Old Melbourne Memories

I should have the sole occupancy-almost ownership-of about 50,000 acres of "wood and wold," mere and marshland, hill and dale. It was all my own-after a fashion-that is, I had but

ld be truly glad to have such another. There were no free-selectors in those days. No one could buy land except at auction when once the special surveys had been abrogated. There were no travelling res

Westward stretched the great marshes, through which the Eumeralla flowed, if, indeed, that partially subterranean stream could be said to run or flow anywhere. Northward lay the lava-bestrewn country known as the Mount Eeles rocks, a mass of cooled

dsomest trees in Australia. At the back were again large marshes, with heathy flats and more thickly-timbered forests. Over all was a wonderful sward of

s, which we could see rising amid the lava levels a few miles to the north-west. The marshes were for the most[Pg 43] part free from timber.

r waving reeds of which the marshes consisted. They served admirably also for cattle camps. To them the cattle always retired at noonday in summer, and at night in winter and spring-time. One "island," not very far from our settlement, was known as "Kennedy's island," the gallant ill-fated explorer who had

s (blacks, whose fires in "The Rocks" we[Pg 44] could see), a pathless waste, and absolute freedom and independence. These last were the most precious possessions of all. No engagements, no office work, no fixed hours, no sums or lessons of any kind or sort. I felt as if this splendid Robinson Crusoe kind of life was too good to be true. Who was I that I should have had this grand inheritance of happiness immeasurable made over to me? What a

cies of bread whatever, when accompanied, as in the case referred to, with good, sweet, fresh butter. How splendid on

Mr. Cunningham and I will go and fell a tree. I know one handy that'll run out nigh on a hundred slabs, and if

thing that was nec

g

ild a

eepy and tired, but in daylight it is valueless. And if it rains-and in the west it often did, and I am

a thatched roof completed, so that we were able to have our evening meal in comfort, and even luxury. A couple of fixed bedsteads were placed at opposite corners, in which M

as to be the real mansion. And at this we soon made a commencement. I say we, because I drove the bullocks

nd stuff, most of which I carted in, preferring that section of industry to the all-day, every-day work of splitting. Old Tom looked after the cattl

washstand, were all manufactured by Joe Burge out of the all-sufficing "slab" of the period. A wooden chimney with an inner coat

-and chief general apartment. The rest of the building was bisected by a wooden partition, affording thus two bedrooms. One of these was devoted to Joe Burge and family, the other I appropriated

f worldly felicity. I had always longed to have a station of my own. Now I had one. I had daily work of the kind that exactly suited me. I went over to Dunmore and spent a pleasant evening every now and then, rubbing up my classics and having a little "good talk." I[Pg 47] ha

could cast a shadow over my prosperous present and promising future? Well, there was one factor in the sum which I had not reckoned

to a dietary scale of exceptional liberality. The climate was temperate; the forests abounded in game; wild-fowl at certain seasons were plentiful; while the sea supplied them with fish of all sorts and sizes, from a whale (

Pg 48]connecting link between man and the brute creation, etc. On the contrary, many of the leading members of tribes known to the pioneer squatters were grandly-formed specimens of humanity, d

n and shepherds were to blame-as is always said-or whether it was simply the ordinary savage desire for the tempting goods and chattels of the white man, cannot be accurately state

d a good shot. As he occasionally stayed at the native camp, and had now not been seen for a month, it began to be rumoured that he had agreed to accept the leadershi

him," it seems, and by means of a sable Delilah, who playfully ran off with his double-barrel, took him at a disadvantage. He fought desperately, we were told, even with a spear through his body, but was finally overpowere

ers of experience to keep the blacks at a distance, and

my own way. I thought the poor fellows had been hardly treated. It was their country, after all. A

om the crater of Mount Eeles. Now, cooled, hardened, cracked, and decomposed, it annually produced a rich crop of grass. It was full of ravines,

day generally saw the end of the most high-couraged, sure-footed

g

t out a scout previously who had made careful examination of us while we were totally unconscious of any such supervision, they debouched from the rocks and came up to camp. They sent a herald in adva

, as might the border settlers in