“Tell me, moon, thou pale and gray
Pilgrim of heaven's homeless way,
In what depth of night or day
Seekest thou repose now 7 °
After a few moments passed in this way, I
returned to the hut and resumed my seat at the
fire.
The short time that had elapsed had, I found,
been sufficient for my brother to recover his self-
possession, and though the traces of disturbance
were still visible in his countenance, they were
hardly such as a chance observer would have
noticed. After I had taken my seat, he proceeded
to relate what had happened to him. “You will
remember,” said he, “that a few minutes ago I
wished you good-night. As I passed the front
door, I thought I would see how the weather
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 159
was, so I went outside and was walking in the
direction of the fallen tree before the place,
looking towards the sky, when I noticed suddenly,
some fifty paces off, a person wrapped in a sheet
advancing to meet me. Who it was I could
not make out. The size of the person did not
agree either with that of the old shepherd or his
wife, and so I concluded that it must be the
smaller of the two men who are working amongst
the sheep. Whoever it was, however, the whole
affair seemed to me so stupid and commonplace
that, notwithstanding the liberty that the man
was taking, I felt inclined to be amused at the
very absurdity of the thing. At first I had
intended to say something cross, but as T was
sure the person in white was aware of my having
noticed his presence, I turned somewhat out of
his path and again looked up at the sky, not
doubting that the joke would end, and that the
ghost would pass on without subjecting himself to
a rebuke. Contrary to my expectations, however,
he did not pass on, but continued to advance,
took his stand within a yard of me, and seemed as
if looking at me through the sheet, which, with
the exception of his feet, which I noticed were
naked, covered the whole of his person. I still
felt quite certain that it was the individual I have
mentioned, and began to feel annoyed at his
presuming to amuse himself with me in such a
way, so I said to him, ‘You are quite mistaken,
160 RECOLLECTIONS OF
my man, if you think pranks of this sort will be
tolerated here ; go to your hut, and don't repeat
such tricks.” Perhaps you heard me speak?” I
replied that I had—as I thought, to the dogs.
“Instead, however,” he continued, “ of complying
with my directions, the man stood his ground,
and, with his eyes apparently fixed on me from
behind the sheet, began to rock himself from
right to left on his feet. This was too much
for my patience, and, determined to muzzle the
offender, I sprung quickly forward. All this time
I saw him as distinctly as I see you. The moon
gave us as much light outside as our candle does
in this room ; there are no trees to intercept the
view. I was under no apprehension, and was
certain that I should lay hold of my man, who
made no attempt to escape. In fine, I was in the
act of grasping his throat, when—judge of my
horror, if you can—my hand passed through the
amon, the impalpable thing in white, whatever it
was which, on the instant, disappeared and was
gone.”
After discussing the matter for some time we
went to bed. My brother, to the day of his death,
continued to believe firmly that what he saw that
night was a ghost—in which I am inclined to
agree with him. The reader will of course take
his own view of the case, and is welcome to smile
if he likes; and yet, though I know pretty well
what is said on the other side, I hold the reasons
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 16 f
given as of small weight when contrasted with
what I am convinced is the fact, that the belief in
apparitions is constant and general amongst persons
of every age and country. Indeed, observation
has led me to doubt whether anyone has ever
succeeded in emancipating himself from the feeling
that such things have happened to others, and may
happen to himself. In health, no doubt, much
may be done to overcome feelings of the sort, but
in sickness and the decay of the physical powers
the feeling is apt to revive, as it certainly
reappears with every generation. Perhaps a
belief in the supernatural is as constant in the
human mind as the instinct of self-preservation.
As Steele's Creek was rather overstocked with
six thousand sheep, according to the notions of those
times (when people entertained somewhat princely
ideas on the subject of feed for their flocks), it
was decided to reduce their numbers, and I
accordingly started for Tongala with two thousand
of the ewes. My road was by what we now
know as Pyalong, Egan's Creek, Redcastle, and
Colbinabbin. The summer—for it was the month
of December—was hot and dry, and at Mount
Camel, or, as the Blacks call it, Yiberithoop, my
sheep got their last drink, the distance from
Tongala being about fifty-five miles. From
Yiberithoop down the Colbinabbin Creek, and
across the plains to Tymering, took me, I remem-
ber, two days and a half of tedious driving, the
• - 12
162 RECOLLECTIONS OF
sheep being in one lot with two shepherds. As a
matter of course I had a bullock-dray with me, on
which we carried, amongst other things, a cask of
water for ourselves and the sheep dogs, in connec-
tion with which arose a dispute between the men
which resulted in a serious loss to my father. It
happened in this way. As the shepherds toiled
over the heated plain, painfully driving before
them the thirsty flock, which, accustomed to the
green grass of the cool hilly country, could ill
support the heat of the plains, the bullock-driver,
who was a cantankerous, bad-tempered fellow,
overtook them, and refused to allow the men to
get a drink from the cask. This of course irritated
them not a little, and occasioned a row at Our
mid-day camp, which ended in my interfering
and finally sending the bullock-driver about his
business, a step which turned out to be as unfortu-
nate as it was hasty and imprudent. Of course, as
the first consequence, I had to tie up my horse
behind the dray and drive the team myself, which,
however, did not trouble me much. Towards
sundown that evening we arrived at Tymering,
and camped amongst the she-oaks, and so far
everything went on well.
The whole party, however, was a good deal
fagged, as our drive of eight miles, which was all
we could accomplish, was over treeless plains,
under a burning sun, so that nothing but the
most constant efforts on our part could keep the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 163
sheep moving. It was Christmas-eve, I remem-
ber, and a furious hot wind had been blowing the
whole day in our faces. Weary, begrimed and
half-choked with dust, with blood-shot eyes and
sunburnt faces, the three of us sat at the Camp,
after having had a pot of tea and something to
eat, our thirst but half-quenched, each one by
himself, with his back against the leeward side of
a tree. The mournful wailing of the wind as it
Streamed through the she-oak scrub, and our
fatigue together, made us disinclined to talk; so
we sat in silence, each, I suppose, occupied with
his own thoughts. The fierce sirocco was
driving before it sticks and leaves; and, in
the distance, quantities of peculiar red-coloured
bushes were rolling away to the southward,
tumbling over and over before the gale. The
horizon had that singular wavy appearance
which is common to the plains in such weather;
no birds were to be seen, but here and there
moving columns of dust, grass, and leaves, the
result of whirlwinds, towered high in the air;
whilst, close at hand, covered with ashes from the
small fire, which, though lately kindled, had
already burnt itself out, lay our kettle, frying-
pan, and pannikins, and the bag containing our
gritty meat and damper. To complete the scene,
there were the panting sheep, and bullocks with pro-
truding tongues; the close-on-setting sun bathing
the landscape in a dull red light, suggestive of an
164 - RECOLLECTIONS OF
eclipse. Altogether it was a melancholy camp.
that night, and the more so from the reduction in
our little party.
The next morning, however, as we took the
road at day dawn, we were enjoying all the
exhilaration of a change of weather and a light
southerly breeze, so that we accomplished about
six miles to our day camp before the great heat
came on. It being only nine o'clock when we
arrived, no probability of being able to get the
sheep to move till three, and the distance from
Tongala but thirteen miles, I unfortunately
determined, being a little sick of the work, and
short-handed, to let the bullocks out of the dray,
and on my horse drive them into the station to
water; having no doubt that a fresh team, with
men and dogs, might be back early to bring on
the sheep, which were now beginning to get
knocked up from thirst. However, though I
arrived in good time, and sent out a fresh team
with such directions as would have secured
satisfactory results if they had been followed, it
so happened that the driver allowed his bullocks
to give him the slip, went after them, and never
returned ; there being no doubt that the poor
fellow, who was a one-eyed man, lost himself and
perished miserably from want of water; whilst,
from the delay thus occasioned, five hundred of
the flock died the next day, before reaching the
river, or shortly after.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 1.65
CHAPTER XVI.
THE MOIRA. *
IN the early days of the colony, as the reader
is already aware, the possession of sheep con-
stituted practically the right of their owner to
occupy, under a yearly £10 license, sufficient land
to graze them and their two years' increase.
Whether the flock amounted to five hundred
or fifty thousand, the license fee was the same ;
and as regards its duration, it was generally
understood that it would be renewed annually,
on the original terms, until purchasers of
the fee simple of the land, at £1 per acre,
were forthcoming ; a contingency which, in
remote situations, fancy put off for a century or
two. Besides the license fee, however, there was
payable to the Treasury a half-yearly assessment
of a halfpenny a head on the sheep, and this was
the only additional charge. Touching the issuing
of licenses, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, so
far as I had experience, was usually guided by
the applicant's estimate of the quantity to which
he was entitled ; which, as a rule, turned out
in the sequel to be considerably in excess of
what was contemplated. When, therefore, I
reached Tongala with the fifteen hundred
* In Australia it is not unusual to prefix the definite article to the
Inames of places ; as, the Moira, the Terricks, the Wee-waa, &c.
166 RECOLLECTIONS OF
ewes referred to in the last chapter, my
first care, as a matter of course, was to
obtain a proportionate increased area of run.
As the neighbouring country, with the excep-
tion of the Goulburn frontage, was entirely
unoccupied, the direction in which I should
extend the run was a matter for considera-
tion. It so happened, however, that my brother
Richard, who resided at Tongala in my absence,
had seen and taken a fancy to a tract of country
on the south side of the Murray, which was
known to the Blacks by the name of Moira. In
a flying visit made to it some short time previous,
he had found that, under water for several
months of the winter and spring, it abounded
in summer in excellent sheep feed, in the shape
of couch grass, young reeds, and so on, and
was usually as green as an emerald from
November till March, when other pastures were
withered and dry ; whilst there was quite high
land enough about it to ensure a retreat for the
sheep in case of any sudden inundation. As
characteristic of the Moira, he mentioned that
it abounded beyond all belief in unusually fat
fish, swarmed with leeches and snakes, and the
ducks were so numerous that I cannot tell now
how many he bowled over at one shot. As we
learned afterwards, its extensive reed-beds were
the great stronghold of the Bangerang Blacks,
whom, as will be told presently, my brother had
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 167
found somewhat troublesome during my absence
at Steele's Creek; and owing to the plentiful
food supply, it was a favourite place of meeting
for all the tribes in the neighbourhood. Hence, it
had advantages and disadvantages. Since those
days it may be noticed that the Moira has con-
tributed largely to the fish supply of Melbourne
and Sandhurst, and that a considerable export of
its leeches has been made to London.
In consequence of my brother's representation
he and I started before sunrise one morning to
make a thorough examination of this country,
and decide whether or not we should take it up.
Mounted, I remember, on two vigorous rowdy
horses, we trotted merrily along the Towro
sandhill, which leads from Tongala station to
Madowla lagoon. When within a quarter of
a mile or so of the water, our attention was
arrested by some one singing. The notes rang
clear and silvery on the still morning air ; the
songstress, for it was evidently a woman's voice,
infusing into her lay the vivacity and abandom
of life's springtime. On arriving at the spot
we paused for a moment to listen, advancing
through the tall trees on the banks of the lagoon
as the last notes of the song died away. I had
seen Madowla a hundred times before, but its
deep waters and emerald margin somehow never
appeared to me so cool and fresh as on this
particular occasion. -
I 6S RECOLLECTIONS OF
Beneath us, as we reined up on its high banks,
standing in the sunshine on the green mossy
plants which fringed the water's edge, was the
young Waringulum lubra whom we had just
been listening to. She had been singing, it
appeared, to her first-born, a chubby urchin, who,
half hid by the dewy herbage, lay snugly
wrapped in furs at her feet. The mother and her
baby were alone, the sparkling black eyes of the
child fixed on its parent. She was not wanting
in good looks of a sort, and had evidently just
come out of the water. Her opossum-rug was
drawn tightly round her, the uncovered portions
of her skin showing a light copper-colour. Her
black hair, which glistened with water drops,
was confined by the fillet commonly worn round
the brow, and in it was inserted a plume of white
feathers. In fact, altogether she might just then
have been considered a decidedly favourable speci-
men of an aboriginal belle. At hand, by the
water's edge, a fish was roasting on a fire, which
sent up its slender column of smoke to linger
awhile amongst the arched boughs of the over-
hanging eucalypti; the dripping net which had
served for the finny capture hanging on a bush at
hand.
“Good morning, Mellapurning !” said my
brother. “Good morning, Massal” replied the
young lady in fur, a little surprised at our appear-
3,1] C62.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 169
“What for you sing to-day ?”
“Alonga Kotoopka (baby),” said she, smiling.
“That pella plenty laup now !”
“Where kooli (husband) belonging to you ?”
“Look out possum. You air-im tomahawk 7
Mine yait-im pish alonga Kotoopka.”
“Te te borak Kotoopka yait-im pish.”
Here the mother, turning her head to one side,
with an arch expression of face, made with her
tongue a sound much resembling the drawing of
a cork from a bottle, which did duty as an
exclamation of surprise. “No yait-im fish
Top-a-bit you mikalite. Tungooga Kotoopka
thaichimiac mungi !”
“Well, good-bye, Mellapurning; can’t stop
now ; we are off to the Moira,” said my brother,
who did not care to see young omnivorous per-
form. So we cantered on, crossed the Tiia
Creek at its mouth, and sped along the Blacks'
track to Pama, and thence, keeping on the edge
of the fine old red gums (off which we noticed
many a canoe had been stripped in old days),
to the Moira itself, at the mouth of the Baala
Creek, some fourteen miles from home. After
wading the creek, we dismounted to light our
pipes and rub off numberless leeches which had
attached themselves to our horses' legs and bellies
as we passed through the water. On this, my
first visit to the Moira, I thought the place had
a very pleasant aspect, of a mixed Australian and
170 RECOLLECTIONS OF
semi-tropical character. It happened that there
were no Blacks there at the moment ; but some
camp fires smouldering under the shade of , a
spreading tree, and the bags and nets which
hung from its branches, showed that they were
not far away. Looking around, on one side of
us we saw extensive reed-beds intersected by the
Murray, which (an unusual feature in colonial
rivers) flowed here almost without banks, and
on the level of the plain. The other half of the
circle was occupied by open, grassy, forest land,
which extended we did not know how far. The
grass under foot, as yet undefiled by flock or
herd, was as green and fresh as Eden, and the
landscape generally bathed in a soft, hazy, Sun-
light, such as Monsieur Buvelot would love to
depict. But we were just then intent on sheep-
feed, and not on scenery; so, after a brief delay,
we remounted and rode over a plain of green couch
grass of some length, and on through a narrow
opening in the reeds into what proved to be a
charming little savannah of perhaps half a square
mile in extent. The grass in it was about a foot
high, and so thick that the tread of our horses
was as noiseless as that of the camel.
Through the reeds, which stood considerably
higher than our heads, a light breeze was playing
intermittently, with a sound which reminded one
of the gentle wash of the ocean in a sandy bay.
The isolated meadow, into which we had found
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. | 7 |
our way, proved, as I have said, of but trifling
extent, so that in less than a mile we found our-
selves confronted by a wall of old reeds. They
were about ten feet high and grew only a few
inches apart, the interstices being occupied by the
débris of those which had fallen, couch-grass, and
numerous convolvuli. Some fifty yards off,
amongst the reeds, however, was a gnarled and
spreading gum-tree, from the branches of which
a view of the neighbouring country might be
obtained. To this solitary old giant we accord-
ingly forced our horses, with considerable
difficulty, and clambering up its short trunk took
our seats amongst its branches some forty feet
from the ground, whence we were enabled to
overlook the country for a considerable distance
round, and discuss its capabilities at our leisure.
A sea of reeds, of several miles in extent, as far
in fact as the eye could reach, met our view on
two sides, flanked by some grand old trees,
amongst whose branches, no doubt, long genera-
tions of Blacks had hunted the opossum and
flying-squirrel, the Murray, broad and bright,
coming into view here and there. The reeds
were by patches and strips of different hues and
growth, in accordance with their ages and the
periods at which they had been last burnt; and
in the distance we could make out, by the reflec-
tion of the sun, a flight of white cockatoos,
which, probably disturbed by some solitary
I 72 RECOLLECTIONS OF
savage prowling along the river's banks, had
sought safety in flight, and after surging back-
wards and forwards for a few minutes, now
flashing in the brilliant sunlight, now disappear-
ing beneath the shadows, had settled not far from
where they had risen, on a tree, to which their
white plumage gave the appearance of being
covered with blossom. On a closer examination
we also noticed several patches of good open
country, such as we had just left, and that the
whole could be made available, with little trouble,
by burning. As from our elevated seats we
watched the smoke, which curled here and there
from the distant camps of the Ngarimowro, my
brother, I remember, drew my attention to a reed
at hand, which, more lofty than the rest, bowed
gently to the breeze. A convolvulus encircled
its slender shaft, opening a hundred azure chalices
to the south wind, whilst about its feathery top,
probably feeding on its seed, a fire-tail fluttered.
Bathed in the argent light of an Australian
sun, the bird, leaf, and flowers seemed to us a
charming object, fit, indeed, for an artist's pencil.
Having delayed some time, and satisfied our-
selves that the Moira would suit our purpose, we
retraced our steps to the mouth of the Baala,
where we found some Blacks who had returned
to camp, and were grilling fresh caught fish, in
the disposal of which we gladly assisted them,
giving them a little tobacco in return. As I
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 173.
wished to see the river frontage between the
Baala Creek and Pama, which appeared too
rough for riding, and might contain a reed-bed, I
persuaded one of these Blacks, with whom I was
acquainted, to take me in his canoe to the latter
place, where my brother agreed to meet me with
the nags.
The canoe in which Tommy and I embarked,
like those commonly in use at the Moira, of
which there were about thirty, was of very thick
redgum bark, something over twenty feet long,
with a small fire—on which a fish or a duck
might be grilled—burning on a hearth of clay
in the bows. The craft being baled out, and a
heap of fresh couch-grass put on board for my
accommodation, I seated myself on it, gun in
hand, whilst Tommy, a rather civilized Black,
who had often been at the head station, and
spoke English pretty well, shoved her off,
and sent her merrily along with his rowing-
pole. There is always something pleasant in
gliding down a broad tree-shadowed river in hot
weather, doubly so when it is unexplored, and
novelty lends an additional charm ; and so I
found on this occasion. We had scarcely turned
the point which hid the camp from view, when
the stillness so characteristic of Australian scenes,
closed round us, hardly broken by the light plash
of the rower's pole, the gentle ripple of the water
against the sides of the canoe, and the disturbed
174 RECOLLECTIONS OF
frogs, which leaped into the stream, as now and
then we rounded a promontory. Stately and
hushed, old Tongala º flowed on through his
trackless woods ! For myself I was inclined to
be silent, but my boatman took up the cicerone's
part, drawing my attention as we passed to spots
which one way or another were of interest to
himself and his tribe. The country on the right
bank, he informed me, belonged to the Moi-
theriban, that on the left to his own tribe, the
Wangatpan. The Moitheriban (literally, Moira
people) were a numerous tribe, and had plenty
of fish and thousands of spears. They had pro-
mised him a girl to wife, in exchange for his
sister, whom he had given to one of them some
time ago; but his intended was not old enough
yet, he said, with a sigh, but was to come to his
camp when next the manna was on the trees.
Then there was a fishing weir, rather an exten-
sive affair, at the mouth of a creek we were
passing, which, he told me, belonged to some old
man whose name I have forgotten ; another, a
little further on, was the property of quite a
youth, a Kogomoolga, indeed, whose front tooth
had only just been knocked out, his father being
lately dead. Then there was a little creek,
which was bringing back the last of the flood-
water into the river, the fish in which I learnt
* Tongala is the aboriginal name for the river Murray in
this portion of its course.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 175
belonged to an uncle of Mellapurning. All
these were evidently very important matters
with Tommy.
“By and by,” he continued, “you see ole man
blackpella. No gammon that pella; pather
belonging to Warri. You look out now !” Nor
had I long to wait for the sight of the promised
patriarch, for, on rounding a point, a long reach of
the stream came into view, about the middle of
which was a fishing party engaged at their work.
The majority of these people, at least the elders,
I learned from my guide, had not only never had
the curiosity to have a look at my party, not four-
teen miles off, at Tongala, but had never yet seen a
white man, and I soon found that they were both
surprised and displeased at finding a pale-faced
stranger invading their fastnesses without having
sent them word. It so happened that the party
was rather a defenceless one, consisting principally
of women, old men, and children, the young men
being out hunting, so that on seeing us, a general
stampede took place for the shore; whilst yells of
every variety of shrillness, from voices of every
age, burst on our ears. Tommy laughed heartily
at the scamper, and tried to reassure his kinsfolk,
shouting to them at the top of his voice “to sit
down; that I was friendly and would not injure
them,” and so on. But his assurances were
without avail. The sauve qui peut was general,
all paddling their canoes in hot haste to a point at
176 RECOLLECTIONS OF
which the banks, which were of some height,
sloped gradually to the water's edge. To give
them time to get out of the way, Tommy slackened
the speed of our canoe, allowing her to drift broad-
side on, whilst our sable friends, big and little,
stepped on to the grass, as their canoes, one by
one, touched the shore, hurrying to the cover of
some friendly trees near the bank. Old men and
women, as they fled, might be seen picking up the
children who were very numerous, whilst some
little urchins, who had probably been amusing
themselves spearing frogs and tadpoles at the
water's edge, mounted lesser urchins on their backs
and bore them to shelter in the most gallant
IOla,I).I]62I’.
To this precipitate retreat, however, there was
one exception, in the person of a very old man—
the identical Warri's father, of whom Tommy
had spoken. From what I afterwards knew of
him, I should think he must have scored his
ninety summers. This poor wreck of humanity,
disregarding the many and vociferous entreaties
of his friends, refused to retire. Somewhat
emaciated and bent, with bald head and long
white beard, he stood naked and defiant by the
stream on whose banks he had seen the best part
of a century pass by. He had never before seen
a white man. His fishing spear quivered in his
hand, and, after an abortive attempt at a war-
like caper, he howled, abused, and spat at me,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 177
in senile fury, asking, as Tommy afterwards
explained, why I came to the Moira ! What I
wanted ? That I was a demon from the grave t
That the water, the fish, and the ducks belonged
to his tribe. That he spat at me and hated me.
That I was Pekka (a ghost), but that man or
devil he would spear me !
Whilst the poor old fellow was thus giving
vent to his fury, every soul who had found
shelter was yelling at the top of his or her voice
for him to come away and join them, as I fancy
they expected to see me raise the gun which I
held in my hands (of which weapon they well
knew the use) and put a stop at once to his abuse
and his life.
In the meantime we were drawing gradually
nearer to him, when I noticed amongst the trees
a middle-aged man who seemed to have grown
desperate, jumping about with his spear shipped
in the yoolwa. This fellow dragged a girl of
some ten years from behind a tree, and, with a
sharp, angry exclamation, pushed her towards us,
clear of the cover. Until forced on to the open
ground, the child hung back and resisted. When
she found that course useless, however, her
manner altered, and she walked steadily towards
the old man with a quiet and resolute step.
Every cry now ceased. No doubt her people
had heard that white men did not war with
children, and it was on this ground that she, and
13
178 RECOLLECTIONS OF
not a man, was sent to bring back the tribal
grandsire ; but still they could have had no
certainty of what I might do, and the moment
must have been one of anxious suspense.
Curious to test the temper of the people, I
whispered to Tommy to be silent, that I should
not hurt her, and raised my gun to my shoulder.
The child, now not many yards off, noticed the
action, looked me full in the face, and without
altering her course, gathered her opossum-rug
tightly about her, and with somewhat stately
step, passed close before the gun to the gibbering
old savage. Addressing him in a low soft tone,
without further notice of me, she took his hand
in hers. The simple act somehow seemed to
bring back the old man to his accustomed state of
dependence, and, as if all recollection of myself
and the scene he had been enacting had suddenly
left him, he lowered his spear, his head sank
down, and in silence the girl led him back to his
descendants.
“Push, Tommy
these people further. One vigorous shove cleared
us of the bank, and the stream soon swept us
round a point, and out of sight of the camp.
“Well, well !” said Tommy, “big one stupid ole
man no gammon l’ “What name belong to
young girl ' " said I. “Undyārning,” replied
Tommy. Good nerves, Undyārning, thought I,
and a good representative of her race in that
| 7,
said I, unwilling to annoy
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 179
particular ; and we again floated silently down
our liquid road, between grand old gum trees,
abundance of couch-grass, and clumps of reeds,
up which climbed convolvuli in waste luxuriance.
Here and there crowds of ducks, and swans
occasionally, took wing at our approach; the
white crane, the blue crane, and the nankeen-
bird, with out-stretched necks, looking at us
inquisitively from many a branch a hundred and
fifty feet overhead. At times, too, wigilópka
(the laughing-jackass) saluted us from his leafy
arbour, whilst here and there, in spots which
seemed to have special attractions for the bell-
birds, their silvery notes were always ringing.
being satisfied with what I had seen, I shortly
after applied for, and obtained about eighty
square miles of Moira country, which turned out
very valuable. -
Since that day, some five-and-thirty years
only have passed, and Blacks, reeds, and bell-
birds are gone. Of the first scarce one remains;
his cooey is heard no more in those parts,
whilst the old forest itself is fast being converted
by steam sawmills into railway sleepers. In
our go-ahead days people of course are jubilant
about such things, and I suppose I ought to be so
too; but as a fact, the saws and the steam engines
do not fill me with any particular delight, and I
may as well out with the truth, that when the
subject occurs to me it is to remember with regret
180 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the primitive scene, the Black with his fishing
canoe, the silence, and the gum trees.
CHAPTER XVII.
CHANGES IN CONNECTION WITH FLORA AND
FAUNA.
I HAVE just alluded to some changes which have
occurred in connection with the flora and fauna
of the Moira country, and it may not be out of
place to glance at others which commonly present
themselves in those portions of Australia which
have for a quarter of a century been in our
occupation. Beginning with our pastures, it is of
interest to recall for a moment the opinions of our
early explorers as to their value, were it merely
to remind us how wide they were of the reality.
The most superficial examination of their pages
shows that they habitally denounced as unprofit-
able wastes, which owners of stock would never
occupy, large tracts of country, the grazing capa-
bilities of which, and capacity for rearing prime
stock, experience has proved to be equal perhaps
to anything in any part of the world; and that
this country possessed from the first, over a great
portion of its area, the inestimable advantage of
being ready for immediate use without the outlay
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 181
of a sixpence. This absence of preliminary out-
lay will be particularly noticed by those who
remember that many lands in Tasmania cost the
early colonists, with prison-labour, as high as £40
an acre to clear, before they could be thoroughly
fitted for the plough. In the category of prime
country ready to hand, and formerly condemned
as useless, must be included much of the district
now known as Riverina, and in extolling its
pastures it must be understood that I refer, not
to the quantity of forage they produce per acre,
which is low, but to the quality, which is super-
excellent. º
The explorers who first entered Riverina were
Oxley and Sturt. Oxley's was what might be
called a trial trip, and a very gallant one, and no
old hand forgets that “Sturt's furthest" held the
post of honour on our maps for nearly twenty
years, and that he was a most emergetic explorer.
Dut though I value highly the labours of these
leaders and their results, I may remark that the
records of their travels produce the impression that
they suffered a good deal from despondency as
they wended their way through the woods at the
heads of their small parties. Brought up in the
old country, where the features of nature are on
a small scale and the presence of man everywhere
visible, they appear never to have been able to
overcome early associations, or to reconcile them-
selves to the bush. Transplanted from an island,
182 RECOLLECTIONS OF
continental features affected them unpleasantly.
Forests which took weeks to traverse; plains, like
the Ocean, horizon bounded ; the vast length of
our rivers when compared to those of England,
often flowing immense distances without change
or tributary, now all but dry for hundreds of
miles, at other times flooding the countries on
their banks to the extent of inland seas, wearied
them more in the contemplation than by travel.
Then we know that our cloudless skies, the
mirage, the long-sustained high range of the
thermometer in the central portion of the con-
tinent, troubled them a good deal more than they
do us, and helped to make them look on the dark
side of things. Hence, as a rule, their reports
were unfavourable. If the reader has any doubt
on this head, let him read, as an instance, Sturt's
account of his detention at Depôt Glen, and then
remember that the locality described as so hor-
rible proved in time to be a very good sheep run,
differing in nothing from others around it; and
eventually was found to be a gold field, and got
extensively worked. The garb of romance with
which Sturt cloaked it, wore off. Hence, in
connection with early mis-judgment and de-
spondencies, the funny outcome has often
presented itself of persons buying in fee simple,
allotments on Mount Miseries at £2 or £4 an
acre, and of others determined, at all hazards, to
locate themselves for life, if possible, at some
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 183
Mount Desolation or place with an equally
objectionable name.
Referring particularly to Sturt's estimates of
country, the reader will be amused if he contrast
them with those of the Melbourne auctioneer of
1882, by finding now and then that a tract of
country which the explorer had passed over
during a day or two's march, and described as
little better than genuine desert, is now covered
with immense flocks of sheep in prime condition,
and is valued, with stock, at perhaps from
#50,000 to £100,000. In fact a great portion of
the land which Oxley and Sturt described as
useless is now worth, on an average, at least
twenty shillings per acre. But all explorers were
not constituted like Sturt and Oxley. Though a
far more desolate country fell to Eyre than to
any other explorer, country which, though bor-
dered by the sea and comparatively near at
hand, is still unoccupied, the Bayard of
Australian explorers never faltered. Even
three consecutive stages, each of one hun-
dred and fifty miles, without finding a drop
of water, were insufficient either to turn him
back or extract a sigh ; and it was not until
his only white companion was butchered by the
Blacks of his party, and he found himself in the
desert, with a single black boy for a mate, horses
drooping from thirst, the whereabouts of water
unknown, and provisions all but exhausted, that
184 RECOLLECTIONS OF
“some natural tears he shed ”—not for himself,
but for his lost companion, and then kept on his
way. As for Mitchell, Leichardt, and other
explorers, they had imbibed a good deal of the
knowledge and ideas of persons born and brought
up in the bush; and, instead of suffering from
despondent views, we find them, on the contrary,
with a fresh paradise to report at the end of each
exploration.
But to return from this digression. After the
aborigines and the wild dog (originally the meat
consumers of the continent) had been got rid of,
the animals on which they preyed increased
enormously in many localities. As regards the
kangaroo, indeed, matters became very serious.
On an average, these animals, it is thought, con-
sume as much grass as a sheep, and where a few
score had originally existed there soon came to be
a thousand ; so that, in some places, they threat-
ened to jostle the sheep and his master out of the
land; and, in consequence, energetic and costly
steps had to be taken to reduce their numbers.
As an instance of the proportions to which the
kangaroo plague attained in Victoria—not to
speak of Queensland, where the evil has become
much more serious—I may mention a property of
some 60,000 or 80,000 acres, on which ten
thousand of these animals were killed and skinned
annually for six consecutive years, their numbers
still remaining very formidable in the locality. In
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 185
other places, by means of long lines of fencing
and high yards, specially erected for the purpose,
as many as two thousand have sometimes been
destroyed in a single day. The opossum, also, in
the neighourhood of gardens and cultivation
paddocks became very troublesome in some parts.
As regards insect life, it still remains to be seen
what the result of our colonization may be, bearing
in mind that, of some sorts, Blacks and bush-fires
used to constantly destroy large numbers.
Turning to the vegetable kingdom, we find the
changes more marked than in the animal. As
regards the grasses for instance. In the greater
portion of Australia, indeed nearly all over it, the
grass originally grew in large tussocks, standing
from two to twenty feet apart, according to
circumstances. It bore no resemblance to a
sward, and when one drove over it in a dog-cart,
a succession of bumps was experienced from its
lumpy way of growing. Gradually, as the
tussocks got fed down by sheep and cattle, they
stooled out; and the seed got trampled into the
ground around them, and in the absence of bush
fires grew, so that presently a sward more or less
close resulted, such as we see at present. Con-
stant feeding has now cultivated this propensity,
and year by year the grass is more inclined to
stool. Originally also, in conjunction with a little
grass, large portions of the continent were covered
with salt-bush and pigs’-face. In places, as for
186 RECOLLECTIONS OF
instance around Mount Hope and the Terricks, in
Victoria, the salt-bushes occasionally attained
the height of twelve feet, standing twenty or
thirty feet apart ; in other localities a dwarf
variety of this plant prevailed, and grew so close
as almost to crowd out the grass entirely. With
this class of vegetation great changes have
occurred, and at Mount Hope (as in country
generally in which it grew), stocking has almost
entirely destroyed it. The pigs’-face, once general
in that country, has also disappeared, a luxuriant
growth of grass having taken its place. The same
may be said of cotton bush and other plants.
Then again, throughout the continent the most
nutritious grasses were originally the most com-
mon; but in consequence of constant over-stocking
and scourging the pastures, these, where not
eradicated, have very much decreased, their places
being taken by inferior sorts and weeds introduced
from Europe and Africa. Thus the capacity of
our pasturage has increased, whilst its quality has
decidedly been lowered. As regards our trees too,
it may be noticed that considerable tracts of
eucalyptus forest in Victoria have succumbed to
the attacks of parasitical insects, from whose
inroads, as far as I am aware, our forests do not
seem to have suffered prior to the arrival of the
white man.
In short, the state of this continent when we
took possession of it was, as regards flora and
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. I87
fauna, as well as the conditions of soil and water,
in the midst of which they existed, in many
important particulars attributable to the ways of
the people in whose hands we found it, as I shall
presently endeavour to show.
Of this primary state of things—if I may so
call it—the advent of the Englishman has been the
disturbing cause, and the changes which have
followed his coming are already distinguishable.
Passing over the importation of cereals and
weeds, a certain amount of ploughing, harrowing,
and draining, and also the destruction of a good
deal of forest as minor disturbances, we come to
the introduction of sheep, cattle, and horses from
Europe ; for this introduction has in effect con-
stituted the engine by which the Englishman has,
to some extent, insensibly modified a few of the
great features of nature in Australia. By their
means also, there is little doubt that much greater
changes will be brought about in the future,
Those to which the introduction of live stock
have led up to the present time are—an increase in
our water supply, alterations in our creeks and
rivers, and an increase in the productiveness of
the soil. These results have been brought about
in this way. By the trampling of stock the
ground has been hardened and drainage increased;
the beds of rivers, creeks, and lagoons by the
same means have also been rendered more imper-
vious to soakage, and their banks a little less
188 RECOLLECTIONS OF
precipitous, so that our watercourses are more
easily filled than they used to be, and retain water
longer; from the same cause floods are no doubt
rather more extensive and frequent than in the
past. As regards an increase in the productive-
ness of our soil, I have noticed not only that
crops now grow where formerly they would not,
and that grass is much more plentiful, but that
one begins of late to miss on our clayey plains
the calcined and barren appearance of thirty
years ago, the result no doubt of the grass being
fed off by stock, instead of being periodically
burnt, as it used to be.
As the state of this continent is gradually
undergoing some changes consequent on Our
introduction of the domestic animals of Europe,
so, as I have already said, it seems to me that its
condition, when we took possession of it, was
largely attributable to the customs of its abori-
ginal inhabitants. Small in numbers—a few
hundred thousands — their existence, at first
glance, would seem to have been most incon-
sequential. Mere hunters, who absolutely
cultivated nothing—the spear, the net, and the
tomahawk—could have produced no appreciable
effect on the natural products of a large continent.
Nor did they ; but there was another instrument
in the hands of these savages which must be
credited with results which it would be difficult
to over-estimate. I refer to the fire-stick; for
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 189
the blackfellow was constantly setting fire to the
grass and trees, both accidentally, and systemati-
cally for hunting purposes. Living principally
on wild roots and animals, he tilled his land and
cultivated his pastures with fire ; and we shall not,
perhaps, be far from the truth if we conclude that
almost every part of New Holland was swept
over by a fierce fire, on an average, once in every
five years. That such constant and extensive
conflagrations could have occurred without some-
thing more than temporary consequences seems
impossible, and I am disposed to attribute to them
many important features of Nature here ; for
instance, the baked, calcined, indurated condition
of the ground so common to many parts of the
continent, the remarkable absence of mould which
should have resulted from the accumulation of
decayed vegetation, the comparative unproduc-
tiveness of our soils, the character of our
vegetation and its scantiness, the retention
within bounds of insect life (notably of the locust,
grasshopper, caterpillar, ant and moth), a most
important function, and the comparative scarcity
of insectivorous birds and birds of prey. They
must also have had an influence on the thermo-
metrical range, and probably affected the rainfall
and atmospheric and electrical conditions.
When these circumstances are weighed, it may
perhaps be doubted whether any section of the
human race has exercised a greater influence on
I90 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the physical condition of any large portion of the
globe than the wandering savages of Australia.
Referring once more to the deterioration of our
pastures in respect to quality, it is to be remarked
as a consequence that our horses of to-day,
though on the average decidedly superior in
appearance and breeding to those of forty years
back, have not the same stamina. In cattle and
sheep a falling off of the sort is not so readily
detected, though it probably exists. In both
cases, however, the periodical scarcity of fodder,
as compared with the abundance of the past must
in fairness be taken into the reckoning.
CHAPTER XVIII.
A VISIT TO THE MOIRA. IN COMPANY WITH
THE POLICE. *.
AFTER the return of my brother and myself from
the Moira, we set to work to make preparations
for occupying a block of country in that locality.
Whilst so engaged, however, the solitude of
Tongala was broken in upon by the arrival of
several troopers, headed by the officer in charge
of the native mounted police. The detachment,
rather a larger one than usual, consisted, besides
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 19]
the officer, of four black and four white troopers.
Such a visitation from the Outer world, as a
matter of course, somewhat fluttered us Volscians
in Corioli. The station hands all turned out to
gaze on the strange men and horses, as if such a
sight had never met their eyes before, and
bestowed on the removal of cloaks, unslinging of
carbines, watering of chargers, &c., their un-
divided attention ; whilst the uniformity practised
in such matters by the troopers, and their
systematic clock-work-like mode of managing
matters which civilians are apt to look on as
trifles, did not fail to elicit, Sotto voce, uncompli-
mentary remarks from some of my men, to whom
such methodical ways brought back unpleasant
reminiscences of prison days. The officer, who
accompanied me to my hut after he had seen his
men disposed of, carelessly unbuckled his sabre
and pitched it and his foraging cap on to the
sofa, and taking a chair, amused me a good deal
as he rattled out, in the most dégagé manner, that
he had received instructions “to put himself at
the head of his present force, apprehend all
troublesome Blacks, and restore quiet to the
disaffected district; that a reinforcement in the
person of Corporal Rolfe, a non-commissioned
officer in whom he placed the greatest confidence,
was momentarily expected; that his fellows were
all of the right sort, specially trained indeed by
himself; and that the service was thoroughly to
192 RECOLLECTIONS OF
his liking, however he might otherwise regret his
temporary absence from Melbourne and the
ladies.”
The effect of this unexpected gush was not a
little heightened by the jaunty ways of my
guest, who, having got rid of his buckskin
gloves, and propitiated his moustache with some
little caresses, sauntered up and down the room
in all the fascinations of a preternaturally erect
carriage, shell-jacket, fixed spurs, and red
stripes down the side seams of his breeches. In
fact the tout ensemble of the thing tickled my
fancy so much, occurring in the midst of
monotonous days, that I have not yet forgotten
it.
Another of the little peculiarities of my guest
(a pleasant and genial person), and one which I
found exceedingly comical, was his habitual use
of military phraseology; so that shepherds' huts
and places of the sort figured as positions in his
conversation, men riding abreast were said to be
in line; a camp in the bush took rank as a
bivouac, and so on. In addition it was charming
also to notice on a short acquaintance, not only
that the estimate in which this warrior (long
since, poor fellow, a pilgrim to the happy hunting
grounds) held civilians was, in the main, a low one ;
but that, unknown to himself probably, he looked
on them as a very unimportant portion of the
community, whose raison d'être might have been
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 193
the erection of towns in which the military in
times of peace might enjoy the usual agréments
of society, of which the daughters of civilians to
flirt with formed a prominent feature; whilst, of
course, in times of war, such places would be
put to their proper purposes, and be defended,
battered, and sacked in the orthodox way—as we
always read in history.
To pass on, however, to the cause of what, in
compliment to the manes of my military friend,
let us call this armed intervention at Tongala.
A few weeks previously, a shepherd of an alto-
gether unwarlike spirit was tending a flock of
weaned lambs on the trans-Murray portion of our
run, the right to depasture which, the reader
may remember, had been granted by the wrong
Commissioner of Crown Lands on the occasion
of his visit to Tongala. Whilst seated on a fallen
tree in true Arcadian style, sub tegmine Eucalypti,
watching his woolly charge crop the tender
herbage, or rather “’eving a smoke,” as he himself
related, his cogitations were suddenly disturbed
by a loud “Waugh '" and a blackfellow tapping
him on the shoulder. The intruder, it appears,
was naked, in full war-paint, and armed with
spear and waddy. What the original intentions of
this child of nature were on the occasion it would
be difficult to determine, though possibly the
circumstances, duly weighed, might lead persons
used to such cattle to the inference that they
14
194 TECOLLECTIONS OF
were to knock out the brains of our Australian
Corydon. But, at all events, from some cause or
other the gentle savage did not proceed to such
extremities, as it appears that he only asked in a
quiet way for some tobacco; and the shepherd
gave him some, with which, and the carbine,
which was lying against a tree at hand, he
hurriedly decamped.
The shepherd being thus disarmed, about
seventy Blacks issued from a neighbouring scrub,
where they had lain concealed, and each speared
and carried off a sheep; the abstracted carbine
being finally laid down for the shepherd to take
possession of The whole proceeding was very
Original, no doubt, and in the minds of the Blacks,
I suspect, there lurked an idea that the restora-
tion of the carbine would be held partially to
excuse the abstraction of the sheep; probably a
trivial matter in their estimation, as no doubt it
would appear to them that we white men had far
more live mutton than we were able to make use
of. The shepherd, in the meantime, a good deal
flustered, drove his sheep to the yards, and
informed his hutkeeper of what had occurred,
whilst no doubt the Blacks proceeded, with the
ladies and children of their establishments, to cook
mutton chops on a large scale. As, moreover, the
Murray's wide stream intervened between the
shepherd and Tongala, my brother did not hear of
what had happened for some days, by which time,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 195
of course, our mutton-loving children of nature
had made a pretty long trail.
This rather costly déjeuner & la fourchette, in
which my father had compulsorily played the part
of absentee host, was followed, as it happened, a
few days subsequently, by the arrival of two
troopers making the usual patrol, a circumstance
which my brother thought particularly fortunate.
They belonged to the border police, a body quite
au fait at preserving order in the bush ; and the
first act of its representatives on this occasion,
when they learnt what had occurred, was to seize
a solitary blackfellow who happened to be at
Tongala, and secure him with a bullock-chain, one
end of which was padlocked round his ankle, and
the other passed through the slabs of the kitchen
and made fast within. Next morning these two
trooping worthies, with their détenu as a guide,
set off in search of the Blacks, for the purpose of
“setting them right.” It so happened, however,
that when they got within a hundred yards of the
Murray, their prisoner, who well knew what was
in store for his tribe should he discover their
retreat, made a bolt for the stream, when one of
the troopers galloped after him, and, before he
could reach the water, shot him down. The poor
savage, I heard, dropped at once mortally wounded,
close to the river bank; looked up at his slayers,
and, drawing his opossum-rug round him, died
shortly afterwards without a word or a groan.
196 RECOLLECTIONS OF
The troopers then went on and continued the
search for some short time, which, proving in-
effectual, they returned to the corpse, which was
now cold and stiff. The friends of the deceased
never exactly knew, I believe, what had become
of him, for the troopers placed the body in a canoe
which happened to be at hand, which, pushed
into the current, conveyed its ghastly freight
down the stream. Who knows what conjectures
perchance occurred to distant tribes as they saw
drifting through their ancient domain this victim
of the white man : I always regretted this
catastrophe.
This proceeding of the police, however, it was
hoped would put an end to further aggressions
of the sort, when, unfortunately, a hundred and
twenty lambs were allowed by another shepherd
to wander off unperceived from his flock. After
straying some distance, this mob was observed by
a party of Blacks, who, unable to withstand the
temptation of fat meat & discrètion, drove the
lambs to a secluded spot, where they killed and
ate them. A large number, I afterwards heard
from the Blacks themselves, were killed and
roasted at once, whilst they broke the fore legs of
the rest to prevent them straying, a message
being sent to the absent part of the tribe
“bidding them to the feast.” In due time they
arrived, to the number of a hundred or so, and
ate up the lot in three days. Such feasting and
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 197
greasing of heads had never probably been known
in the history of the Bangerang, and no doubt
the tribe was merry and witty at the expense of
the “white-pella.” This further outrage on the
part of our sable neighbours being discovered a
few days after its occurrence, was reported to the
authorities in Melbourne, and hence the present
appearance of the police on the war-path at
Tongala.
As the Blacks, who were now to be taught
manners, would probably be found at the Moira,
on the bank of the Murray, across which they
would certainly swim on the first appearance of
the police, it was agreed that the sheep and dray
which I was despatching to the Moira should be
sent on ahead and halted at some distance from
the river, the tribe being decoyed to the encamp-
ment, so that the white troopers might be enabled
to close with them away from the water. As
regards the black portion of the “force " it was
decided by the officer, for various urgent reasons,
that it should be left at Tongala. This reduction
of his forces, I noticed, seemed to prey a good
deal on the military mind of the leader (a man
of well-known pluck, however), and produced an
uneasiness which even the timely arrival of
Corporal Rolfe did not entirely remove. Why it
should have been so I never could exactly under-
stand. Danger (except to the enemy) there
could be little or none, the result being substan-
198 RECOLLECTIONS OF
tially the same, in respect to fire-arms, whether
they be opposed to spears or pop-guns.
Measures having been thus concerted, a flock
of sheep in charge of several men, and accom-
panied by a dray and bullocks, was despatched
to the Moira with the requisites for forming an
out-station, the time of its arrival being so
arranged as to be shortly antecedent to that of
the police. This “combined movement,” as the
officer pointed out to me afterwards with some
satisfaction, was managed more successfully than
sometimes happens in war on a larger scale;
for shortly before the police “debouched ” from
the timber which skirted the proposed scene of
action, the other party had arrived in the proper
quarter, and, as could be seen, had gathered
round them the Blacks, whom it was so desir-
able to entice from the vicinity of the river and
the reed-beds. The result of this was an imme-
diate charge on the part of the troopers; a
movement executed, as it seemed to my inex-
perienced eye, with more élan than regularity.
Being myself with the party, and armed with
sword and pistols, I received a friendly hint
from the officer, before charging, to abstain from
the use of weapons unless called upon by him
to act; an injunction which, being of a peaceful
tendency, was quite in accordance with my feel-
ings. And here I regret, for the reader's sake,
that I am unable to describe the evolutions which
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 199
ensued, for though I have a perfect recollection
of what occurred, I am destitute of the know-
ledge necessary to enable me to set down the
circumstances in the proper relations of cause
and effect, as the officer did in a report (bul-
letin () on the subject, which he read to me
prior to forwarding it to the authorities. That
there were, however, some points concerning the
matter in which we did not completely agree,
truth requires me to confess, as he omitted some
incidents which I thought should have been
mentioned. On my hinting something to that
effect, however, he laughed good-humouredly,
saying, that “persons unconnected with the
public service know nothing of reports; indeed
civilians from first to last are ill fitted to
describe collisions of the sort, being apt to blurt
out statements more properly held in reserve,”
which it has since occurred to me might prob-
ably be the case. -
However, lo cierto e, that one of the police
horses bolted at the outset and carried his rider
almost out of sight, whilst another trooper, lodged
by his charger in the fork of a tree, very provi-
dentially escaped getting his neck broken, the
chargers generally being, as the officer stated in
his report, “somewhat unsteady.” The Blacks in
the meantime passed through or round our “line”.
and fled to the river, followed by the remaining
horsemen, no shots having been fired so far, or
200 RECOLLECTIONS OF
spears thrown; when, as the last aboriginal was
in the very act of leaping from the bank into his
native stream, someone at hand, not connected
with the “force,” on being called upon by the
officer, discharged two barrels, putting one ball
through the fugitive's arm, and the other through
an old cap which he had on. This proceeding, how-
ever, appears to have been irregular in some way,
as it found no place in the bulletin. At this
juncture, I recollect, the officer, who was leisurely
scanning the opposite bank of the river, across
which he had driven the enemy in such masterly
style, received a slight wound in his sword arm
from a spear hurled by a blackfellow from the
opposite side. “Hit at last !” was his laughing
exclamation, as he handed me a white handker-
chief, the corner of which I had noticed peeping
from the pocket of his shell-jacket, to bind up
what he termed the “scratch.”
The Blacks having retreated across the Murray,
and the troopers being assembled again round
their leader, that indefatigable officer, after a few
moments spent in reviewing the battle-field, turned
his attention towards my sheep camp in quest of
stragglers. Fortunately one blackfellow still
remained there, who, having been promised the
head of a sheep, which was being butchered for
supper, waited quietly for the expected prize, in
spite of the firing and galloping which had been
going on. This unfortunate was accordingly
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 20I
seized by our party and at once placed in hand-
cuffs, which, being found too large for his hands,
were transferred, at the suggestion of Corporal
Rolfe, to his ankles. Thus secured, whilst the
force refreshed itself with tea and damper, I could
not behold this poor savage without pity. Left to
himself with his manacles on, his first idea was to
run; this, of course, he found to be impossible, and
nearly fell in making the attempt, so he stooped
down hurriedly and made a desperate effort with
his hands to burst the shining little links which
held him. Whilst doing so, I noticed he cast a
hurried glance at us, seemingly of wonder that no
one moved to prevent his escape, for as yet he
had not realized the fact that the little bright
bands would perform that service unaided. Then
he made another trial to run, and another great
final effort to break the links, when his real
position burst on him for the first time. He now
knew that he was a captive, a thing without a
name in his language. For a moment there was
a look between terror and despair, when the
savage, with heaving chest and inflated nostril,
turned his face towards where, half-a-mile off,
stood the mia-mias of his tribe, and gave utterance
to a long wild cry for assistance. But his yell
was unanswered, and no doubt he considered his
fate fixed beyond the possibility of hope.
The name of our prisoner was Warri. His
wife, who was present at his capture, was allowed
202 RECOLLECTIONS OF
to escape unmolested, and when dinner was over
we set out for Tongala, the troopers securing
their captive by a rope, one end of which was
round his neck and the other made fast to a
trooper's horse. Once secured, and the hope of
escape gone, the prisoner accepted his fate in a
manly enough way, and marched stoutly along
with his captors, so that we reached Tongala
without accident. As Warri and I were well
acquainted, we had several conversations during
the two or three days the police remained at the
station, he making frequent inquiries of me as to
why he had been captured and what was to be
done with him. During this time, as escape was
impossible with the handcuffs round his ankles,
he was allowed to wander from one hut to
another during the daytime pretty much as he
liked, the police of course having an eye to him,
his style of progression under the circumstances
being wonderfully grotesque. Though suffering
somewhat from anxiety and uncertainty, how-
ever, poor Warri struggled manfully to keep
up his spirits. Indeed, he smoked and yarned,
and begged for tea and sugar, as if he had a
century to live. Sometimes, too, he would come
and seat himself before the door of my hut,
when little dialogues like the following would
ensue —
Warri.—“Well, massa ”
A.—“Well Warri, my boy, sit down.”
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 203.
W.—“Give me smoke 2 (I gave him some
tobacco). Where police take me now 7"
A.—“I believe to Melbourne.” -
W.—“Melbourne, eh? What will the white-
fellows in Melbourne do to me !”
A.—“Well can't say. I don't know.”
W.—“I believe they’ll hang me—eh 2"
A.—“I believe so.”
W.—“Well ! (with a loud cluck) well why
are you stupid : Why do you get your own
blackfellows hung 2"
A.—“Well ! why do the Blacks eat up my
sheep 4"
W.—“Stupid Stupid Blackfellow.”
Warri would then hobble off in the most
comical way, with shortened stride, his pipe in
his mouth, to seek sympathy elsewhere. My
object in frightening the poor fellow was, of
course, to impress on him thoroughly, and even-
tually through him on his tribe, the disagreeable
consequences of sheep-stealing.
In due time Warri, in charge of a couple of
troopers, was hoisted on top of a loaded wool-dray,
which I was despatching to Melbourne, my men
indulging in a good deal of coarse jeering on the
occasion, the poor fellow's face looking blacker
than ever. Probably he had little hopes of again
seeing his native woods or his tribe, his idea
being, I fancy, that he was to be executed in
public for the special delectation of the Governor
204 RECOLLECTIONS OF
and white people of Melbourne. On his arrival
in town, he was committed in due form by the
Police Magistrate to take his trial for sheep-
stealing, which, however, was brought abruptly to
an end by Judge Willis (who then occupied the
bench) declining to allow the trial to proceed
until an interpreter could be found, on the ground
that the prisoner was unable to understand the
proceedings, or cross-question the witnesses. The
expression of the prisoner's face whilst this point
was being discussed was certainly strongly corro-
borative of the judge's view, as he answered none
of the questions put to him, the only matter
which appeared to arrest his attention being the
barristers' wigs, which seemed to puzzle him a
good deal. What he expected, I believe, was to
see a strong man make a rope fast to one of
the beams overhead, from which he was to be
suspended before the judge, whom he no doubt
took for the Governor.
Seeing that nothing was done, and that Warri
had become a law-point incarnate, and was neither
to be tried nor set at liberty, I lost all interest in
the matter and returned to Tongala. Being in Mel-
bourne again, however, some three months later, I
visited the prisoner in his cell, and found him in
bad spirits and ill-health. He was delighted to
see me. Indeed, though he had assisted to
devour my father's sheep, and I had got him
imprisoned in return, a sort of friendly feeling
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 205.
had always existed between us, as for my part I
never could view either him or his countrymen,
on such occasions, as worse than naughty chil-
dren, who should have been well flogged and
locked up for a month. So, as I pitied the poor
fellow, thought he had been punished enough,
and was of opinion that his return to Tongala
would add to the security of property there, I
bestirred myself to get him released. After some
little delay this course was determined upon by
the authorities, who, I fancy, hardly knew what to
do with the prisoner. Upon learning that this
decision had been arrived at, I visited Warri
once more in his cell, and, after a little delicate
badinage on the subject of hanging, informed him
that he was to be set free ; and at my suggestion,
to prevent the Melbourne Blacks from killing
him, that he would the next day after dark be
driven in a spring-cart well outside the limits of
the town, and there be set at liberty. Poor Warri
stared at me with all his eyes, and was some time
before he could believe that I was in earnest, and
that his difficulties were to come to so pleasing an
end ; and it was only after I had shown him a
blanket, tomahawk, and small supply of food,
which I had brought for him, that he allowed
himself to believe that what I said was the fact.
When I returned to Tongala, a fortnight later,
I found Warri and his lubra (wife), Mirandola,
already there, and had from him a long account
206 FECOLLECTIONS OF
of his adventures on the road up, and of how he
passed through the country of some hostile tribes.
Ever after he and I were the best of friends, as
he ascribed his release entirely to me; whilst the
sage Bangerang, who firmly believed that unnum-
bered police troopers and officers in shell-jackets
would be sent to the Moira to punish any undue
indulgence in mutton on their part, became hence-
forth quite reclaimed characters.
CHAPTER, XIX.
A SUMMIONS.
SHORTLY after Warri's release, I gave over Steele's
Creek station to one of my brothers to manage,
and again took charge of Tongala. In those jolly
days du temps jadis, most things in the colony, as
the reader is aware, were in rather a primitive
state. Amongst other conveniences, common in
civilized lands, with which we were all but unpro-
vided, was a postal service. In such matters it
was our stone period. The stage-coach or Cobb
and Co. era had not yet arrived; indeed, even
its fore-runner, the postal tax-cart, with a pair
of horses yoked out-rigger fashion, had not yet
commenced to jolt over the crab-holes at the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 207
regulation pace of seven miles an hour, so that
persons requiring to send a letter, or go to any
place, had to find their own messenger or means
of transit. As a consequence, all the principal
roads were much frequented by horsemen, either
going to Melbourne or returning to their stations,
or to country business of some sort ; and as people
were glad to beguile the otherwise lonely road
with conversation, like some of Sir Walter Scott's
heroes, they were not generally over fastidious
with respect to the temporary acquaintances made
on the way. Indeed, there was a novelty in such
haphazard companionships which lent them a
certain zest. Of course there were exceptional
individuals, to whom the onus of venturing into
conversation with an unintroduced person was a
responsibility too grave to be incurred.
Men of this sort, it was remarked, usually sailed
by at a canter on the opposite side of the road,
with averted eyes, on discovering that the person
overtaken was not one of those who enjoyed the
advantage of their acquaintance. As horses were
scarce, and dear also, it was not unusual to
despatch important letters, law notices, &c., by
messengers on foot, engaged for the trip. On
one occasion my serenity at Tongala was disturbed
by the advent of a pedestrian of this class, who
put into my hands a legal notice, which made me
conversant with the facts that Messrs. A. B. C.
and Co. had filed their schedule, and that it
208 RECOLLECTIONS OF
appeared I was indebted to them to the amount
of about £300, for which, if I remember right, I
was to be held liable if I failed to reach Melbourne
before a certain specified day. From the firm in
question, I may remark, my father had usually
obtained his station supplies up to that time ; and
though, strictly speaking, I had nothing to do
with the matter, the station account being merely
by arrangement kept in my name so that it might
be distinct from another account which my father
had with the same firm (on which it appeared
that it was indebted to him some £500), I was
nevertheless a good deal startled by the receipt
of the half-printed, half-written notification in
question; the more so when I discovered that
only three days of the term allowed for my
putting in an appearance remained unexpired.
My perturbation arose, no doubt, from my ignor-
ance of courts, as well as from impressions I had
received concerning them on the occasion of
Warri's appearance before Judge Willis. My
idea, however, of the law and its limbs was of
little moment. The matter on hand was, that
there were a hundred and fifty miles between
Tongala and town, which I had to get over in
three days. This could have been accomplished
comfortably enough, had it not been that a week
or two before I had turned all my horses into the
bush to get fat, with the exception of a well-bred
stripling, recently broken, which I had in the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 209
paddock. After breakfast I saddled this animal
and proceeded to look up the mob ; but though I
continued the search all day, visiting every spot
at which I thought them likely to be, I was
unable to fall in either with the animals or their
recent tracks. This was annoying; but as they
had evidently left their usual haunts, and it
might take some days to find them, I thought it
best to start next morning for town, and trust to
fortune to get a fresh mount at some station on
the road.
In consequence of the day wasted, the 150
miles, or thereabouts, had to be done in two
days, and long before daylight I was on the
colt. The poor brute, I remember, was in low
condition, suffering from lampas, tucked up with
the previous day's ride, and altogether in sorry
plight. However, by patiently husbanding his
strength, giving him time, and leading him a
great part of the way, I succeeded in getting
him over some forty miles by about two o'clock,
at which hour I reached Cooma, or Ardpatrick,
the first station at which I had any hopes of
being able to borrow something better calculated
to carry me. The owner of the station—who,
fortunately, was at home—had, as I was aware,
only one mag, a little black mare, which held a
foremost place in his affections, and which he
used to speak of as the “wee bit beastie.” This
he kindly lent me—not, however, I fancy, without
15
210 RECOLLECTIONS OF
some qualms, as he cautioned me not to override
her. At starting I pressed him to use my colt,
which would have recovered from his fatigue in a
day or two. Riding away from the door, I did
not feel very sanguine of reaching town within
the specified time, as little more than twenty
hours remained to accomplish the hundred and
odd miles which had still to be done. However,
on getting fairly away, I found the “wee bit
beastie,” at all events, was right enough for her
share of the business, which was to get over some
forty miles in three hours, as it was indispensable
that I should reach Baileston, the next station
at which I might hope for a fresh mount, with
daylight enough left to get up the horses.
The pace which I required to go to effect
this would not, I was aware, have quite found
favour in the eyes of the owner of the
mare, but I felt myself excused by recollect-
ing that my case was urgent ; that the gallop
would in all probability do her no harm; and
that, in the event of anything going wrong, I
could pay for her. The animal, I remember, was
a six-year-old, of Valparaiso blood for the most
part, standing fourteen hands and a half high,
with muscular legs, short pasterns, round barrel,
straight shoulders, head like a soap-box, un-
pleasant to sit, slow, and of villainous action, but
withal used to work, in fair condition, fresh, very
stuffy, and as sound as a bell.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 21]
With a nag of such a description, the reader
will easily understand that my second stage, if an
improvement on the first, was not altogether a
luxury; but, at all events, I was not long over it,
as, with attention to pace, and the exercise of a
little judgment, I not only got through the forty
miles pretty well at a hand-gallop, reaching
Baileston before sundown, but landed the mare
“comparatively fresh,” as the jockeys have it.
This was so far so good ; and when, on my road
back, I restored the mare to her owner, none the
worse for her trip, with some encomiastic remarks
I thought myself bound to tell him of the spirt
we had gone on the road down, I was much
amused to notice his conflicting sensations on the
occasion; some displeasure at the mare having
been made to go faster than a jog-trot—his own
accustomed pace—and pride in what he thought
the “beastie’s” grand performance. However,
the latter feeling prevailed eventually, and
he passed the matter off with a sort of good-
humoured growl, declaring that I was “ane o'
they tearing chiels wha's gate O’ ganging wad
fairly brak doon a steam-engine; though, nae
doubt, the beastie wad hae galloped on to Mel-
bourne itself if necessary.”
The circumstances under which I dropped on
my neighbour on this occasion of my returning
the mare were, I remember, highly characteristic
of the man, who, it may as well be said, was no
212 RECOLLECTIONS OF
other than the rough diamond before spoken of,
who, but for “Prince Chairlie,” would have been
Lord Oliphant. On riding up to the door and
asking for him, I was informed by the hut-keeper,
who was kneading a damper on the dinner table,
that “he was inside,” and to “walk in.” So I
walked “inside,” and into what proved to be the
bedroom. Coming out of the bright sunlight, I
could not, for the moment, distinguish objects
very well; but when I did, it was to find my
friend in bed, leaning on his elbow, smoking, and
gazing into space, his face a little flushed and
delicate-looking. For an instant he did not
notice me, but when he did he exclaimed slowly,
“Aye! it's a gran’ book that Puckwuck I" From
the surroundings it was clear that he had spent
the day in bed reading.
But to return to my ride. At Baileston, as I
have said, I expected to be able to borrow a fresh
horse should I be so fortunate as to find the
owner of the station at home, so that I was par-
ticularly pleased, not only to meet him at his door,
but, after the usual greetings, to learn that my
favourite chestnut mare had been found on his
run, evidently on her way back to the Devil's
River, where she was bred, and was safe in his
horse-paddock close at hand. This, of course,
partly explained how it was that I had been
unable to find my horses at Tongala.
After thanking my neighbour for his kindness
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 213
in taking care of my mare, I explained to him that
I was on urgent business and unable to accept his
invitation to stop the night, so he directed the
chestnut to be got up. In the meantime we sat
down to dinner, which over, I lit my pipe,
shook hands with my friend, and got into the
saddle. My horse-riding reader will understand
the relief I felt in a fresh mount, especially as
instead of the rolling gait, stubby action, beer-
barrel-shaped back and short neck of the
“beastie,” the exchange brought straight-step-
ping, strong, springy legs, elastic pasterns, long
sloping shoulders, good middle piece, a light
mouth, and plenty of rein. What with the
change of horses and dinner together, I remem-
ber even now the sense of comfort which came
Over me as I rode away from the door. As
regards the seventy or eighty miles which
remained to be done, they might now have been
got over by sunrise, if necessary, but for a
circumstance which made it desirable that the
mare should not, if it could be avoided, be ridden
too fast or too far. This, however, was of no
moment, as by diverging a few miles from the
road I should be able to get a fresh mount from
my brother at Steele's Creek, which was about
midway between Baileston and Melbourne.
The consequence was that I rode on leisurely
through the night, as Steele's Creek lay off the
road and was difficult to find in the dark. Not-
214 RECOLLECTIONS OF
withstanding the pleasant style in which the mare
carried me, however, the hours seemed long and
tedious, as young people cannot well keep their
eyes open all night. A sharp frost, too, increased
the sense of drowsiness, and I thought once or
twice of throwing myself on the ground and
taking a nap, which I was only restrained from
doing by the reflection that I might probably
sleep too long, or the mare give me the slip. So,
to keep myself awake I took to singing, listening
to the cries of the night birds and flying squir-
rels, and looking for Opossums, whose pricked
ears and furry tails one could see now and then
amongst the leaves of the box trees.
In this way I managed to keep awake ; but I
have often thought since, what different thoughts
would have occupied me that night could I have
foreseen what was about to occur in the colony.
That the very insolvency which was then hurrying
me to town—that of the then leading mercantile
firm in Melbourne—was the first of a long series
shortly to follow, which were to end in a general
crash; that the results of the extravagance of the
colonists as a body were at hand; that the general
bottled beer and champagne bill of the community
was about to be settled; that in clearing off the
score a very wide-spread ruin would result, so that
properties which had cost thousands not long
since, would shortly be sold at auction for a few
hundreds; that sheep, two or three years back
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 215.
worth 30s. to 40s. a head, would be sold at 1s. per
head ; and that such sales would occur when the
animals absolutely had one and sixpence worth of
wool on their backs. That of such mares as I was
then riding (for which I remember I had paid
nearly £40) it would take the selling value of one,
if not two, to realize the invoice price of a common
saddle; and that this state of things would continue
until Mr. O'Brien, of Yass, should make the happy
discovery that a fat sheep might be melted down
so as to be made to yield tallow to the value of
6s. or 8s. in the London market, by which means
stability would be given to the great industry of
the colony. But, like others, reflections of the
sort did not disturb me then, so I pushed on in
a drowsy manner to Steele's Creek, and there
exchanged my pleasant mare for a disagreeable, fat,
short-backed, short-winded, under-bred cob, whom
I coaxed into Melbourne, with a liberal allowance
of spur, by about nine o'clock, having been the
best part of thirty hours in the saddle. The habit
of constant saddle-work prevented me, however,
from feeling fatigued with my ride, so that, after
seeing the lawyers with my father, I passed the
rest of the day in town in the usual way. Indeed,
I used to say about that time, and later, that with
relays of good horses it would be possible enough
to ride five hundred miles at a sitting.
216 RECOLLECTIONS OF
CHAPTER XX.
CORAGORAG.
THE country of the lower Goulburn is to the eye
an almost perfect level, broken here and there by
sand-hills, which in some cases attain a height of
fifty or sixty feet, varying in extent from an
isolated hillock to continuous ridges three hun-
dred yards wide, and several miles in length.
How they came there I never could make out,
but they always struck me as a singular feature,
not unlike the sand-hummocks of the sea-shore.
With the exception of the sand-hills, the soil
which prevails is to a considerable depth a stiff
clay with an admixture of sand.
On one occasion, whilst strolling near the
banks of the river, my brother noticed a large
log of wood which hung in the fork of a tree
some six feet from the ground. The position of
this log caused us, I remember, a good deal
of surprise; was sometimes a subject of con-
versation, and was examined by us more than
once. The log was old and charred by fire, and
must have weighed two or three tons. The
indentation which it had made on the bark of
the tree showed that it must have hung where
we saw it for several years. That it had never
formed a part of the tree in which it lay was
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 217
evident; so that the question was, as with the
apple in the dumpling, how it got into the posi-
tion it then occupied. That it had not been
placed there by human hands was certain, and
yet how else could it have got there : On talk-
ing to our sable friends, the Bangerang, about it,
they said at once that the log had been floated by
the flood waters of the river, and so left sus-
pended where we saw it. As this explanation,
however, in a neighbourhood such as I have
described, pointed to the inundation of a large
tract of flat, and, just then, arid country, which
to our inexperience seemed unlikely, we set down
the matter of the suspended log as akin to that
of Mahomet's coffin, and entirely beyond our
comprehension. A solution of the puzzle came,
however, and that before long, for the winter of
I think–1843 was so unusually rainy that the
greater portion of our (entre rios) run became
inundated, much of it to the depth of several
feet.
This altogether new aspect of affairs resulted
from the overflow of the rivers Goulburn and
Murray, and fully explained, amongst other
things which had caused us some surprise, how
our log came to be suspended in the fork of the
tree. The consequences of the flood were, of
course, unpleasant, for it circumscribed our
pasture, and rendered the management of our
flocks difficult and inconvenient ; added to which,
218 BECOLLECTIONS OF
the ground became boggy, and the use of horses
out of the question, so that my brother and myself
had not only to visit our out-stations on foot—a
matter of some hardship to persons who had
pretty well given up walking for the saddle—but
frequently to carry out the shepherds' rations on
our shoulders. When Blacks could be had, of
course we availed ourselves of their services; but
when such was not the case, there remained no
alternative but to do the pack-horse business our-
selves. The number of men at an out-station
being three, their weekly rations of flour, tea, and
sugar weighed about forty pounds, which, on such
occasions, we used to carry in two flour-bags, of
which we each took one. The ground being
boggy, and, here and there, knee-deep with water
for a mile or two together, our march of ten or
fifteen miles was, of course, a fatiguing one.
Very nearly at the start, I remember, we had to
face a mileor more of continuous water, from
ankle to thigh-deep, which extended through the
forest—with the exception of the Towro sand-
hill—as far as the eye could see in every direc-
tion. Across this space, the road or track
being quite obliterated, we had to plod our
way amidst grass, sticks, and crab-holes, sink-
ing at times deep in the mud. And yet I
recollect, though the labour of travelling, encum-
bered as we were, was considerable, that for a
short time, whilst the novelty of the thing lasted,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 219,
the numerous ducks and waders, busy on what
had been dry land, and the green trees and
flowery sand-hill reflected in the watery mirror,
was a sight which gave me pleasure.
Besides these flooded flats, we had also four or
five creeks to cross, which were cold enough at
that season. These we used to swim, with the
few clothes we had on, and the rations rolled in
bundles on our heads, a proceeding which rendered
the former somewhat damp, and did not improve
the other, though flour is not so easily damaged
in this way as one would expect. Occasionally,
however, at the wider creeks we stripped a bark
canoe large enough to carry the impedimenta,
which one of us pushed before him as he swam.
On our return we had to bring meat for our table
in the same way, so that our goings and comings
on these occasions were laborious enough, not to
speak of the undesirability of a dozen baths or so
on a winter's day. After some weeks, however,
we became so disgusted with this sort of work,
especially as the flocks began to show the ill-
effects of short-commons, that I determined to
look out for country in the neighbourhood more
suitable for winter, and to apply to the Com-
missioner for an extension of run, reserving that
between the rivers for summer feeding. With
this object I saddled my chestnut mare one
morning in August, strapping on an opossum-rug,
in which were rolled up some mutton and damper,
220 RECOLT,ECTIONS OF
and a little tea and sugar (the bushman's usual
fare in those days), and started to examine the
plains which I had traversed in my several
journeys between Wolfscrag and Tongala. This
tract of undulating and sparsely-timbered country
extends from Yellamigoloro, six or eight miles
South of Colbinabbin, to Echuca, a distance of
about forty miles, and was, as the reader is aware,
at that time entirely unoccupied. Heretofore I
had only known it as a waterless land, and con-
sequently no better than a desert for squatting
purposes, though well grassed and handsome; but
on this occasion the difficulty was—not to get a
drink, but to find dry land enough for the sheep.
However, after a day spent in reaching and
examining the country, in the course of which
I must have passed close to Conneilla Creek
without seeing it, I fixed upon that portion of
the plains which was known to the Blacks as
Coragorag, as best suited to my purpose, in
which locality I found a good-sized patch of
timber and several sound, well-grassed ridges, with
swamps only here and there in the intermediate
spaces. A propos of the name Coragorag, I may
remark that the aboriginal nomenclature of the
colony was much more minute than one would
suppose from what has been preserved of it, so
that even spots possessing little of a noticeable
character had their distinguishing appellations.
In some neighbourhoods a few of the aboriginal
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 221
names, which are frequently very euphonious,
have been retained by the whites, though
generally in a mutilated condition, as we
usually leave out a syllable or two, accentuate
incorrectly, and otherwise travesty them. In the
sister colony of New South Wales aboriginal
names are very common, and a few of our early
settlers named Victorian runs after those which
they had originally occupied in the former colony.
The principal natural features round Coragorag
(a sonorous appellation in the mouth of the
Pinpandoor, which has now dwindled into Crag-
crag) bore the names of Tai-mer-ing, Ariogo-
barning, Ullumbubil, and Chirathabel.
On the occasion of this visit to Coragorag, the
ground, then untrampled by stock, was so soft,
and riding such slow work, that I had barely time
to see what was necessary, and determine on the
country I should appropriate, when night began
to draw nigh. Getting home being, as I had
anticipated, out of the question, I pulled up and
unsaddled, the site of my camp that night being a
ridge about a mile to the north of the spot on
which the Messrs. Winter subsequently erected an
extensive dam across the creek which supplies the
Baangyoobine swamp. Why the position and
circumstances of this particular camp have been so
distinctly remembered I am at a loss to say; but
we all know that things of a very trivial nature do
occasionally fix themselves in our memories. If,
222 RECOLLECTIONS OF
however, my recollections of the night I passed on
that hillside are vivid, they are not altogether of
a pleasant description. The chops of course were
delicious, and champagne now-a-days is not the
nectar that quart-pot tea was at twenty; but still
it was not agreeable to unsaddle for the night in a
spot up to one's ankles in mud, haphazard, as I
may say, on the centre of a large uninhabited
plain. Indeed it seems natural, to black and
white man alike, to choose for resting-places spots
which form, as it were, features in the landscape;
so in open country one seeks the patch of timber,
and in woody districts the edge of the plain;
whilst in permanent settlements the white man
surrounds his cottage with plantation or clearing,
according to the circumstances of the place; and
it was upon this principle, I suppose, that my
camp that night seemed particularly miserable to
I]]|62.
There was, indeed, a pleasant warm scrub
within two miles of me, on which I cast wistful
eyes; but, then, it was so late, and everything so
wet, that I was afraid I should be unable to light
a fire in the dark, having nothing but a tinder-
box with me for the purpose. In addition to
other discomforts, the wind was cold and bois-
terous, and there was nothing out of which to
make even a breakwind, much less a shelter
against the rain which was evidently impending.
As I looked round from my hillside, a wide
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 223
waste of undulating country was before me,
bounded by ranges to the west, and on every
other side by forest; being dotted here and there
with numerous swamps and sheets of water, from
one to another of which immense flights of
ducks, of several sorts, constantly winged their
way. The scene, as a painter might say, was in
neutral tint, and wore altogether a sombre,
desolate aspect, which somehow or other had a
depressing effect on my spirits. Of course I
was young then, and my being unaccustomed to
solitude and loneliness had something to do with
it ; and I stood awhile, I remember, after I had
hobbled my mare, bridle in hand, taking stock of
the surroundings—of the wild clouded sky, of the
dimly-seen native-companions and other waders
stalking through the shallow waters; of the
thousands of ducks which with a strong whir of
wings swept overhead at a frantic pace, as if in
alarm, to alight again at no great distance in one
of the many sheets of water, whence perhaps
another lot of waterfowl, disturbed by their
arrival, or rendered uneasy by the instinct which
leads them to forecast the coming storm, rose to
make a circular flight of a mile or two.
Whilst surveying this scene—so desolate and
dank just then, so handsome and cheery at other
times—I cast also many an anxious glance around
in quest of the smoke of Blacks' camps, and failing,
after some time, to discover any, set to work to
224 RECOLLECTIONS OF
make my preparations for the night. I had dis-
mounted near a solitary dead tree, under which
lay some broken branches, which I collected for
my fire. The supply would have been scarcely
sufficient for a white man's necessities in a general
way, but I had adopted the Blacks' fashion of a
small fire made with the ends only of the sticks,
as more comfortable and convenient, and for this
it was abundant. When my fire, which cost me
some trouble to light, had burnt up, and I had
pulled a few tussocks of old grass, on which
I might lie to some extent free from mud, I
unrolled my 'possum-rug and set my quart-pot to
boil. Having eaten nothing since breakfast, I
was naturally in excellent trim for dinner, and
soon very satisfactorily engaged with grilled chops,
tea, and damper; so that between the genial glow
of the fire, the disappearance in darkness of the
dreary landscape, and the inspiration of a good
feed, a wonderful change of mind came over me.
The remembrance that Blacks might pay me a
visit when asleep, and that their visits under such
circumstances meant death, left me; and as I
lit my pipe and stretched myself out on my
opossum-rug, I felt a loaded horse-pistol better
than half-an-hour before, especially when I
reflected that from the minute examination I had
made of the ground during the day, Blacks
could hardly be about, without my having seen
them or their tracks. Smoking and sipping my
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 225
tea, looking at the fire burn, and listening to the
clink of the mare's hobbles, or to the note of swans
high over head, possibly winging their way to
some distant water as yet unknown to the white
man, and now and then indulging in a reverie on
one subject or another, I got on as far as I could
judge until nine o'clock, when, Blacks notwith-
standing, drowsiness began to creep over me.
Before turning in, however, I got up to make my
final arrangements for the night, such as they were,
that is, to mend the fire, short hobble the mare,
and cut off with my knife the clay which had
adhered to my boots and breeches, which com-
pleted, and having noticed. that the wind had
dropped, and that the sky was starless, and dark
as Erebus, I betook myself to the comforts of
my rug, and with my head on the saddle, and
my back to the fire, soon fell asleep, probably
only delayed by the pleasant sensations which
one used to experience when camped out just
before dropping off; the result, I presume, of
the warmth of the fire and of getting out of the
wind.
I slept soundly and comfortably until about
midnight, when in a gradual sort of a way I
became sensible that rain was falling in torrents.
A moment later a clap of thunder induced me
to peep out of the folds of my rug, a brilliant
flash of lightning revealing to me an inky sky,
water streaming in sheets down the hill-side, and
16
226 RECOLLECTIONS OF
my mare standing still not far off, the ground
being too soft for her to move much in her short
hobbles. As yet I was not wet, the rain probably
not having long set in, but I knew of course that
I soon should be, so as there was nothing to be
done to improve matters, I shut my eyes again
and turned the cold side to the fire for another
map. When I again awoke, which was in a couple
of hours, I was in anything but a comfortable
plight, for my opossum rug, the worst of all
covering for a rainy might, was completely satur-
ated and clung to my clothes like a wet shroud,
the side on which I lay being cold and stiff. The
rain too was coming down steadily, and the
sputtering fire getting low. In fact, my hillside
had become very miserable. Sleep being now out
of the question, I got up, threw aside my dripping
opossum rug, mended the fire, put on my quart-
pot to boil, and lit my pipe. Of course I was
soon completely wet through, and had nothing
else to do but sit or stand by turns before the fire,
and steam first one side and then the other till
daylight, when, having breakfasted in readiness,
I saddled my mare and made tracks home. This
was but one of many scores of rough nights on
which I have camped out at one time or another,
and if my recollections of it are exceptionally
vivid, I attribute it rather to the impression which
the lonely, desolate, and diluvian aspect of the
winter's scene left on my mind, than to any
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 227
special inconvenience I experienced from the
weather.
Being fully satisfied with the desirability of
Coragorag as a winter's run, my brother and I
took two flocks of sheep there a few days after
my return, the extent of country, for which in
due time I obtained a license, being about fifty
square miles, or thirty-two thousand acres, as I
have since learnt—for in those days we knew
nothing about acres in the bush. Whilst on the
road to Coragorag, my brother first saw an emu
stalked by a blackfellow, of which operation he
gave me a graphic account as we sat by the
camp-fire that night. Accompanied by a
Ngooraialum Black, and an excellent kangaroo
dog which always followed him, he had walked
on ahead of the sheep, with the object of lighting
a fire and otherwise preparing for the arrival of
the party. On reaching the top of one of the
undulations of the plain, the quick eye of the
savage caught sight of an emu feeding about a
mile off. On the instant he and my brother came to
a stand, and seeing that the bird had not noticed
them, they retreated a few steps to be out of
sight, and arrange what should be done. This
was quickly decided, it being agreed that Mr.
Tom, in default of spears, gun, or hunting gear
of any kind, should take the dog in leash, and,
before slipping him, stalk as close as possible to
the emu. On occasions of this sort, when there
228 RECOLLECTIONS OF
is no natural cover, birds or animals are usually
approached by means of an impromptu screen of
boughs, which the Blackfellow carries before him
in his hand. In the centre of the screen a hole
is left through which the hunter watches his
quarry, advancing quickly whilst the animal is
feeding, and stopping instantly he raises his head
to look about him, the noticeable feature of the
matter being that the kangaroo, emu, turkey, or
whatever the animal may be, never observes that,
what to him must appear to be a bush, gets
constantly nearer and nearer, or in fact notices it
at all, so long as he does not see it move; should
that occur, of course the game is up at once, and
the beast takes to flight ; otherwise a skilful
hunter with good sight will often approach his
prey to within a few yards. On this occasion, no
boughs were at hand of which to make a screen,
so Mr. Tom determined to go hunting in the
character of a black stump, just as one of our
city magnates might go to a fancy ball in the
character of a noble of Louis the Fourteenth’s
time; the savage, however, being admirably
fitted for his part by nature. This course being
decided on, Mr. Tom put a strap round the dog's
neck, and dropping his opossum rug, stood up in
puris naturalibus. Cautioning my brother not to
show himself, and grasping the dog's collar with
his right hand, he raised his left arm so as to look
like the branch of a small burnt tree, of which
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 229
his body represented the stump, bringing his
head close to his left shoulder. In this attitude,
watching an opportunity when the bird was
feeding, he commenced his advance, my brother
wriggling himself cautiously through the grass to
the top of the rise, whence he had a full view of
what went on.
The Black's mode of proceeding was, whilst
preserving the posture originally assumed, to
press quickly on towards the bird as long as he
was feeding, keeping his head close to his
shoulder, and the whole of his person, with the
exception of his legs, rigidly still. The moment
the emu looked up, the hunter, who had his eye
keenly fixed on him, became instantly immovable,
holding the dog—which was hidden from the emu,
partly by the man's body, and partly by the grass
—pressed closely to his thigh. After a couple of
hundred yards had been got over in this way, my
brother said that Mr. Tom's likeness to a black
stump became perfect. Advancing and halting,
as occasion served, the Black was not long in get-
ting within a couple of hundred yards of Baraimal
(as the Ngooraialum call the emu), when the bird
showed signs of not being altogether satisfied
about the “stump,” probably because the dog
began to be visible. Another advance of some
score or two of yards was effected, however, when
the emu suddenly raised his head, drew himself
up to his full height, and took to his heels. Then
230 RECOLLECTIONS OF
came Smoker's turn. He had seen the emu, Mr.
Tom said, for some time, and evidently under-
stood what was being done. He was now let go,
and started with a yell, my brother and Mr. Tom
following on foot. The ground, however, was soft,
which left the noble bird but little chance, so
Master Smoker soon had the emu's long neck
between his fangs.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE BANGERANG TRIBE
I HAVE seen the name of this tribe written Pan-
draing, Pandurang, Pinegorine, and in other
ways. The Ngooraialum pronounced the name
Baingeraing, but the tribe called themselves as
I have written the word. A residence of ten
years at Tongala gave me excellent opportunities
of noticing the ways of my Bangerang neigbours,
as well as those of several other tribes which
dwelt on, or frequented, my father's run. In fact,
I knew well every member of the tribe, besides
something of their language, wars, alliances, and
ways of thinking on most subjects, but still it is a
matter of regret with me now that I did not,
when I had the opportunity, make myself
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 23]
acquainted with several matters concerning which
science of late years has become interested.
What was properly called the Bangerang was a
tribe composed of two sections, named respectively
Wongatpan and Towroonban. Collectively they
spoke of themselves as, and were called, Bangerang.
When I first settled at Tongala, the Wongatpan
numbered certainly not less than one hundred and
fifty souls. Their head-quarters were at Wongat,
as they called the country just at the junction of
the river Murray and the Baala or Broken Creek.
The spot is three or four miles higher up the
river than Barmah as it is, and Paama as it should
be spelt. Hence, Wongat is a small portion of
the Moira, or Lake Moira country ; is mostly
under water in winter, the river just thereabouts
being crowded with fish to a remarkable degree.
The Towroonban were much less numerous than
the Wongatpan, for they only mustered some fifty
persons, big and little. They took their name from
a sandhill called Towro at that particular place,
which is between the Madowla lagoon and the
Murray. This sandhill, of which Towro is only
a small portion, is of considerable length, and is
intersected by the Goulburn, the Madowla lagoon,
and the Murray, and is sufficiently peculiar to
have furnished us at Tongala, in those days, with
food for discussion as to the circumstances to
which it owes its formation, with which, however,
it is not my intention to trouble the reader.
232 RECOLLECTIONS OF
Adjoining the Bangerang there were two tribes
which numbered about fifty individuals each, and
spoke the Bangerang language, with some slight
difference in, I believe, half-a-dozen words only.
They called themselves respectively Wollithiga
(or occasionally Wollithigan) and Kailtheban, and
had no doubt seceded from the Bangerang at a
comparatively recent epoch; indeed the Ban-
gerang occasionally spoke of their neighbours in a
hesitating sort of way as Bangerang Blacks. The
country occupied by the Wollithiga was at and
about the junctions of the Goulburn and
Campaspe rivers with the Murray. The country
of the Kailtheban was principally on the south
side of the Goulburn, extending from Tongala to
Toolamba, at which point they came in contact
with the Ngooraialum tribe, which they called
Ooraialum. Concerning the boundaries of the
countries of the Ngooraialum and Bangerang
tribes, which were not marked, or even determined
with any precision, it was noticed that these people,
being indifferent friends at best, kept each well
within its limits, so that there was a strip of
country on the outskirts of about four miles wide,
which formed a sort of neutral ground, over which
both parties hunted occasionally, but on which the
Ngooraialum never camped at night.
Of the origin of the name Wollithiga I know
nothing positive, but have little doubt that it is
derived from Wolla (water), a portion of their
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 233
country being much subject to inundation. The
Kailtheban derived their name from the river
Goulburn, which is Kaiela in the Bangerang
language, so that the appellation of this tribe
signifies People of the Kaiela. Occasionally too,
a Kailtheban would speak of himself as a
Waaringulum, a name given him by the Ngooraia-
lum, of which I shall have something to say further
on. Hence the reader will notice that the
Ngooraialum and Bangerang were so far foreign,
that neither pronounced correctly the name of the
other, Ngooraialum becoming Ooaialum, and
Bangerang becoming Baingeraing; their languages,
in fact, being different. -
Between the Ngooraialum, on one hand, and the
Bangerang, Wollithiga, and Kailtheban on the
other, though intermarriages took place, feeling
was far from being of a friendly character ; in fact,
it was not difficult to see that the Ngooraialum
looked with contempt and dislike on the whole of
the Bangerang-speaking tribes, with which, prior
to the coming of the whites, they had been almost
constantly at deadly feud. For this reason, when
a Ngooraialum was irritated with a Wollithiga or
Kailtheban Black, he would speak of him disdain-
fully as a Baingerating.
The Kailtheban and Wollithiga, on the other
hand, if no Bangerang were present, objected in a
quiet way to be called Bangerang, though most
friendly with that people, and, as we have seen,
234 RECOLLECTIONS OF
speaking the same language, saying, “The
Bangerang are Murray Blacks, and our country is
on the Goulburn.”
Besides the tribes above enumerated, there also
dwelt near the Bängerang, the Boongatpan, Pikko-
lātpan, Ango.otheraban, Ngarrimowro, Moitheri-
ban and Toolinyàgan tribes, of the whole of which
the Ngooraialum always spoke as Bangérang,
whose languages, I am in a position to state, were
clearly of Bangerang origin, and readily under-
stood by any Bangerang Black. Of these tribes
and their languages I knew something personally,
but more from the accounts of the Bangerang and
some of our old settlers, from whom I have learnt
that the Moitheriban numbered three hundred
souls, or more ; and that the whole of these six
tribes might be set down at the lowest compu-
tation as averaging one hundred and fifty indivi-
duals all round, so that in the year 1841 the whole
Bangerang race numbered not less than twelve
hundred souls. In making this estimate, I have
considered the matter carefully and am in accord
with several gentlemen, who had much better
opportunities of knowing their numbers, and were
more interested in the matter than the Commis-
sioners of Crown Lands, who upon being called
upon, furnished government with reports on the
subject, which though founded on the merest
guesses, have since been received as statements
of weight.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 235.
During my residence among the Bangerang, a
large and steady decrease took place in their
numbers, so that at the end of ten years, I doubt
whether as many as eighty of the original two
hundred were left. This falling off I attribute to
diseases—which had originated with the whites,
and been passed on from tribe to tribe-having
made their appearance amongst the Bangerang a
year or two prior to my squatting in their country.
I may add that but two individuals fell by the gun
(one of the deaths being the result of a very
singular accident), and that spirituous liquors were
not in use at all amongst them, so that these
common exterminators of Savage races were absent
on this occasion. There was, however, no doubt,
a tendency to disease consequent on the partial
abandonment of their traditional ways of life for
others less healthy, for, after my settlement in
their country, the Bangerang gave up in great-
measure their wholesome and exhilarating practices
of hunting and fishing, and took to hanging about
our huts in a miserable objectless frame of mind
and underfed condition, begging and doing trifling
services of any sort. To this course they were
mainly led by their desire to obtain from the new-
comers various commodities, such as iron toma-
hawks, tobacco, and especially flour, mutton, sugar
and other articles of food, for which they quickly
acquired a keen relish, and preferred to the game,
fish and roots, on which they and their ancestors.
236 RECOLLECTIONS OF
had subsisted. Besides these causes of decrease
it must also be stated that infanticide increased,
whilst a certain listlessness and want of interest in
life which sprung up under the pressure of our
occupation had perhaps something to do with the
reduction of the tribe. -
Speaking of this subject brings to mind a
circumstance (and there were possibly others now
forgotten) which led me, in those days, to suspect
that the Bangerang and neighbouring tribes had
greatly fallen off in numbers some time prior to
the settlement of the whites in Port Phillip.”
At Colbinabbin and Coragorag, in the country
of the Pinpandoor, one met with strong evidence
of such having been the case. I refer to the
ovens found in their country, which were out of
all proportion numerous when compared with the
wants of the tribe as it then existed. The
prominent feature in connection with these Ovens,
many of which, at the time of which I write,
had been long disused, was, not that their
capacity for cooking as regards size was in excess
of what the tribe would require (as this would at
last inevitably result from the constant addition
* The writer believes that he has seen all the published
estimates of our black population which have been made from
time to time since 1843, and, with larger information than
they were based on, feels convinced that the aboriginal
inhabitants of Port Phillip (now Victoria) could not have
numbered less than fifteen thousand souls when our occupancy
of the colony began in 1835.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 237
of material), but that very commonly two or
three large ovens existed in close proximity,
which, in view of the customs of the tribe, I can
only account for on the supposition of much
larger numbers of Blacks than we ever saw,
having in former days habitually assembled at
these places—numbers whose food it would be
inconvenient to cook in one oven. This seems
the more probable when it is borne in mind that
these ovens, which are mere heaps of cinders and
calcined clay, are efficient and convenient in
proportion to their size, and that it is hardly
likely that a second would have grown up close
to one which already existed, had one been found
sufficient. Now, when I resided in that country,
one always was found sufficient, nor did I ever
see two adjacent ones in use at the same time.
Indeed, many were never used. It should also
be noticed that two were never found together
except at very favourite camping places. These
ash and clay accumulations, many of which have
been used as a makeshift for gravel, are amongst
the few traces which the Blacks have left behind
them. The largest which I have seen are some
fifty yards in circumference, and three or four
feet high in the middle ; very frequently a tree of
considerable size grows out of them, which, of
course, could only have sprung up during a
protracted period of disuse. What I have said
concerning the ovens of the Pinpandoor, applies
238 RECOLLECTIONS OF
also, if I mistake not, to those found on
Kanbowro, or as the whites call it, the Gunbower
Creek.”
The way in which these ovens were used was
as follows —When there was food to be baked,
the women, with their hands and yamsticks,
scooped a hole in the mound; if in doing so they
came upon any lumps of clay (for there was no
stone in those parts), they roughly lined the
bottom of the hole with them. If none were met
with, they quickly dug up a quantity for the
purpose with their yamsticks, from somewhere
near at hand. These lumps were about twice the
size of a man's fist. The bottom of the hole being
lined with them, a fire was made on top of them,
and on the fire were thrown more lumps of clay.
When the fire had burnt down, these last lumps
were removed to one side, and the hot embers to
the other. The hole being thus cleared of every-
thing except its flooring of hot lumps of clay, the
latter were strewn thinly with grass, or with the
leaves of a herb called pennyroyal, green if
possible, and well damped with water. On this
* Since the above was pennéd, the writer has measured
roughly some ovens close to Paiāngil head station, on the
Murray, of which the dimensions are:–Two ovens, sixty
yards in circumference and four feet in height ; another, sixty
yards in circumference and five feet in height; another, eighty
yards in circumference and four feet in height. There were
several others within 300 yards of these which were not
measured.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 239
were laid, neatly packed, the animals or roots to
be cooked; then came another coating of wet
grass, next the remaining lumps of heated clay,
and then the burning embers. These were often
covered with a sheet of bark, and on top of all
these was a quantity of earth. In an hour or two
the food was taken out well-cooked and clean.
The conclusions to which the facts connected
with these ovens seem to lead are, first, that in
1841 the Blacks in the neighbourhood in which I
lived, were not so numerous as they had been ;
and second, to judge by the trees growing out of
the ovens, that the reduction in their numbers had
taken place some fifty years or so antecedent to
that date. As to the cause of such reduction,
there are strong reasons for assigning it to small-
pox, of which disease, in its most virulent form,
many individuals amongst the Pinpandoor, Ngoo-
raialum, Bangerang, and other neighbouring tribes
bore the marks. Indeed, I and several others,
two of whom are still alive, saw at Tongala, in
1843, or thereabouts, a Bangerang child absolutely
suffering from this complaint. It may not be out
of place to mention here that I never heard of, or
noticed, consumption being amongst the natives
until after several years' residence at Tongala, and
even then there was very little of it.
I have already mentioned that of the two
sections into which Bangerang was divided, the
Wongatpan was the most numerous. Between
240 RECOLLECTIONS OF
them and the Towroonban several little distinc-
tions, mental and physical, existed, as well as some
differences in their way of life. The Towroonban
were to a considerable extent an opossum-hunting
people, whilst the Wongatpan lived chiefly on fish
and roots. The principal habitat of the Wongat-
pan was the Moira, which is (or was) a reedy
miasmatic locality, particularly that portion of it
known as Wongat. In those days the Wongatpan
loved fish, more especially fat fish, and to lubri-
cate their persons with its oily exudation. The
supply of their favourite food existed in such
abundance, and was so easily procured that I
often wondered how that sage people managed
to pass their time before my party came and
taught them to smoke. That accomplishment
fairly acquired, however, matters went on flowingly,
their leisure hours being divided between putting
the pipe to its legitimate purpose and begging my
tobacco. When they were not doing one, they
were pretty sure to be doing the other, so that the
words, terrible from constant repetition, i inſanook
bakka, mitta Cowel, ingarnica / (give little tobacco,
Mr. Curr, smallest l) rang for ever in my ears.
The ladies, it is true, in their persuasive way,
prefaced their requests with “thoma ngieni” (dear.
you) one of the few terms of affection they had ;
but it all ended in “i inyanook bakka.”
Besides catching fish and waterfowl in weirs.
and nets of divers forms and descriptions, it was.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 241
the custom of the Bangerang in all weathers, when
the river was not discoloured by floods, to enter the
water with short barbed spears in their hands,
with which they dived, and speared their finny prey
in its own element. In this way they took large
quantities of fish, of from half-a-pound to sixty
pounds weight. They were, of course, all excellent
swimmers, and dived & merveille. This sort of
life was no doubt agreeable enough as long as
summer lasted—a man enjoying a delicious bath
whilst in pursuit of his supper—but when winter
set in, and the water got cold, it was miserable
enough. The fish at that season were also difficult
to spear, and the custom was for a number of men
to form a line across the river, and dive in concert
at a given signal, and swim down stream spearing
what they could. After repeating this operation
several times, they would rush, bitterly cold, to a
big fire which had been prepared on the bank, and
warm themselves in the blaze and smoke, and,
after restoring circulation a little, plunge again
into the cold river.
Occasionally, too, the Bangerang obtained fish
by poisoning the water of some small lagoon.
This was effected by throwing into it a quantity
of fresh gum-tree boughs, as the result of which,
in a few hours, the fish died and came to the sur-
face. It is singular that amongst these fishing
tribes hooks and lines were unknown.
It was a custom of the Wongatpan when there
17
242 RECOLLECTIONS OF
Were only a few of them at the Moira, and when
hostile visits, which always occurred at night,
Were apprehended, to withdraw after dark to the
reed-beds in their canoes, on board of which they
slept on such occasions. This, though an effectual,
must have been a truly wretched expedient, as it
Would be hard to imagine anything more miser-
able than a family passing a night in a damp
canoe in the foetid atmosphere of a reed-bed—not,
as the poet says,
“Hushed with buzzing night-flies to their slumbers,”
but stung to madness by villainous mosquitos,
which generally abounded in the locality.
In consequence of the rather stationary life led
by the Wongatpan, who seldom left the banks of
the Murray and the swamps and reed-beds in its
immediate vicinity, the rearing of children was
comparatively an easy matter amongst them, so
that, as the Blacks are fond of children, infanticide
was less common than with other tribes, and pica-
ninnies more numerous in their camps. From the
ease with which fish was obtained, old people of
both sexes, who cannot live where food is scarce,
abounded at the Moira; many, as far as I could
judge, being seventy years of age, and some very
much more. In their persons the individuals of
this section of the tribe were less vigorous,
slighter, and taller than those of the other ;
their hair was also decidedly shorter, wavy, and
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 243
sometimes had a curl in it which reminded me a
little of the negro. These circumstances seem to
point to the fact that an amphibious mode of life
affects the person, and particularly the hair; and
that the Bangerang must have long dwelt where
I found them, to allow time for such differences
to develop themselves. They also form portion
of a series of facts which go to show that the
black race inhabited this continent for a long
period prior to our discovery. The Wongatpan
were also less decent in their habits than their
opossum-eating relatives, probably from their
amphibious mode of life so constantly requiring
them to be naked. Altogether they were infe-
rior to, and to some extent looked down on by,
the Towroomban, their more stalwart kinsfolk.
Besides the fact that the Bangerang territory
was parcelled out between the two sub-tribes, and
that fishing weirs on the numerous channels which
conducted the flood-waters back into the Murray
were owned by individuals, and descended to their
heirs, I recollect, on One occasion, a certain portion
of country being pointed out to me as belonging
exclusively to a boy who formed one of the party
with which I was out hunting at the time. As
the announcement was made to me with some
little pride and ceremony by the boy's elder
brother, a man of five-and-twenty, I not only
complimented the proprietor on his estate, on
which my sheep were daily feeding, but, as I was
244 RECOLLECTIONS OF
always prone to fall in with the views of my sable
neighbours when possible, I offered him on the
spot, with the most serious face, a stick of tobacco
for the fee-simple of his patrimonial property,
which, after a short consultation with his elders,
was accepted and paid. On two other occasions,
also, if I remember right, some Blacks objected to
hunt with me over certain land, on the plea that
it did not belong to them. That both individuals
and families amongst the Bangerang had par-
ticular rights to certain lands I have no doubt,
but practically they were little insisted on. Had,
however, anyone not of the tribe attempted
encroachments, it would have been an instant
casus belli.
Amongst the Bangerang there was not, as
far as could be observed, anything resembling
government; nor was any authority, outside of
the family circle, existent. Within the family the
father was absolute. The female left the paternal
family when she became a wife, and the male
when he took rank as a young man. The adult
male of the Bangerang recognized no authority
in anyone, under any circumstances, though he
was thoroughly submissive to custom. Offences
against custom had sometimes a foreign aspect,
and brought about wars with other tribes.
Within the tribe they usually amounted to
wrongs of some individuals, and for every
substantial wrong custom appointed a penalty.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA, 245
Anyone who had suffered a wrong complained
of it, if at all, at night aloud to the camp,
which was silent and attentive. Then the
accused was heard. Afterwards those who chose,
men or women, expressed their views on the
subject; and if general opinion pronounced the
grievance a good One, the accused accepted the
penalty sanctioned by custom. Had an offender
refused satisfaction, he would probably have been
murdered by the injured party, and no one would
have avenged his death. In the absence of the
least show of constituted authority or rank, some
members of the tribe had more influence in public
matters than others; and when several of this sort
took up any question in concert, I believe it
invariably happened that the tribe was guided by
them. This influence was enjoyed by men of
mature age, as well as by younger men of marked
ability; also by such as had a reputation as
sorcerers or warriors, or were the husbands of
several wives, especially if they had large families.
These brought the consideration which riches
secure with us. On the serious decline of a man's
bodily or mental vigour his influence grew less.
But, though there was no government, there were
certain important practices among the Bangerang
which deserve to be called laws. Some of the
principal of these had reference to the transfer of
the young from one class to another (particularized
hereafter), the knocking out of their teeth, making
246 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the ornamental scars on their backs, breasts, and
arms, and restrictions with respect to food.
There were also others which had reference to
females. In the latter case only did infractions
occur with some frequency, on which occasions,
as I have already noticed, the persons aggrieved,
when they chose, made their complaints publicly
in the camp, and publicly vindicated their rights,
the offender being often constrained by custom to
go through the Ordeal of having a certain number
of spears thrown at him, and so run the risk of
death or wounds in satisfaction for the injury
done.
Though each section of the Bangerang was
thoroughly independent within the limits of its
own territory, they were virtually one for the
purposes of war. As regards war, however, as in
other matters, there was no attempt to coerce any
individual to join in an Onslaught, or to adopt any
course to which he was disinclined. A common
danger or a common desire led to meetings and
consultations, and so simple and uniform were
interests generally that measures were usually
proposed which met with the approval of all ; but
if anyone did dissent from them, he was at
liberty to take his own course, and there was no
attempt at coercion; and as there was no govern-
ment, or attempt to govern, so there was no
opposition. With the Wollithiga and Kailthe-
ban the Bangerang were on very intimate terms,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 247
so that for war purposes they might almost be
said to be one people. In addition, they were
bound in a lesser, though a stout, friendship with
the other six Bangerang-speaking septs, which,
together with themselves, were surrounded by a
number of tribes which looked on them as
foreigners, and hated them in common; spoke a
language different from theirs, and cut off stray
members as opportunity offered, each tribe on its
own account. Nor were these Bangerang in-
timacies barren of effect, for, besides a good deal
of intermarriage, they did not resort to witchcraft
against each other, and in the hour of need one
tribe was at liberty to seek refuge in the territory
of the other. At the same time, suspicion was
not entirely absent amongst themselves; and had
a few Bangerang men been found on the territory
of any of the six tribes without some feasible
explanation to offer, they would, as likely as not,
have lost their lives. However, I remember, in
the very early days, several of these tribes
meeting together and sending a strong body of
fighting men to meet the Ngooraialum at the
Protectorate Station, which occupied the present
site of Murchison, and I am under the impression
that alliances of the sort were frequent before the
coming of the white man interfered with native
policy.
In domestic life the man was despotic in his
own mia-mia or hut ; that is, over his wife, or
248 FECOLLECTIONS OF
wives, and such of his children as had not relin-
quished parental protection. Over the girls his
authority ceased when they became wives, and
after his twelfth year or so the boy was very
little subject to the father, though parental affec-
tion always endured. As regards his wife, he
might ill-treat her, give her away, do as he liked
with her, or kill her, and no one in the tribe
interfered ; though, had he proceeded to the last
extremity, her death would have been avenged by
her brothers or kindred. I once heard a Black
say, who had obtained a wife by exchange of
sisters with a Ngooraialum, “If he beats my
sister, I’ll beat my wife.” On the death of the
husband, his widow and children become the
property of his heir, who would be his brother, or
some other male relative of the same generation
as himself who had gone through the ceremonies
by which the rights of manhood were conferred.
No man married a woman born in the tribe.
Wives were obtained by the exchange of females
with any other tribe ; so that the man who had a
daughter exchanged her for a wife, for himself or
his son, as he thought proper.
Concerning marriage I have already said some-
thing in a previous chapter. The reader has
learnt that there was no ceremony connected with
it ; that the bride had no voice in the matter, but
was simply required to go to the hut of the man
to whom her father, brother, or uncle, as the case
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 249
might be, had given her. Girls were promised in
marriage at a very early age—indeed, sometimes
provisionally before their birth. Aunts and uncles
spoke of their nephews and nieces by terms signifi-
cant of such relationships, but addressed them as
son or daughter. The idea of marriage between
relatives, or even between men and women of the
same tribe, was held in abhorrence. The Ban-
gerang were unwilling even to speak of such a
thing. I know an instance—a solitary one—in
which a Kailtheban youth ran off with a Ngoo-
raialum girl, a proceeding which for some reason
the two tribes overlooked and confirmed. This
was the only instance of a love match I ever knew.
Few men under thirty years had wives; the
exceptions as a rule had widows as wives; and
the old men, young girls as second wives. Indi-
viduals had occasionally two, and even three wives,
but only one as a rule. As the result of infanti-
cide, the males in the tribe exceeded the females,
in the proportion perhaps of three to two, so that
a number of young and middle-aged bachelors on
the look-out for wives always existed. Children
belonged to the tribe of the husband.
It sometimes occurred that a man who had two
or three wives gave away one of them. Prior to
the coming of the whites, the Bangerang, as a
a rule, enforced constancy on the part of their
wives, and chastity on their unmarried daughters.
A number of well-established customs lent their
250 RECOLLECTIONS OF
aid to this purpose ; thus a woman never sat in a
mia-mia in which there was a man, save her hus-
band ; she neither conversed nor exchanged words
with any man, except in the absence of her hus-
band, and in reply to some necessary question.
If a man required to ask a woman a question, he
did so from a distance, and in a loud voice which
could be heard by everyone. In the case of old
people, however, customs of this sort were relaxed
to some extent. There were also men and women
in neighbouring tribes who took the greatest care
to avoid each other's presence. Whether, as I
have read, it was because they stood in the rela-
tion of mother-in-law and son-in-law I never
inquired. Girls, as a rule, were promised in
marriage in infancy, espoused at twelve years of
age, and became mothers at sixteen. Until
married they lived in their father's mia-mia, from
which their brothers of eight or ten years of age
were excluded at night. They had no communi-
cation with persons of the opposite sex, except
little boys. The women were considerably
smaller in proportion to the men than amongst
Europeans. They were not unmindful of per-
sonal adornment, using red ochre on the cheeks,
and, occasionally, feathers in the hair for this
purpose. They never adorned themselves with
flowers. They wore their hair falling down on
their shoulders; were generally chatty and merry,
and often well formed and graceful. The un-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 251
married girls wore a fringe, which depended from
a girdle round the waist, and their opossum-rugs
very closely wrapped about them. This latter
peculiarity in unmarried and lately married girls
was always noticeable. In youth they had
feelings of delicacy. Females differed from males
in their way of standing, their feet being always a
little apart, and the toes slightly turned in and
the heels out. Sir Thomas Mitchell, in the second
volume of his “Exploration,” pp. 69 and 212, in
his portraits of two aboriginal women, has hit off
these peculiarities nearly accurately ; but in his
portraits of men (see vignette to vol. i. and p. 92
vol. ii.), which on the whole are excellent, I think
he draws the toes more turned out than they
should be. Like the men, the women had the
septum of the nose pierced, and the arms and
chest ornamented to some extent with raised
scars. The principal duties which fell to the
share of the women in domestic life were to
provide the daily supply of wild roots and vege-
tables, of which the food of the Bangerang in
great measure consisted. It was their business
also to transport the children and some portion of
the impedimenta from place to place in their con-
stant wanderings. The men carried their arms
and personal effects. Frogs, and the small fish
caught in nets, were provided by the women and
elder children. -
The number of children borne, on the average,
252 IRECOLLECTIONS OF
by Bangerang women I estimate at six, or per-
haps eight, of whom nearly one-half fell victims to
infanticide, a practice which resulted principally
from the difficulty, if not impossibility, of trans-
porting several children of tender age from place
to place on their frequent marches. They also
suckled their children for at least three years,
much of their food being hard. Originally half-
castes were destroyed at birth. Parents were
much attached to their children, and rarely
punished or corrected them. Far, indeed, from
controlling them in any way (though on rare
occasions, when specially annoying, a child was
brought to order by a not too gentle tap of the
paternal tomahawk), they were habitually indulged
in every whim; and as a consequence, in case of
the boys at least, grew up as self-willed, thorough
little tyrants as can well be imagined. On the
march, for instance, it was common to see a mother,
in addition to the household effects, which were
often pretty heavy, carrying a stout young urchin
who was too lazy to walk, and who insisted on
being conveyed in that way. Indeed, I am per-
suaded that the complete selfishness and want of
self-control which this mode of bringing up fos-
tered would have gone far to have rendered tribal
life impossible, had it not been for the subsequent
training which custom made imperative ; and that
in fact a number of customs prevalent amongst
the aborigines, which at first sight we are apt
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 253
to consider trivial and meaningless, were in reality
the foundation upon which principally reposed the
superstructure of tribal life in this continent. The
Bangerang curriculum was as follows:—The
yarka, or male infant up to two years of age, and
subsequently the maldiga, or boy, was allowed to
grow up with the least amount of control possible,
as we have seen. When eight or ten years of age
he was sent to sleep in the bachelors' camp, when
there was one at hand, with the young men and
boys of various ages, his parents still supplying
him with food. In his new home, though no
violence was used, its inmates being all his
relatives, the child gradually became to some
extent the fag of everyone older or stronger than
getting the worst place at the fire, instead
of the best, and being required at any moment to
render a hundred little services. In his father's
camp he had been accustomed to handle whatever
himself,
was in it, but he was now taught to keep his
hands off whatever was not his own. At ten or
eleven years of age the boy was made a kogo-
amoolga, gave up the name which he had hitherto
borne, and began to learn to endure pain and
restraint. One of his front teeth was knocked out;
his arms, chest, and back had those long gashes
made in them, which, so painful at the time, were
subsequently to become his ornament and pride ;
the septum of his nose was pierced, and a bone
stuck through it by way of ornament; he had in
254 . RECOLLECTIONS OF
great measure to supply himself with food; was
entirely forbidden the use of the most savoury
sorts of meats; was prohibited from going to his
father's camp, and discountenanced in conversing
with his mother, sisters, and other females.
At about sixteen years of age the kogomoolga
underwent a secret ceremony (which I never wit-
nessed), and became a panoopka, or young man.
This was the great turning point in his life, and
he seemed thoroughly to appreciate the dignity
conferred upon him. In conjunction with a certain
shyness (which occurred at no other period of his
life), his bearing now became staid and dignified.
The games in which he used to join were indulged
in less frequently, and, in their place, he began to
devote himself to the vanities of dress. He now
affected the use of red ochre, adorned his head
with plumes, and made himself an Opossum-rug,
which he scored and coloured in the approved
way. At the camp-fire at night he might now
occasionally be heard chanting his corroboree.
To please the ladies was evidently the chief
object of his solicitude. He also laboured at the
fabrication of spears and shields; kept his kogo-
moolga friends at a proper distance; was specially
imperative with the maldigas; very sensitive of
ridicule ; somewhat nice on the point of honour
(pundomoroso, as the Spaniards say), and occasion-
ally got into fights with his elders, out of which
he generally came second best off. In his twen-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 255
tieth year, or thereabouts, the panoopka became
yeyir (a man), at which period some of the food
restrictions, to which he had been so long subject,
were removed, and he was at liberty to contract
marriage if he could get a wife. Such was Ban-
gerang education.
When several families were camped together at
a spot at which they proposed to remain for a
few days, the custom was for the women to leave
camp an hour or two after sunrise for the purpose
of getting roots and vegetables, catching shrimps
or prawns, digging out rats, and carrying On other
avocations of the sort. On their backs they
carried their babies, and were followed by some
or all of their children. Their start, yam-stick
in hand, in long-extended Indian file, followed by
numbers of half-starved dogs, was characteristic
and peculiar enough. Generally their absence
from the camp was about six hours, half of the
time being loitered away in the shade or by the
fire, according to the season, when they returned
with a heavy load of food. It was when camped
in this way for several days at a place that
weapons and ornaments were manufactured, and
games played. The men used to start out to hunt
in threes and fours shortly after the women had left
the camp, and returned about the same time. The
ordinary business of the married men was to see to
the safety of the family, procure meat or fish,
and opossum skins enough to keep them clad.
256 RECOLLECTIONS OF
Returned to the camp, both men and women
would rest for a short time, and probably smoke a
pipe. Then came preparations for the evening
meal. The bachelors, in their camp, cooked each
for himself, and at the family fires the father
generally cooked the animals which he brought
home, and the woman the roots, which were her
contribution. In cooking meat a few hot coals
were withdrawn from the fire, and the animal, if
a small one, laid upon them, whilst, with two bits
of stick in his right hand, the cook took up other
coals, and laid them one by one on the meat. In
the use of these bits of stick, which, from the
mode of holding them, were made to act like
tongs, the Bangerang and their neighbours were
most expert. Any little sticks eight inches long
and as thick as one's finger did ; they were their
only cooking utensils; enabled them to do with
ease everything they required; saved them burn-
ing their fingers; and were quite characteristic of
the camp. Whilst the carcasses were roasting,
the first pangs of hunger—the husband's hunger
—were allayed by the liver, heart, kidneys, blood
cooked in an intestine, and trifles of the sort,
which were hurriedly grilled, and swallowed with
much gusto. In the meantime the Opossums
were laid on the coals and slowly roasted.
Sometimes, however, the husband would allow
the wife to cook everthing; and occasionally an
oven was brought into requisition, or a woolum-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 257
bara, or large fire common to all at the camp,
was made by the women, in the ashes of which
were baked in a heap all the animals which had
been obtained that day by the various persons at
the camp. Then about dusk, or a little after,
ensued the aboriginal's principal meal, which took
him some time to despatch, as your Black is
eminently a leisurely feeder when he is at liberty
to choose the pace. After dinner came the pipe
and conversation, whilst the children dropped off
to sleep as they felt inclined; and it was in-
variably at this time that personal complaints,
and what we may call public affairs, were dis-
cussed, when there happened to be anything of
the kind on hand. As regards such discussions,
writers who have not lived in the bush, and
acquired a personal knowledge of the Blacks and
their manners, frequently describe in a very cir-
cumstantial way, and as a thing well known, a
council of old men, somewhat on the Patres
conscript; pattern, who deliberate in company, and
indeed govern the tribe. As a fact, however, as
far as I could learn, nothing of the sort existed
amongst the Bangerang. Usually, when matters.
of general interest were pending, it was the
custom for anyone who chose, to harangue the
camp. This the orator generally did standing
beside his own fire, after the evening meal, when
everyone of the party was sure to be present and
awake. He was often wrapped in his opossum-
18
258 RECOLLECTIONS OF
rug, and generally held in his hand a club or a
spear. Young men could speak if they chose,
but did so less often than the aged. Now and
then one of them would make some observations,
and a woman interject a remark, but the burden
of discussion was generally borne by men of forty
and upwards. When the first speaker had done,
another, sitting or standing at his own fire, took
up the theme. When morning came the subject
was not renewed, and each took the course which
seemed best to him, though they were generally
pretty well agreed. If, however, an attack on
some tribe had been decided upon, those who
intended to be of the party, and others, would
get together next day, probably at the bachelors'
camp, and quietly talk over and arrange the
details of the expedition.
To return to the subject of food. Meat before
all was the Bangerang's favourite article of diet,
and with it the husband gorged himself before he
thought of giving any to his wife. Indeed, the
children were usually preferred before her in this
particular, and occasionally perhaps a favourite
dog; for in savage life community of interest
between man and wife is much less the rule than
amongst civilized people; and as a husband is a
constant check on the inclinations and free will of
his wife, who has to perform the drudgeries of his
camp, eat his leavings, and submit to occasional
acts of barbarity on his part, it is not to be
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 259
wondered at if she looks on him not as a mate
so much as a master, and to some extent as an
enemy. Her nature, however, is not very sen-
sitive, and she has been educated to her lot,
so that, as I believe I have already remarked,
family life amongst the Bangerang, especially
after the first year or two, was on the whole
happy enough.
Amongst the Bangerang and the other tribes
which I have known, each married couple had
their own mia-mia or hut ; the bachelors had one
in common, and occasionally some widowed ladies
beyond the age of wedlock kept house together.
As regards the Bangerang bill of fare, it was
varied—somewhat poor, but not insufficient. The
standing dishes were roots of several sorts, opos-
sums, and fish. Emu and kangaroo were scarce
and but rarely obtained, whilst among the minor
plats may be mentioned manna, eggs, kangaroo-
rats, field-rats, birds of every sort, tadpoles, grubs,
snakes, the larvae of ants, and one or two wild fruits
of an inferior description. The only edible sub-
stance they did not eat was the mushroom. Their
food, if of indifferent quality, was at least whole-
some and readily procurable, six hours a day abun-
dantly sufficing for that purpose, so that hunger
was little known. A craving for fat of any sort was
very noticeable amongst them, for which reason the
emu, when in “the pride of grease,” was their
most esteemed article of food. The Bangerang
260 BECOLLECTIONS OF
country would have supported twice the number
of Blacks we found in it. º
The animal on which the Bangerang and the
Blacks of the southern portion of the continent
generally were chiefly dependent for their supply
of meat was the Opossum, a nocturnal creature,
weighing six or seven pounds, which hides him-
self by day in the hollow branches of the various
eucalypti. The mode adopted by the Bangerang
in ascending these trees, which often measured
a hundred feet to the first branch, was as fol-
lows:–The hunter, standing on the ground, cut
with his tomahawk a horizontal notch, four inches
long, deep into, or quite through the bark of the
tree, a little below his right hip, and another
opposite his left shoulder. Taking the handle
of the tomahawk between his teeth, or holding
it in his half-closed hand, the climber inserted
his right toe sideways into the notch first cut,
and, with his arms embracing the tree, raised
himself up by the strength of his leg so as to
stand on his right toe ; he then put the big toe
of his left foot into the second notch, and again
raised himself. Standing erect on the big toe of
his left foot, and maintaining his balance by
means of his left hand and right heel, which
he passed somewhat round the tree, he again
proceeded to cut with his tomahawk, which he
always held in his right hand, two notches as
before, one a little lower than his right hip, and
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 26]
the other opposite his left shoulder, when he
made two more steps. Repeating this process
again and again, the tree was soon ascended,
and, by those accustomed to the operation, with-
out much fatigue. This mode of ascending trees
I amused myself with practising at Tongala, but
owing to the skin of my feet not being thick
and indurated like that of my black friends, the
pain. I suffered prevented me from being able
to cut more than six or eight notches without
descending to rest. I and my brothers found that
even a little use hardened and strengthened our
feet considerably, and enabled us, besides climb-
ing, to lift objects with our toes nearly as well
as the Blacks. Since that time I have read
ridiculous statements of the feet of Savages being
like those of monkeys; but the truth is, they
resemble exactly those of white persons unac-
customed to shoes.
There were amongst the Bangerang many
restrictions concerning particular articles of food,
so that children, girls, young men and women
were forbidden the use of some of the choicer
sorts; nor did I ever know any of them (except in
the case of a lad half-starved, and on my persua-
sion) break through this tribal custom. The
reasons assigned by the Blacks for their absti-
nence always seemed to me so inadequate and
bizarre, even from their own point of view, that
I thought they were deceiving me in the matter,
262 RECOLLECTIONS OF
until I found that the explanation given was
confirmed on all hands. One of the alleged ill-
consequences of eating food of the forbidden sorts
was, I remember, that a high wind would arise;
and yet I never heard that high winds were
disagreeable or injurious, or objected to by the
Blacks when they did occur. In fact, for stalking
emu or kangaroo a high wind was most desir-
able, as the waving of the grass and the boughs
in motion caused the hunter's approach to be less
noticeable. As an instance of how their ideas
ran in such matters, I remember, in early days,
the Bangerang attributing the death of an infant
at the breast to the circumstance of its father
having eaten some beef. -
It is a noteworthy fact connected with the
Bangerang, and indeed, as far as I am aware, with
the whole aboriginal population (notwithstand-
ing what Captain Gray asserts to the contrary
in connection with the Blacks of Western Aus-
tralia), that as they neither sowed nor reaped, so
they never abstained from eating the whole of any
food they had got with a view to the wants of
the morrow. If anything was left for Tuesday, it
was merely that they had been unable to consume
it on Monday. In this they were like the beasts
of the forest. To-day they would feast—aye,
gorge—no matter about the morrow. So, also,
they never spared a young animal with a view to
its growing bigger.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 263
Infanticide was common amongst the Bange-
rang, as amongst other tribes, and particularly in
the case of female children, and, I have no doubt,
had been practised from time immemorial. They
themselves gave as their reason for it the impos-
sibility of the women carrying more than one
infant in their constant ramblings. Besides, they
suckled their children until they were fully three
years old.
Writers often allege want of food or a dread of
over-population as the excuse, but in this there is
no truth in the case of the Bangerang, for food
was plentiful, and they were very wasteful of it.
I have often seen them, as an instance, land large
quantities of fish with their nets and leave all the
small ones to die within a yard of the water. I
have often spoken to them on the subject, and I
am sure the idea of over-population never entered
their heads.
In their wild state they never used salt or
other condiments, and, except a sweet drink
which they manufactured in the season by dis-
solving manna in water, water was their only
drink. Their mode of drinking was also some-
what curious, for they commonly walked into the
stream up to their knees, bent down their heads
and threw the water into the mouth with the
right hand. At the camp they drank from the
calabash. As regards cannibalism, which is well
known to exist to a great extent in Northern
264 RECOLLECTIONS OF
Australia, it cannot be said to have been prac-
tised amongst the tribes of which I write,
though on rare occasions a morsel of the fat
of a slaughtered foe was devoured as an act of
triumph ; a proceeding, moreover, of which the
perpetrators, when spoken to by white men,
were thoroughly ashamed. Usually a piece of
the kidney fat was taken from the slain,
wrapped up carefully in many folds of opossum
skin, and so preserved for months, perhaps, by
the victor. -
A very noticeable feature of Bangerang
economy was the harmonious way in which the
individuals composing the tribe lived together.
A simple sort of etiquette and precise customs
regulated their bearing towards each other, and
usually prevented any difficulty arising, so that
I rarely knew of a fight between members of
the tribe, and seldom heard anyone speak dis-
paragingly of another. As the result of restraint
in many things connected with his savage life,
the Black very easily accommodated himself to
the routine of stations; discipline, if not too
severe, rather meeting with his approval. It
should be remarked that aboriginal restraints
were, in the majority of cases, though not alto-
gether, of a negative character; an individual
might not do this, and might not eat that, and
might not say the other. What he should do
under any circumstances, or that he should do
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 265
anything, were matters with which custom inter-
fered less frequently.
When out hunting, the game captured by each
was his own property. If one of the party
returned unsuccessful, he rarely asked for a share
of another's game, nor did he take it ill if none
were given him ; but, if a bachelor, he would get
some roots from any female relative he might
have in the camp. If an individual killed a
kangaroo without assistance, it belonged to him,
though it would certainly be shared with many
others; but if several assisted in the capture, the
animal was divided amongst the party, the man who
first drew blood, I believe, receiving the skin (which
was valuable) in addition to his share of the meat.
It used to seem singular to me, when I first
knew the Bangerang, that, except in the perform-
ance of incantations, which were only practised by .
a few, very little was known of experts in any of
these accomplishments. Each Black was master
of everything known or performed by his tribe ;
no one addicted himself specially to any particular
accomplishment, except witchcraft ; and no one
ever got another to make a shield, climb a tree,
or spear a fish for him. Whatever tools, arms, or
implements were made, belonged to the maker
and not to the tribe. They used often to joke
me and say that I could make neither a gun, nor
a tomahawk, nor sugar, nor flour, nor anything
else. With respect to the aged and infirm, the
266 RECOLLECTIONS OF
customs of the Blacks were very unamiable. As
they were simply tolerated, and not well able to
help themselves, little but the poorest food and
worn-out Opossum cloaks fell to their share. To
the last, however, there was much more con-
sideration for a man than for a woman; nor would
it be easy to picture to oneself anything more
repulsive than one of these poor females, reduced
by age to little better than a skeleton, imbecile
in mind, and hideous and squalid in person—
allowed to follow the tribe it is true, but meet-
ing with scant assistance; she, on the other hand,
patient and uncomplaining, with an interest in
the children, and a civil word for all. As a
rule these old ladies had little to eat but roots,
save perhaps when a lizard, a snake, or a wild-
dog too lean to suit those who were more for-
tunate, was given up to them. On one occasion
I remember active steps being taken to get rid
of an old woman, The circumstances were these,
and they exhibit an amount of brutality rarely
witnessed amongst the Bangerang. A few fami-
lies had camped on the opposite side of the river.
They were a good deal about the station during
the day, and the cause of their camping where
they did was, I believe, to prevent their dogs
getting into mischief about the huts, as I used to
visit all canine indiscretions with a charge of shot.
In the camp was an old woman reduced to the
last stage of decrepitude. She was unable to
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 267
walk, and life was evidently fast ebbing away.
At length one morning I heard that she had
grown so weak that she was unable to move, and
that her complaints and groans were very dis-
tressing. Towards evening, noticing that the
Blacks had left, and being anxious to know
what had been done with the dying person, I
crossed the river and went to the camp, where
a horrible sight met my eyes; for the Blacks,
I found, before they left, had gathered together
a considerable pile of dry wood, laid the dying
woman on it and set it on fire. The perfect
skeleton of the deceased, entirely denuded of
flesh, now lay before me on top of the flaming
logs. A considerable time elapsed before the
individuals implicated in this barbarity made their
appearance again at Tongala, and when they did,
they seemed conscience-stricken and sheepish
enough. They pleaded in excuse that nothing
could save the woman; that she must soon have
died; that her groans frightened them ; and that
if deserted the wild dogs would have eaten her.
The Bangerang had very faint ideas of beauty.
Beautiful and pretty were expressed in their
language by the word kalinya (ro KaNov/)
which also meant good. As applied to women,
youth and beauty were, to a considerable extent,
esteemed the same thing, so that young wives
were always in request. On one occasion I
heard a man say, when extolling the charms of
268 RECOLLECTIONS OF
a young woman, that her skin was smooth and
bright as the wood of the box-tree off which the
bark has been newly stripped. Neither kissing,
shaking hands, nor any other salutation of the
kind was in use amongst the tribe, though
frequently men of different tribes made exchanges
of arms or articles of dress in token of good-
will; and women, in like manner, exchanged
ornaments. In connection with the names borne
by the males there existed amongst the Ban-
gerang some matters of interest. In the first
instance the names given to the children were
the result of the whim of the parents. They were
named after an ancestor long dead, or after a
habit, or a skin disease, or some part of the body,
or a personal peculiarity, or an animal or locality.
After boyhood, however, no male could be said
to have a name, as subsequently they invariably
addressed each other either by a term of relation-
ship, or by the name of the class in the tribe
(Yarka, Panoopka, &c.) to which each person
belonged. When several boys had arrived at
ten or twelve years of age they underwent, in
company, the operation of having an upper front
tooth knocked out, after which they dropped the
name hitherto borne, and were henceforth spoken
of or to as Kogomoolga, or Wonga if the operation
had been purposely omitted. I never knew but
One Wonga, and on what grounds he had been
allowed to retain his tooth I am not aware ; but
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 269
I have no doubt it was the result of some precise
custom, as the Bangerang were very punctilious
in such matters. After some four years we
heard those whom we had known as Kogomoolga
or Wonga called Panoopka. Later on this last
appellation was dropped, and the youth became
a nameless man. Once a Kogomoolga, the name
borne in infancy was never heard again, nor with-
out extreme difficulty could any individual be
induced to tell what had been another's name ;
as for his own, it was out of the question. In
fact, they seemed embarrassed when the subject
was mentioned. To a certain extent a fidgety
feeling existed with them, even as regards the
names received from the whites, to which their
custom avowedly did not extend ; so that if, as
often happened, a man changed his “white”
name, he was apt to be disconcerted if called by
the old one. I remember, several years after I
had ceased to live at Tongala, falling in with a
party of Bangerang young men. I had left them
boys, but in the interim they had shot up into
men, and grown quite out of my recollection. I
had known them both by their native and white
names. The former they had given up, and
altered the latter, and I failed altogether, though
I took some trouble in the matter, to induce
them to enlighten me on either point. I may
add that they received me with the most enthusi-
astic expressions of goodwill; laughed, talked,
270 RECOLLECTIONS OF
struggled to hold my horse, invited me to sit
down, and so on ; in fact, there was nothing
they would not do for me, except tell me the
mames which I myself had given them, and by
which they had been known to everyone for ten
years.
As regards women, these customs did not
obtain, for though perhaps generally addressed
by a term of relationship, the name which they
had received in childhood was often used. There
were, however, several old grandpapas, and now
and then a man of forty-five, to whom what I
have said did not quite apply, as they were
frequently spoken of, never to, by the name borne
in childhood. How this variation of the general
custom came about I never knew. When a man
wished to address another, he used to call out
Mirra ! (look) or Mirrammal (look, I say) until he
caught the person's eye. In speaking of absent
individuals, a man would say—“I saw at
Kaipoga your younger brother, and my elder
brother, and two Kogomoolgas, the eldest son of
Windyarning (a woman), and the second son of
Miniga (a woman),” and so on. It was not long
after our arrival at Tongala until the Bangerang
began to find the want of names very incon-
venient in their intercourse with us. They were,
of course, aware that their Ngooraialum neigh-
bours had all got white names, so they took the
matter up, and several came to me daily to be
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 271
named. The result of it was, that in the course
of a week or two I christened the whole tribe,
men, women, and children; and very amusing it
was to hear them, as they left me, repeating the
name constantly to themselves, so as to impress it
on the memory, not unfrequently coming to me
several times in the day to hear it repeated.
One old fellow, of a particularly meditative and
owlish countenance, I remember I called Plato,
which he pronounced Pil-ć-tö, laying the stress
on the first syllable, which my men, not under-
standing, converted into Billy Toole ; so Billy
Toole he remained ever after. One particularly
jolly old fellow, with grey hairs and whitish
beard, whose cheeks had an unusual tinge of red,
I called Jolly-chops, and as he was alive in 1875,
I think he must have reached his eightieth year.
In 1841 he was a grandfather, and was always
called “thowmunga " (old man) by the tribe.
Another, a lad whom I used to take out kan-
garooing, afterwards rather a personage in the
tribe, I called Tallyho.
Save as man and wife, but little conversation
was allowed after childhood between the sexes;
when such occurred, however, between indi-
viduals of discreet ages, they addressed each other
by the terms of elder brother and elder sister,
and spoke with their heads and eyes averted.
This reticence on the subject of names, which I
have noticed in more than one locality in Aus-
272 RECOLLECTIONS OF
tralia, like many other customs, has given way,
more or less, in the general fusion of tribes which
the advent of our civilization has brought about.
Amongst the Bangerang it resulted from the
superstitious belief that if the name of a person
became known to an enemy, or any implement of
his, or the leavings of his food, or any of his hair,
or, in fact, anything which had been his came
into the possession of an enemy, that by the
performance of certain incantations over such
objects the life of the owner might be spirited
away. Hence, when eating, such leavings as the
dogs could not consume were generally burnt.
As wizards did not usually trouble themselves
about the lives of women or children, they were
called by name. .
Another custom xvas to avoid mention of the
dead under all circumstances, so that if a child,
called, say, Punna (opossum), died, the name of the
animal would infallibly have been changed. It
was not common, however, to name children after
animals. Nothing jarred on the feelings of the
Blacks more than to hear a white man name the
dead, even by his white name; indeed, a sort of
horror came over them on such occasions, and they
would endeavour to stop the speaker's mouth with
their hands. I have reason to think, however,
that after ten or fifteen years the names of the
dead were again available for use. When, as
sometimes happened, a girl attained the age of
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 273
puberty before she was married, it was the custom
on the occasion for the women in the camp to put
an opossum-rug over her head, and insert Smoking
sticks beneath the covering, which were kept in
that position until she was nearly smothered and
almost unable to stand. The Bangerang arms,
ornaments, and implements were pretty nearly
the same as those described by Eyre in his
“Discoveries in Central Australia.” I may men-
tion, however, that as there were no flints found
in their country, they used often to cut the flesh
of animals with a sharp bit of reed. Flints and
tomahawks the Bangerang had, however, obtained
from the Ngooraialum and Pimpandoor in ex-
change for beautiful light reed spears, which were
easy to carry and most effective in hunting, which
they made in large quantities from the reed-beds.
in their territory. These reed spears of the
Bangerang found their way to distant tribes, and
were in much repute.
Whether the Bangerang had the boomerang
when I first came amongst them I am not quite
sure; but, at all events, they never took kindly to
that singular missile, nor evinced much skill in
its use. Their great weapons were reed spears.
for hunting, and the war spear, sometimes edged
with wooden teeth, and sometimes with quartz, the
latter being obtained by barter. Circumcision, and
other mutilations of the sort, were not in vogue;
nor, as far as I am aware, the totems or crests.
19
274 RECOLLECTIONS OF
spoken of by Captain Grey and others as existing
in some portions of the continent. The sym-
metrical scars on the arms, breasts, and shoulders,
so general throughout Victoria, were the principal
Ornament of their persons. In their demeanour
towards each other, as I have before remarked,
they were habitually courteous and good-
humoured, so that one seldom noticed any quar-
relling amongst the men, nor heard anyone speak
disrespectfully or disparagingly of any member
of the tribe. Indeed, though their ways were
different from ours, it always seemed to me that
the bonds of friendship between blood relations
were stronger, as a rule, with savages than
amongst ourselves. The women not being related
to each other, but members of several neighbour-
ing tribes, quarrels amongst them, though not
frequent, were more common than amongst the
men. Their little disagreements were settled with
their yam-sticks, without much injury being done,
their husbands interfering with their clubs if
matters went too far. Concerning the women, it
may be also noticed that their sympathies lay
rather with the tribe in which they had been born,
than with that of their husbands. If asked of
what tribe they were, they always gave the name
of that in which they were born.
Religious worship the Bangerang had none.
As the result of several conversations on such
subjects, the conclusion to which I came was,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 275
that they stood in considerable awe of a powerful
spiritual being, whose interference in their affairs
was usually of a malevolent character, but whose
principal attributes (such as power, knowledge,
&c.) we Christians attribute to God. This spirit
the whites have taught the Blacks to call debble-
debble (the devil), and hence people commonly say
the Blacks believe in the devil, but not in God.
As regards superstitions, however, the Bangerang
had a plentiful, if not a very interesting, crop.
In Pekka, or ghosts, they were firm believers,
and easily frightened with ghost stories, to which
they listened unwillingly. They had also a
superstitious dread of being caught in a whirl-
wind, and other fancies of the sort. As usual
with savages, there were certain individuals
amongst the Bangerang who enjoyed the cha-
racter of being necromancers. These men used
to relate conversations of the most whimsical
character, which they averred they had held with
the dead, some of whose spirits were said to be
constantly lurking in the woods near the camp
in a disembodied state. The bodies of the dead
were said to remain in their graves—indeed, they
so secured the legs and arms of the corpse before
interment as to render its escape impossible ;
but the spirits of the departed were often seen
and spoken to by the necromancers, and were
much given to fantastic tricks. What was
reported of their conversation was foolish and
276 RECOLLECTIONS OF
trivial. These sage impostors of the Bangerang
were also credited with the power of making rain,
and of taking away the lives of their enemies by
enchantment. One sovereign mode of effecting
the latter result, as I have already mentioned,
was through the instrumentality of a lock of an
enemy's hair, or the remains of any food which
he had eaten ; by means of which, and certain
mysterious ceremonies, his caul-fat was surrep-
titiously abstracted, when it was believed he
either pined away and died, or some fatal
accident befell him. As, however, the sage Ban-
gerang conceded to others the same black arts
as were claimed by their own necromancers,
whatever deaths occurred, save in the case of
extreme old age, were attributed one and all to
enchantments of enemies, and revenged accord-
ingly ; not always by counter-charms, but
occasionally vi et armis, or rather by midnight
assassination. From this source proceeded those
perpetual wars of which I propose to say more in
the sequel. Another superstitious practice which
prevailed amongst my sable friends when travel-
ling, and afraid of being benighted, was to place
a lump of clay on any conspicuous stump or log
which they happened to pass near. This pro-
ceeding was believed to retard the setting of the
sun. On quizzing them about little matters of
the sort, as I often did, and pointing out to them
how stupid they were, they used to laugh good-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 277
humouredly enough, but evidently set down my
failing to see the effect of the lump of clay on the
course of the sun as an instance of particular
thick-headedness on my part. If I could deny
that, I could deny anything ! In their eyes I
fancy I was what the Italians call testa dura.
Though it has been narrated more than once—
I believe correctly—that the Blacks, on seeing
white men for the first time, had in their sur-
prise taken up the idea that one of the party
had risen from the grave, yet neither the
Bangerang, nor any of the tribes which I have
known in New South Wales or Queensland, had
any general belief of the sort.
A respectable characteristic of the Bangerang
was, that suicide was unknown amongst them.
Whatever sickness, hardship, or misery fell to
the lot of an unfortunate, he always found courage
to bear it to the end.
The Bangerang built their huts of boughs in
fine weather, and of bark in winter. Each family
had its own hut. Unmarried men and boys of
eight or ten years and upwards lived together, and
separate from their parents and sisters, in what
we used to call the bachelors' camp. The huts
were nearly semi-circular in shape, and were set
up in such positions, and at such distances from
each other, as to secure a good deal of privacy to
the inmates. Generally, they were about twenty
feet apart, and all facing the same way, with their
278 RECOLLECTIONS OF
backs to the wind. I often noticed that, whilst
the white man will go a little out of his way to
camp where he camped before, the Black never
does so, but, if practicable, occupies a fresh spot;
on which subject a good deal in connection with
the instincts of the two races might be said.
When the nights began to get cold in autumn,
and after the first fall of rain made the forests
remote from the river—in which Opossums
abounded—accessible, it was usual for the men of
the Bangerang to set about making new opossum-
rugs; their old ones, in due time, being given up
to the women, children, or aged persons. Whilst
engaged in this business, the men hunted opos-
sums during the day, skinned them on their
return to camp, and, after feasting on their flesh,
pegged out the skins, each on a small sheet of
bark, which were then placed in front of the
fire, so as to dry gradually. This done, the
skins were scored with a mussel-shell in various
ornamental patterns, and were then fit for use.
When enough had been collected they were sewn
together, a sharp bone being used as an awl
to pierce them with ; the sinews of the animal
itself, or of the kangaroo, serving very well for
thread. This pegging out of Opossum skins was
a very favourite occupation, and the tap, tap, tap
of the dusky workman, as he sat at his fire chant-
ing his monotonous corroboree, might often be
heard far into the night. The manufacture of
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 279
Weapons also used to occupy a considerable portion
of the time not spent in eating, hunting, and
sleeping. Their arms were wonderful produc-
tions, when it is remembered they were wrought
with stone implements, pieces of shell, bone, &c.;
and it is remarkable that, though their fabrication
was enormously facilitated by the iron tools they
got from us, they fell off in beauty, and got to
have a sort of slop look about them. The making
of nets and baskets was left to the women; as
also the spinning of yarn out of the fur of the
ring-tailed Opossum, which was done with a sort
of spindle. This yarn was worn in many folds
round the neck as an ornament. The manufac-
ture of implements, clothes, and weapons, as also
cooking, were all carried on seated. The Blacks
never stood whilst at work. The men sat with
their legs crossed, a heel under each ham, the
thigh being close to the ground—a position which
the English thigh will not take. The women,
when seated, had both heels close to one ham, so
that only one thigh touched the ground.” Whilst
engaged in their various industries the camp
exhibited a very comfortable ménagère appearance,
which was much increased by the introduction of
smoking. Tobacco, iron tomahawks, and the
tinder-box, which relieved the women from the
* See plate in Mitchell’s “Expedition into Eastern Aus-
tralia,” vol. ii., p. 92, where the position of women sitting is
well shown. -
280 RECOLLECTIONS OF
trouble of carrying fire-sticks on the march, were
indeed the three boons which the Blacks received
from the Whites in compensation for endless
disadvantages.
Amongst the Bangerang there were also
several pastimes and games in vogue. Occa-
sionally, for instance, the men drew pictures of
corroborees or hunting scenes, with charcoal, on
the sheets of bark of which their mia-mias were
composed. Then the boys had a game with a ball
made of Opossum skin, and mimic battles with toy
spears and shields, to which in after life they
owed entirely their dexterity in the use of their
weapons. It was also common to practise their
toy spears on round pieces of bark, the size of a
dinner plate, which were bowled swiftly along
the ground.” The girls and women used some-
times to amuse themselves with a game resem-
bling our “cat's cradle,” with the difference that
it was played by one person, who used her lips as
well as her fingers in the conduct of the string.
Occasionally the children amused themselves very
cruelly with half-fledged birds and young animals,
which they invariably killed when tired of the
game. In the summer season the women and
* The Blacks very seldom threw their spears except when
actually hunting, for they were difficult to make, and their
points easily broken, though less so in the case of reed spears
than others. Certainly a Bangerang did not throw a spear
once in a week on the average of a year.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 281
little children, when not engaged in fishing, used
to bathe' a good deal for pleasure, swimming,
diving, and romping in a hundred ways. Of
course, neither boys above seven nor men were
with them. On such occasions constant peals of
laughter would be heard proceeding from the
merry throng, accompanied by a singular noise
reminding one of the beating of a drum, which
they made by striking their hands on the water
palms downwards, and forcing under it a quantity
of air. -
Like other tribes with which I have been
acquainted, the Bangerang used to have messen-
gers who went from one tribe to another to
arrange the times and places of meetings and
corroborees, and also to gather news. These men
we used to call postmen. They were personages
of no little importance amongst the tribes, and
welcomed accordingly, for the Blacks were, per-
haps, more fond of gossip than any other people
I have met with ; with this peculiarity, that if
anything of interest had occurred, each black-
fellow would make a point of hearing the news
direct from the postman, never being satisfied
with the relation at second hand. By means of
these messengers the tribes kept themselves
sufficiently well informed of what was occurring
in their neighbourhoods; and, on this principle, I
have no doubt that the first settlement of the
whites at Sydney was known for two or three
282 RECOLLECTIONS OF
hundred miles around before many months had
elapsed. Messengers occasionally brought with
them a small stick on which were several notches,
which they told us were yiletta (letters). I never
paid any attention to them, but I believe they
were a sort of evidence to their minds of the
truth of the message brought by the bearer.
As a rule the health of the Blacks in their
wild state was excellent; they decidedly ailed
less than Europeans. What they principally
seemed to suffer from was rheumatism, headache,
and an itchy eruption of the skin (shared with,
if not caught from, their dogs), which by the
Bangerang was called bàra. This complaint
prevailed most commonly in the winter, disap-
pearing in great measure in warm weather,
when bathing and diving for fish kept the skin
clean. During winter, when much tormented
with this complaint, opening with a sharp peg
the innumerable little pimples which it occasioned
was a great occupation in the camp, as also
scratching ; and I have known a man walk forty
miles to procure mussel-shells, with which to
scratch himself comfortably. The treatment in
bad cases of headache, which seemed to me to
occur principally to the least intellectual, and
between the ages of twenty and thirty, was
slightly gashing the temples ; whilst for rheu-
matism, friction and ligatures round the affected
limb were had recourse to. Treatment for snake-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 283
bite I never witnessed, but a neighbour of mine
informed me that one of a party of Blacks
encamped at his hut, being bitten by a snake on
the calf of his leg, he sat down by his fire whilst
his friends covered the leg with ashes as hot as
he could bear them. To this baking he sub-
mitted for some hours, when the evil effects of
the bite were said to have passed away. I do
not, however, recollect to have heard of any
symptoms being noticed to show that the snake
was a poisonous one ; whilst it is certain that the
Blacks were in great dread of the bites of these
reptiles, though they used to eat them occasion-
ally when killed by themselves. On the whole,
what I heard of the remedy gave me no great
confidence in it.
For the purpose of holding or carrying water
calabashes were used, which contained from one
to two gallons. They were made out of the
knots or excrescences which are common to both
box and gum trees. Like other savages, the
Blacks were skilful in producing fire from the
friction of wood. This was done in two ways, in
which, however, the principle was exactly the
same. One of the methods employed was to
rub a piece of wood about as long and twice as
thick as a carving-knife (which was quickly
shaped, either with the teeth or a tomahawk)
with considerable pressure, and at the greatest
speed attainable, transversely across a crack in a
284 RECOLLECTIONS OF
dry log. This crack would be about an inch
wide, or a little more, and about an inch deep ;
or, if it were too deep, a little dry earth would
be thrown in it, so as to bring it to the required
depth. Both the log and the piece of wood
selected were dry, but not rotten, nor, perhaps,
entirely free from their natural oils. Whilst
rubbing, the fingers of both hands were clasped
over the stick, and the operator kneeling. From
the powerful friction used there was a good deal
of smoke, and a nick was soon worn by the
knife-shaped piece of wood, in doing which a
quantity of dust was produced ; this accumulated
in a small heap in the crack, and in the centre
of this heap a spark was generated. The little
heap of dust was carefully removed on a leaf or
bit of bark, wrapped in dry grass (as is done
with tinder), and blown into a flame. After
many trials, I once made fire in this way myself,
and the task is not by any means an easy one ;
even those accustomed to the operation some-
times failed once or twice before succeeding.
The process occupied about sixty seconds, the
last thirty or forty strokes being made with all
one's might, as regards both speed and pressure.
It began firmly and slowly, and went on crescendo
till the finale. I never saw two persons assist
in the operation, as I have read. The sorts of
wood which I have seen used were pine, box,
gum, and grass-tree. When a person failed in
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 285
an attempt, he always recommenced in a fresh
place on the log. Any blackfellow with the
proper materials would make a fire in this way
in a few minutes. In the other mode in which
I have seen fire made the operator began by
making a hole quite through the centre of his
wommera, which was generally (and when I
saw fire made) of pine. This hole, which at
the entrance was large enough to admit the
point of a poker, gradually diminished to a
fourth of that size. This completed, the
Operator sat down on the ground, drew his
knees nearly up to his shoulders, placed the
wommera (stick with which spears are thrown)
under his feet, and with them held it tight on
the ground. He then inserted in the hole the
end of a grass-tree stick about thirty inches
long and of the thickness of a poker. This
stick he placed between the palms of his hands,
and rubbing them with great speed and a
strong downward pressure, backwards and for-
wards, caused the stick to move in like manner.
Smoke soon ensued, and a smell of burning wood;
the dust which the friction of the stick created fell
through the hole to the ground (through which
the stick could not pass), and collected in a small
heap, in the middle of which fire was found.
Descriptions which I have read of obtaining fire
by the friction of wood always left the impression
that it was the sticks themselves which ignited—
286 RECOLLECTIONS OF
which, indeed, is generally supposed to be the case,
but I doubt whether that is possible. Smoke in
large quantities can be obtained by rubbing sticks
together, but I never saw fire result from the
process. The children often used to amuse them-
selves in trying to make fire in the crack of a log
as described, but their efforts always ended in
Smoke.
The Bangerang mode of burial had nothing
remarkable about it. The dead were rolled up in
their opossum-rugs, the knees being drawn up to
the neck with strings, when the corpse was in-
terred in a sitting posture, or on its side, generally
in a sand-hill, in which a grave about four feet
deep had been excavated. A sheet of bark was
then placed over the corpse, the sand filled in, and
a pile of logs about seven feet long and two feet
high was raised over all. Round about the tomb
it was usual to make a path, and not unfrequently
a spear, surmounted by a plume of emu feathers,
stuck at the head of the mound, marked the
spot where rested the remains of the departed.
Women were interred with less ceremony.
To lay before the reader, however, anything
like a full account of my Bangerang neighbours
would require more time than I have at com-
mand, so I must content myself with a short
summary of their principal characteristics as they
seemed to me. Before doing so, I may premise
that much of what I have to say concerning this
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 287
particular people might without very great modi-
fication be applied to the whole of the tribes
inhabiting the country between Port Phillip
Heads and Brisbane.
The Bangerang, when washed clean, were of a
dark copper colour—some, however, being darker
and some lighter; the variations in this, as in all
other particulars, physical or mental, being less
than those found amongst Anglo-Saxons, French,
Germans, Turks, or other races of which I have
experience. Amongst the agricultural peasantry
of Grenada I noticed many individuals who struck
me as wanting little—at least as regards the parts
of the body exposed to the sun, namely, face,
hands, throat, and the lower portion of the leg—of
being as dark as the Bangerang. When born, the
children were almost white, but assumed the hue
of their race in a few days. The men, as regards
stature, may be described as nearer to the English-
man than the Frenchman, and less robust than
either, whether in trunk or limb. The lower
portions, both of the arms and legs, were slighter
than amongst us. Individuals standing over six
feet were not uncommon amongst them. As I
have already said, the women were smaller in
proportion to the men than is the case with
European females, and weighed, as I ascertained
by experiment, from 75 lbs. to 140 lbs. Under
the conditions of civilized life, and plentifully
supplied with food, it is noticeable that the
288 RECOLLECTIONS OF
aboriginal increases vastly in bulk in one genera-
tion, and the female quite loses her comparative
diminutiveness. Many of both sexes have also
become corpulent whilst living with the whites, of
which I seldom saw an instance amongst them in
their wild state. Sometimes this happens even
early in life.
The head of the aboriginal, which he always
carries well, is generally oval in shape, the bone
of the skull being much thicker than that of a
white man. The hair is always black, with a
tinge of auburn in it; coarse and plentiful, and as a
rule straight, but occasionally wavy, and, amongst
the fishing tribes on the rivers, sometimes
shortish and curly. Besides the hair on his
head, the Bangerang wore his plentiful beard,
moustache, and whiskers pretty much as nature
made them, merely shortening them now and
then ; an operation in which a small fire-stick
supplied the place of scissors. In quantity, his
hair was somewhat in excess of ours. Like
white men who wear beards, the Bangerang was
apt to become bald, but in a much less degree,
and later in life, than in our case; for I have
noticed that few white men wear a beard for
twenty years and retain a full head of hair. As
regards the women, I have seen them with very
thin hair in old age, without positive baldness.
Until middle age was past this defect did not
appear in either sex. As a rule the eyes of the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 289
Blacks were smallish, dark-coloured, the white
slightly tinged with yellow, set wide apart, and
much overshadowed by the brow, but vivacious,
expressive, and intelligent. Occasionally, how-
ever, they were large and liquid, and there were
amongst the Bangerang one or two women whose
eyes might be compared, in respect of beauty, with
those of the Cypriote, Gaditana, or Maronite.
As regards sight, that of the Blacks was mar-
vellous, whether in the matter of seeing quickly or
far. When a Black pointed out to another any-
thing in the distance, instead of using his finger,
he merely indicated the direction by obtruding his
beard, which was always sufficient. The women
pointed with a slight forward motion of the nose.
Indeed, their gestures frequently differed from
ours. For instance, they beckoned with the palm
of the hand down instead of up, and they ex-
pectorated with the teeth closed, one of the
incisors being removed in youth. When they sat
cross-legged, the knee, ham, and calf of the leg
touched the ground ; and, as expressive of anger,
they often thrust the end of the beard into the
mouth. Occasionally aquiline, the nose was
usually flat and wide-spread at its lower ex-
tremity; the lips, without exception, being full
and ugly. The mouth was large, the teeth
white, regular, and strong, and the breath sweet ;
the chin small and retreating, the jaw powerful
and massive. The neck was shortish, and inclined
20
290 RECOLLECTIONS OF
to be thick. As regards the chest, it was
generally, but not always, round rather than flat,
and well developed, as were the shoulders, the
upper portion of the arm, and the thighs. The
wrists and hands were invariably small, the men's
being less than those of the European female.
The fingers were of medium length, and the nails
often filbert shaped. Below the elbow and the
knee there was a decided want of substance.
The heel also obtruded somewhat, and the
women stood and walked with the toes a little
turned in, and the heels out. The back was
famously supplied with muscle, and being well
curved and hollowed-out at the loin (so that a
plummet-line dropped to the ground from midway
between the shoulders would fall well free of
the spine), gave that graceful carriage, firm and
elastic tread, for which the Australian Black is
remarkable. The skin was particularly velvet-
like to the touch.
The Bangerang endured well hunger, thirst,
fatigue, and climatic variations of temperature.
Though individual white men surpassed our
black friends as equestrians, especially in the
particulars of a graceful seat, hands, and judg-
ment, yet as scrub-riders and rough-riders
the average Bangerang excelled the average
stockman. He had better nerve, quicker sight,
and stuck closer to his saddle. Indeed, it was
wonderful to see with how little practice he
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 291
would come to the front in scrub-riding ; and how
well he would enter and take his line through
saplings, into which, at fifty yards distance, it
was difficult to detect an opening. What made
him, when mounted, a little deficient in grace
was, I fancy, the somewhat short neck, which was
characteristic of the race.
The Australian Black generally performs well
at cricket and other games, survives terrible
wounds, but succumbs readily to fever. I never
saw or heard of an albino amongst the Blacks,
though I have known several with imperfections
which dated from early childhood, and even from
birth. f
On the whole, the Australian savage is lighter
and less muscular than the Englishman, but more
active, has a better carriage and figure, and in
his wild state preserves his physical powers and
elasticity to a later period of life. As regards
the nude figures of the two races, I have
remarked how many whites there are of forty
years, who (presentable enough with the boot-
maker and tailor's gloze around them) seem half-
misshapen when stripped, a feature one does not
notice when the Black drops his opossum-rug.
As regards the inferior development of muscle
in the Black, it is particularly noticeable up to
his twelfth year or so, as up to that time he
cannot sufficiently supply himself with food. At
the same time, I never see a number of our
292 RECOLLECTIONS OF
countrymen stripped at a public bath but I
notice how few there are not in some measure
misshapen, and how inferior in symmetry they
are to the Blacks. Later on, when competent to
get his own opossum, the young savage develops
his muscle surprisingly. When age has sapped
his food-procuring powers, the figure becomes
greatly debased. In age, too, the face of the
Savage deteriorates far more than that of his
civilized brother, a certain painful vacuity and
Somnolency being frequently its prevailing ex-
pression.
The mental characteristics and development of
Australian aboriginals is a subject at which I
shall only glance. When I first met them, the
impression they produced upon my mind was,
that, superficially so widely different from our-
selves, they were in fact so like us; there
being, however, much about their conversation
which reminded one of children. Yet, with a
mind confined to few ideas, and those of a low
class ; with a language deficient in collective and
abstract terms, and which seldom supplies so
many as three numerals;* without history, almost
* The Bangerang Blacks have but two numerals, the
equivalents of one and two. Three was expressed as one two,
four as two two, five as two two ome, and so on ; but I am
convinced that very few of them had a precise idea of any
number greater than five, or perhaps seven. Frequently,
however, appointments to meet at certain places, at some
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 293
bereft of tradition, with but vague ideas of a
Supreme Being, the Australian savage (though
his mind seems to grow but little after twenty)
appears to me, nevertheless, to have within him a
latent capacity, moral and intellectual, equal to
that of the white man. To cultivate this capacity
to the highest standard would, no doubt, require
time—perhaps a century or two—and favourable
circumstances.
In mere intelligence and powers of observation,
and powers of reason, the Black very frequently
surpasses the British peasant, as at least one
writer (I mean Major Mitchell) has noticed.
His mind has a keener edge, if I may use the
term. Nor, in making this statement, do I con-
fine myself, for instance, to matters connected
with the pursuits of bush life, which might be
thought to be particularly in his line, as even in
our schools he has given strong proof of his
period within the limits of seventeen days or so, were arranged
in the following manner. The person who wished to fix the
day of meeting used to take hold of his left ear, and say jan-
jan, and that was the first day; he then put the fore finger
of his right hand on his collar-bone, saying krwk-kruk, and
that was the second day; and in this way he went on placing
it on his left shoulder above the muscle of the fore arm ;
below that muscle; and then on two spots between the elbow
and the wrist ; and then on the wrist and on each finger of
the left hand; after which he held up each finger of the right
hand; each spot on which he placed his finger, and each
finger held up, having its particular designation, representing a
day.
294 RECOLLECTIONS OF
capacity.” As an instance of his aptitude for
primary instruction in our learning, I may notice
that I have known black boys learn the principal
portion of the alphabet in a very few lessons.
The book from which the task was learnt was, no
doubt, a novel one, being the backs and ribs of
cattle on which the letters of the alphabet were
branded. These we used to point out and name
as we rode along ; so that, after a few lessons,
when your impromptu young stockman returned
from a ride amongst the cattle on the run, to the
question of whether he had seen any strangers
(strange cattle), he would reply as glibly as pos-
sible—“Oh yes; mine bin see two pella white
cow, brand rib AB (in) circle ; 'nother pella bul-
lock, CM, upside down, rump; 'nother pella ole
cow, brand R (in) diamond, shoulder ; one clean-
skin (unbranded beast), too, mine bin see.”
In respect of memory, that of the Black is
unusually tenacious. What he has once learnt
he seldom forgets and has at his finger ends.
Looking at him as a linguist, it is to be remarked
that he picks up very quickly any Australian
tongue. In his English a good deal of the con-
* One of the inspectors of our National Schools reports,
concerning the school for the aborigines at Ramayuk, that,
under peculiar disadvantages, it is rather beyond the require-
ments of the Education Board ; that at some of the examina-
tions there were no failures, &c. Indeed, the efficiency of this
school has been testified to by several inspectors.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 295
struction of his own language is apt to prevail.
When speaking, there is a rather remarkable
absence of gesticulation. For personal courage
I consider our black friends decidedly above par,
especially in that constituent of courage which we
call nerve. In this particular our savage has the
advantage of civilized races, as may be noticed in
his fighting, climbing, and riding. This quality
was frequently displayed on his first meeting with
white men mounted on horse or camel. Though
man and horse seemed to the Black one terrible
animal, or a being from the other world, they
were generally encountered with tolerable firm-
ness; and one instance is recorded of a solitary
savage meeting an exploring party far in the
interior, and opposing its advance single-handed
with club and shield, a feat of resolution and
nerve, when his stand-point is remembered, which
seems to me to compare favourably with anything
recorded in the annals of the human race. It
reminds one of fabled heroes attacking monsters
and goblins. When placed in circumstances of
peril, as a rule, the blackfellow displays more
than average resolution, and can—and in this he
often differs from his civilized brother—prosecute
with unshaken nerve anything he has undertaken,
however perilous. Nor should his aversion to
the rifle—he being armed with spears—detract
from his character for courage. Reverse the case,
and how would the white man act Indeed, we
296 RECOLLECTIONS OF
may remember that, before Western Europe got
used to the smell of powder, even the Chevalier
sans peur and sans reproche himself thought
fire-arms fitter for lansquenets and men-at-arms
than for belted knights.
As regards courage, I should say that the
White man has more resolution, and the black-
fellow better nerve. Though the Blacks used to
put up with a good deal of abuse from the station
hands and take little notice of it, their very
children would resent a blow or a push instantly;
and when rough-and-tumble fights did occur, on
most occasions of which I was a witness the
Black worsted his white antagonist. It was
curious to notice the tact of the Blacks in esti-
mating the standing of persons they casually met,
and that, after a few moments' conversation, they
would say whether a stranger was a gentleman or
one of the working class. Sometimes, however,
they would say, in doubt, imbat oberchia (I believe
overseer). &
A remarkable faculty of the Blacks, which
seemed nearer akin to instinct than to reason,
is that by which he finds his way about the bush.
It is born with him in embryo, and is strongly
developed at an early age. It is rare to meet a
white man, no matter what practice he may have
had, who can compete in this particular with an
average black boy of fifteen years of age. It is
also noticeable that whilst a white man's steering
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 297
in the bush—directed by compass, or its substitute,
the sun–is generally attended with some mental
effort, that the Black finds his way without refer-
ence to anything of the sort, though he has
names for all the cardinal points, and almost
without reflection. He takes no notice of his
shadow, and not much of where the sun sets or
rises, or of how the wind blows; so that a cloudy
day is not so inconvenient to him as it is to us.
A friend of mine puts it, that he has a compass
in his head which always points to any place he
wishes to reach And certainly his powers in
this respect are as like intuition as anything I
know. His recollection also, not only with
respect to the lay of a country, but of trifling
matters met with, is very remarkable, and he
will frequently recognize a tree, or a bush, once
seen, which have little that is noticeable about
them. With all this, however, he is not un-
erring. A blackfellow occasionally gets puzzled.
Neither is the faculty so strongly developed in
him as in cattle. Bush-bred cattle are, I believe,
unerring; so that a herd driven from its run, say
300 miles north, and then 300 miles west, will,
at pleasure, return step by step the way it went,
or make as straight a track home between the
two extreme points as a surveyor could with his
theodolite.
When not cut off prematurely, the Black lives
to a good old age, say sixty, seventy, or eighty,
298 RECOLLECTIONS OF
and occasionally longer. To the end, of course,
he must hunt, fish, and follow the wanderings of
his tribe. Eminently good tempered and jocose,
the blackfellow is full of bonhomie. He is so
given to joking that he never thoroughly takes
to anyone who will not laugh with him. Fun is
a ready passport to his goodwill. His natural
way of life does not subject him to the labour or
anxiety which are the lot of his civilized brother,
to whom, it is needless to say, he is far inferior in
cultivation, morality, generosity, gratitude, truth-
fulness, steadfastness, perseverance, industry, and
the power of long-continued labour. He seems
hardly to feel that lying is wrong, and feels little
compunction at taking human life. I believe
that, on the whole, the blackfellow in his wild
state suffered less and enjoyed life more than the
majority of civilized men. Amongst themselves
the Bangerang were scrupulously honest ; nor
had we anything to complain of in this particular
after we had come to understand each other.
Our huts were constantly left unprotected, and
yet it was very rarely, indeed, that anything was
missed. Mauvaise honte is unknown to the
Blacks, and they exhibit, as a rule, the most
perfect aplomb under all circumstances. They
are keenly alive to ridicule. Notwithstanding
much that was degrading in the position and
practices of what I may call the domesticated
tribes, the blackfellow had decidedly something
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 2.99.
of the gentleman about him, when out of the
reach of drunkenness and town influences. Tike
the gentleman reduced by circumstances to the
necessities of menial service, he was a good deal
bullied by the white labourer, who lost no oppor-
tunity of asserting his superiority over him ;
whilst, on the other hand, he was generally
treated by the educated squatter with a familiarity
which argued something of equality, and in
which the white labourer never shared. Though
usually good tempered, the Australian Savage is
subject to occasional outbursts of ungovernable
rage, and whilst the fit is on him he will stick at
no brutality. I should think he possesses an
equal aptitude with the whites for comprehending
religious teaching, if not for the practice of
religion. That tribes which have come in
contact with the whites have not been civilized,
is, in my opinion, owing to the fact that their
civilization has never been strongly desired by us,
nor perseveringly attempted. As regards the
aboriginal's inaptitude for steady labour, which on
his first coming in contact with civilization was
so very noticeable, it has already been pretty well
overcome. Even the old have been induced to
work pretty continuously, and to a great extent
have got reconciled to it; whilst, as regards the
schoolmaster, his labours have met with such
marked success that there appears to be but
little difference between the white boy and the
300 RECOLLECTIONS OF
black under his hands. Indeed, as regards
rudimentary education, I believe it has been
found that the black child is more easily taught
than the white. Altogether, the Blacks are a
likeable people, and in consequence were
generally welcomed at stations. The causes of
their popularity were their kindliness, fondness
for children, constant flow of spirits, love of fun,
bonhomie, and the ease with which they accom-
modated themselves to the likes and dislikes of
persons whom they wished to please. Of more
important characteristics, unfortunately, one has
to speak less favourably. Their stumbling-blocks
are puerility and want of character, and the
absence of morality and religion, which we have
not taught them.
Passing on to other matters, there are in con-
nection with the Bangerang some circumstances
particularly noteworthy, as they seem to afford
grounds for speculation on the subject of their
past history, of a more reliable character than
those vague traditions, which, in the majority of
cases, are all that can be found to reward the
perseverance of the inquirer. Concerning them
I may premise by remarking that I shall proceed
in what I have to say on the assumption (proof
of which it would be out of place to give here,
though it exists abundantly) that the progenitors
of the Australian tribes landed on the north coast
of the continent, and that their descendants, as
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 30}
they increased in numbers, spread along the sea-
shore to the east and the west, occupying the land
as they went, and peopling, as they met them, the
rivers which they encountered flowing from the
sea-coast ranges into the ocean or into the
interior ; disseminating themselves, in fact, in
every direction until they had gradually occupied
the whole of the continent from sea to sea. The
reader then will remember that it has been
related that there were nine tribes whose speech
was either pure Bangerang or dialects of that
tongue, and that they occupied the country
between the Goulburn and the Murray rivers
from their confluence, and a little below that point,
as far east as may be defined by a line drawn
from Yarrawonga, on the Murray, to Toolamba
on the Goulburn, as well as the country on the
north bank of that portion of the Murray, and on
the south bank of that portion of the Goulburn.
Of these tribes, which closely resembled each
other in other particulars besides language, I shall
speak collectively in what follows as the Ban-
gerang race.
The reader should also be aware that, as far as
is known (probably with some exceptions on the
north coast), the several hundred languages found
in Australia contain a number of words and
grammatical peculiarities common to the whole
series, and that, as a rule, the differences between
them occur gradually—that one language melts
302 RECOLLECTIONS OF
into the other as it were, so that it is frequently
difficult to decide where the dividing line between
two languages should be drawn ; and that
generally the amount of resemblance or difference
of speech between tribes can be estimated pretty
well by a knowledge of their geographical
situations and the distance and sort of country
which separates them. The ordinary exceptions
to this rule are found in cases in which two
portions of the race took their departure from
some point—say on the north coast, for instance
—by different rivers, the banks of which they
gradually peopled (leaving the arid and less
desirable country between them long unoccupied),
meeting finally again perhaps, after a hiatus of
centuries, as such wastes became peopled by an
expanding population; in which case, as these
unwritten tongues are constantly varying, two
neighbouring tribes would find each other's lan-
guages unintelligible, and yet with resemblance
enough between them to prove a common origin.
Now, in the case of the Bangerang race (whose
tongue possesses a fair proportion of the words
generally prevalent throughout Australia), we
find them inhabiting a country on the banks of
two large rivers, and so situated topographically
as to entitle us to expect that their language and
dialects would, following the general rule, present
a mere modification of those in use by the neigh-
bouring tribes; whereas, on the contrary, we
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 303
find them in reality surrounded on all sides by
tribes whose speech is lexically more distinct
from theirs than English is from French, the
dialects of such surrounding tribes being all
intimately connected the one with the other, and
being traceable, step by step, from the Castle-
reagh, in New South Wales, by the Lachlan,
Murrumbidgee, the Edwards, the Murray, and
the Goulburn rivers to the banks of the Yarra
Yarra in southern Victoria. It is also singular
that the only language in which I can find any
resemblance to Bangerang (less the words com-
mon throughout the continent above spoken of)
is the Goughi tongue, spoken on the Mungalalla
Creek, near the Balonne River, some five hun-
dred miles distant. .
Another peculiar circumstance bearing on the
history of these tribes, to the accuracy of which I
can testify, is connected with the native names of
the river Goulburn. The Bangerang name for
the Goulburn is Kaiela, and, as we have seen, that
part of the Bangerang race which inhabited the
lower portion of the stream called itself, and was
called by the Bangerong tribes, Kailtheban, or
people of the Kaiela. On the other hand, the
Ngooraialum (a fraction of the Castlereagh-
descended people which surrounded the Bange-
rang race) who dwelt on the Goulburn imme-
diately above Toolamba, where the Bangerang
territory terminated, called the Goulburn
304 RECOLLECTIONS OF
throughout its course Waaring, but always
spoke of the Kailtheban, and not of themselves,
as the Waaringulum, or people of the Waaring.”
The only way in which I can account for these
facts is by supposing—what I have no doubt
occurred—that when the Ngooraialum first saw
the Goulburn they found the Bangerang already
located on it, and named the river Waaring, and
its people Waaringulum, some time before they
established themselves on a portion of it.
That this conjecture may receive due weight it
is necessary that the reader should know that
illum (possibly from yellam, bark, their huts
being made of bark) was the Ngooraialum
equivalent for people or tribe ; as instances of
which it may be noticed that they frequently
called the Wangatpan Wangatpai-illum, and a
white man from Sydney they spoke of as Tidni-
illum, and so on ; but they never in their own
language spoke of themselves as Waaringulum,
or people of the Waaring, though they obtained
the name of Goulburn Blacks from the whites,
and came to use that term when speaking of
themselves in English. My conjecture is that
their name Ngooraialum sprung from their huts,
* It is noticeable that the Murray is called Kaiela by the
Ngarrimowro, whose country is just above Wongat, and that
below the country of the Bangerang it bears the name of
Mille, and subsequently of Millewa, so far at least as its
junction with the Darling.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 305
when they first located themselves on the Goul-
burn, being at a spot a few miles above Mur-
chison, on the north bank of the river, which
they called Ngoorai, and that subsequently that
spot came also to be named Ngoorai-illum, or, as
the whites now call it, Noorillim.
From these circumstances I have come to the
conclusion that, several centuries back, a portion
of some tribe on the outskirts of what was then
the occupied country—possibly the Mungalalla
Creek—absconded, and marched away to the then
uninhabited south, and when out of reach of
pursuit located themselves somewhere in the
vicinity of Yeilima (or Yiilima as I should spell
it), from which point they spread as they increased,
broke up into nine tribes, and occupied the
country which I have already described. That
subsequently, after their descendants had re-
mained isolated for a long period, probably a
century or two, they were come upon by the
advanced portion of the race which had been
gradually extending south from the Castlereagh
river, and were found speaking several dialects of
a language which the new-comers were unable
to understand. That as time passed on the
descendants of the Castlereagh tribes made their
homes in the unoccupied country, gradually sur-
rounding the Bangerang on every side; passed
onwards, breaking, as usual, into many tribes, but
retaining in their languages those evidences of
2]
306 RECOLLECTIONS OF
relationship which seem to the writer a record of
the past.
No doubt cases parallel to that of the Ban-
gerang have occurred more than once in the
history of our tribes; nor will anyone learned in
the ways of the race hesitate as to the cause
which led to secessions of the sort. No doubt
the common story was, that the elderly men of
a tribe having, as usual, appropriated to them-
selves the young women as wives, some of the
latter and a party of the young men eloped,
made forced marches far into the unpeopled
country, eluded pursuit, established themselves
on the banks of some unknown stream, and
became the progenitors probably of several tribes
before the constantly-advancing stream of popu-
lation came upon them. -
I have given reasons for asserting that the
Bangerang tribes were closely related, and formed
a sub-section of the aboriginal race, and also that
they were isolated for a long period from contact
with other tribes. Of the last-mentioned fact
another proof occurs to me. It is this. When
I settled in their country the Bangerang tribes
were all in close alliance, and in a chronic state
of war with the Ngooraialum and the other
Castlereagh-descended tribes which surrounded
them. It must also be understood that one of
the features of habitual friendship between tribes is
that, though the dialects of such tribes may vary
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 307
considerably, they have words in common for the
terms the Blacks, wild Blacks, and frequently
for the negative adverb. Now, in these terms
the Bangerang tribes differed a good deal,
which fact, with others which came to my know-
ledge whilst I lived amongst them, led me to
the following conclusion, viz. –That the Bange-
rang had not only lived long in seclusion, but
that they had existed in a state of chronic war-
fare amongst themselves, and that the friendly
terms on which I found them dated from the
time at which the Castlereagh tribes occupied the
country all round them and treated them as
wild Blacks—in other words, as enemies.
CHAPTER, XXII.
THE WARS OF THE BANGERANG.
IN the world's history how little, comparatively,
writers have had to say of the concerns of peace,
and how much of war ! Of this there are many
instances, and some ludicrous ones. Lockhart
tells a story of Sir Walter Scott, who, being in
Paris during the occupation of the Allies after
Waterloo, was invited to dinner by Earl Cath-
cart, who desired to present him to the Emperor
308 RECOLLECTIONS OF
Alexander. On this occasion the Wizard of the
North made his appearance (no doubt a good
device) dressed in the red and blue uniform of
the Selkirkshire Yeomanry Cavalry, in which
corps he held a lieutenant's commission; and
the Czar, overlooking, as of small importance,
Sir Walter Scott's world-wide literary fame,
questioned him, as was his wont, about the
engagements in which he had taken part. In
view of His Majesty's known prepossessions on
the subject of soldiers, Scott found himself
constrained to allude in reply to the actions
of Cross-Causeway and Moredun-Mill, little
known out of Selkirkshire, when the host came
to his relief, and dexterously led the conversa-
tion into some happier channel, rejoiced, no
doubt, that his illustrious countryman had been
able slightly to mystify the imperial brain.
But though, since the stirring times of the
first Napoleon, neither rulers nor ruled have
been quite so much engrossed with fighting
matters as they used to be, still throat-cutting
is natural to the species; and no doubt, in spite
of peace parties, interest will always attach to
the wars of peoples, civilized or savage, a circum-
stance which must be my excuse for saying some-
thing on the subject of Bangerang homicides.
When a tribe in our neighbourhood had a
substantial grievance against another which ad-
mitted of adjustment, such as the violation of their
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 309
territory or the abduction of some of their
women, it was usually fought out in broad day-
light with spears, boomerangs, and waddies; and
the scene of a score or two of active savages
doing their best to kill each other with such
weapons was not unpleasant to look on, when it
was borne in mind that the fracas would probably
result in nothing worse than a few ugly gashes
and contused heads, and a general make-up when
all was over. In my experience I never knew
anyone killed in such engagements, though I have
seen some narrow escapes, so dexterous were the
combatants in the use of their shields and so
quick of sight. The consequence was that the
whites came to look on these encounters rather in
the light of rough assauts d'armes than battles.
When a real hatred and blood-thirst took
possession of a tribe, matters proceeded very
differently.
Amongst the Bangerang, as indeed amongst
the whole of the tribes of Australia, so far as is
known, the cause, not of fights, but of bloodshed,
if we go to the root of the matter, was, nine times
out of ten, the belief that the deaths of persons,
no matter from what apparent cause other than
old age, were attributable to the spells and incan-
tations of some of their enemies—their enemies
including all Blacks not their intimate friends
and neighbours. This was an ever active and
fundamental idea of the aboriginal mind, and
310 RECOLLECTIONS OF
their hatred and fear of an enchanter were
infinitely greater than of a man who had slain
one of their tribe in fair fight with his spear.
With the deaths of women and young children
the Blacks did not generally much concern them-
selves, but to the savage machinations of wizards
were attributed, as I have said, all deaths,
whether from disease or accident; and for every
adult male who died from any cause save old age,
a corresponding victim was anxiously desired,
though fortunately not always sought by force of
arms, from the supposed offending tribe. Gene-
rally, indeed, revenge was gratified by counter-
incantations. When more active measures were
had recourse to, any adult member of the supposed
offending tribe would do as an expiatory victim,
though the death of a man was considered much
more satisfactory than that of even a young
woman. In connection with the history of our.
aborigines there is, perhaps, no more important
circumstance than this ; for this belief in the
taking of life by incantation, in its immediate and
collateral consequences, was the bane of the race.
It systematized murder throughout the continent,
rendered the friendship of the tribes at large
impossible, and was the great factor of savagery
and degradation. -
Of these native wars and assassinations I will
proceed to relate an instance or two.
In the Kailtheban section of the Bangerang
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 311
people there was a fine, stalwart, jolly fellow,
who, amongst the whites, rejoiced in the name of
Pepper. Master Pepper, in 1845, the period to
which I refer, was about twenty-six years of age,
stood five feet eleven inches in height, and
weighed thirteen stone or more. He was a
bachelor, good-looking in his way, a first-class
workman with spear and waddy, and one of the
merriest and most genial souls alive, so that it
was no wonder that he was a favourite in his
tribe and beyond it.
It happened, however, one day, whilst Pepper
was engaged with some others of the tribe in
Opossum-hunting, that the limb of the tree along
which he was walking gave way and precipitated
him to the ground. The height from which he
fell was, I understood, about sixty feet, and the
ground being rough and hard he was terribly
injured, so that, after lingering for a few hours in
a state of insensibility, the poor fellow died. The
death of even one warrior being a calamity to a
tribe, Pepper's death was of course the cause of
much rage and grief in Bangerang, and many
were the vows that the tribe of the enchanter who
had caused the branch to break should pay the
full penalty of the deed.
A few hours after Pepper's demise, the corpse
was prepared for burial. Duly swathed in old
Opossum-rugs, the knees drawn up to the chin
and the arms fastened to the side, the body
312 RECOLLECTIONS OF
assumed the shape of a large ball. It was then
placed on a sheet of bark and borne by the men
of the party, followed by the rest of the camp, to
the nearest sand-hill, a distance of several miles.
Sand-hills were selected as burial places on account
of their easy digging, hollowing out a grave in
the stiff clay with nothing but pointed sticks
being a work of very great labour. Arrived at
the place of interment, a hole large enough to
receive the corpse was sunk about four feet in the
sand. Whilst this was being done by a few of
the party, the rest, to the number of about five-
and-twenty, sat quietly round, smoking their
pipes and talking of their ordinary affairs. The
grave completed, the body was quickly consigned
to its last resting place, one blackfellow descend-
ing into the tomb to arrange the corpse on its
side. At this juncture the onlookers arose to
their feet, and, with that facility for passing from
laughter to sorrow so characteristic of the race,
gave vent to lamentations and yells which might
be heard a mile off. The men beat their heads
with the butts of their iron tomahawks until the
blood streamed over their faces and backs, whilst
the women (especially the old ladies, who were
always prominent actors in such scenes) proceeded
to burn their thighs, sides, and stomachs with
fire-sticks, amidst general cries of lamentation.
After a time, when these paroxysms of grief had
subsided, a sheet of bark, rather larger than the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 3.13
grave, was stripped from a neighbouring tree and
placed over the remains in a somewhat arched
form. On this were laid logs which had been
cut into suitable lengths; and finally the sand
was filled in, and heaped into a mound, some two
feet in height and seven in length. An oblong
space of about fifteen feet in length was then
cleared around the tomb, swept smooth, and the
war spear of the deceased, decorated at the point
with a plume of emu feathers, reddened with
ochre, was driven firmly into the sand at the head
of the grave; a simple ornament which always
struck me as particularly picturesque and appro-
priate. Finally, a slight fence of green boughs
was erected round the spot, and the mourners
returned in silence to a camp which they had
made not far off; those more nearly related to
the deceased to plaster their heads with mud and
daub their faces with pipeclay.
The following morning, just before daylight
(and at the same hour for months after), arose
from the camp that long-drawn-out wail of some
female relative of the deceased, which persons
familiar with our Blacks forty years ago will no
doubt remember. Here and there also, had any-
one stood in the camp, might have been noticed a
woman sitting at her fire, silently weeping as she
listened to the song of sorrow. Shortly after
sunrise the men, spear in hand (for no one ever
left the camp without at least one spear), went
314 RECOLLECTIONS OF
over to the new grave. Entering its enclosure,
they scanned with eager eyes the tracks which
worms and other insects had left on the recently-
disturbed surface. Concerning these tracks, I
was told by my brother, who was present, that
there was a good deal of discussion, as in the eyes.
of the Blacks, as we all know, they were believed
to be marks left by the wizard whose incanta-
tions had killed the man, and who was supposed
to have flown through the air during the night
to visit the grave of his victim. The only diffi-
culty was to assign any particular direction to
the tracks, as in fact they wandered to and from
every point of the compass. At length one
young man, pointing with his spear to some
marks which took a north-westerly direction,
exclaimed, in an excited manner, “Look here !
Who are they who live in that direction ? Who
are they but our enemies, who so often have
waylaid, murdered, and bewitched Bangerang
men : Let us go and kill them.” As Pepper's
death was held to be an act particularly atrocious,
this outburst jumped with the popular idea of
the tribe, and was welcomed with a simultaneous
yell of approval which was heard at the camp,
whence the shrill voices of the women re-echoed
the cry.
The principal point being settled, and all doubt
as to who caused Pepper's death being thus
removed from the Bangerang mind, grave
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA, 315.
deliberations followed for many days around the
camp-fires. The main body of the tribe was
collected, and messengers sent to the neighbours
to learn whether they had any objections to an
onslaught on the devoted people, as, owing to the
intermarriages of tribes, difficulties sometimes
arose in such cases. Spies, too, went quickly
into the hostile country to gain information as to
the whereabouts of its inhabitants. These pre-
liminaries having been gone through, those men
of the Bangerang who chose to be of the party,
and one or two volunteers from neighbouring
tribes, started on the war-path. As they had a
long forced march before them, and they had
agreed to go entirely without fire and to leave
their tomahawks behind, lest the smoke and the
noise of chopping out opossums should discover
their presence to their intended victims, they
applied at the last moment to my brother, who
was on the station at the time, for a small quan-
tity of flour, with which, of course, he declined to
supply them. All being ready, and the dogs
secured in the camp to prevent their following,
the war party, consisting of some fifteen men,
One by one, clubs and spears in hand, without a
syllable of adieu to wife or child, took their
departure, the sable forms of the dusky warriors,
who gradually fell into Indian file, being quickly
lost to sight amidst the shades of the forest.
What occurred on the occasion of this expedition
.3} 6 RECOLLECTIONS OF
was related to me some time after by more than
one of the actors in it, and may be taken as a
fair specimen of Australian warfare. It was as
follows:–
On leaving their own country the party pro-
ceeded stealthily, and chiefly by night marches,
to the neighbourhood of Thule station, visiting
on their way those spots (known to one of the
volunteers) at which parties of the doomed tribe
were likely to be found. After several days'
wandering from place to place, subsisting on a
few roots hurriedly dug up, and suffering con-
siderably from hunger and fatigue, they caught
sight, as they were skulking about towards sun-
down, of a small encampment, without being
themselves seen, upon which they retired and
hid in a clump of reeds. About two o'clock in
the morning the war-party left their hiding place
and returned to the neighbourhood of the camp,
and having divested themselves of every shred
of clothing, and painted their faces with pipe-
clay, they clutched their spears and clubs, and,
walking slowly and noiselessly on, soon found
themselves standing over their sleeping victims.
I can well realize the scene, for I have often
heard such described. Had there been an on-
looker at that moment near the camp, he would
have observed in front of the mia-mias several
small fires, some Smouldering, some burning up
brightly, and, to windward of them, the recum-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 317
bent figures of perhaps a dozen sleepers, little
and big, wrapped in their opossum-rugs. Close
by some of them he would have seen a number
of spears stuck upright in the ground, showing
where the men lay, and almost in the ashes
of the fires a pack of half-starved dogs.
Directing his eyes to the distance, he might
then have become vaguely sensible of some dark
objects in motion. If they had attracted his
attention, it would have been, however, only for
a moment, as their speedy fading from sight
would probably have led him to imagine them to
be only the result of changing clouds, and moon-
light in the forest. Suddenly he would once more
have caught sight of the dusky shapes, but this
time unmistakably, and nearer at hand. Then
he would have watched their approach, now lost
amidst the shadows of the trees, now re-appear-
ing and flitting lightly over spaces shone on by
the moon. Had he been a novice in such matters,
even then he might have failed to realize the
import of what was passing before his eyes, so
shadow-like and silent would have been the ap-
parition. By degrees, however, the objects he
was observing would become more distinct ; he
would recognize them to be men, naked, armed
with spear and club, bent nearly double, and ap-
proaching with quick noiseless steps. Soon they
would be at hand; within the halo of the camp-
fires, standing erect; when circles of white clay
3.18 RECOLLECTIONS OF
around the eyes, and streaks of the same material
along the ribs and legs, giving them the ghastly
look of skeletons, would become visible. He
would now see the expanded chest, the inflated
nostrils, the flashing eyes of the sinister visitors.
According to native custom no one was on
watch at the camp, and I have often heard the
Blacks say that their half-starved dogs seldom
gave the alarm in cases of strange Blacks, though
they would bark if the intruders were white men.
Arrived at the fires, the attacking party paused a
moment, held the points of their spears in the
flames and allowed them to burn a little, so that
another pang might be added to the wound they
were about to inflict; then with their fingers they
gently raised the rugs a little from the chests of
the doomed wretches, and at a given signal, with
a simultaneous yell, plunged their long barbed
spears into the bosoms or backs of the sleepers.
Then from the mia-mias, which were quickly
overturned, came the shrieks of the dying, the
screams of the women and children, blows of
clubs, the vociferation of the prostrate, who were
trying to defend themselves; the barking of the
dogs and the yells of the assailants, who num-
bered fully three to one. Altogether it was a
ghastly, horrible scene that the pale moon looked
down on that night at Thule; and with its enact-
ment it might be thought that the death of
Pepper had been avenged to the full. Such,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 3.19
however, was not the case. Whilst the massacre
was in progress, the men in the camp being
troublesome to despatch, as each struggled des-
perately as long as he was able, and with an
energy which few white men are masters of when
grievously wounded, a number of women and
children had made good their escape. These, it
was rightly judged, would return to the camp
after some hours, and to wait their coming and
murder them was at once determined on. With
this view the assailants betook themselves, whilst
it was yet dark, to a patch of scrub close at hand,
having first mutilated the slain in the most hor-
rible manner, torn out the kidney-fat from the
wreaking corpses, burnt the camp utensils, and
possessed themselves of such food as was to be
found.
From their lurking-place the half-starved
savages watched the camp until shortly after
sunrise, when the defenceless mourners made
their appearance and were at once seized. What
followed cannot be described. At last all were
killed, except one young woman, whom a black-
fellow rescued from the slaughter and took away
as his wife. Her fate, however, was not long
delayed, for, on the march home, which was
begun at once, a brute, whose thirst for blood
was unusually deep, walked up behind her and
knocked her brains out with his club. After the
slaughter of the women and children, daylight
320 RECOLLECTIONS OF
disclosed the fact that one of the attacking party,
a volunteer from a neighbouring tribe—the
murderer of the young woman—had slain his
own brother in the melée without recognizing
him.
One evening, late, a few days after these occur-
rences, I was at home when the war-party reached
their camp at Tongala, to which they had returned
by forced marches. Plump and greasy when they
started, they were now wasted in frame and
haggard in feature. Their habitual kindliness of
manner and bonhomie were gone, and in place
of them there was nothing but boasting and brag-
gadocio, and a sort of look difficult to analyze,
but, as it seemed to me, expressive of guilty fear.
The night of their return, though a reprisal was
apprehended, I noticed they adhered to their
custom of not keeping watch, and we felt relieved,
the next morning, when the whole horde com-
menced its retreat of a hundred miles up the
Goulburn. During the absence of the war-party,
those left behind used to say that the ghost of
Pepper appeared constantly at night to the chief
conjurer, to whom he had given a clay pipe of a
different pattern from any previously known in
the camp, and also to his sister-in-law, to whom
he had taught a new corroboree, which she sang,
and which was afterwards in vogue. Except
statements of this sort, showing a good deal of
childishness and deceit, and the peep-of-day
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 321
wailings of the women which were still to be
heard even when the tribe returned to our neigh-
bourhood some months later, nothing further was
said about Pepper.
As another instance of the bloodthirsty pro-
ceedings of the Blacks, which, happily, were not
of frequent occurrence, may be related the fate of
a youth in my employment. Jimmy-Jack, as he
was called, was a Bangerang boy of about
fifteen years of age. Of a particularly mild dis-
position, he seemed to take to civilized ways more
easily than his fellows; and for that reason, though
he was somewhat less robust than others of his
age, he was installed in the post of “general
useful” about the place, in which capacity his
obliging disposition made him quite a favourite.
The boy took his meals in the kitchen, his duties
being to get up the saddle horses and working
bullocks in the morning, accompany the wool
dray to town occasionally, and ride with my
brother and myself when we went out kangarooing
or duck shooting, with other light services of the
sort. After Jimmy had been a year or so in our
service, and, as the effects of his residence in the
kitchen, had got to shine all over like a well-
polished boot, it happened that I was setting out
on one of my periodical hunting trips (of which I
shall have something to say in a subsequent
chapter), and that I asked the boy if he would
like to accompany me. As, however, he preferred
22
322 RECOLLECTIONS OF
remaining at Colbinabbin, I left him to the care
of the four worthies then resident at that out-
station. These individuals, I remember, were, like
most of my servants, rather a nondescript lot, and
consisted of the hut-keeper, Antonio Fiore, a
native of Calabria, and originally a sailor, who
(though, as far as I had experience of him, a good
servant and an honest old fellow enough) I
always used to fancy might possibly, in his youth,
have had some slight experience of the gentle
craft of pirating in the West Indies. Besides
Antony, there were three shepherds—one of
whom, in days gone by, had been huntsman to a
crack pack of fox-hounds in the Green Isle; the
second had found his way from the same country
to Australia, as the result of his connection with
some secret society and an unlucky blow with his
shillalah ; the third being an active young Scot,
who, if he had not seen the view about which
that playful old lion, Sam Johnson, twitted
Bozzy as the one which possessed the greatest
charms for the dwellers in the land of cakes—
7.e., the road to England—had, at all events,
availed himself of the, perhaps, not less agree-
able track to Australia. In charge of these four
worthies I thought the boy quite safe, no danger,
indeed, being apprehended. On my return to
Colbinabbin, however, a month later, from the
trip to which I have referred, I received from old
Antony the following account of his fate.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 323
Some few days after I left the place, it appears
that four strange Blacks from the neighbourhood
of Hamilton's Sugar-loaf came to the hut. They
were unaccompanied by women or children, and
as soon as Jimmy saw them he said in a some-
what excited manner that they had come to kill
him. The strangers camped at a little distance
from the hut, to which, however, they constantly
came during the day, as Blacks will, pretending
to be friendly, the poor boy making them presents
of tobacco and other trifles. When the shepherds
brought their flocks to the folds that night, they
heard of the arrival of the Blacks and of Jimmy's
forebodings, and the young Scot, with native
good sense, endeavoured to get the poor fellow to
make a start for Tongala during the night, and so
give his enemies the slip, offering very kindly to
accompany him with his gun for several miles on
his road, so as to see him past all danger. This,
however, the boy declined to do, alleging that he
could not walk the intervening five-and-thirty
miles, as there was no water on the road; the true
reason, I fancy, from the inquiries I made, being,
that he was paralyzed with fear—fascinated by
his enemies. Be this as it may, the Scot next
day loaded the only gun at the hut, and insisted
on Jimmy accompanying him out shepherding,
giving the Blacks to understand that he would
shoot any of them who attempted to follow
him. They, however, disclaimed any intentions
324 RECOLLECTIONS OF
of mischief, and remained some days at the place,
Jimmy always going out with the shepherd.
On the fourth morning they came to the hut
at breakfast time to say good-bye, and then
started, as they said, for their own country. The
unwelcome visitors having left, it was thought
unnecessary for Jimmy to go out with the shep-
herd, so he remained with old Antony at the hut,
and shortly after breakfast was bending over a
sheep which the hut-keeper was skinning, when
they heard the exclamation “Waugh ſ” and were
raising their heads when Jimmy's back was
pierced by a heavy jagged spear, which went
clean through and pinned him to the ground.
The weapon was hurled by one of the four
Blacks thought to have left, who had approached
unobserved, and now stood close to Antony and
the boy, naked and painted for murder. Two
of these wretches then seized old Antony, half-
dead with fright, and hurried him to the hut,
threatening his life in case of resistance; whilst a
few blows of a club completed the murder of the
boy. The corpse was then carried off by the
murderers, and was found floating in the creek a
few days afterwards, the kidney-fat having been
abstracted through an incision in the side. I need
hardly speak of the sorrow and indignation which
this catastrophe caused me, especially as I well
knew there were no hopes of bringing the
murderers to justice.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 3.25
Besides these disgusting assassinations, without
a description of which the life of an Australian
savage would be but ill understood, fights between
tribes and individuals also occurred occasionally
in the locality about which I am speaking. These
were usually the result of acts which, according
to their code, were injurious in a minor degree
only, and were atoned for by fighting, and, of
course, the risk of death or wounds, as used to
be the case in duels. Of encounters of this
description I saw several at one time or another.
One of them was on a fine autumn morning as I
was about to take a plunge in the river.
As I passed by the camp on my way to the
water, I could see the Blacks rolled up in their
opossum-rugs, taking their morning nap. The
air was somewhat chilly, and here and there an
old man sat before the fire, which he had drawn
together, smoking the heel of his pipe and
warming his fingers in the blaze. As I stood for
a moment looking about me, the sun appeared
through the trees red and round, when a young
Towroonban Black, called Monoorumbe, got on
his legs, gazed on the sleepers, stretched himself,
took up some reed spears, his throwing stick, two
shields, a boomerang, and a club, and walked
about fifty yards on to the plain. “There !” said
he in his own language as, drawing himself up,
he turned round and faced the camp. “There !”
repeated the savage ; and his exclamation, and
326 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the rattle of his shields and club as he threw
them on the ground beside him, seemed to awake
some of the sleepers, who sat up, rubbed their
eyes and looked about, but did not speak. As
these were the premonitory symptoms of a fight,
of course I halted, towel in hand, to witness it.
At first, matters went on a little slowly.
Monoorumbe was still alone, standing at his ease
in the sunshine, covered with his opossum-rug.
He leant lightly on two or three reed spears,
which he held in his right hand; the sole of his
left foot resting on the opposite thigh. As yet
no one moved in the camp, so he again broke
silence. “Ngooraialum men,” said the Tow-
roonban, “talk at night in the camp and say
they’ll fight when the sun comes. When the sun
comes they forget to fight—they sleep. I spit
on them.” And so he spat demonstratively on
the ground. At this juncture the shrill voice of
a middle-aged woman gave vent to one or two
rather uncomplimentary phrases; then came a
reply from a younger female, when most of the
persons at the camp sat up. Then followed a
rejoinder, when the young woman dropped the
rug from her shoulders, and, dragging it along the
ground in her left hand, walked threateningly
towards the elder woman, abusing her at the top
of her voice.
This dragging the rug along the ground was
always the culminating sign of anger in the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 327
female; the men occasionally dropped theirs
entirely when moved to much anger, but the
women never let theirs go altogether. At this
juncture two or three female relations seized the
young woman, and forced her to cover herself
and be seated. Next followed a little delicate
abuse from our early-rising friend, Monoorumbe,
when a young man at the Ngooraialum fire called
out in contradiction, “Thago’’ (No 1) “I spit on
you !” said the Towroonban. “Yes; and did you
ever spit blood 2" was the reply ; and with these
words the Ngooraialum rose, deliberately conveyed
his weapons one by one from the ground to his
hands, by the medium of his toes, shoved a
boomerang through a belt of opossum skin which
he wore round his waist, and stalked majestically
on to the plain. The combatants now stood
facing each other about thirty yards apart, the
manly attitudes of the savage erect and on foot
offering a marked contrast to the figure presented
when squatting at his fire. “Pir’ (proceed),
said Monoorumbe, and simultaneously they let
fall their opossum-rugs on the ground. “Take
that l” said the Towroonban, who had shipped
on his yoolwo, or throwing stick, one of the reed
spears, which he now launched at his foe.
All that listlessness of manner common to
persons who have just awoke, and so noticeable a
few moments back, had now left the combatants,
and every nerve was braced to the utmost, for a
328 RECOLLECTIONS OF
spear well planted is death. The right arm of
Monoorumbe was no sooner thrown back than
the Ngooraialum was in position, his shield
before him, his knees and back well bent, and his
left shoulder in advance. As the spear came on,
he sprung forward a pace, quivering his shield in
his left hand, and with it touched the light
weapon which flew swiftly towards him breast
high from the ground, deflecting it from its
well-aimed course. Then followed another spear,
which the Ngooraialum, stepping aside, avoided.
A third nearly fell short, and he only raised his
right foot, the weapon sticking quivering in the
spot vacated. The next was better thrown, and
the defendant only just escaped its entering his
loins by bending his back till I thought it would
have broken. He had miscalculated its flight a
few inches, and a half-shy smile, such as one may
see on a schoolboy's face when caught tripping at
Cricket, came over his countenance at this want of
dexterity, which had well-nigh cost him his life.
“There !” said Monoorumbe, as he paused, his
spears all thrown. It was now the Ngooraialum's
turn, within a few yards of whom I was standing.
A savage shadow passed over the smile which had
been on his face. He now meant to do his best
to kill his adversary, so, clutching his boomerang
by its extremity, he drew it deliberately from his
belt. This weapon, as the reader probably knows,
is in shape very like a scimitar without the
&
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 329
handle, but broader and thicker. The Ngoo-
raialum drew it out, held it opposite his cheek,
turned it once or twice from side to side by a
movement of his wrist, as if to calculate its
weight, threw back his right arm and leg, and
then, with a step forward, hurled it at his adver-
sary. Straight flew the she-oak blade, with a
hurtling sound, such as the hawk makes when,
almost grazing your horse, he swoops on a quail
which your kangaroo dogs have flushed from the
grass. Just in time to save his head, Monoo-
rumbe stepped to one side, raised his shield, and
let the missile pass by. Then followed three or
four spears, thrown with great force and accuracy,
which the Towroonban deftly turned aside with
his shield.
At this stage of proceedings the old men in
the camp interfered, to prohibit the throwing of
more spears, suggesting that enough had been
done in that line to satisfy the pundonor upon
which the misunderstanding had arisen, inviting
the combatants to conclude the business with
shield and waddy, from which—so thick is the
aboriginal skull—little danger used to be appre-
hended. To this the combatants consented. In
a moment they laid aside the weapons they
had been using, and stood foot to foot, a heavy
shield in the left hand and a club in the right.
Their left shoulders were in advance, the weight
of the body being supported by the right leg,
330 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the shield and club forming an arch over the
head. Then followed blow after blow in quick
succession, yielding a jarring sound when warded
off by the shield, and a soft thud when the club.
fell on the flesh. The bronze-coloured combatants.
were well matched, lithe, and strong. Resolute,
and savage of aspect, their keen eyes glistened
from under their heavy over-hanging brows.
They fought hard, but, as it seemed to me,
without acharnement. The exertion, however,
was so great that it could not be long upheld.
As an exhibition of the primitive fighting of
savage men, the passage of arms might have
found favour as an interlude in the Flavian
amphitheatre. On this occasion, however, the
habet would not have been heard, for, after a
time, the friends on both sides again interfered
and stopped the fight, the combatants being
much gashed about the head, and blood flowing
freely; a dazed, drunken sort of look being the
expression of their faces as they walked back to
the camp.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 33].
CHAPTER XXIII.
COLBINABBIN TAKEN U.P.
I HAVE already related that I took up Coragorag
in August, 1843. In the January following I
squatted on Colbinábbin Creek, occupying sub-
sequently Cócoma, Dirra, Wóllenjo, Gargárro,
Námerong, and Ullumbiábbil, which gave the
station (inclusive of two large gaps) a length of
between fifty and sixty miles from end to end,
with an area of more than three hundred square
miles, as will be seen by reference to the map
of the station. But though most of our occupa-
tions of country had some little history connected
with them, I think, out of regard to my readers'
patience, and in fear of the Ohe jam satis, I
must restrict myself to that of Colbinabbin, which
came about in this way. During the months of
November and December, 1843, a fire had run
over the Pūrnewong, Corágorag, Gargårro, Col-
binábbin, Wongūlta (now pronounced one halter),
Gobérip, Redcastle, and Rushworth country, and
how much beside I cannot say. Where, or in
what manner, such fire originated, nobody in those
days troubled themselves to inquire, or thought
much about. Probably this one was set a-going
by someone burning a patch of country near the
Campaspe to lamb his sheep on ; or by a black-
fellow dropping a fire-stick whilst travelling from
332 RECOLLECTIONS OF
One water to another. At all events, constant
clouds of smoke visible at Tongala made it
evident that an extensive conflagration was going
on in that part of the country. Some time, how-
ever, in December it was extinguished by a heavy
downpour of rain, which occurred just as I was
on the point of making a trip to town. As the
reader is aware, I had several times crossed the
Colbinabbin Plains in 1841 and 1842, when the
creek was almost destitute of water ; and it will,
no doubt, seem natural that, as my father's flocks
were increasing, and that for country, like other
things, l'appétit vient en mangeant, I should wish
to become possessed of so fine a sheep-run.
Indeed, almost the first time I saw Colbinabbin,
I made up my mind to take it up as soon as
heaven sent it a supply of water.
Such being my intention, it occurred to me, on
my road to town, that no time should be lost in
applying for a license, as the late heavy fall of
rain on the burnt ground must certainly have
flooded the creek. Accordingly, on reaching
Melbourne a day or two later, happening to meet
the Commissioner of Crown Tands in the street,
I made a verbal application for the country.
Whether, however, the Commissioner, whom I
had always found very ready to grant the appli-
cations which I considered myself entitled to
make, had begun to think them of too frequent
recurrence, or what, I cannot say; but, at all
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 333
events, he hesitated on this occasion, and only
consented to grant my application on the con-
dition that I should be the first to put stock
On the country. This decision I remember rather
annoyed me at the time, as it seemed unreason-
able in itself, and I had made up my mind to
remain a few weeks in town, which I now felt
myself unable to do with any satisfaction, as it
struck me that the Commissioner, who was likely
to be informed on such points, might know
someone beside myself who was enamoured of
Colbinabbin, and that delay in the matter might
be fatal. The consequence was, that, the morning
after our interview, I started hurriedly for Ton-
gala—not, however, by the Goulburn road, by
which I had come to town, but by the Campaspe,
as I was afraid that my unexpectedly early
return might lead to suspicions about Colbin-
abbin, if any one of my neighbours was really
thinking of taking it up. Pushing on, I got
over the hundred and fifty miles between Mel-
bourne and Tongala early on the third day,
having learned from a blackfellow on the road
that the Colbinabbin plains were, as I expected,
covered with magnificent feed, and the creek full
to the brim. As it happened, the further I
rode, the more I thought of the subject, and
the more uneasy I became lest someone should
be beforehand with me ; so, when I arrived at
my hut, I set to work to get ready to cross from
334 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the north to the south bank of the Goulburn the
flock of scabby sheep with which I intended to
occupy the new run. Next day, by making a
great effort, this was managed, and the flock
started on the road ; my brother, who conducted
the expedition, taking two men with him, and
on the bullock-dray, which was about to start
for town with lambs’ wool, such provisions and
tools as would be immediately wanted. As, how-
ever, boilers, materials for dressing sheep, and
other bulky articles, for which there was no room
on top of the wool, required to be sent out, I
determined to ride over to Kotoopna, a station
some fifteen miles off, and borrow a horse-dray
in which to convey them.
Starting early next morning I found my neigh-
bour at home, who very kindly placed his dray
and harness at my disposal, so that so far I was
fortunate. There were, however, two difficulties
in the way of my making use of it which had to
be overcome, for the dray was on the wrong side
of the Goulburn—a deep and awkward stream to
cross, as the reader is aware—and my chestnut
mare which I was riding had never been in
harness, and might object to be utilized in that
way. However, as I was not possessed of a
draught horse, there was no choice but to try
what could be done with the chestnut, or wait a
month inactive for the return of the bullock-dray.
So, as no harm could come of trying, I set to
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 335
work at once to get the dray across the river.
As there was neither boat nor log-punt at the
station, this had to be done by floating it, the
first step being to lower it down an almost
perpendicular bank of twenty feet to the water's
edge by means of a bullock-hide rope passed
round a tree. Having accomplished this with
the assistance of my neighbour and his cook
(the only two persons at the head station), we
lashed a cask on the centre of the dray, leaving
about ten feet of the rope as a painter with which
to tow it across the stream. That job fell, of
course, to my lot, and I remember it cost me as
severe a struggle as anything of the sort I ever
undertook, though at that time I was a good
swimmer. Everything being ready, we pushed
off the dray, and, taking the painter between my
teeth, I struck out for the opposite bank, or
rather for a sandspit on the other side about a
hundred yards below the point of departure.
To overcome whilst swimming the vis inertia of
so heavy and clumsy a body as a dray, and
keep it progressing athwart stream, was, as I
have said, a difficult task, and I only accom-
plished it after a hard struggle and any amount
of “buffeting with lusty sinews.”
Arrived at the sandspit, I was met by the
cook, who had crossed over in a miserable bark
canoe which seemed as likely to sink as to swim,
and with him unlashed the cask, and, having
336 RECOLLECTIONS OF
improvised a sort of rough Spanish windlass, with
much trouble we got the dray up an inclining
bank on to the level ground.
So far, all had gone well, and it only remained
to be seen whether I should be able to get the
chestnut, who had never had a collar on in her
life, to perform her part of the business. At that
time, I may remark, I had never seen a horse put
into harness for the first time, and was quite
ignorant of the process, or possibly I should not
have undertaken what I did; but with the bliss-
ful inexperience of a young bear whose troubles
are all to come, and with a helpmate more
ignorant than myself, I set to work at once to
grapple with the remaining difficulty. On this
occasion a facility which my friends used to say I
had with horses possibly stood me in good stead
and supplied the place of experience. At all
events, having put on the harness, I mounted the
mare and rode her about a bit, and then put on
the winkers, allowing her to feed for a while on
the grass, whilst I held the rein and had a smoke
and yarn with the cook, who was a sailor by trade,
about windlasses and purchases generally.
When “old Mary,” as we called her, had got
a little accustomed to the harness, with the
assistance of the cook I put her quietly into the
shafts—for she was so used to my ways that
she would allow me to do almost anything with
her—and with very little trouble, though a very
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 337
old lady, got her started, and carried off my
dray in triumph. The next day, loading it
with about twelve hundredweight of necessary
articles, I set out, with one of my men, to
follow the sheep to Colbinabbin. The distance
we had to go was about thirty-five miles, which
took three days to accomplish, for the ground
was rough, and I did not care to distress the
mare with the unaccustomed work. Altogether,
though I was anxious about the occupation of
Colbinabbin, the trip was enjoyable enough ; the
plains, at the time fresh and verdant, abounding
in turkeys, ducks, emu, quail, and ibis, some
of which I knocked over, and out of which I
learned my brother had made a fine bag as he
went along. Indeed, in our part of the country
there was no better shot or keener hunter than
my brother Richard, who had also an intuitive
knowledge of the ways of animals, wild and tame,
which I have seldom seen equalled, and never
surpassed.
Arrived at Colbinabbin, I was delighted to find
my party in undisturbed occupation, and that the
little serpentine creek, embosomed in trees, now
full to overflowing, and the green rolling plains
and picturesque ranges were indeed possessions of
my father. Of course, only squatting possessions,
which, however, before the discovery of gold it
was generally thought would last our time at
least. As for the value of the country thus
23
338 RECOLLECTIONS OF
secured, it could easily have been sold for a
thousand pounds even in those times, so that
we had every reason to be pleased.
The day after my arrival we set to work to
make a hut for the men, the sheep camping with-
Out any trouble in the bend of the creek, which is
now Mr. Winter's garden. We had also to cut
down a number of trees, and put up some bough-
yards, in which to erect a bullock-hide dip for the
sheep, as I had determined to clean our last
scabby flock.
The arrangement of the new station, putting
up an extra hut or two, &c., and dipping the
sheep occupied about a month; and I remember
I was sitting one evening, shortly after my arrival,
on a water-keg before the fire, covered with dust,
and very dirty, Smoking a quiet pipe, when one
of a party of Blacks who had found us out, and
camped close by, informed me that three horse-
men were coming over the plain. Of course we
wondered who they were, and what their business.
Half-an-hour solved the question, as the trio
proved to be my neighbour from the Toolamba
station, with his storekeeper and a blackfellow ;
the two white men being armed with guns. As
was the custom, I invited them to dismount, and
ordered tea to be made. My neighbour, whom I
installed on the keg, appeared to be in the worst
of humours, and it soon came out that he had
taken up Wongulta Creek, which lay some five
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 339
miles to the eastward, and had come over to
Colbinabbin (which he had also decided to oc-
cupy, not knowing that I had been beforehand
with him) for the purpose of determining the site
of the hut which he meant to erect there for his
men. It rather amused me that my neighbour,
having no one else to make a confidant of,
in a very complaining sort of way sought
my sympathy in his disappointment; especially
when he informed me that he had never seen the
country before that day, but only heard of it from
the Blacks, and that he now regretted exceed-
ingly my having forestalled him. “I cannot tell
you,” said he, “how much annoyed I am at find-
ing you here. I had no idea what fine country
this is. I thought you held a large country on
the Murray, and did not expect to find sheep of
yours out here.”
Whether puerility or pure selfishness pre-
dominated in these remarks of my neighbour, the
reader can judge for himself. I merely laughed
and said, “I might say the same of your occupa-
tion of Wongulta; ” but that I had injured him
was, I could see, a fixed idea in his mind.
Having finished his pot of tea and met with no
sympathy, my neighbour very shortly got up to
go. As he was mounting his horse an expression
escaped him that led me to infer that he intended
to dispute my right to the country, and send a
flock of his sheep on to the creek for that
340 RECOLLECTIONS OF
purpose. Not appearing to notice his words, I
said carelessly, “How I regret I cannot, like
you, leave this rough work behind me and ride
home. However, in another fortnight the sheep-
dressing will be over and I shall be at liberty.”
“What,” said he, with something almost fierce in
his tone, “are your sheep scabby ?” “Oh yes,”
I replied, “this flock is a little so, and I have
brought it here to be out of the way.” This
answer rendered his bringing his sheep near mine,
for the purpose of disputing my possession, out of
the question, and was, I think, the last drop of
bitterness in his cup that day : at all events he
turned his horse's head and rode away without a
word in reply. But peace to his ashes | Though
he was only a young man at that time, it is now
nearly thirty years since, as the result of losing in
the old country the money he had realized on the
Goulburn, he laid violent hands on himself.
My sheep had not, I think, been more than six
months at Colbinabbin, to which I had also
brought a second flock, when the owner of the
Ardpatrick, or Cooma station, on the Goulburn,
sent a couple of flocks to the plains, locating
them about five miles from my hut on a water-
hole called Tongalum, which lies at the southern
extremity of Paboinboolok, or Lake Cooper, as it
is now called. Their owner was the person of
whom the reader has heard before as entertaining
inimical feelings towards the unfortunate “Prince
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 34 I
Chairlie ; ” the same who good-naturedly lent me
his mare on an occasion when I was hard up for
a mount. Though at the time the country
absolutely abounded with grass, and, save where
my Toolamba neighbour and myself had located
ourselves, was unoccupied and unclaimed in every
direction, my Cooma friend persisted in feeding
his sheep on what I considered to be my country.
This no doubt was natural enough in a purely
selfish point of view, as he was merely endea-
vouring to provide for the future by establishing
through occupation a claim to as much of the
country as lay between our two huts as he was
able, leaving to the future his boundary battles in
other directions with new arrivals when they
should come.
Though I took this proceeding in high dudgeon,
we met, nevertheless, to talk the matter over in an
amicable way; but as we failed to agree, I made
an application to the Commissioner of Crown
Lands to define the boundary line between us.
Of that official, and his multifarious duties in his
district, I have already spoken ; but I may repeat
that not the least important of them were to
grant licenses to squat, to decide the amount of
run to which the stock in possession of each one
entitled him, and to determine the boundaries of
runs. To the discharge of these functions, on
which depended results most important to every
sheepowner, the Commissioner of our district
342 RECOLLECTIONS OF
brought, it was pretty generally agreed, I believe,
a thorough impartiality, unaccompanied, unfortu-
nately, by much common sense or business habits.
In accepting my applications for country, for
instance, I never saw him mark a tree, take a
compass-bearing, or make a memorandum—a
neglect which, if a common practice with him, as
I believe it was, accounts for much of the sub-
sequent disagreement and litigation between run-
holders; and yet I think I am correct in saying
that even his autocratic and lax mode of doing
business was held generally to be more satis-
factory than the cost and delay which would
inevitably have accompanied any elaborate sys-
tem. But though the official acts of public men
are fair subjects for comment, I should have
abstained from relating what follows, had it not
been that the gentleman to whom I refer is no
longer alive, whilst the failure of duty which
occurs in my story will, I hope, be found of a
nature not calculated to trouble any of the friends
he has left behind. Indeed, but few will recog-
nize the gentleman to whom I refer, who, with
many good qualities, had, like the rest of us, no.
doubt, his weak points.
The Commissioner's reply to my application
about the boundaries reached me at Tongala, I
think, two or three months after it had been
made ; a letter appointing a day of meeting
at Colbinabbin for the purpose of settling
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 343
the question being delivered to me by one of
his troopers, a few days in advance. On the
morning before the day specified, I remember
I left Tongala on a well-bred, showy young
horse, of which I was not a little proud, and
which it gave me pleasure to think would attract
the admiration of the party I was about to meet
at Colbinabbin. This little vanity, however, met
its appropriate punishment, for when I got up
next morning I found that my quadruped had
absconded during the night in his hobbles, and
left me in the lurch, which a less flighty animal
would most probably not have done ; the conse-
quence being that when the Commissioner, my
two neighbours, and a posse of police troopers
arrived at Colbinabbin, I was obliged to join the
party without him. At any time it is unpleasant
to accompany on foot a lot of mounted men;
doubly so when one has business on hand, and
the dismounted unit is unaccustomed to walking.
On this occasion, too, it was an additional
nuisance to find, from words which reached my
ears now and then, that my two neighbours
were quietly talking over the unsuspecting
Commissioner in a manner which could not
have occurred had I been able to join in the
conversation. In fact, I found that my prior
and authorized occupation of the country was
being lost sight of, and that the Commissioner
was being induced to treat our several claims as
344 RECOLLECTIONS OF
equal, and to fix the boundary midway between
our huts, a proceeding which to his mind, I have
no doubt, appeared the perfection of equity.
However, nothing could be done at the
moment, so I comforted myself with the reflec-
tion that the Commissioner would certainly
dismount before he settled the matter, when I
should have an opportunity of drawing his
attention to what I thought my rights in the
Ca,S62.
Whilst affairs were in this state, and I was
striding along in anything but a pleasant mood,
the Commissioner's orderly cantered up from
behind, and reported two emu on the plain.
“Where are they : * asked the Commissioner.
“About half-way between us and the ranges,
sir,” replied the man. “Well,” said the Com-
missioner, as he leant down to shake hands with
me, “I am going to the Campaspe to-night, and
the galop will be all in my road—Good-bye ; ” and
so saying, and before I had time to reply, he
put spurs to his horse, and, hallooing to his dogs,
set off, followed by the rest of the party. Of
course all this was particularly pleasant to me,
so I cooeyed to the Commissioner, and when he
had pulled up, shouted to him in a rather
indignant tone, “I think you have forgotten the
business we came on.” His reply, after looking
about for a moment, was, “You see that single
tree on the plain : an east and west line through
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 345
it will be the boundary on this side of the creek,
and, on the other side, the blackfellow's oven; and
so saying, the whole party turned and rode ventre
& terre at the emu, which were still feeding
unsuspicious of mischief. -
Of course I was left standing alone on th
plain. I have seldom felt more indignant or
more galled than on that occasion. The circum-
stance that the boundary line was thus fixed
within two miles or so of my hut, whereas I
claimed five—was even more unfavourable to me,
or rather to my father, than the half-way arrange-
ment the Commissioner had intended to make,
and against which I had determined to protest—
formed but a portion of my vexation, which rested
a good deal on the autocratic manner of a public
servant, who seemed to forget that I was there to
claim a right and not to ask a favour, and who
evidently considered the performance of duty a
condescension on his part, and liable to be set
aside at any moment by the merest whim or
trifle ; a train of thought which I fancy the
reader will consider eminently natural under
the circumstances. So I stood for a while on
the plain chewing the cud of bitterness and
mechanically watching the chase. No doubt
it would have been easy in so flagrant a case
to have brought the Commissioner to a serious
reckoning, a course which, in the first instance,
I felt very much inclined to take, and had
346 RECOLLECTIONS OF
subsequently some trouble to prevent my father
from adopting.
A few weeks after the emu-hunt I went to
Melbourne to wait on the Commissioner and get
what compensation was possible. At his office I
recalled very curtly to his recollection the circum-
stances under which his boundary settlement had
been made ; and, indeed, to judge from his manner,
I should say that he had thought a good deal
more about the matter since it occurred than he
did at the time. He was evidently nonplussed.
I then pointed out in a few words the loss which
his decision had entailed on my father, and
handed in an application to extend the Colbin-
abbin boundary, on the unoccupied side, to the end
of the plain, some six or seven miles south, which
would give me a frontage of nine miles to the
creek, by five miles in depth on its western, and
two or three miles on its eastern side. This
extension of country, which I did not consider
more than the equivalent of what I had lost,
being granted, the matter ended.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 347
CHAPTER XXIV.
A MAIL ON THE LOWER GOULBURN-NEWS-
PAPERS AT TONGALA—OTUTCBY AGAINST
THE SQUATTERS.
I THINK we had been about five or six years at
Tongala, when the enterprising owner of a punt
and public-house, at the place which afterwards
was called Moama, proposed to run a mail
between that rising township and Bailieston.
Previous to this, the letters in our neighbour-
hood used to come only by chance opportunities.
The first I heard of the proposed mail was from
a horseman who rode up to my hut one evening
and handed me a prospectus of the undertaking,
which set out the disadvantages we settlers on
the Goulburn laboured under for want of a
regular mail, suggested that one should be started,
and that my contribution to the undertaking
should be to allow the mailman to stop at my
men's hut two nights in the week, and put his
horse in my paddock as he went backwards and
forwards. Though I was not conscious of having
suffered from the inconvenience spoken of in the
prospectus, I acquiesced at once in the proposal;
and, as the thing was generally popular on the
river, the establishment of our post became
an accomplished fact very shortly after. Pre-
liminaries being settled, in due time a horseman,
348 RECOLLECTIONS OF
with a new leather bag hanging rather con-
spicuously from his saddle, announced himself
at Tongala as the postman. He was well
mounted on what he called a Theorem mare
(putting the accent on the second syllable), and
was evidently inclined to be obliging. He went
by the name of Charley the Barman, though
probably he had a surname. Naturally, Charley
became shortly quite an institution on the river,
and reminded one of what we read of the pedlers
of eighty years ago—I mean as newsmongers and
retailers of gossip. Few who met him let him off
without a yarn of some sort, and shepherds would
feed their sheep so as to intercept him as he
passed along the road, in order to make inquiries
about what was stirring in their line, and take
their chance of getting a little news to talk over
at night with their mates in the hut. I was once
present at a conversation of the sort, on the road
side, which ran something in this way —
SHEPHERD.—Good day, Charley ! I’ve been
waiting this hour to see you. What's the news
up the river ?
MAILMAN.—Good day ! Good day ! Well,
not much. All I’ve heard of was a Devil's
River lot, six or eight of them, knocking down
their cheques at Young's. I don’t know their
Ila,IO €S.
SHEPHERD.—How long had they been there ?
MAILMAN.—Oh! three days or so. All top
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 349
ropes, of course; but were, as I heard, close up
fly-blown (i.e., nearly penniless) the day before
yesterday. Long Bill Warrigal told me of them,
and that they had pretty well polished off
Young's rum-keg. But I must be jogging.
SHEPHERD.—Wellſ well to think the keg's
given in. What will the next poor fellow do as
wants a drain Won't you have a light !
MAILMAN.—No time. Good-bye. I must
push on. *,
And so Charley started the Theorem, the
shepherd shouting after him, “Tell Billy I’ll
send the bacca next week.”
Our post, so much in favour with the gossips,
did not last many months. The reason of its
discontinuance I never heard, nor did it interest
me much, as I could always go or send to the
punt, twelve miles off, without much incon-
venience when I had letters or papers to receive
or send.
One of the things I recollect in connection
with our mail is, that I began newspaper reading
at this time. Though about twenty-five years of
age, I doubt whether up to that time I had read
a newspaper more than a dozen times in my life,
a circumstance easily accounted for by the fact
that I had always happened to be somewhere
where newspapers were not obtainable—in the
forests of Tasmania for instance, on the sea
during several very long voyages, at college in
350 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the old country, at Tongala and Wolfscrag for
some four years, and so on. On the other hand,
having been studious of books, I was a good deal
struck with the contrast presented by this class
literature, with its medley of advertisements,
editorial articles, collections of news, letters,
scraps, &c. At first it seemed to me curious in
the extreme. But what most attracted our
attention at Tongala in the newspaper line were
the leading articles on bush matters, as their
writers displayed on the whole but a very super-
ficial knowledge of the subject.
At first, in our inexperience, we were inclined
to set down some of these articles as merry
hoaxes, something in Punch's vein. Time, how-
ever, showed that their writers were earnest
enough, so that “Who on earth writes these
things '' was not an uncommon expression
at Tongala. It was also about this time, or
perhaps a little later, that we learnt from the
papers that a Melbourne resident, who delighted
to style himself the first settler on the banks of
the Yarra Yarra, was exerting himself to set by
the ears the class which had originally invested
their capital in town allotments and such as had
taken to pastoral pursuits; the former having
grown poor, and the latter being prosperous, as
was made apparent by quite an eruption of dog-
carts and tandems which broke out amongst the
squatters at this time, they being the outward
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 351
symbols of a good lambing and a rise in the wool
market.
Of course, the grievance, as it stood, was a
very pretty One ; so a cry was got up that the
squatters had monopolized the public lands.
Representations that half of the Port Phillip
District (not to speak of New South Wales
proper) was as yet untenanted, and open to persons
who thought squatting desirable, had, of course,
no weight, any more than the fact that the squat-
ters were the only producers in the colony, and
that the Crown lands could be utilized in no other
way. Neither did it seem to matter that the
public-spirited individual to whom I have referred
had so shady a reputation that he was constantly
jeered by the mob at public meetings; and that
few decent people would like to have been seen
speaking to him in the street. He was listened
to all the same. •
So the busy old sinner posed to the last as
the founder of the colony and a great public
benefactor, to neither of which he had any title;
became one of our patres conscripti, and in due
time passed away and received apotheosis.
I must not forget to notice, in connection
with the newspapers, that we saw in them con-
stant mention of my father. Indeed, his position
in connection with the Victorian question of the
day—separation of the colony from New South
Wales—was so well known that people with
352 RECOLLECTIONS OF
whom I was not acquainted used often to stop
me, when off the station, to inquire when the
colony was likely to obtain the desired boon—a
question to which my general residence in the
bush, and consequent ignorance of political
matters, often left me unprovided with an
3,IASW eI’.
CHAPTER XXV.
PROGRESS IN SHEEP-FAIRMING AND DAILY
LIFE ON THE STATION.
HERETOFORE I have endeavoured to describe the
more prominent features and occurrences of my
squatting experiences, and said little about the
financial concerns of the station or of my every-
day life in the bush. Naturally, the financial
position of the station, its successful or unsuc-
cessful management, and the quantity of stock on
it had much to do with my daily life, so that
it is convenient to speak of the two subjects
together.
The reader is aware that, at the outset, my
squatting had been a losing business. On
getting settled at Tongala, my brother and
myself made great efforts to bring this unfor-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 353
tunate state of things to a close, and the
property into a paying condition. As it was
impossible for the time to increase the yield of
wool, the change had to be brought about by
lessening the expenditure. To effect this the
most important steps in our power were, after
lambing and weaning, to run the whole of our
sheep in two flocks instead of four, and discharge
two of the shepherds, a hut-keeper, and the two
bushmen. But, though wages fell shortly from
4:45 to £18 a year, servants were as scarce as
ever, so that we had a great deal of trouble in
getting our shepherds to agree to have their
flocks increased. For notwithstanding that there
was no difficulty in shepherding larger flocks, as
the event proved, the convict instincts of my
men led them to make a point of their labour not
being too profitable to their master, so that I
thought it best to compromise the matter by
offering them a small increase of wages, which
would bring them up to about £20 a year,
making the advance contingent on a successful
lambing, which depended in great measure on
their exertions. These changes, however, were
only brought about gradually, as existing agree-
ments terminated. Subsequently I further raised
the minimum of my flocks—weaners to two
thousand, and grown sheep to between three and
four thousand, and on one occasion had as many
as ten thousand ewes and lambs in one flock.
24
354 - RECOLLECTIONS OF
Carrying on the station with this reduction of
hands brought about two results, for it both made
the undertaking a success financially, and gave
my brother and myself a great deal to do; for
partly that our large flocks consumed quickly the
grass which they could reach from any particular
hut, and partly that our country was subject in
one portion to floods in winter, and in another to
the absence of water in summer; and that it was
necessary besides, in order not to lose possession
of our straggling, and, for those days, large run,
to use every portion of it occasionally, removals
of flocks were always going on, and, as a conse-
quence, my brother and I constantly repairing
shepherds' huts and helping in the removals of
sheep. -
Thus our system was necessarily a migratory
one, and, so far, both exceptional and troublesome.
During the winter months our sheep were fed
principally on the undulating plains at and near
Coragorag; when the water had dried up in that
country—which, in average years, would be in
September—they were driven to Tongala, shorn,
swam over the Goulburn, and placed at Madowla,
Wolola, Pama, and other places. In November
or December they were again moved to the
Moira country, where they remained until the
first frost withered the couch-grass, which was
generally in April, after which they returned to
Wolola, Tongala, Bunderi, &c., in expectation of
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA, 355
the rain which was to make the Coragorag,
Namerong, and Ullumbubil country fit for their
winter's run. In this way a constant change was
going on. As regards Colbinabbin, we generally
kept the weaners there the year round, as they
were more easily shepherded, and did best on the
plains.
Another job which cost us some trouble every
year was burning off portions of the run on which
we had had no sheep for some time, or had only
partially fed off; it being well known that the
feed which springs up after a fire is particularly
wholesome and fattening. Though February was
the month in which burning off was most easily
and commonly done, we generally delayed it until
March or April, when rain was expected, as we
found that a fire not shortly followed by rain lost
much of its efficacy, probably from the ashes,
which act as a manure, being blown away by the
wind. Indeed, our experience was that country
which remained three months without rain, after
being burnt, only recovered itself slowly and par-
tially, as many of the tussocks perished, apparently
for want of moisture. But when the fire was a
strong one, and was quickly followed by heavy rain,
the result was excellent. In burning off country,
our practice was to set to work on the windward
position of it on some hot windy day at about
eleven o'clock. If possible, we got a blackfellow
to go with us to lead our horses, whilst we set
356 RECOLLECTIONS OF
fire to dry branches, which we dragged along the
ground across the wind ; if boughs were not
to be had, we made torches of bark, with which
we lit a few tussocks here and there as we passed
quickly on. In this way a fire was set a-going in
a line of from one to five miles, and then left to
chance. Sometimes burning off was a very trou-
blesome job, on other occasions the flames went
merrily ahead in every direction, now rushing up
the tall stems of a thousand eucalypts, the leaves
of which it shrivelled like old parchment, shed-
ding around a pleasant Odour ; now passing
slowly over scantily-grassed patches, again to
seize on the bushes or dry herbage which stood
in its way.
In addition to a reduction of wages, we also
practised a number of minor economies of one
sort or another at Tongala, which, in the aggre-
gate, were of considerable importance at a very
critical time, when the want of small sums of
money wrecked many promising undertakings.
One of these was killing for station use a number
of ewes, too old to breed and too poor for sale—a
practice which enabled us to keep our wethers for
market. To carry out this system, as we did for
over a year, was disagreeable, no doubt, as I had
to put up with the complaints of my men, in
addition to those of my stomach. But economy
is always a nuisance, and one looks for nothing
else; so we persevered, and swallowed the last of
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 357
our old ewes as best we could. The preservation
of flour bags, which had a marvellous tendency .
to go astray, also claimed our attention. As for
sheepskins, the sale of which in town covered the
wages of a man or two, I cannot tell the reader
the trouble they were to collect on a run like
ours, though I was very painstaking and sys-
tematic about it. In fact, rather than allow any
laxity to grow up in the matter, I have occasion-
ally walked five miles to secure a single skin, and
carried it home in my hand. As regards dress,
the same economy prevailed as in food, and I can-
not help smiling at the remembrance of the straits
to which I was once reduced in the matter of
boots. I had limited myself to a certain number
of pairs for the year, and though they held
together for that period, the last of them became
so hard from constant wet and frequent greasing
that for the last fortnight I could only get them
off and on after soaking them in water ; so that,
when I came home from riding, I had to sit
exposed to a little gentle chaff with my feet in
a bucket of water until the leather got soft.
Besides practising economies of all sorts, we also
so managed (contrary to common custom) by
drafting out our dry ewes for a summer lambing
at the Moira, where the grass was always green
at that season, and by lambing our ewe flocks
twice every alternate year, to raise our increase
from ninety to one hundred and thirty per cent.
358 RECOLLECTIONS OF
per annum, which rate was maintained for several
years without any very striking bad conse-
quences as regards the quality of the offspring.
The result of these measures was, as I have said,
that we quickly paid off the liabilities of the
station, and, with wethers at five shillings a head
and wool at a shilling a pound, succeeded in
bringing it into a very prosperous condition.
However, the hard sort of life we led at first
did not last more than two or three years, as
about this time two of my brothers returning
from college in England came to lessen our
labours. A little later on, also, as Our sheep
increased, we found it advantageous to give up
work, in great measure, for supervision, and,
indeed, to divide amongst us the management
of the flocks now spread over a large area of
country. To effect this a second head-station
was formed at Colbinabbin, where my brother
Richard went to reside, and another at Kokoma,
near the Moira, for one of my younger brothers;
besides a little sans-souci at Gargarro, at which
we could put up comfortably when busy about
Coragorag. From this time our chief occupa-
tion was riding about the run looking after
shepherds and hunting wild dogs; and having
got rid of scab and foot-rot, and taken to
camp our sheep in place of hurdling or yard-
ing them (a great improvement, which I believe
I was the first to adopt), we found that a
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 359
couple of bushmen, with some assistance from
the Blacks, could very well do the extra work of
the station. -
Having endeavoured to give the reader an idea
of the struggling times of my bush life when I
had plenty to do, and the profits of the station
were small, we come to its second phase, when
the concern had grown, leisure become plentiful,
and time often difficult to dispose of. At that
period reading became our chief resource at
Tongala. In the matter of books I believe we
were better off than most of our neighbours,
though those in our possession had been got
together in a haphazard sort of way, at various
times and without any idea of making a collection
for the bush. However, from a pair of stout
wooden pegs in the wall-plate of the sitting-room
of our rough, but not uncomfortable, slab hut at
Tongala, surrounded by a miscellaneous collection
of fire-arms, foils, masks, wooden sabres, fencing
gloves, stockwhips, spurs, and other articles
which embellished the walls, hung, in the place
of honour, some shelves made of bark, on
which were ranged our literary treasures. These
volumes, our great resource for years against
ennui, for want of something new, were read,
re-read, and discussed, I cannot say how often.
In fact, several of them became studies in our
small circle. Amongst them were a number
of histories, ancient and modern, Bourrienne's
360 BECOLLECTIONS OF
“Napoleon,” Segur’s “Histoire de Napoleon et
de la Grande Armée,” O’Meara’s “Voice from
St. Helena,” “The Court and Camp of Bona-
parte,” “The Alhambra, or New Sketch Book; ”
the plays of Racine, Corneille, and Molière ;
the poetical works of Milton, Shakespeare,
|Byron, Tommy Moore, Scott, and Burns.
There were also several of the Waverley
Novels, some of them in French translations;
“Travels in the East,” by Lamartine, Stephens,
and Chateaubriand; “Silvio Pellico's Le Mie
Prigioni,” “Horace's Odes,” Pope’s “Iliad,”
Junius's “Letters,” some of Florian's works,
Sterne's “Sentimental Journey,” “Blackstone's
Commentaries,” Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Na-
tions; ” two or three elementary works on natural
science; “Youatt on the Sheep and Horse; ” and
a pile of old magazines, chiefly Blackwood's, and
amongst them those in which the “Noctes
Ambrosianae" had appeared. We had, besides,
a few colonial works, such as “Major Mitchell’s
Explorations,” and the “Memoirs of Jorgen
Jorgenson, ex-king of Iceland,” whom I remem-
ber to have seen when a clerk in my father's
office. - *
Altogether our collection amounted to about
a hundred and fifty volumes, of which those
mentioned are fair samples. None of them,
perhaps, were left entirely unread; diversity of
taste, however, leading to one of us interesting
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 361
himself in one subject, and another in another.
A subject we all enjoyed was Eastern travel;
and, indeed, two of our little circle visited later
On many of the scenes we so often read and
talked about in our solitude at this time. As
the reader may imagine, the confinement of our
reading within such narrow limits was not a
matter of choice. It arose from the circumstance
that books were hardly obtainable in Melbourne
in those days. As an instance of this, I may
mention that, having taken a fancy to learn some-
thing of the discovery and conquest of America,
I tried to obtain “Herrera,” “Bernal Diaz,” and
some other works, but without success. Of the
volumes in our collection, very favourite ones
with me were those of Washington Irving, which
treat of Moorish times in Spain ; and as that
writer's studies on the subject at his villa on the
Hudson were the cause, as he tells us, of his
visiting Granada, so my acquaintance with the
pages of the American resulted subsequently in
my paying a visit to Andalusia.
When I reached Granada, in 1851, I had
already been the best part of a year in the
Peninsula, and spoke Spanish pretty well.
As a matter of course, full of my Goulburn
recollections, my first inquiry, after getting settled
in my hotel, was for Matteo Ximenes, Washing-
ton Irving's guide in 1829, and famous in the
pages of his “ Alhambra, or New Sketch Book,”
362 RECOLLECTIONS OF
and very pleased I was to find that he was still
alive and hearty, though he had ceded his more
active duties to his son José, then a young man
of some twenty-three years. José, who had had
more care bestowed on his education than the
original hijo de la Alhambra, spoke French in
addition to his native tongue; had read the
lives of Christopher Columbus, and several other
worthies; heard of Australia, and entertained a
hazy idea that it formed a portion of North
America ; was looked on as quite a man of
learning by the dwellers in the purlieus of the
old palace, and was a very good cicerone. Be-
sides showing me whatever was noteworthy in
the Alhambra and Jeneralife, bringing to my
recollection episodes of history connected with
them, and pointing out from the palace towers
the sites of many a bloody battle between his
countrymen and the Moors, José used to bring
his father to talk to me about Washington Irving,
and of his stay amongst them. Indeed, conversa-
tion on this topic was the old man's hobby, and
he quite took me into favour when he discovered
that I had some acquaintance with Grana-
dine lore, and that I knew something about
la cuesto de lagrimas; el ultimo suspiro del Moro,
or, el suspiro Moro, as it is called on the spot;
the Vivarambla, the Zacatin, and other features
of the city and neighbourhood. Whilst living
in this old-world atmosphere, it amused me to
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 363.
discover a little grievance of my Granadine friends,
which cropped up on my making inquiries about
the “bright-eyed Dolores” of the “New Sketch-
Book.” “Oh ſ” said José, “she married a doctor,
and lives down there on the Vega.” But on my
suggesting that I ought to endeavour to see
her, as one of Irving's celebrities, he at once
threw cold water on the proposal, being strong on
the point that she was no longer pretty. It also
leaked out that the Ximenes, both father and
son, who looked on Irving's work as the last of
any note which had appeared in Europe, were not
a little jealous of the inquiries made by travellers
generally respecting the Señora Dolores, so that
the old man took occasion, when speaking of her,
to inform me that Irving “la ponia en el libro
porgue guisaba por el;” or that he had given her
a place in his book because she used to cook for
him. On the whole, therefore, as insisting on
seeing her might have disturbed the harmony of
existing relations, and besides—as
“Time will come with all his blights”—
have led to what the Spaniards call un desengaño,
or, una ilusion perdido, I thought it prudent to
forbear further mention of the subject, and turn
the conversation to the worthies of the declining
days of Morisma, whose histories are so mixed up
with that of the Alhambra. So, as we wandered
about the apartments of the old palace, or sat in
364 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the sunshine of its courts and gardens, we talked
of Boabdil el Chico and the gate by which he last
left the city ; of Aija la Horra, La Lindaraja, El
Zagal, Hamet el Zegri, Hernando Perez del
Tºulgar (el de las hazañas, or he of the exploits),
of Ponce de Leon, and the great Alonzo de
Aguilar, Marquis-Duke of Cadiz, to whose
countrymen are still familiar the old story and
the old rhyme—
“Decid conde de Ureña.
Don Alonzo, donde queda. ?”
besides many other matters connected with the
history of Granada and the Alhambra which it is
needless to enlarge on. Altogether there was
something very pleasant in going over in An-
dalusia the histories which had occupied our
little circle on the Goulburn, as well as in looking
back on past discussion and conjecture concern-
ing localities from the vantage-ground of personal
experience. Indeed, in re-reading history—if
I may use the term—on the ground where
its scenes were enacted lies one of the great
charms of travel. To me there was also some-
thing congenial in the every-day life of a com-
munity into which the disquietude, bustle, and
hurry of the Anglo-Saxon world had not yet
succeeded in forcing themselves.
Another episode in history which interested us
a good deal at Tongala, and gave us something to
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 365.
think and talk about, was that of Bonaparte.
Many were the discussions and comparison of
authorities we used to have on matters touching
that hero—concerning Brienne, Toulon, the
passage of the Alps; Mont Tabor ; Marengo,
Austerlitz, the raft on the Niemen, the glories of
Tilsit, the Kremlin, the terrible passage of the
Beresina, Leipsic, Elba, Waterloo, and lastly, “le
rocher de Sainte Helène”—the refrain, by the way,
of a plaintive song which, in youth, I had heard
the peasant girls, forgetful of the blood he shed,
sing in the harvest fields of France.
At other times we discussed the actions of
the Corsican's historic companions,—Massena,
Desaix, Soult, Ney, Murat, or Talleyrand ; or
the singular fortunes of Mademoiselle Tascher de
la Pagerie—in early life the Viscomtesse de
Beauharnais, and known at the court of Marie
Antoinette as the Creole beauty—shortly after,
in the darkest days of the Revolution, a widow
in Paris with the future Viceroy of Italy and
Queen of Holland to provide for ; subsequently
the wife of General Bonaparte ; Madame la
Consulesse ; the Empress Josephine; and at
last the dethroned sovereign and discarded wife
of Malmaison.
To this subject of Bonaparte—if a digression
may be pardoned—I had been led by a number
of those impressions of boyhood days which
seem to cling to one through life. In fact, I
366 RECOLLECTIONS OF
attribute my first bias towards a subject which,
as I have said, was a favourite one in my
solitude (much as Sir Walter Scott did his
predilection for border minstrelsy, so pleasantly
described in “Marmion’’), to stories related to
me, when quite a child, by two servants in my
father's house who had served under Nelson in
one or other of his great battles, and had, of
course, plenty to say about Bonaparte. Both of
these worthies had been wounded, and were
“assigned servants” to my father in Tasmania;
and one of the pair, an old African negro, used, to
my astonishment, to be allowed to drink the
health of the departed sea-king in Jamaica rum
on the anniversary of each of his great battles,
the dates of which he very accurately bore in
mind, always accompanying the ceremony with
the words, “Here's to the memory of that
glorious clipper, Lord Wiscount Nelson, wice-
admiral of the blue.” Adding, if I were present,
as he smacked his lips with true African unction,
“Master Edward, Nelson's old sea-dogs never
drank his health in nothing but rum ashore or
afloat l” This old African used also to relate to
me, in a highly dramatic manner, what he knew
of the great sea-fights; his information, of course,
being confined to what he had been able to see
through the smoke of his own particular port-
hole. - -
Later on, also, besides perhaps fifty volumes
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 367
which I had read about Napoleon, it happened
when a stripling in France, that, being a good
deal addicted to fencing and exercises of the sort,
I was accustomed to “espadroner” with men of
Auerstadt and Jena, and knew a number of vieuw
moustaches who had fought under the Emperor's
eagles at Leipsic, Monterau, Quatre Bras,
Waterloo, and other places, from whom I heard
a thousand incidents of battle and bivouac,
of which, subsequently, Erckmann-Chatrian's
delightful “Conscrit de 1813” vividly reminded
me. In my childhood, too, I fancy Bonaparte
was a good deal more talked about than any
historical personage has been since his time, and
I often listened to my father and his friends
discussing his doings.
Talking of the state of the English postal
system at the time of the war, I remember
hearing my father relate an anecdote which will
perhaps bear repeating. It is this. When quite
a lad he was walking in Sheffield (a city between
which and London now-a-days there are probably
a dozen railway trains daily), when he noticed a
number of people congregated about the post-
office, so he crossed the street and joined the
crowd. The moment was a critical one in the
affairs of Europe, and as the anticipated news
was likely to affect the price of bread, the funds,
and property generally, the crowd which was
waiting to hear it was both animated and
368 RECOLLECTIONS OF
impatient. So a few of the people who had
watches looked at them and informed those about
them that the post was late ; others" wondered
what the news would be, and what Pitt would
have thought of the times had he been alive.
Others talked of “Boney’s” last battle ; but still
the mail arrived not. Then someone remarked
that the clock might be fast. “Clock fast :
clock be hanged 1" said another in a long green
and white waistcoat, “Tommy has got Herod
to-day, and he ought to be as fast as any clock in
Yorkshire, 'cos he's as thoroughbred as Eclipse,
and in rare fettle. Clock indeed it's not the
horse's fault, I know ; like enough he's cast a
shoe.”
“If Tommy had the Black Prince under him,”
rejoined another stableman, “I’d a-warrant he'd
a bin here afore now.”
“No,” remarked the first, “Herod for my
money; as good a horse as a man ever threw leg
over.”
After some further horsey talk there was a cry
that the postman was coming up the street, so
the crowd opened, and a light muscular horseman
in livery, booted and spurred, with a postillion's
cap on his head, mounted on a magnificent bay
horse, reeking with sweat, dashed through the
lane of human beings up to the window of the
post-office, into which, having detached them
without dismounting, he flung a pair of saddle-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 369
bags containing the mail. In the meantime the
crowd closed quickly round him, the Ostler
admirer of Herod having secured a position near
his favourite, whom he patted kindly on the neck.
Many an anxious face was turned on the postman
and many a look of eager curiosity, whilst some
half-dozen of the crowd blurted out simul-
taneously, “Well, Tommy, what's the news of
Bonaparte 4 " As his reply was given in a low
tone, those who could not catch his words yelled
out, “Speak up, man, Tommy—we cannot hear
thee.” So Tommy stood up in his stirrups, and
shouted out, “There's but bad news, I reckon ;
they say as Bonaparte has won a great battle.
They call it—Wag—Wag—well, it's a foreign
name as I can’t get round. Folks seems to say
there's no knowing where it will all end ; ” which
said, Tommy sat back into his saddle, gave
Herod the rein, and trotted off to the stable,
followed by the ostlers.
But to return. For the first few years at Ton-
gala we hardly ever saw a newspaper, and seldom
made an addition to our library. Neither, when
a new book did find its way to us, was it altogether
an unmixed blessing, as it was not pleasant to be
aware of the fact and not take advantage of it;
nor, on the other hand, could one read in com-
fort with one's brother sitting opposite smoking,
and apparently going through “Hamlet” for the
hundredth time, whilst conscious that he was in
25
370 RECOLLECTIONS OF
reality only waiting for the new volume to be laid
down, that he might take a hurried glance through
its pages. And, talking of books, I am reminded
of how seldom now-a-days one sees some which
were met everywhere forty years ago. A few of
this sort, such as Addison’s “Spectator” and
Johnson’s “Rasselas” and “Rambler,” we had
at Tongala, but they were not much in favour.
Unfortunately, Boswell’s “Life of Johnson,”
which all of us had read before, was not in our
collection; so that the conversations of the brawny
lexicographer at the Mitre Tavern with Burke,
Garrick, Beauclerk, Goldsmith, and his other
intimates—not forgetting those with the belle
Thrale, at Streatham—were only amongst the
recollections of our readings. We used, however,
to laugh over some of the funny episodes scattered
through the work, such as Johnson's calling at
the lodgings of George Psalmanazar, “the good
Psalmanazar,” and carrying him, as they used to
say, to a neighbouring alehouse, to talk over
matters of importance, and then setting to work
in the public room to discuss such lively subjects
as the natural tendency of the human mind to
&mprovement / or something of the sort. But
though books in those days were scarce in the
colony, the squatters' shelves, as far as I saw
them, were better provided than at present, and
typical of a more educated class ; for if, now-a-
days, from many a house elaborately furnished
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 37]
from attic to basement, Chambers's Cyclopædia
and a score of novels were removed, the remnant
would not be great.
As, however, one cannot always be reading,
especially the same books, we used sometimes,
in the evening, by the light of our tallow candle,
to pass an hour at cards, chess, or draughts.
We had also a number of out-of-door amusements,
which stood us in good stead, and enabled us to
while away many a morning which otherwise
would have been dull enough. Amongst them
were swimming, shooting, throwing spears, and so
forth. To such exercises, indeed, we were much
more given than any of our neighbours; and as
for horses and hunting, many of my happiest
hours were passed in the saddle, for which, in my
youth, I had a perfect passion.
But though in those days I doated on horses,
and especially on a horse at a gallop through a
pleasant sapling scrub, where the chances of getting
a broken neck or a knee knocked out of joint
seemed about equal, still in wet weather, when
the then untrodden soil was too soft for galloping,
I made shift to amuse myself with hunting on
foot. In this pursuit the charm of the thing was
the scope it gave for the exercise of ingenuity in
tracking and reading from the tracks the history
of the chase. On the whole, I do not know but
that one got as much amusement and excitement
out hunting on foot as on horseback. Of course,
37.2 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the nature of the amusements was quite different.
At that time tracking was comparatively easy,
where it is now impossible. Starting from the
spot where the dogs, first feathering about, made
a sudden rush, and, taking up the scent, quickly
vanished from sight amongst the trees, the tracks
of kangaroo or emu were quickly come on by the
hunter, and the number and sizes of the animals.
learnt. If the scent was that of a wild dog, the
matter was more difficult ; if kangaroo or emu, a
short examination also made clear whether the
game had noticed our approach, and started at
score, or whether the trail had been made whilst
feeding. Such matters decided, the tracks of the
dogs were energetically followed up, possibly for
two or three miles without any fresh indications,
when suddenly matters altered. Now the foot-
prints of the mob were all in one line—and, if
kangaroo, a very narrow line—more deeply in-
dented in the soil, and the stride longer. Here,
then, the kangaroo had first seen the dogs and
taken to their heels. A few hundred yards fur-
ther on, the dogs had got so close to the rear-
guard as to disturb the order of the flight, and
had so pressed the old man (who usually brings.
up the rear) as to make him leave his mob and
take off to one side. Probably the dogs had kept
together, and closed in on the patriarch of the
lot, who had shown fight at the foot of a tree.
Around are the marks of the scuffle ; there they
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 373
have had the brute down, and a rough-and-tumble
fight. There is a drop of blood, probably from a
dog, for the tracks show that the kangaroo got on
his legs again and made off. In another fifty
yards the dogs are again up with him. But what
has mudded yon crab-hole There the dogs
fought and threw him a second time. The im-
print of his hand in the mud is as big as my own.
I stop, look round, and sound my horn, for I
know that he must have been killed not far off,
or have finally beaten off the dogs and made his
bow. And sure enough there is the pup coming
back on the tracks; when I get up to him I find
him covered with blood, and a large patch of
loose skin hanging from his neck. Another hun-
dred yards ahead there is a second dog lying
down resting himself; he wags his tail as I pass
him by, for not fifty yards off I see a dark-
coloured object under a cherry tree, which I
know can be nothing else but the old man, though
I cannot yet make out the parts.
And so the chase is done. There is a wound
or two to tie up, and the dogs to be fed ; so I
take my little brass tinder-box off my belt, light
a fire, skin the beast, and take his hide and tail
as my share of the spoil, cut off as much flesh as
I think the dogs will eat, and throw it on the
coals to cook, with, perhaps, a kidney for myself,
and so sit down and rest a while whilst I Smoke a
pipe.
374 RECOLLECTIONS OF
Another out-of-door amusement to which I was
much given was duck-shooting, especially in
winter and spring, when trees and shrubs and the
banks of lagoons are in their best attire. To me
the stillness and freshness into which this sort of
shooting led were always a great attraction. An-
other of Our pastimes was breaking young horses,
though, as we had only a dozen brood mares,
our pleasures in that direction were necessarily
limited. We also domesticated some emu and
wild pups, the observance of whose habits used
to amuse us. Corroborees, which were very
frequent at one or other of our stations, were
another resource, though eventually we became
rather blasé as regards that amusement, and only
sat out the choice morceaua. After all, however,
yarning with the Bangerang, swimming, climbing
trees in the native fashion, throwing spears, and
hunting principally occupied our leisure hours;
and, as the poet says—
“Thus the days of Thalaba went by 1"
As the reader may imagine, these were dull
enough at times; but there were others worse
—lengthy intervals of mixed ennui and low
spirits, literally of times & fumer pipette et & me
Tien faire. When overtaken by this complaint,
which, of course, was when we were out of work,
horses, dogs, guns, spears, and books became alike
insufferable. We came to loathe everything
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 375.
about us, and for the time it seemed to me
there was little to choose between our position
and that of Pellico in the Spielberg; conversa-
tion dried up, and gloom gradually overshadowed
UIS.
When things came to this pass, it generally
resulted in several of the party—perhaps all but
one—leaving the station for a time, one for
town, a second, perhaps, on a visit to a neigh-
bour, and so on ; Or, if more than one remained,
they separated and went to different stations for
a few days, perhaps one to the Moira, and the
other to Colbinabbin. This seemed the only
remedy. The step decided on, a few prepara-
tions ensued ; favourite horses were got up, their
manes and tails pulled, and hoofs trimmed with
a chisel. Then coats, neckties, and cabbage-
tree hats were extracted from boxes in which
they had lain for months, and spurs and Hessian
boots got an extra polish. The next morning a
start was made, the unfortunate who remained
behind, mindful perchance of Stoneyhurst and
old college days, addressing those who were
going in the words of the poet,
“Si quis, ut in populo nostri non immemor illic
Si quis, qui, quid agam, forte requirat erit,
Vivere me dices, Salvum tamen esse negabis.”
Intervals of solitude, too, each of us had
occasionally to go through. Once, for instance,
376 RECOLLECTIONS OF
it was my luck to pass three weeks at Tongala,
during which I did not see a face, white or black.
We were short-handed, so one of us had to
remain at the head station, and by chance it fell
to my lot. The weather was frightfully hot at
the time, and, being a prisoner with nothing to
occupy me, I fell into very irregular ways. Of
the days of the month I soon lost count. Some-
times I went to bed late and sometimes early.
When I rose late in the morning, I fancy the
crows thought the silence of the place, the un-
opened doors and smokeless chimneys, portended
something suspicious. At all events, they used
to annoy me a good deal with their cawing, as
they stealthily approached the hut along the top
rails of the paddock fence. Probably the muzzle
of my gun thrust through the window, and the
discharge of one or both barrels, conveyed to them
the first intimation of my being still in the flesh,
and of my objection to being disturbed. Quiet
restored, I used to Sally out with my kangaroo-
dog into the intense glare of the sun, despatch
the wounded, have a look round, and saunter to
the bathing-place, some fifty yards away. The
weather was so hot that even at an early hour
the choondoonga, as the Bangerang called the
little birds, had taken shelter in the trees, out of
which occasionally one dropped dead. Days of
this sort were, of course, very hard to get
through. Except to cook for myself and chop
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 377
my firewood, I had no employment. Reading
I found it difficult to settle down to in the
absence of bodily labour, of which I got but
little, as it was probable if I left my hut to hunt
or shoot (the only things I could do) that it
might be robbed in my absence. Still this idle-
ness, compulsory though it was, always brought
with it feelings of self-reproach.
Sometimes, however, impatience got the better
of me, and I sallied out in desperation with my
gun to have a walk, and get a duck for dinner.
On one of these occasions I met with a little
adventure which might have cost me my life.
With my gun on my shoulder, I was sauntering
along the banks of one of the lagoons, around the
edges of which grew a bright green plant which
resembled floating moss. I had not proceeded
far when I caught sight of a flock of ducks, which
I stalked up to with some little trouble and fired
at, knocking over one, which fell into the middle
of the lagoon. Having no retriever, there was
nothing for it but to swim in for the bird, so I
undressed, leaned my gun against a tree, and
plunged into the water with an impetus which
carried me through the border of water-plants, of
which, indeed, I took no notice just then. A few
strokes took me to the duck, which I picked up
and swam back with, until I got near the margin
of green stuff, when I threw it on shore, as it
occurred to me that my passage back through the
378 RECOLLECTIONS OF
weeds would not be so easy as the first had been.
This done, I struck out for the bank (the water
being deep to the very edge), and only got part
of the way through when I found my arms
entangled and the mass of floating green stuff,
which I had disturbed, closing in on me. Any
swimmer will realize the danger of such a situa-
tion. How I managed I can’t say ; all I remem-
ber is that, after a violent struggle, I found myself
again floating in the deep water, the green stuff
still between me and the shore. So there I was,
free once more, a little skeared and a good deal
blown.
Being an excellent swimmer in those days, I
soon cooled down and began to consider quietly
what was to be done ; but though I turned the
matter over in every way during many minutes,
as I quietly floated on the water, I could see no
escape from the facts that the whole margin of
the lagoon was equally covered with the water
plants, and that there was not the faintest
probability of anyone passing that way from
whom to expect assistance. Things being so, I
made up my mind to charge the weeds at the
original spot, using the hand-over-hand stroke of
the Bangerang, in which I was well practised, as
most likely to pull me through. So, as chances
seemed about even, or perhaps somewhat against
me, I reflected for a few moments on death ; had
a look at the green trees around, gave a thought
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 379,
to those I might possibly never see again, and
went at the weeds full speed, hand-over-hand, and
feet almost on top of the water, as I had deter-
mined. Fortunately I got through, and with
less difficulty than I had anticipated, but with an
antipathy to swimming amongst weeds which I
never got over. *
Periods of loneliness, such as I have described,
were our bad times, and were not very common,
though we had a good deal of less complete soli-
tude which became habitual, so as ever after, in
my instance at least, to render a reasonable
amount of loneliness quite acceptable. As a
rule, when thus shut out from conversation, we
employed ourselves very actively with our books,
and, on one occasion of the sort, I took up
vigorously the study of Italian for some weeks,
a step which proved very useful to me some years
afterwards. The drawback to the bush, however,
seemed to me the want of mental occupation.
This I could not find in sheep-farming. Its
advantages were that it was a lucrative occupa-
tion, and secured much personal independence.
In thus recalling the memory of our everyday
lives at Tongala, I have perhaps dwelt more on
the désagréments of the situation than on its
bright features. On the whole, however, it was
passable enough ; we had no anxiety; money-
making went on swimmingly ; we were our own
masters, had generally plenty of out-of-door
380 RECOLLECTIONS OF
work; good dogs and excellent horses, in which
we much delighted ; our spirits, as a rule, were
prime, and our digestions excellent—altogether,
as it seems to me, a reasonable share of the good
things of life.
CHAPTER XXVI.
HUNTING WITH FOX-FIOUNDS.
THE first urban settlement near Tongala was
“Maiden's Punt,” so called after its energetic
founder. The little hamlet was on the north bank
of the Murray, not far from the junction of that
river and the Campaspe, and began in the time-
honoured way with an inn and blacksmith's shop.
Its most prominent feature, however, was Mr.
Maiden's capacious, flat-bottomed punt, by means
of which bullock teams, wool-drays, and flocks of
sheep were quickly and securely passed over the
river. Of course the punt was a great con-
venience to the travelling public, and resulted in
due time in the little settlement developing into
the not unimportant border town of Moama.
I mention these circumstances because it was
at this place that the squatters in our vicinity
were in the habit of meeting a pack of fox-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 381.
hounds, which our neighbour of Turūmberry
had got together for his own amusement, and
that of his friends. The pack, which our horse-
riding little coterie came to look on with special
pride and satisfaction, had sprung originally from
a few couples of fox-hounds obtained from Mr.
Pike's pack, near Melbourne. They were fed on
the boiled flesh of the worn-out sheep of the
master's station, supplemented by forties and
fifties of similar animals which neighbouring
stock-owners contributed from time to time for
their support. In comparison with English
fields, our meets were very small, for I do not
remember to have ever seen more than a dozen
horsemen turn out at once.
If the hunt was not very numerous, however,
it was certainly a very merry one. Of our
symposiums on such occasions (a not unimportant
part of the business) I regret I am unable to give
more than a faint idea, for, indeed, the memories.
of merry-makings, even when of rare occurrence,
are not the sort of things which dwell most
vividly in the mind; and yet characteristic
incidents were always occurring at ours, which,
if I could remember them, would give the reader
a picture of our ways at the time. This, how-
ever, I am unable to do, so he must make the
best of a meagre description. As regards the
main object of our meetings—the actual hunting
—still less is to be said, for the country being
.382 RECOLLECTIONS OF
unenclosed, there was but little jumping and no
falls, so that, omitting the working of the hounds,
the find, the first burst, and the kill, sights
which have been depicted somewhat too often,
all that remains is the jovial scamper through
the bush of ten or a dozen practised horsemen—a
matter hardly worthy of description. No doubt,
however, the predominant features of Our gather-
ings were the evenings after the hunts. Indeed,
from the solitary life we all led, the very fact of
three or four of us meeting together, were it
only over tea and tobacco, brought on such
an attack of high spirits as was almost painful
to bear.
The first time we met was on a beautiful
evening in the month of June, 1849, if I recollect
right. The winter in our neighbourhood had
been a dry one, so that the ground was in fine
condition, and the mornings and evenings clear,
frosty, and exhilarating. The company came
dropping in at “Maiden's" in ones and twos
about an hour before sundown. Several were
without coats, arrayed in red silk shirts, Hessian
boots, and cabbage-tree hats, and everyone on his
best horse. As we were all well acquainted, each
new arrival was received with many greetings.
Then came a visit to stables, and, of course,
complimentary remarks on the nags. Such
matters satisfactorily gone through, an adjourn-
ment followed to the dining-room of mine host,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 383
for the purpose of commencing to allay that
peculiar thirst which gets hold of one on gala
days; so the landlord was summoned to give an
account of his tipple. As it happened, there
was brandy and beer in the house, and a little
gin ; but what Boniface chiefly recommended, I
remember, was his rum, the strong point of which
seemed to be, that it was, as he termed it,
“bootiful cool.” “Possibly *-chimed in some
one aside—“in comparison with his own coppers.”
“Bring in your ‘bootiful cool,’” said another ;
“it must be some new drink, for I never heard of
it before, and should like to taste it.” This order
seemed to jump with the general humour, as it
was decided that it should be “bootiful cool” all
round.
The first libation poured, the company strolled
out to see the twenty-five couples of hounds
whose acquaintance we were to make on the
morrow. Whether any of the field were judges
of hounds I can’t say. For myself, I had never
seen a pack of fox-hounds before, and so knew
nothing of the matter. At all events, a good
deal of favourable comment ensued, and the pack
was taken to our hearts right off, when another
arrival, on a bay cob, attracted our attention.
Anticipating an increase to our numbers, several
hurried to the door of the “public” to greet our
fellow-sportsman.
The new-comer, however, who proved to be a
384 RECOLLECTIONS OF
resident some twenty miles up the Campaspe,
was not one of hunting kidney, but a “canny
body” from the “land o' cakes,” who could by no
means be got to join us, or even to dismount,
though invitations were many and pressing. So,
after he had lit his pipe and tossed off a glass of
“bootiful cool” with which one of his friends
presented him as a new drink, he exclaimed, in
that douce tone and strong brogue which were his
wont—“Hunt Hunt, man l No, no It wudna
do for an auld fellow like me to gang scouring
through the bush wi' a lot o' demented young
folk. Syne, though Barney, the puir wee bit
horsie, is gleg aneuch wi' his legs, he's aye ill to
please an he's not let gang his ain gait ; so I
must just canter him hame, where I shall be glad
to see ye all, if ye’ll tak’ a turn up that way
to-morrow.” After which, amidst some pleasant
banter, the douce man took a second nip, and,
with a kind word to each of us, and a few caresses.
lavished on the “horsie,” made tracks. And,
after all, the ways of the good man, though
“awful” thrifty, were not without a strong savour
of good sense about them, as, three years later,
he sold out and returned to the “land of brown
heath” with forty thousand pounds in his
sporran, no doubt to spend his remaining years
in something more to his fancy than hunting.
At six o'clock came dinner, for which all prac-
ticable preparations had been made by mine host,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 385
as, besides mutton and damper, we were treated
to potatoes, dough-boys, and cabbage. Then
succeeded pipes, and, later on, grog, and con-
versation fast and somewhat uproarious. I
should not care for such doings now, but thirty
years ago it was different, and our gatherings at
the punt were Noctes Ambrosianae, hours of fun
and yarning, and rum our nectar. As for
Byron's saying,
“There's nought, no doubt, so much the spirit calms
As rum and true religion,”
I only know that the beverage had not that
effect upon us, as the more we swallowed the
less calm we got. By eleven, however, a good
deal of steam had been let off; some were getting
sleepy, and the company had broken into groups
and were talking of all sorts of things, and more
about horses than anything else. “Oh, yes,”
said one, whose horse had been under discussion,
“O. B.'s a grand horse, but a rather fractious-
tempered devil if anything goes wrong. I wish
you had seen him some nights back. I was
riding him home late through the bush, when it
came on to rain so heavily, and got so dark,
that I began to be hazy about the direction, and
was obliged, however unwillingly, to camp ; so I
hung up Master O. B. to a sapling whilst I made
a fire. In the meantime the thunder roared and
the lightning flashed in great style. After I had
26
386 RECOLLECTIONS OF
got a fire, with the assistance of my tinder-box,
which fortunately was on my belt, and a good
piece of my shirt, I unsaddled the nag and hobbled
him with a stirrup leather, and was taking off the
bridle when he began shaking his head, which, of
course, he held as high as he could, so that my
IPelham caught on his tushes, and I was unable
to get it off. The wretch then reared, wheeled,
and snatched the reins out of my hand. I heard
a grunt or two, and if it had not been for the
lightning I should not have known what he was
doing. However, there he was, not two yards
off, standing on his hind legs pawing the air,
his head as high as he could get it. I never
saw a brute stand so straight or so long. To go
near him with nothing but the uncertain flare
of the lightning to guide one, especially in the
muddy state of the ground, was to risk one's
life; so I retired a few steps and waited. At
last he got his fore feet entangled in the reins,
fell on his side, and I was able to get the
bit out of his mouth, when he got up and
stood beside the fire for some time, a good
deal done.”
Besides sundry relations of bush incidents of
this sort, there was a good deal of racing talk
and discussions on Whisker and Satellite blood
and buck-jumping yarns, to which your young
bushman is right much addicted. “Did you
hear,” said one, “that B.'s cob has been lame
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 387
these six months—no one can say why—and
no signs of mending 4°
“Of course, he could never have lived with
hounds; no pace.”
“Just so,” said a third ; “not for him the sweet
music of hounds, but still a rare slave ; slow, you
know, but sure. So he's gone lame, and only
rising seven Why, when I saw him last, I
thought him good for another ten years. A fine
nag, was he not ?” g
“Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t like
cobs.”
“What not like cobs "
“Not a bit. No doubt your cob, with his
short back, short pasterns, great ribs, and
straightish shoulder, is a fine feeder, has lots of
constitution, and often lots of muscle, and so, for
a time, will get through any quantity of work ;
and when you've said that I think you’ve given
the favourable side of his character. On the
other hand, no one, I think, who cares to be
pleasantly carried would select a cob for his
hack. He is the sort one keeps about the place
for anyone to ride but one's self. Then, as a rule,
he is subject to go lame suddenly and without
any cause, as people say ; but I have always
attributed the catastrophe to the concussion
which the short back and pasterns, straight
shoulders, and general want of elasticity entail
on the legs. Depend upon it, when a rider
388 RECOLLECTIONS OF
feels a horse rough, the horse's legs are get-
ting it.”
At another corner of the long deal table a
knot of young worthies were talking shop—the
value of sheep-dogs and the ways of shepherds.
“The other day,” said one, “I came on one of
my shepherds, who seemed just then to be what
people call eccentric, for to my surprise I caught
him running round his flock like a madman,
giving vent to terrific screams. I rode up to
him, and asked what was the matter. What do
you think was his answer ? Pointing to his dog,
which was sitting under a tree, and had evidently
struck work, he said, ‘Talk to him, sir; he's
the shepherd, I’m the (adjective) dog.’”
A roar of laughter followed this yarn, which
seemed to us just then immensely humorous.
“That was your new-chum shepherd, was it
not ? " -
“Yes, he of the laughing jackass.”
“What was that ?” said another.
“Oh a very good yarn, I think. This shep-
herd of mine—a Paddy, by the way—when he
arrived in Melbourne, some months back, was
going about the streets with his mate seeing the
lions, when they came to a poulterer's shop, in
which, besides fowls, there were some birds in
cages of sorts new to Paddy. Naturally enough
he thought they were native poultry, and, being
of an experimental turn of mind, asked the shop-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 389
man, pointing to a laughing jackass, ‘What
might be the price of yon quare-faced turkey,
or whatsomever you call him ' ' ' Why,” said
the shopman, “he's not a turkey, man, he's a
owl l’ ‘Oh, thin,' said Paddy, in that peculiar
whining tone of voice in which an Irishman
sometimes gives vent to his fun, ‘devil a care
I whether he's Ould or young, so long as he's
fat.’”
Another lot before the fire were talking of the
Blacks and their doings. “Stalking !” said one,
“I heard a blackfellow boast that he had
stalked so close up to an emu, with a bundle
of boughs in his hand, that the bird put his
head round the bush to see if there was anyone
behind it, and he caught him with his hand.”
“Well, they are witty enough in their way,”
said another. “I was bathing with old Jacky-
Jacky in the Campaspe last summer, and the
mosquitos were so bad that I wished I had a
tail to switch myself with. I could not bear
them, so I said to Jacky, ‘I don’t mind them on
my hands and face, but I can't bear them on my
body. How do you manage without clothes º'
‘Oh, you see,' said Jacky, ‘Blackfellow all face, so
mebber mind l’.”
“But their idea of cleanliness amuses me,”
said another. “Would you believe it? I explained
to a darkey out camping, not long since, that he
should wash his hands before putting on the
390 RECOLLECTIONS OF
chops, and not lift them with his fingers ; so, sure
enough, before the next meal he went to the creek
and washed his hands, and then took his seat
before the fire to commence operations, but as I
had told him not to touch the chops with his
fingers, and said nothing about forks, how do you
think he placed them in the pan —with his
toes l’ -
“Well done, Jacky he took his instructions
aw pied de la lettre /* -
“And yet, after all,” said another, “with a
good deal of the grotesque, and even of the
nasty, one is constantly stumbling on something
picturesque in connection with the Blacks ; for
instance : on one of the hottest days of last
summer I went to the camp of a blackfellow,
whose lubra was sick. He was seated naked
before his mia-mia straightening some reeds, of
which he was about to make spears, on a little
mound of hot ashes, in the usual way. Inside
the mia-mia was a young woman, his wife,
covered with her opossum-rug, her head rest-
ing on her bag, and suffering from fever,
I had been talking to the man for a few
moments when the invalid raised herself a little,
supporting herself on her hand, her back towards
us. Her rug partly fell off, her head drooped,
and her hair hung down in close heavy masses,
reminding me of the appearance of hair in
statuary. Indeed, the pose was not unlike that
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 391
of the “dying gladiator.’ ‘The flies ' said she,
in her own language, and in the tone of one
impatient and suffering ; and her husband took
up a small bunch of twigs and drove away the
tormentors. She did not move, however, but in
a moment exclaimed “I am hot ; so the Black
filled his mouth with water from his calabash,
and, turning towards the sick woman, gently
drew down the rug a little and ejected the fluid
from his mouth upwards, in such a way that it
fell on her skin in the form of spray. . After this
had been repeated once or twice, she pulled her
rug over her and lay down apparently relieved.
Altogether, I thought the mode of nursing and
the little scene picturesque enough.”
“Talking of Blacks,” said another, “let me tell
you of what happened to me. Tast winter I was
suffering from rheumatism, and about eight o'clock
one night was lying before the fire, very weak and
done for want of sleep, when two or three lubras
came to the door and asked me to let them have
the head of a bullock which was to be killed next
morning. Not wishing to be troubled, I consented
to the request at once ; but instead of withdraw-
ing they remained consulting together in an
undertone, and at last I asked them what they
were waiting for ‘We want you to tell the
cook to give us the head,' said they ; to which I
replied that I would tell him in the morning.
But still they did not go, and after some time it
392 RECOLLECTIONS OF
came out that they were anxious I should tell
him at once, as they thought I should be dead
before morning. The idea amused me a good deal,
as I did not feel a bit like dying, though no doubt
I looked very ill; so I insisted that they should
seat themselves on the hob and give me their
death-song on the spot, which they did. But the
best of it was that my cook, hearing the cry,
rushed in and removed the rug with which I had
covered my face, exclaiming, when he saw my
eyes open, ‘Praise be to God, sir! I made sure
you were dead when I heard the lubras “waking”
you !”
By degrees, as the evening went on, there were
a few songs, and the tobacco smoke got crowded,
and conversation involved and difficult to follow ;
but I remember there was a good deal said about
new chums, who had been accustomed to hounds
at home, getting on poorly in the timber. About
midnight we went to bed, and the last thing I
recollect was a loud scream, which roused me for
an instant. The next moment I was asleep.
As the master of the pack was under the
impression that the scent of the wild dog did not
lie long after sunrise, we had to dress and break-
fast by candle light, so as to be in the saddle as
soon as we could see the hounds. On this occa-
sion talk at breakfast was about the scream to
which I have just referred. It had proceeded
from one of the company, a bold rider and a
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 393
heavy weight, who had some practice with
hounds in England, and his account of it was the
only incident of a rather dull breakfast. “I was
very sleepy last night,” said the narrator in a
somewhat strong provincial accent which few retain
out here, “and must have dropped off almost as
soon as my head touched the pillow. Probably
but a short time had elapsed when I dreamt I
was with the hounds, sailing along, scent breast-
high, when suddenly I got into a crab-hole and
came to grief. I thought the shadows of death
were fast settling over me.”—and here our worthy
friend, who seemed inclined to get into the realms
of poetry, cast a solemn glance round the table,
and stirred his tea with his spoon—“I felt I had
come to the last gasp ; I didn’t think I should
ever draw another breath, as the Badger was
lying on top of me, the pommel of the saddle in
the pit of my stomach.” With every desire to
appear sympathetic, the anti-climax was too much
for the company, and we all burst into a roar of
laughter. It might have passed in the evening
with the “bootiful cool,” but would not do at six
o'clock in the morning.
Breakfast over, there was a cry of “to horse,”
and the steeds were led forth, looking but in-
differently after their night in the stable, to which
they were unaccustomed. As a heavy frost was
on the ground, and the stable cold, none of them
appeared very pleasant. However, we were soon
394 RECOLLECTIONS OF
in the saddle and the hounds turned out, and we
had not gone three hundred yards when there
was a whimper or two, and the moment after a
crash, and I heard for the first time a pack of
hounds in full cry. Then followed a scamper
through sand-hills and scrubs on the scent of a
wild dog ; but, unfortunately, there was no kill, so
we were fain to slacken our girths, light our
pipes, and ride back quietly, trying the qualities
of our horses over some rasping logs as we went
along. After lunch some played quoits and some
indulged in a nap. I remember I was very
sleepy. Next morning there was another fore-
noon with the pack, and better sport, after which
the company lunched ; had a stirrup-cup ; con-
gratulated the master about the sport; made
appointments for a future meet; shook hands;
admired everybody's horse; lit their pipes; had a
few more last words, and rode home. -
CHAPTER XXVII.
LAW IN THE BUSH AN INTRUDER ON THE RUN.
THE reader has seen that an official of the Supreme
Court did break in on us at Tongala on one
occasion, but I dare say he will have understood
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 395.
that otherwise we had not much to do with law.
Indeed, for the first several years, as far as I
remember, no court of any sort was held nearer
to Tongala than Melbourne, which, for any use it
was to us, might as well have sat in Timbuctoo.
The consequence was, that, as the “Masters and
Servants Act” could not be appealed to, men and
masters took the law into their own hands, the
former leaving their places when dissatisfied, the
latter dismissing and sometimes fining their men
for misconduct—a mode of procedure which, with
all its imperfections, seemed to give as much
satisfaction as any other with which I am
acquainted; for the result was that an ill-
behaved man soon ceased to find masters in the
neighbourhood, whilst a master who had not been
tolerably honourable in his dealings with his men
would before long have found himself without
servants. In fact, that a proprietor should be
well served in our neighbourhood, a character for
straightforward dealing with his men was indis-
pensable. However, as our first bright days of
Arcadian simplicity passed by, and our lands
came to be more fully stocked, conflicting views
of meum and tuum sprung up between stock-
owners on the question of runs, which could only
be set at rest by the intervention of law, and led,
in 1848 or '49, to the appointment of officials
styled Caveat Commissioners, whose duty was to
hear evidence and determine disputes concerning
396 IRECOLLECTIONS OF
boundaries. On my father's run we had to
do with two of these functionaries. In both
instances my father was the defendant, and
in both the plaintiffs withdrew their cases on
hearing a portion of the evidence adduceable on
our side, so that in our regard the Commissioners
had only to register the boundaries agreed upon
by the parties in their courts. Prior to the
appointment of Commissioners, however, we had
a little unpleasantness at Tongala on the subject
of one of our boundaries which occurred in this
way.
At the junction, Or, as the Yankees term it,
the fork, of the Goulburn and Murray there
were two or three square miles of country not
included in my father's run which were periodi-
cally flooded to the depth of several feet. About
this scrap of country I never troubled myself, as
it was of no use to me, or anyone else. It so
happened, however, that a misguided French-
man, the possessor of a hundred and twenty head
of crawling cattle, three mares, and a dray, on
the outlook for some place in which he might
squat in an inexpensive way, heard of the spot,
and, thinking it would suit him, transported
thither his stock, household effects, and his wife
Jinny. With the exception of these belongings,
which, without attempting to value the lady,
represented a capital too small to attempt
squatting with, I think the Frenchman was not
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 397
blessed with a five pound note in the world; so
that, being unable to employ labour, he used to
look after his cattle himself, the Blacks at that
time being thoroughly quiet, whilst Gini, as he
called his helpmate, attended to the ménage.
Being a horse-farrier by trade, he certainly earned
a few pounds now and then by docking colts in
the neighbourhood, and jobs of the sort, other-
wise I have no idea how he managed to live during
the year or two he was at the junction. How-
ever that may be, I used to notice that wherever
I went, whether to Mount Hope, the Punt,
Kilmore, or elsewhere, I always heard of my
mercurial neighbour, and not unfrequently of some
little act of violence he had committed, or scrape
he had got into. In fact he was a wandering,
unquiet sort of person, and as fond of being on
the move as a coureur de bois in the wilds of
Canada. Personally, for a long time I had
nothing to complain of in connection with him,
and indeed rarely saw him except perhaps when
he paid a visit to my cook, or called at Tongala
to inquire about “ma bool” (my bull), an animal
which seemed to share the gad-about propensities
of his owner.
In this way matters went on very quietly
till one day a shepherd of ours, who had
been down the river with his flock, brought
in word that our volatile neighbour had left
his unpleasant place near the junction, and
398 RECOLLECTIONS OF
transported himself and his belongings, Gini
inclusive, to one of our out-stations on the
Goulburn, just then unoccupied. It also appeared
that he had been there some time, as he had
thoroughly repaired the hut, and erected a yard
in which to muster his few head of cattle. So
unusual a proceeding, which seemed to us as
much an act of invasion as the landing of a
French corps d'armée at Deal would have done
to an Englishman, rather startled our little circle
at Tongala, and at Once put a stop to the entente
cordiale which had hitherto existed between the
Frenchman and ourselves. Personally, I am
obliged to acknowledge (being then in the hot
days of my youth) that I should at once have
carried fire and sword into the enemy's camp, had
it not been for a servant who for several years
had discharged the functions of cook and store-
keeper on the place, to whom I committed my
intentions. This worthy, who rejoiced in the
sobriquet of “The Peeler,” a complete Caleb
Balderstone in his way, after having been in-
formed of what was uppermost in my mind, and
directed to look me up some pistol bullets, pro-
ceeded, as he always did when he was in a hurry,
to take several pinches of snuff, when he burst
out into the exclamation, “I am very glad to
hear it, sir; if you'll allow me, I'll just rinse out
the double barrel and go with.yºu. Yaw-hugh
it will remind me of the evictions in the county
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 399
Wicklow years ago, and I shall be there to give
a hand.”
Everyone knows how a word will occasionally
turn the current of one's thoughts, and in this
case the word eviction brought to my mind cir-
cumstances I had read of, which led me to doubt
whether turning out the Frenchman in the sum-
mary manner contemplated might not in effect
be to let myself in for some disagreeable interven-
tion of the law, of which I had a great horror.
In fact, when I reflected on the hubbub which
had occurred in the old country on the subject of
ousting persons from houses and farms which did
not belong to them, with the whole force of the
law and its guardians within easy beck and call,
I began to think that my plan might not be the
right one. At all events I thought it better to
begin by making “The Peeler” the bearer of a note
to the Frenchman, in which I expressed my
surprise at the step which he had taken, and
called upon him to remove from my father's run,
authorizing my ambassador to assure him verbally
that in the event of his sending a written acknow-
ledgment of the wrong he had done, he would be
allowed to remain where he was for a few weeks
until he could make his arrangements to leave.
This parleying with the foe I felt, it is true, to be
a miserable concession to expediency, especially
as I was convinced that an intruder who had
gone the length of putting up a stockyard was
400 RECOLLECTIONS OF
most unlikely quietly to walk out on a mere
summons on the part of the owner. Nevertheless,
acting, as I was, on behalf of my father, I thought
it my duty to be circumspect and prudent.
In the course of the evening “The Peeler’”
returned, and on asking what had been the result
of his mission, he said, “The Frenchman didn’t
write, sir, though I asked him to do so, but swore
horrid; partly in what you may call English and
partly in his own language, and said he would
stick to the country up to the Towro sand-
hill; ” and at this point “The Peeler” relieved
his feelings with a long pinch of snuff.
“Well, what else did he say ?”
“Well, sir, he swore horrid at first. I never
heard anything worse, and then went down on
his knees and took Jinny and myself to witness
that if you or any of the masters touched the hut
or interfered with the cattle, saving your presence,
he’d shoot you like one duck.”
“Yes! and what did you say ?”
“Well, yaw-hugh Mr. de S
not my business to say anything about the
master's affairs, but for-in-as-much as you were
talking about shooting, I may just as well recom-
mend your wife to send out her invitations to a
wake before you begin, for it's well known there's
no one on the river that seems so natural with a
gun or a pistol as the family, and that it is safe
to turn out a Waterloo if you begin.” After
, says I, it's
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 40}
which my servant gave utterance to several
cackles peculiar to himself, which it is quite im-
possible to give an idea of in writing, and set to
work to lay the cloth for dinner.
Having thus ascertained beyond a doubt my
neighbour's intention to appropriate a slice of the
run, I sent my father an account of the circum-
stances, and in due time received a letter in reply,
in which he informed me that he had consulted
his lawyer, and been advised that there was
nothing for it but to have the stockyard and hut
pulled down, and things in general made disagree-
able for the intruder. My course thus marked
out, the next step was to indite a quiet letter to my
Gallic neighbour, which I sent by “The Peeler,”
informing him that, on a certain day, I should
chop down the stockyard and hut. In the course
of the evening I received his verbal reply that, if
I attempted to do anything of the sort, he would
shoot me. On the day appointed my brother and
I, accompanied by one of the men, who carried a
couple of axes, paid a visit to the foreigner's
establishment, and to our disgust found him
absent, and his wife only at home. Under these
circumstances we chopped down the stockyard,
but did not touch the hut, as “Gini” informed us
that her husband would certainly be at home in a
day or two, and begged us not to leave her alone
and houseless. We left her, therefore, with the
understanding that we should return that day
27
402 RECOLLECTIONS OF
week and pull down the hut, Frenchman or no
Frenchman. This leniency was, however, quite
thrown away on our neighbour, who, thus twice
invited to be present at the demolition of the
premises, failed to come to the front ; so that, at
last, we had to pull down the hut in his absence,
merely leaving the bark table and bedstead stand-
ing. The job was a disagreeable one, and “Gini,”
of course, shed “some natural tears;” but there
was no help for it. A few days later, finding a score
of my neighbour's cattle on the run, I drove them
across the Murray, whence it would be difficult to
recover them, and sent him notice of the circum-
stance, and an assurance of my determination to
persevere in that course. This step brought our
friend to his senses; and on receipt of a letter
from him, which satisfied me in every particular,
I allowed him to remain where he was for a few
weeks, when he departed with his stock and
travelled on, as I heard, to some distant part of
New South Wales. At all events I never saw
him again ; and to make the recurrence of such
troubles impossible, my father got the useless
scrap of country which had led to the unpleasant-
ness added to his run. -
At a later period I think a feeling grew up in
some neighbourhoods that courts of petty sessions
in the bush had become desirable. At all events,
the Governor, Sir George Gipps, gazetted a
number of stockowners to the commission of the
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 403
peace, and had clerks of petty sessions stationed
here and there. Our neighbourhood, it is true,
was not favoured in this way, but I had more
than one opportunity of observing how the
measure worked in the Western District. In that
locality court days were a sort of holiday, and
there used to be considerable musters of justices
On such occasions, and, when the business was
over, not a little brandy-and-water, and dis-
cussions respecting the decisions arrived at. To
tell the truth, however, though the squatters in
those parts were very jolly fellows, they got on
but indifferently in the magisterial capacity.
One of their great difficulties, I remember, was
making out committals, which, on one point or
another, almost always turned out bad. This,
however, was fairly enough set down to the inca-
pacity of the clerks.
On one occasion, one of the justices determined
in despair to try his hand at drawing a com-
mittal, which he did with much deliberation.
However, his experiment was not a success, and
it was said that the document fell into the hands
of some limb of the law in Melbourne, who, after
(speaking metaphorically) ruthlessly tearing it to
pieces in court, said he would have it framed
and hung up in his chambers, as a sample of
what a bush justice could produce.
Occasionally, however, the doings of the little
court did hold good, which tended very much to
404 RECOLLECTIONS OF
encourage the plucky young J.P.'s to persevere
in their duties.
Being present on one occasion at the Chepstowe
court, I heard a decision which struck me as
very whimsical, and which may be adduced as
characteristic. There were on the bench at
the time four or five gentlemen (stockowners of
course) who, I am sure, urgently desired to
administer the law with the utmost impartiality,
but who were in a position which, unknown to
themselves, rendered them utterly incapable of
taking a dispassionate view of the facts brought
before them. The parties concerned were two
rather rough sheepowners, who were neighbours,
and the complaint was that the defendant had
trespassed on the plaintiff's run with a flock of
scabby sheep—a crime of the blackest dye, of
course, in a pastoral country. For the defence, it
was urged that the land on which the alleged
trespass had been committed was the property
of the defendant and not of the plaintiff, and
that a caveat had been lodged respecting it. The
decision of the bench in the case, which was
delivered by the chairman with not a little of the
manner of a chief justice, was, that commissioners
having been specially appointed to decide cases of
disputed boundaries, it was beyond the province
of the bench to offer any opinion as to whom
the land on which the scabby flock was found
belonged; and that, without prejudice in that
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 405
matter, the bench fined the defendant five pounds
for travelling with scabby sheep ! and so the
matter ended. The justices, on joining their
friends outside the court, seemed, I noticed, much
pleased with this their decision, which to their
minds met both the law and the equity of the
case admirably, and at the same time showed a
lawyer-like discrimination on the subject of their
jurisdiction. When all was over, the bench
adjourned to the house of a brother justice to
lunch, to which they did ample justice. The
little court at Chepstowe, I used to notice,
supplied the justices with endless topics of con-
versation, and in this respect was a success.
Many of the justices were gentlemanly young
fellows, and excellent sheep-farmers; kept good
liquor, rode good horses, and were usually well
placed with a pack of fox-hounds which hunted
the neighbourhood.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
OLD DAVIE.
ON one or two occasions there came to Wolfscrag,
with others of the Nerboolok tribe, a lubra, for
whom a freak of nature had earned the name of
406 RECOLLECTIONS OF
Six-fingered Polly. The last time I saw Polly,
which was just before I left Wolfscrag, she had a
little urchin of a daughter who peeped with
bright eyes over her shoulder from her nest
between her mother's back and her opossum-rug.
The baby seemed just a second edition of its
mother—save the six fingers, an ordinary well-
made young woman—except that, in addition to
her superfluity of fingers, she had also six toes on
each of her tiny feet. Amongst the Blacks such
things were not common, but there was a
Wongatpan or Moira family which was a little
remarkable in this way. The father of the
family, who was known for a hundred miles
round, bore amongst the whites the name of Old
Davie. When I first came to Tongala he had
only one lubra, one of whose eyes had been put
out—I forget now by what accident. By her he
had no family; but being, like the rest of his race,
addicted to a plurality of wives when obtainable,
Old Davie one day brought to the station a
second spouse, who, strange to say, like the first,
had also but one serviceable eye—with this
difference, that her’s was a natural and not an
artificial defect. This gravitation of single-eyed
charmers to one camp, odd in itself, was, however,
rendered more remarkable when in due time
T)avie's youngest wife presented her husband
with a little daughter, charming in every par-
ticular except in the matter of the family failing,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 407
one of its eyes, like its mother's, being—as he
who sung “ of man's first disobedience and the
fruit” expresses it—“ by dim suffusion veiled.”
Later on, however, a son was born to Old
T)avie, who—probably from being an only one,
unexceptionable in the matter of eyes, and a
reasonably fine child in other particulars—became,
as soon as he could walk and talk a little, the
very idol and delight of the paternal heart. This
offshoot of the tribe of Wongat, and the house of
Davie, received at a very early age from his
father the name of “Jack Jumbuk-man”—Anglice,
“Jack the Shepherd;” as it was to the employ-
ment of tending sheep at Tongala that his father
destined him from the first, as he often told me in
high glee. Possibly the old man had done a
little castle-building in the matter, thinking it not
a bad thing for a hungry savage to have a son in
charge of two thousand fat sheep; at all events,
there is no reason to doubt that he thought the
employment in question thoroughly desirable for
his son. To watch the gradual expansion of the
Jumbuk-man's faculties; to see him balance him-
self with his feet astride, and throw his spear at
his sister's back ; to observe him tomahawk the
sleeping dogs, maltreat any birds or insects he
could lay hands on, bite his mother ; to hear
him lisp foul words, and give himself up to the
charming ways of savage infancy, became hence-
forth the chief delight of his father. Though I
408 RECOLLECTIONS OF
had known Davie for several years, it was only
about this time that he attracted my attention,
and that I began to make some inquiries about
him. When the Jumbuk-man was born he was
verging on that period when a man is said to be
“somewhat stricken in years,” or, as I have heard
an Irishman put it, “a thrifle ould.” The
wrinkles in his face were beginning to show
somewhat strongly ; the hair, which grew with
remarkable profusion on his back and chest, was
waxing grey; whilst the locks on the top of his
head were getting scant, though this last pecu-
liarity (undoubtedly not a sign of youth) was
probably the consequence of his having a very
long beard ; as it seems to be a fact that such
an appendage and an abundant head of hair
rarely manage to exist together for a lengthened
period.
I may remark of the mental capacities of this
savage that they were below the average of his
tribe ; that he was the reverse of demonstrative ;
slow and unemphatic in speech ; that he spoke
habitually in a low tone and with a lisp ; that he
was kind to children, and never known to toma-
hawk his lubras; so that he bore the character
amongst us of being a particularly humane and
inoffensive specimen of his race. In person he
was rather stout, bull-necked, capacious of chest,
muscular and unencumbered with fat, and an
adept in the use of his spear and waddy. In-
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 409
deed, than him none of the Bangerang did more
“excel in fact of arms.” Of his passions or pre-
judices, likes or dislikes, but little was known to us
at that time, though constantly at the station,
as he seldom asked for anything or brought him-
self into notice. In fact, to escape notice was
one of his characteristics, his seeming small
amount of individuality leading one to overlook
him as a vegetable sort of being. At a later
period, however, we came to know that beneath
Davie's commonplace exterior there dwelt a
strong will, great courage, and a passion which,
probably from frequent indulgence, had become
overruling. His special craving was for murder ;
particularly for quiet, unostentatious murders,
which he used to perpetrate alone, and at con-
siderable distance from the haunts of his tribe.
Indeed, until he became the father of the Jum-
buk-man, it appeared afterwards that he had
never had any strong liking for anything else,
but stuck to his solitary pleasure on every
available opportunity, just as an angler will to
fishing his favourite stream. Had De Quincey
known him, he would have been charmed with
him. He was unique in his way, and on this
score I will just glance at some of his doings
which came to my knowledge. I remember
hearing related how once, for instance, he hap-
pened to descry two strange Blacks making their
camp at Sundown as they were passing from one
410 RECOLLECTIONS OF
part of the country to another, and of how he
stole upon them during the small hours of the
morning, and speared them as they lay asleep.
That, on another occasion, prowling alone in the
country of another tribe, he had discovered a
large camp, a hundred yards or so from the banks.
of the Murray ; approached the spot, swimming
noiselessly, after nightfall, and then waited
patiently amongst the long grass until chance
sent a lubra to replenish her kooliman, when he
slew her with a single blow of his waddy, and got
away before the deed was discovered. But the
last exploit of this fiend which came to my ears,
possibly from hearing the circumstances related
more in detail, I thought a piece of exceptional
barbarity. It was as follows:–
In the commencement of 1849 there was a
large gathering of tribes on the Edwards river.
Amongst others the Wongatpan were there, and
with the rest one known to the whites as Colonel
Henry ; as also Old Davie, his wives, and the all-
important Jumbuk-man. This Colonel Henry, a
good-looking bachelor of five-and-twenty, fell
violently in love with a young lubra who had
come to the meeting with her parents. They had
never met before, and the object of the Colonel's
attachment had long since been promised in mar-
riage to some fellow old enough to be her father,
who probably had one or two wives already. At
the time, however, she was single, and, as my
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 411.
informant said, had barely reached womanhood.
During the time the tribes remained together, it
seems Henry lost no opportunity of paying his
court to the young lady, as far as circumstances
permitted, sending her secretly, through the
medium of his female relatives, frequent assur-
ances of undying affection, together with presents
of fat opossums, manna, and other delicacies. It
was also said that he used large quantities of red
ochre and grease in getting himself up for the
nightly corroborees, in which he took a dis-
tinguished part, being in this particular, as I
understood, rather in the extreme of the fashion.
In fact, it was over again the old story which the
world never gets tired of enacting ; so Colonel
Henry gained the maiden's heart, and before the
tribes separated she eloped with him. This event
caused considerable noise in the camp, so that
the tribe to which she belonged—one from about
Cobram, and of Bangerang tongue—returned to
its own country somewhat in anger.
Whilst affairs were in this position, and shortly
after the Wongatpan had reached their own
country, it happened, unfortunately, that the
Jumbuk-man was taken seriously ill. Whether
that promising child had surfeited himself with
fat fish, or what, I cannot say positively, though
it is not unlikely. At all events he became
dangerously indisposed. To avert the threatened
calamity the conjurers exerted themselves to the
412 RECOLLECTIONS OF
utmost. Every incantation believed by the sages
of Wongat to be efficacious on such occasions was
had recourse to. Nothing, however, was of any
avail, and after a few days the boy died. Though
the death of a child was not in reality much felt
by the tribe, they made—as my brother Richard,
who was present, informed me—in deference to
the father, who was a great warrior, a certain
display of sorrow on this occasion, which took the
shape of working themselves up into a state of
excitement, in which they accused the old man of
want of vigilance as regards the wizards, and beat
his head with sticks in a friendly way as he sat
unresistingly on the ground, streams of tears
welling from his eyes. But if the tribal sorrow
was rather assumed than real, the death of the
boy was a terrible blow to Old Davie. He had
been his special delight, and it was remarked at
the time that though the old ruffian had made
more widows and Orphans than anyone within a
hundred miles—had, in fact, rioted in ruthless
deeds—when death came to his own mia-mia, he
took it very hard, and bore his loss in a very
unstoical way. They said he more than once
asked, “What had the boy done that he should
die ' If the doctors of another tribe were angry,
could they not have charmed away the life of
someone else ?”
The first paroxysms of grief over, the con-
siderations which occurred to Davie, of course,
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 413.
were—“Whose witchcraft killed the child 2 and
on whom could his death be most readily
avenged ?” for, with the Australian Blacks, the
death of a kinsman in such cases is nearly as
satisfactory as that of the offender himself.
These questions were, unfortunately, too easily
answered in this case. “Colonel Henry,” argued
Davie, “stole a young woman ; in revenge, the
conjurer of the tribe has charmed away the life
of the Jumbuk-man. I will clear the score by
killing the woman.” Having made up his mind
on the subject silently and irrevocably, as was his
wont, the bereaved parent became more calm,
and, keeping his resolves to himself, set out with
his family and two or three others of the tribe in
the direction in which he was likely to meet
Henry and his wife, and quickly came upon the
young couple, with a few others, midway between
Wyuna and Kotoopna. With them his party
encamped, and of what occurred on the occasion
I gleaned from the Blacks as follows.
Shortly after the meeting of the two bands
Old Davie's party made known to the others the
death of the Jumbuk-man, when the usual
expressions of sorrow were indulged in. Next
morning, when the women had gone out yamming,
Old Davie addressed the men, and told them how
Colonel Henry had eloped with a young woman
of another tribe, and how, in consequence, the
conjurers had taken the life of his child. Then
414 RECOLLECTIONS OF
getting on his feet, and warming with his subject
as he proceeded, he said to Colonel Henry, with
considerable emotion, “The people of that woman
have killed my boy. Give her to me and I will
kill her. There is clay on my head and my
beard, and on the heads of my wives, and
it cannot be washed off until I have revenge.
Let her tribe wear clay. Let me kill her.”
Colonel Henry replied—“You have come to
kill my wife. She is a Wongatpan now. She
is your niece now. You have no right to kill
her. Am I to lose a wife because you have lost
a son 4 Besides, it was not her tribe who killed
the boy. I saw the conjurer of another tribe
looking at him. It was he who killed the
boy. Let us go and kill some of the tribe.
I wont give up the woman. You always
kill someone. I have long desired to have
a wife. Now I have a young wife, and
you want to kill her l’ “It is our custom,”
replied Davie. “I cannot find the man who
killed the boy. His sister is here : I will kill
her. It is my right. You cannot always stand
before her. I may not spear her whilst you are
there, but when you take your eyes off
I will kill her.” “I will take her over the
Murray,” said Henry, “and let her go. She
will find her way back to her tribe. I will not
let her be speared.” “And,” said Davie, “what
will that profit you ? Will you have a wife
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 415
then 2 Better, like a true Wongatpan, let me
kill her and revenge your nephew, who is gone.
Take care her tribe do not bewitch you next.
But why do I talk : Do as you like, say what
you choose, I will never change till I have killed
her. I thirst for her blood. I hunger for her
blood. I will have it !”
After this style, as I heard, the matter was
discussed for a considerable time, and eventually
the old tiger worked himself up to the last pitch
of frenzy. The more he talked, the more furious
he became. Meanwhile Henry had little to say
in reply. He was wavering. He was oppressed
by superstition, and the doubtful right to kill his
wife, which Davie claimed. Then, too, the
immense animosity of his opponent, his concen-
trated energy, his mad craving for revenge, to
which Henry had nothing violent to oppose, were
weighing him down. In the matter of under-
standing Henry was vastly his superior, but in
energy, resolution, tenacity, and constitution he
was weak in comparison to Davie. In fact—and
to this persons of our race will find it difficult to
allow full weight—I have no doubt Henry was
growing weary; the discussion had exhausted his
endurance, and he was going to give way to get
rid of it. As usual in such cases, as Colonel
Henry's replies waxed faint, the savage energy of
the old murderer increased. As some of my
informants said, he was hardly recognizable in his
416 RECOLLECTIONS OF
excited state. The veins stood out on his fore-
head, his chest heaved, he foamed at the mouth.
“Talk as you like,” shouted he ; “complain if
you choose, I will never relent : I will kill her t”
To this there was no reply. Several hours had
been spent in the discussion. Henry was worn
out, so he held his tongue. No one felt called
upon to interfere. The wife had no relative in
the camp to take her part ; so T)avie stooped
down, and took a small parcel from his bag,
which he threw to Henry. -
“There,” said he, is money : take it ; leave the
camp; let me revenge my son. Let her be got rid
of, otherwise we shall soon stand by your grave,
for the conjurers will take your life. Go! make
haste I am ready shut your mouth ! Go!”
Though it is more than thirty years since these
brutalities happened, it pains me still to re-
member them, and costs an effort to conclude.
Henry took up the silver. It was only a trifling
compensation for the loss he was to sustain, but
he gave in because he was weary. Probably his
own loss of a wife pained him more than the
thought of the girl's murder. So he took up the
silver, as there was nothing which appeared to
him wrong, much less horrible, in the act; indeed,
I doubt whether he was capable of being made
to understand its turpitude. He had yielded to
superstition, to fear of the conjurer, to the
tyranny of custom—above all, to the force of a
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 417
will stronger than his own ; and he did not feel
that there was anything to prevent him accepting
compensation, much or little, for the loss which
was being forced upon him. So he stood up, the
silver in his hand, collected his weapons, and,
with an exclamation not so much of sorrow for the
fate of the girl as of petulant anger at his loss,
left the camp in company with another of his
tribe. Davie watched him, and then sat anxiously
expecting his victim. Not long after, the women
and children were seen returning. They were,
of course, ignorant of what had occurred, and
each went to her own camp, and amongst others
the young wife. Hardly had they seated them-
selves, when the old murderer quietly took up a
club and a huge war-spear, the point of which
bristled with fragments of glass, and walked
leisurely towards Colonel Henry's camp, and as
though he was going to pass behind it. There
was nothing remarkable in his doing so, and
hence it attracted no attention on the part of the
women. When close to the young woman, how-
ever, he stopped. With a sudden jerk he flung
from him his only garment and stood naked
within a few yards of the mia-mia, the spear
quivering in his hand. At this instant the young
wife turned her head and saw him. A plaintive
cry escaped her, for, no doubt, she realized in an
instant the full meaning of the Satanic apparition.
Before she could rise to her feet, however, the
28
418 RECOLLECTIONS OF
fatal weapon was plunged into her back with a
force which would have slain an elephant; then a
blow with the club, and her sufferings on earth
were at an end.
This murder—the last, I believe, which Davie
committed—did not find favour with the tribe.
“He always kills,” said they, with an expression
of pain ; “she was a poor thing, an unfortunate
and so the matter ended. As for me, I was so
disgusted at what I heard, that I sent word to
the two men that if ever they crossed my path
again I would seize and deliver them to the
police, and I never saw either of their faces again.
Otherwise it was an idle threat, for I knew
flothing would be done.
| 2,
CHAPTER XXIX.
RAMBLES IN UNOCCUPIED COUNTRY
I AM afraid I must plead guilty to a somewhat
vagabond turn of mind, and a constitutional love
of rambling, especially into solitary and out-of-
the-way places. Perhaps it is the consequence of
many voyages and journeys made early in life.
At all events, so decided are my propensities in
this way that I have seldom passed a lonely
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 419
mountain, unknown stream, or ruin of any sort
without feeling strongly moved to make myself
acquainted with its secrets; and, I suppose, this
is how it happened that I had no sooner got
things in order at Tongala, than, instead of
quietly giving myself up to the enjoyment of my
hut and the comforts of station life, I took to
making excursions into the unoccupied country
around me. These outings, which began with a
day’s ride in one direction or another, gradually
extended to Mount Hope, Lake Meering, Swan
FIill, the lower Edwards, the Wawkool, Niemur,
and so on ; so that for several years, until the
country got occupied with sheep, it became a
practice with me to pass two or three weeks in
the bush shortly before lambing, which began in
the middle of May. One, or sometimes two, of
my brothers were usually of the party, and not
unfrequently a couple of Blacks.
What we proposed to ourselves in our outings
was a little change of life, plenty of shooting and
hunting, and a sight of the unexplored country.
This custom of ours, I may say, was an excep-
tional One, as bushmen generally took their
holidays in town ; “the pleasure in the pathless
woods,” of which we have all read, being indulged
in no oftener than was absolutely unavoidable.
With me the reverse was the case, as I preferred
hunting excursions into unoccupied country to
visits to the city; hence gradually I came to look
420 RECOLLECTIONS OF
on the country of our rambles, which in extent
might be a hundred and fifty miles by fifty, as a
sort of plaisaunce, or grand park, on which I was
free to wander, shoot, hunt, fish, and do as I
chose, my only care being to escape getting a
spear through me.
Besides hunting, and a little exploring, I was
also very fond of scenery in those days, and loved
the Murray and the grand trees on its banks, its
reed-beds, its plains big and little, edged with
mallee, box, gum and other evergreen trees, its
pine-shaded sand-hills and long winding lagoons
crowded with waterfowl. Indeed, for the pleasure
it gave me to observe nature at that time—to
look on the trees of the forest ; the quiet lakes ;
the mirage mocking the sight with expanses of
unreal water ; the ways of bird and beast; the
lowan with her peculiar nest ; the wild dog,
seemingly impervious to heat and thirst ; and a
hundred other objects of the sort—I might have
been a painter and a naturalist, though I knew
but little of their pursuits. Then, when the camp
was made, what a relish we had for roast duck,
grilled fish, or a kangaroo's tail done in the ashes,
followed by a bonne bouche of manna got from the
Blacks | And how pleasant it was, when the
cravings of hunger had been appeased, to lie in
one's blanket before the fire in the full enjoyment
of quart-pot tea and negro-head tobacco, whilst
our little party discussed the crack shots and
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 421
other hunting incidents of the day, or the relative
merits of shot-guns and rifles, or the geography
of the country about which we were wandering.
That our forests were not stocked with lions and
koodoos, buffalo, and elephants, like those of more
favoured lands, was no doubt a drawback, and one
which we often regretted.
With one exception, these excursions were made
with only a horse a-piece, which at the outset
were rather heavily laden, as, besides their riders,
they had each to carry several pounds of flour, a
blanket, ammunition, some tea and sugar, and
other odds and ends. Our appetites, however,
soon lightened the loads, our food afterwards
depending on what we could get with our guns,
dogs, and fishing lines—a mode of existence rather
savage in its tendency, no doubt, but to us, at the
time, very enjoyable, as a relief from the sameness
of station life.
On our return from these trips our black friends
at Tongala, who took a good deal of interest in
them, had a host of questions to ask, which let
one somewhat into their ways of thinking. Of
course, as they themselves seldom left their
country except on the war-path and for the pur-
pose of knocking some one's brains out, they
naturally thought we had been taking our pleasure
in the same way, and that there could possibly be
no other inducement for our excursions; so the
first inquiry always was, “Well, massa, how many
422 RECOLLECTIONS OF
wild blackfellows you bin shootum ?” our reply in
the negative seeming rather strange to them, and
leading, I fancy, to the conclusion either that we
were not much given to telling the truth, or that
we must have fearfully neglected our oppor-
tunities. Another question was, whether we had
seen all the worn-out old moons, which they
described as about the size of a dray-wheel, and
as laying about Lake Boga, which they considered
to be the outside of the world ; or whether we
had seen the sun, after its reaching those parts,
take its course to the southward, behind the trees,
so as to be ready to rise next morning in the east,
evidently being of opinion that the world was a
plane, of which the Bangerang occupied the centre.
and Lake Boga was the western edge. That I
had seen these things I stoutly averred, as a
matter of course, and on pain of being set down
as an impostor, and I was not a little amused to
notice that one of the black boys who had been
out with us not only supported me with the
weight of his testimony, but applied himself out
of hand to the embellishment of my yarns, in
accordance, no doubt, with the time-honoured
custom of travellers all the world over.
The first of our more prolonged excursions, I
remember, was to Mount Hope, the Kanbowro
Creek, and the Murray River thereabouts; my
brother Richard, a blackfellow, and myself
making the party. As we crossed the Mount.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 423
Hope plains we had some capital runs after
red kangaroo (by far the fleetest of the species),
which I then saw for the first time. Eastward
of the Campaspe this variety of the kangaroo was
not met with, neither was it found at any great
distance from the saltbush plains. On this trip
it was exceedingly hot during the day, though
not at night, and the pigs’-faces were covered
with ripe fruit, so, naturally, as we had been
living on mutton and damper for months, we
indulged in them rather more than we should
have done, and suffered in consequence a smart
indisposition of a few hours. The plain, for the
thirty miles we followed it, from the Campaspe
to Mount Hope, was one bed of ripe fruit, some
juicy and some dried like raisins. As often,
however, as I crossed the same country after-
wards, I never again saw the pigs'-faces ripe, so
that I fancy they only came to maturity in
exceptional years. The plant is now nearly, if
not quite, extinct in that locality.
In our hunting rambles we liked to have with
us a black boy or two, if we had horses enough,
which was not always the case; not, new-chum
like, to find our horses for us in the morning,
and eventually the road home, for in such
matters we were well versed ourselves, but as
adding to the strength of the party in case of a
fight, and taking trouble off our hands in camp.
Besides, whatever he may be about towns and
424 RECOLLECTIONS OF
public-houses, there is no one more pleasant and
genial, when really in the bush, than a black-
fellow ; besides that, he is always ready with
information on a hundred points connected with
bush-craft.
In addition to the explorer's pleasure of
traversing unknown country, and being the first
white man to see streams, lakes, and pasture
lands, I took, as I have said, great delight in the
landscape and enjoyed the pine-topped sand-hill,
the mallee-bounded plain, the towering row of
river gums, and the virgin sward unprofaned by
flock or herd, as I fancy the English landscape
painter does the green field, the Snug cottage,
and flowery hedgerow which for centuries have
supplied the subjects of his art.
This reminds me—though, from the desultory
manner in which these pages have been written, I
am not sure that I have not already referred to
the subject—that whilst Monsieur Buvelót, Mon-
sieur Von Guerard, and other painters of high
merit, have of late years given us excellent
renderings of the scenes which characterize the
sea-board of our continent, its ranges and water-
holes, gnarled gum-trees, and so on, no one has
yet attempted to utilize for art purposes the vast
plains and desolate hills which constitute the
leading features of the continent in its interior.
Whether they are capable of being made sub-
servient to the painter's aims, or whether canvas
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 425
can be made to convey the feelings they engender,
I know not; that they have, however, a charm of
their own, bathed as they are in the fierce glare
of the sun and wrapped in eternal stillness, I
should think many must have felt. Another
kindred subject, which seems to me to abound in
picturesque and characteristic detail, is the camp
life of the Blacks, and I have often been surprised
that no artist has taken it up. Possibly their
ungainly appearance about towns, where alone
the artist is likely to see them, may have had
something to do with it. There, certainly, they
are neither picturesque nor prepossessing; but
it is different when one sees the half-nude,
statuesque figure in the native cloak, and the
stately carriage of the untamed man amidst the
surroundings of camp life, beneath the appropriate
gum-trees of the lagoon, or the deep shadows of
some luxuriant pine-ridge. Indeed, if Australia
possesses a subject out of which a new and
characteristic school might come, I should say it
was the aborigines. No doubt, to learn their
ways, and depict them, would entail a good deal
of time and application, but how novel such
paintings would be, and what admirable records
of the ways of the race -
But to return. Our happy hunting-ground was
inhabited by several tribes whose languages were
unknown to our Bangerang companions. Many
of the men, however, we made out, had seen Sir
426 RECOLLECTIONS OF
Thomas Mitchell's party when it passed from
Swan Hill to the Loddon in 1836, and this was
all, or nearly all, they had seen of white men.
Though to all appearance friendly, and very
ready to supply us with fish, manna, and things
of the sort, which we were very glad to accept,
we were quite aware that in accordance with
their customs they would very probably knock
our brains out if they got a chance ; an amiable
penchant which not only entailed on us the
necessity of keeping our arms ready and our
powder dry, but—what was very tiresome—of
watching at night, and spending many a weary
hour, gun in hand, painfully alive to every sound
and every shadow, when the blanket would have
been more acceptable. However, we never were
attacked, nor did we ever detect anyone ap-
proaching our camp. On one occasion, indeed,
I remember a false alarm startled us somewhat.
It occurred at Moorerbat (Anglice, Mürrābūt
Creek), whither I had taken one of my neigh-
bours, whose run on the Goulburn was over-
stocked, and who was on the outlook for new
country. Besides my friend and myself, an Irish
station hand and two Bangerang Blacks were of
the party. It was about nine o'clock at night
that the scare occurred, and we were thinking of
getting into our blankets, when Paddy gave
utterance to a yell which I should think savoured
strongly of Donnybrook, and hurriedly discharged
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 427
both barrels of his fowling-piece. Making sure
that the Blacks were upon us, I sprang to my
feet, and, seizing my rifle, rushed to the nearest
tree for cover. Still I could see nothing but
Paddy standing, gun in hand, as if rooted to the
spot. At last he broke silence, “Tare and ages 1
a thundering big snake anyhow ; fifty feet long
if he's an inch. Dead enough now, by jabers;
sorra move he'll ever move again ' " This
exclamation of Paddy's took our fingers off the
triggers, and I really began to hope that we had
bagged the mythical snake of which the Blacks
have stories in all parts of the country. On
examination, however, Our Snake turned out to be
a new tether-rope, which one of us had left on
the green grass, and which by moonlight did not
look altogether unlike a snake—of course barring
the length. Occasionally, when there seemed to
be no Blacks about, the whole party used to turn
in and trust to chance ; but as a rule we preferred
watching, for otherwise our sleep was so disturbed,
and we woke so often, that we thought half
a night's sleep in peace preferable to a whole one
spent in a sort of intermittent nightmare. In
those days Major Mitchell's dray tracks were
quite visible on the plains, especially near what.
he called Moonlight Creek, which was in fact the
same stream which he again came upon higher
up and called the Loddon. The native name for
the Loddon I learnt was Woppoon, and that of
428 RECOLLECTIONS OF
the Murray just there Mille, lower down Millewa,
and higher up, as the reader has seen, Tongala,
and still higher up Kaiela.
Speaking of Mitchell reminds me how few of
our explorers were either good bushmen, or good
men in the bush. By the term good bushman is
usually meant one who possesses in a high degree
the faculty of finding his way about a country
without a compass; one whose knowledge of the
positions of places is but little affected by the
course he may take, however winding it may be ;
in fine, one who finds his way by the exercise of
a special faculty rather than by extraneous help.
By the term a good man in the bush, on the other
hand, is meant a man well versed in bush craft ;
one who can find his way fairly; track, shoot, and
swim well; who can bear hunger, thirst, and
fatigue; is able to look after his horses under
circumstances of every sort ; understands the
Blacks and their ways; has a good idea of where
to look for water, and so on. It is also a fact
that a man may succeed very well as an explorer,
even though he is not a good bushman, and may
by aid of compass and sextant find his way very
well from a given point to a river or mountain
range a thousand miles off, and back again, who
might be much puzzled to get back to his camp,
after riding hither and thither in a cattle-trampled
paddock of only a hundred thousand acres. Upon
this statement the reader will probably ask how
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 429.
it has happened that our explorers, whom I
have characterized as generally indifferent bush-
men, succeeded in finding their camps under all
sorts of circumstances. My reply is that in a
country unoccupied by stock the fresh track of
even one horse can generally be followed pretty
easily, and that the track of a party is almost as
plain as a road, and remains so in many cases for
weeks, months, or even longer periods, so that
an indifferent bushman is generally able to follow
back his own horse tracks to his camp ; and if he
cannot do this, his custom of travelling by
compass will enable him to intersect the main
track of his party and get to the camp by
following it, though he might never be able to
return to a camp in a stock-trampled country.
In fine, when an explorer leaves his camp in an
unoccupied country, he can return to it either by
retracing his steps or by intersecting the track
which leads to it; whilst, in a country which is
stocked, the tracks left by his party may not be
such as can be followed, and in many cases he
may only be able to get back by the exercise of
the faculty, the possession of which constitutes a
good bushman.
Another feature of interest in our excursions
was the ways of the Blacks, their stone toma-
hawks, weapons, and belongings in general. Being
a small party, they never fled from us, nor seemed
disturbed at our horses, though the discharge of a
430 - RECOLLECTIONS OF
gun made them a little nervous. It was on these
occasions I noticed that in the presence of a
person who might be an enemy, a Black, who has
risen from the camp to go, never takes up his
weapons or effects from the ground with his
hands, as he might be easily killed when stoop-
ing, but lifts article by article with his toes, and
so conveys them to his hands without exposing
himself. This feat, as I know from experience,
is not a difficult one, and certainly does not neces-
sitate a big toe like a thumb, as I have read.
Any young person accustomed to go bare-footed,
who had seen such things done, could do the
same with a little practice.
One of the articles of food which we found
most in use amongst the Blacks of the Lake
Boga neighbourhood and the mallee scrubs was
manna. There were bags full of it in almost
every camp, and I understood the Blacks to say
that they used to set fire to a portion of the
mallee every year and gather the manna the next
season from the young growth. As we rambled
about we came upon Blacks under all sorts of
circumstances, and we used to remark how little
our appearance—mounted on animals of which
few of them could have any idea even from
description—used to disturb their self-possession.
On one occasion I remember I had wandered
from the party near one of the lakes, when I
heard a tomahawk in the distance. Riding in
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 431
the direction of the sound, I was not long in
coming on a solitary young Black, who was busy
chopping a slab of wood out of the lower part of a
pine-tree, probably to be made into a wommera, or
throwing stick. As the ground was sandy my
approach was not heard; so, without dismounting,
I pulled up at some little distance to watch the
young savage at his work. He was naked, and
in the fillet which encompassed his head was
stuck a white feather, which became him well,
and contrasted admirably with his black hair
and bronze-coloured skin. He rested on his
toes, his posteriors nearly touching his heels; the
posture and occupation displaying to advantage
the muscles of his back, thighs, and arms, and
the remarkable elasticity of his frame. A white
man at his work would have knelt, and taken off
much of the strain ; but the Black, I have
noticed, seldom kneels. Indeed, in many little
matters the action of his race and ours is a little
different. .
After waiting unobserved for a few moments I
called out to him in English. At the unusual
sound he turned his head, and, catching sight of
me, with an exclamation of surprise sprung to his
feet, and, catching up his spear, stood confronting
me. I also brought my rifle to my shoulder, but
otherwise did not move; but I could see the
savage's inflated nostril and heaving breast as he
stood for a moment in his attitude of defence.
432 RECOLLECTIONS OF
His first surprise over, he lowered his spear, as I
did my rifle; then a few words and signs ensued,
not very well understood on either side, when he
shouldered his bag and left me.
The Lake Boga tribe was the one we saw most
of in Our rambles. Its members were a stalwart
race, many of the men being six feet high, and
few under five feet eight inches. Opossum-rugs
seemed scarce amongst them, and our black boys
said that they covered themselves at night with
their fishing nets; but possibly this was a mere
calumny, for strange Blacks are very fond of
criticising each other's ways. -
On one occasion we came across a party of
about twenty of the Lake Boga people, men,
women, and children. They were seated on the
sandy beach of the lake, just out of reach of the
wavelets which came rippling in before the wind.
A little blue smoke, from a fire made of a substance
composed of dead reeds and other decayed vegeta-
tion mixed with clay, then very plentiful round
the lake, went upwards in the sunlight. As we
approached they got up and seemed a little
uneasy, so, not to alarm them, I halted the party
a short distance off, and two of us dismounting,
walked up to the camp, and, chucking one of the
picaninnies under the chin, and pulling the nose
of another, by way of introduction, seated our-
selves by the fire. Seeing that we were peaceably
inclined, the group followed our example, and my
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 433
friend and I began to discuss the attainability of
some delicious-looking perch which was roasting
on the embers and emitting an odour just then
far from disagreeable in our nostrils. Of course
they would have given us some at once if we had
asked for it; but it was voted that this would not
do just then, as we felt ourselves to some extent
representatives of the imperial race, and so on our
dignity. Whilst the matter was under discussion,
however, one of our new friends brought our
difficulties to an end by putting a large quantity
of the coveted food on two wisps of fresh green
grass and laying it before us. This being so, we
thought the proper thing was to accept the fish as
a proof of good feeling on Our part, and that to
act otherwise would be decidedly churlish, so we
set to work accordingly with great gusto, and
without the help of forks, our hosts being
apparently much gratified to notice ways so
entirely in accordance with their own.
The repast over, the rest of the party having
been supplied like ourselves, I thought it well
to make some little present to our entertainers,
but the question was, which of our belong-
ings would they appreciate, and what could we
spare : Of tobacco and tea they knew not
the virtues; and, besides these articles and our
ammunition, there was little in our packs. For-
tunately, in this emergency I recollected a new
cotton handkerchief of the Union Jack pattern,
. . 29
434 RECOLLECTIONS OF
of pre-eminently gaudy colours, which it struck
me would be emblematical of our country, and
quite an appropriate present in every way, so,
getting it out of the kit, I looked at the group
for some one with whom I might have a little
fun in the presentation. As the fittest, I fixed
on a young girl at the shy period of life, who
was stealthily peeping at us with wild eyes from
behind the little crowd ; so I beckoned one of the
Blacks to tell her to come to me. This he did,
but she apparently refused point-blank to advance
an inch, and at once became the object of the
outcry of the whole camp. So the old women
bullied, and the old men coaxed, whilst the girl
peered at me from behind a beldame who sat
between us. At length, after some little delay,
partly pushed forward by the women, the young
One got up and slowly approached me with a half-
bold, half-frightened air. She was as erect as a
reed, and, as far as I could judge, the nearer she
came the more terrible I appeared in her eyes, as
I stood with the handkerchief dangling from my
hand. There was a look of unutterable wildness
about the creature, mixed with curiosity and
apprehension, which was extremely amusing and
characteristic. When within a couple of yards
of me she stopped, disengaged her right arm from
her opossum-rug, and, reaching as far as she
could, was in the act of taking the handkerchief
when I sprang forward with a yell as if about to
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 435
seize her, a measure which resulted in her hasty
retreat, and screams of laughter from our new
acquaintances. Your blackfellow always loves a
joke, and the camp understood the matter at
once ; but the girl, I have no doubt, set down the
proceeding as our manner of wooing wives, and
congratulated herself on her escape.
On our return to Tongala after our trips,
civilized ways were quite welcome again; damper,
so despised a fortnight ago, now seemed savoury
as plum-cake; and horsehair mattrasses, on sheets
of bark, beds for Sybarites. And then the
pleasure of sleep, unbroken by watching and
unvisited by visions of spears and waddies, can
hardly be reckoned up. Besides, there were the
greetings and congratulations of our Bangerang
neighbours, who were constantly telling us we
should sooner or later get our brains knocked out
in our wanderings, and were glad to see us back,
and so forth. But my pages are coming to an
end, and I must have done with my sooty friends
and their ways, of which I have, perhaps, said
more than enough. So adieu, my Enbena, for I
cannot even now, amidst the din of the city,
forget thee, friend of my lone days. In truth,
many a time when weary of books, with nothing
to fill the vacant hour, right glad was I to see
thee coming over the little plain at Thathumnera,
with lubra, picaninni, and all thy belongings; to
count with thee thy hunting spoil and listen to
436 - RECOLLECTIONS OF
thy budget of small news, even though thou
heldest an empty pipe somewhat prominently
before me, or pressed on me thy longing for a
share of the contents of my flour-bags. Many a
time, too, was I glad to have thee as a companion
in hunting and shooting, for a merry fellow thou
wert, and a genial scamp ! But our civilization
has rolled over thee, my Enbena, somewhat
rudely since those times; ending alike, for the
most part, thy merry ways and thy rascalities.
Of thy tribe scarce one is left. Forest and
swamp know thee no more. Adieu ! I let the
cry of the jaaring* hurrying to the Murray to
drink at Sundown, and the loud laugh of the
wigilópkaf from the towering river-gum, be thy
memento; thy monument the lone malögali grave,
or the grass-grown oven which smokes no
more; and the west wind, whistling through the
streaming boughs of the oak, the dirge of a
people which have passed away !
CHAPTER XXX.
MY SERVANTS.
IN the bush, as elsewhere, a good deal of one's
success and comfort depend on servants, and
when I began squatting, servants seemed little
* Cockatoo. f Laughing Jackass. † Sandhill.
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 437
calculated to make their masters either successful
or comfortable. Convictism at that time had not
gone out, but was on the wane; and my men,
when I got them, were an average lot of ruffians,
who had all shortly before been convicts, some in
New South Wales and some in Tasmania, and
hated anything like work, and everybody who
was not a convict—their employer for the time
being especially. From first to last they were a
motley crew, composed of housebreakers, thieves,
drunken soldiers, and a Paddy or two, who in
their jovial way had hit one of the boys at
Donnybrook a trifle too hard with the shillalah.
Now-a-days one never meets with men of this
type, probably because the last of them died of
drink not long after the gold discovery, when all
things, nobblers in particular, went a little fast in
the colony. Nor was the loss a great one, being,
as it seems to me, a very proper exemplification
of Darwin's principle of the survival of the
fittest. Should, however, scientists in the future
desire to know more of this extinct class of men,
they will meet a good deal about them in the
colonial literature of the period; or, in the event
of that failing, in the bones of the departed,
which will be met with amidst the debris of salt-
bush and pigs’-face, which disappeared from
Victoria about the same era. From this source,
no doubt, as in the case of pre-historic races, any
facts required may be elicited. Be this as it
4.38 RECOLLECTIONS OF
may, there is no doubt that, for some time after
Batman's settlement, the craving labour market,
high wages, and numerous grog shops of Mel-
bourne had placed the ex-convict working class
who flocked to it in a very independent position,
and the employers of labour were not slow to
learn that the workman had set his heart on a
future of pretty constant excess and debauchery,
and that for the time, at all events, he was in a
position to give a very practical effect to his ideas
on the subject.
Hence, at first, engagements in the bush were
short, and but little steady labour could be had.
Luckily for all parties, the giddy days of the
colony did not last long, and expiree convicts (as
well as others) soon got a good deal sobered
down in more senses than one. In the case of
the working class, the first step towards better
things was a great fall in wages, which prac-
tically had the effect of transforming them from
drunkards and idlers into shepherds and hut-
keepers, and, so far as my experience went,
eventually into tolerable servants and citizens.
Besides the fall in wages, other circumstances led
to what to some extent must be called reform,
for station life not only put a stop to drunkenness
and theft by the absence of grog and of anything
worth stealing, but the constant absence of temp-
tation had a tendency to throw the convict's
mind into a better groove. It also struck me that
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 439
the intercourse of the convict with an occasional
free fellow-labourer, and also with his master, to
some extent educated him to better principles,
and to thoughts and ideas which were not of the
prison. Probably, also, the possession of a reason-
able freedom went towards creating a healthier
tone of mind. After my men had realized that
they were free, and found that circumstances
had in a great measure cut them off from
drink, a desire for property sprung up amongst
them ; so that though the old convict custom of
going to town once a year “to have a spree,”
or spend in three or four days' drinking the
earnings of the twelve months, did not go out of
fashion altogether, it at least became modified, by
the men investing a portion of their wages in the,
purchase of horses, guns, prime sheep, dogs, or
something of the sort. As a rule the horse (or
more often the mare) once bought was kept, and
commonly before commencing the annual spree,
when, of course, his owner rode him to town,
some clothes were purchased and the stabling
paid in advance, so that when the debauch was
over his owner might return to his usual avoca-
tions without let or hindrance. The more pro-
perty a man acquired, the less he used to drink,
so that acquisitiveness, once set agoing, not
unfrequently beat inebriety. At Tongala the
result of the change was, that most of my
servants had one, and several three or four brood
440 RECOLLECTIONS OF
mares and their offspring on the station, and
some more, the possession of which I found ex-
cellent guarantees for the good behaviour of their
owners. Having a few head of horses, for the
grazing of which no fee was charged, tended also
to render men stationary ; and, indeed, several of
my men remained with me for periods varying
from five to ten years. As they improved in
their conduct I naturally came to have a kindly
feeling towards them, which soon became mutual ;
and though I was a little stern with my rogues,
and kept them at arms-length, I experienced
several instances of goodwill on their parts which
proved their disinterestedness. As our sheep
increased fresh shepherds of course had to be
hired, otherwise there was little change in my
staff of men, and a good many of them used to
talk very complacently of the little burial-place
on the sand-hill as undoubtedly their last resting-
place. However, that was not to be, for the
discovery of gold changed everything; and, as I
have often thought, how unfortunately for the
majority of us.
Whether it arose from the lonely life the men
led, or what, I cannot say, but we used to notice
that a few of them became somewhat eccentric
after several years' residence on the station, and
that occasionally men passing by inquired for
work who were evidently somewhat silly. Others
escaped anything of the sort, and even improved
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 441
their minds a good deal by reading. As an
instance, I may mention lending a shepherd a
trashy romance, which he kept for months, and
read and re-read until, I fancy, he must have
almost known it by heart. To this man of the
prison, hulk and chain gang, who had probably
known little of anything but misery and vice
from infancy, the scenes depicted by the author,
which day by day he pondered over under the
shade of a gum-tree whilst shepherding, no doubt
were glimpses of fairyland; and I used to fancy
that a certain nobility of feeling, with which the
writer had imbued some of his characters, had not
been without effect on the heart of his convict-
reader, as I found his sympathies were with the
hero and not with the ruffian of the story. When
he returned the book, it was with expressions of
admiration so strong as to make me smile, and at
the same time imprint the circumstance on my
recollection. That he thought the tale a true
one was evident, and for some time he seemed to
dwell in imagination on the scenes without any
wish to enter on new ones. One day, however, I
sent him a second book, after which he took to
supplying himself now and then with one of the
Waverley novels, or some biographical work,
which he purchased from a hawker who latterly
used to visit the station from time to time with
his waggon-load of wares. The result was that
reading became a habit with the man, and, finding
442 RECOLLECTIONS OF
himself once without books, he asked me to
lend him one. On inquiring what he would like
to have, he said he had never read anything like
the romance I first lent him, and that, as he had
not seen it for three or four years, he would be
glad to read it again. My reflection was that he
must indeed be a low animal to prefer such
maudlin stuff to Scott. However, I sent him the
book. A week or two later I saw the man again,
when he referred to the romance. “I used, sir,”
said he, “to think it the finest book that ever was
written, and was never tired of thinking over it,
but somehow, I don’t know how it is, it seems all
changed now ; a poor childish sort of book, and
not a bit like ‘Guy Mannering' or ‘Kenil-
worth, so that I have hardly been able to read it
through.” So I saw the man's literary taste had
grown, unknown to himself, and his endeavour to
read the old book was like trying to put on the
boots which had fitted him in boyhood. His case
was by no means a solitary one.
Besides the eccentricity induced by station life,
there seemed to me a tendency to insanity in
some of the men when left without companionship.
This we had frequent opportunities of noticing,
as, when our flocks had become large and the
Blacks got quieted down, we often left a trust-
worthy shepherd quite alone for weeks in some
corner of the run. On such occasions one of us
visited him every ten days or so with rations, had
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 443.
half-an-hour's chat, and left. After six or eight
weeks, and in some cases in less time, we gene-
rally noticed an alteration in the conversation and
demeanour of the recluse, and that he had become
somewhat eccentric, excited, and childish. Strange
to say, there was little or no complaint of lone-
liness or wish for the solitude to cease, the man
seeming engrossed with his business and content
with his surroundings. Those who were not
injuriously affected in this way were usually
rather impatient under their banishment. I used
also to think that solitude was more prejudicial
to the expiree convict than to the free man, but I
could never satisfy myself why it should be so.
Concerning mental culture, I think, as the result
of prison discipline, that the convict had not
unfrequently the advantage of the free labourer;
on the other hand, the free labourer was seldom
so thorough a drunkard as the convict, neither
had he the same craving for tea, strong tobacco,
and stimulants of every sort. As a rule, the con-
vict was short-lived, and I am not aware that, of
those who tended my father's flocks thirty years
ago, there is one now alive. Truly, a hetero-
geneous lot they were—horse-stealers, machine-
breakers, homicides, disorderly soldiers, drunken
marines, housebreakers, petty thieves, and so on.
Amongst them there always remained more or
less of the freemasonry of their class, and one was
apt to keep the other in countenance in any little
444 RECOLLECTIONS OF
misdeed. When several were together, and con-
versation flagged, it was not unusual for one of
them to exclaim, “Well, So-and-so, why don’t
you say something 3 Tell us how you were
lagged (convicted), man l’ The history of that
event was always thought to be a man's best
story, and I should think the histories of my men
would not have been a bad stock-in-trade with
which to commence another “Gil Blas.”
In my experience the new chums (as lately-
arrived emigrants were called) were the least
satisfactory servants, though often sober men; as,
besides being poor hands in the bush, they were
generally dissatisfied, and had a very faint idea of
obeying orders. Old soldiers were better in this
respect, but less intelligent than others, and
generally drunkards. On questioning one of this
sort, whom I was about to hire, concerning his
antecedents, he said—
“I have only been in the country a year ;
before that I was in the army. About eighteen
months ago we were playing long-bowls with the
Afghans.”
“How long were you in the army "
“Eighteen years. I have seen a good deal of
service on many stations.” -
“And which station did you like best ?”
“Oh the Mauritius, sir; rum there was only
twopence a glass, and illigant rum one shilling a
bottle.”
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 445,
Fortunately for us, rum was not to be had
very easily at Tongala, illigant or inilligant.
Several of my men had had varied experiences of
life of a certain sort. Two of them, for instance,
had served in the British legion in the first
Carlist war, and their tales interested me some-
what, possibly because not so long before
(whilst at college, and just in my teens—Consule
Planco—) I had myself been possessed by a
strong desire to take service on the other side,
under Zumalacarregui, the great Carlist general.
One of these men was an Irish Londoner, long in
my service, a hot-tempered, good-natured little
fellow who rejoiced in the name of Ben Hare.
Except on the subject of some valuable plunder .
which he said he had buried in the Peninsula,
Ben was decidedly averse to speaking of his
campaigns, notwithstanding which I used to draw
him out occasionally.
On one occasion, whilst busy pressing wool, I
said to this hero—“Ben, I'm tired, and whilst
we rest, and smoke our pipes, you shall tell me
something about Spain and the legion.” At first
my little Irishman was unwilling to enter on the
subject, and excused himself on the plea that he
did not like to think of those times; but, once
started, he got on well enough, and gave me some
descriptions of rough campaigning scenes which
have now pretty well passed from my memory.
One, however, I recollect, which was as follows.
446 RECOLLECTIONS OF
“The weather was hot and sultry one day,
and as we were passing by a country place about
a dozen of us straggled off from the line of march
and began to grope about for something to drink,
when one of the fellows happened on a wine-vat,
which was a bricked place in the ground. They
were all terrible sharp at finding drink of
any sort—dead hands at scenting out anything
in their line, from a demijohn of hogadent
(aguardiente) to a plug of tobacco. So one
called to another, and all came flocking round;
and, as many hands make light work, we lifted
the wooden top off the vat, and sat down round
it to have a drink fair and aisy. Of course, we
kept our knapsacks on, as we intended to follow
the route after a spell. Most of us, too, had our
firelocks handy, as it was quite likely the vil-
lagers might try and mob us, for Spain is a very
unruly country, sir, entirely. So some of us lit
our pipes, and all drank away at the wine with
our canteens, and in a quarter of an hour or so,
owing to the heat of the weather, got very merry,
as soldiers will do. Whilst we were enjoying
ourselves quite orderly and peaceably, however,
a very drunken boy from London Overbalanced
himself as he was filling his can, and fell into the
wat, knapsack and all. As he could swim, he
came to the top at once and clutched the edge of
the vat, and I thought the men near him would
have pulled him out. But how it was I don’t
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 447
know : I think the devil must have got into the
fellows' heads, for, instead of pulling him out, all
hands began to laugh at the thing as a good joke,
and set to work to trap his fingers with the butts
of their muskets when he caught hold of the edge
of the vat ; and the more the poor fellow begged
to be pulled out, the more they laughed. So the
end of it was he was drowned before we sus-
pected anything was wrong, and went down just
as our captain, who had missed us, rode up and
ordered us to fall in and march, which we did,
without a word about the boy in the vat.”
This is a sample of Ben's yarns about the
British legion in Spain. Three or four years
later, it was my chance to pass some time in
the Peninsula, where I knew several Christino
officers, who had served in the Carlist war, and
it seemed strange to me to find how much the
stories they related in Seville resembled those I
had heard from the British convict in Australia.
One of them was as follows:–
“On one occasion several companies of our
Peseteros had entered a village in the morning,
the inhabitants of which had given up to the
facciosos (Carlists) the mother of General Cabrera
(if I remember right), who forthwith shot the
old lady in reprisal for the numerous massacres
of Carlists ordered by her son. This outrage we
had been directed to avenge ; so we forced all
the villagers, men, women, and children, into the
448 RECOLLECTIONS OF
plaza, at the point of the bayonet, formed across.
the street at each end, and set to work to shoot
them down, whilst others bayoneted such as took
refuge in the houses. It was a frightful busi-
ness; unarmed men and women tried to force
their way through our lines—of course in vain—
and most of the crowd had fallen, when a boy
of ten years of age or so, bespattered with the
blood of his relatives, rushed up to a captain who
stood at the head of his company, seized him
round the legs, and entreated him to save his life.
Our orders, however, were imperative that none
should be spared, and I felt that the captain's
case was a bad one, as he dared not disobey
orders, and the boy, who refused to let him go,
was a fine little fellow apparently, and his appeal
for life touching in the extreme. However, there
was nothing for it, so he said to the child, “Go ;
you shall not be shot l’ and, putting his hand into
his pocket, he drew out an orange, and, rolling it
along the ground, said, ‘There, my little fellow,
take that l’ The child accordingly ran after
the orange, and the captain ordered a soldier
close at hand to shoot him, which he did at
once.”
I have already said that most of my old
servants came to their ends shortly after I left
the station, when the discovery of gold introduced
high wages, and, of course, disorder and drunken-
ness ; and I heard that poor Ben met his fate in
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 449
his cups one night, by stepping out of a window
in Bourke-street, which he fancied was on the
ground floor.
CHAPTER XXXI.
CONCTUSION.
I HAVE brought the reader to a close of my
recollections of bush life. Glancing over the
pages, it may perhaps be noticed how little I
have had to say of my real business as a squatter,
the result, I think, of the circumstance that a
squatter's life furnishes in the main but little
to write about, at least that anyone could be
expected to read ; a fact which I shall be happy
if the reader does not, as it is, find exemplified in
these pages. Let me add a few words about the
results of my sheep-farming.
Bearing in mind that my father's sheep were of
an inferior description from the first, that they
never averaged quite two pounds and a half of
wool, that I was not allowed to take the necessary
steps to improve them, that the prices of wool and
wethers were low ; and then remembering that the
4:1,500 so ill invested in Wolfscrag and the £500
30
450 RECOLLECTIONS OF
worth of sheep received from Steele's Creek had
been producing, for several years before I left, a
net income ranging from £1,000 to £2,500 a
year, I think it will be admitted that the under-
taking was brought to a successful issue, especially
when it is remembered that, in addition to the
thirty thousand sheep which I left on the
ground in 1851, the run secured was of first-
class quality as squatting country, and capable,
with the help of a few tanks, of depasturing a
hundred thousand sheep. Indeed, I believe I
was as successful as any sheep-farmer of those
times.
Whilst describing the more prominent features
of my life at Tongala, I did not think it necessary
to mention that, in 1846, my father gave me a
flock of sheep, with which I took up a small run
near his, which, as the reader has seen, I still
continued to manage. When I gave up the
management of Tongala my sheep had increased
considerably ; and, being desirous of a change, I
let them and my run for three years, and went to
travel through some of the countries about which
I had interested myself from boyhood.
I had, however, scarcely reached the shores of
the Mediterranean when the discovery of gold
was made in Australia. The results of this dis-
covery changed everything, and swept away the
old order of things, so that when I got back, three
years after, I found the squatters—who, during
SQUATTING IN VICTORIA. 451
the first fifteen years of the colony, had established
a great trade in wool, and built a thriving city
being denounced as monopolists of land and
enemies to the public weal. The epoch was
quite a turning point in the history of Victoria,
and I remember, on landing, stopping to listen
to a tall, burly, good-tempered looking Scotch-
man, who was holding forth to a little audience
of new chums, or persons like myself, who
had just returned to the colony. After inveigh-
ing for some time against the injustice of the
new comers, he said, turning towards me—
“Here's a man that doesn’t know me, but I
know him. Three years back there were not
three men in the colony who didn’t know his
father—the father of separation, as we used to
call him—or who wouldn’t have sworn to his pair
of roan horses anywhere. Well now ! I'll give
this gentleman a week to find a man who ever
heard of his father, or of separation either. Why,
these new chums, who have overrun the colony,
seem to think, by George that they are the first
comers here, and that this wharf, and the houses
and bridges we built, and the roads we made, and
the stock we brought from other colonies before
they ever heard of the place, grew of themselves
like the gum-trees.”
And so, since the brawny Scot stood venting
his displeasure on the wharf, time has not ceased
to bring its changes. Of the little circle who
452 SQUATTING IN VICTORIA.
used to be merry at Tongala five-and-thirty years
ago—alas ! - -
“Raled, Lara, Ezzelin are gone,”
and the two who remain are old; and the writer,
in lieu of the stirring pleasures of youth, has learnt
to content himself with a book and an easy-chair.
Walker, May, and Co., Printers, 9 Mackillop-street, Melbourne.
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