Discoveries in Australia Volume I Part 23

(*Footnote. This set of the tide being rather across the channel renders the pa.s.sage between King Island and Reid's rocks by no means recommendable. Captain King on returning to New South Wales, used this pa.s.sage and was very nearly wrecked; the set of the tides at that time not being known. It appears they saw the south point of King Island just at dark, and shaped a course well wide of Reid's rocks; they found themselves, however, drifted by the tide close on them. We made the time of high-water at the full and change of the moon in this entrance of the Strait to be half an hour before noon; but the western stream began three hours and a half before, and the eastern again precedes low-water by the same amount of time.)

A SECURE ANCHORAGE.

Early on the morning of December 3rd, we reached a secure anchorage between Three Hummock Island, and Hunter, formerly called Barren Island; and we had every reason to be thankful at finding ourselves in such a snug berth, for during our stay, we experienced gales from east and west, with such sudden changes that no ship could have saved herself. This made us sensible how necessary it was to choose anchorages sheltered from both winds. Our surveying operations were sadly delayed by this boisterous weather.

Three Hummock Island receives its name from three peaks rising on its eastern side. The south rises abruptly from the water and forms a singular sugarloaf 790 feet high. It is composed of granite, boulders of which front many of the points, forming strange figures. The whole of the island is clothed with an almost impervious scrub, which growing laterally forms a perfect network, so that it is impossible to traverse it. Mr. Bynoe procured few specimens of birds in consequence. The woodcutters one day cut a small brown opossum in half: it seemed to be a very rare if not a new animal; but unfortunately the head part could not be found. Small brown rats were very numerous, they had rather short tails with long hind feet, and sat up like kangaroos.

The trees on this island are small and stunted, being chiefly Banksia and Eucalypti. Water is plentiful. We supplied the ship from wells dug on the north point of a sandy bay on the South-East side of the island.*

(*Footnote. The reef that so nearly sealed the Mermaid's fate with Captain King, we found to lie half a mile north-west from the north-east end of Three Hummock Island.)

BARREN ISLAND.

Hunter Island well deserves its former name of Barren, for it is perfectly treeless; a green kind of scrub overruns its surface, which at its highest point is three hundred feet above the level of the sea. In form it is like a closed hand with the fore-finger extended, pointing north. The inclination of its strata differs, dipping to the sea on both sides, east and west. These at first sight appeared to be of the same kind of sandstone that we had seen so much of on the North-West coast, but on closer inspection I found they were raised beaches; the prevailing ma.s.s of the island was a granitoid rock.

THE BLACK PYRAMID.

From stations on Hunter Island we were enabled to determine the positions of the numerous dangers fronting its west or seaward side, and also that of a dark ma.s.s of rock, 250 feet high, appropriately named the Black Pyramid, lying 16 miles West by North from the centre of the island, and in lat.i.tude 40 degrees 28 minutes South which places it nearly five miles south of its position in the old charts. It is quite a finger-post to this entrance of the Strait, and all ships should pa.s.s close to it. When I looked at these islands and rocks I could not help thinking of poor Captain Flinders and his enterprising companion Mr. Ba.s.s, the discoverers of the north-western part of Tasmania. What a thrill of excitement must have shot through their frames when on rounding Hunter Island, in the little Norfolk cutter, they first felt the long swell of the ocean and became convinced of the insular character of Tasmania! This discovery must have amply repaid them for all their toils and privations. Nothing indeed is so calculated to fill the heart of the navigator with pride, as the consciousness that he has widened the sphere of geographical science, and added new seas and new lands to the known world.

The south end of Hunter Island is about three miles from a point of the mainland, called Woolnorth; but from the rocks and inlets that enc.u.mber the pa.s.sage and the rapid rush of the tide it is only navigable for small vessels with great caution. Point Woolnorth is a rather low sloping point composed of the same rock as Hunter Island. Ten miles south of it a raised beach again occurs 100 feet above the level of the sea. Behind Point Woolnorth the country swells into hills nearly six hundred feet high. Three miles from its extreme is an out-station of the Van Diemen's Land Agricultural Company, of which I shall say more anon. Some forty persons are here located under the care of a German, who amused himself by making a large collection of insects, which he has since taken to Germany. The soil on this extremity of Tasmania is most productive; but much labour is required in clearing for the purposes of cultivation. From thence to Circular Head, bearing East 1/2 South 26 miles, the sh.o.r.e is low and sinuous, forming three shallow bights.

WALKER ISLAND.

Walker and Robbins islands, which lie together in the shape of an equilateral triangle, with sides of nine miles, front the coast about midway, and leave only a narrow boat-channel between them and the main.

On Walker Island our boats met the wives of some sealers whose husbands had gone to King Island on a sealing excursion. They were clothed like those on New Year Island. One was half European and half Tasmanian, and by no means ill-looking; she spoke very good English and appeared to take more care of her person than her two companions, who were aborigines of pure blood. A few wild flowers were tastefully entwined with her hair, which was dressed with some pretensions to elegance. They had a pack of dogs along with them, and depended in a great measure for their maintenance on the Wallaby they killed. The skin also of these animals const.i.tutes to them an important article of trade.

It was the 15th before we had completed for the present our survey of this part, owing as I have before observed, to the constant bad weather, which was doubly felt by the boats in which all the materials for the chart of this neighbourhood were collected.

CIRCULAR HEAD.

We now examined the coast to Circular Head, under the north side of which we anch.o.r.ed in 7 fathoms on the morning of the 18th, after spending a day under the South-East corner off Robbins Island, where we found good anchorage in westerly winds. Making too free with the sh.o.r.e with a low sun ahead, we grounded for a short time on a shingle spit extending off the low point North-West from Circular Head. Three quarters of a mile East-North-East from this point is a dangerous rocky ledge just awash, on which several vessels have run. By keeping the bluff extreme of Circular Head open it may always be avoided.

The latter is a singular cliffy ma.s.s of trappean rock, rising abruptly from the water till its flattened crest reaches an elevation of 490 feet.

This strange projection stands on the eastern side of a small peninsula.

On the parts broken off where it joins the sandy bay on the north side, we found the compa.s.s perfectly useless, from the increased quant.i.ty of magnetic iron ore they contain.

It is on this point that the headquarters of the Van Diemen's Land Agricultural Company are established under the charge of a Mr. Curr, whose house with its extensive out-buildings and park, occupying some rising ground on the northern part of the point, greets the eye of the stranger, to whom the reflection is forcibly suggested by the sight, that the natural graces of the scene, must soon yield to the restraining regularity with which man marks his conquests from the wilderness. The name of this faint memento of home was, we were informed, Hyfield; a straggling village occupies a flat to the left, and in the bay on the south side of the head, which is the general anchorage, is a store with a substantial jetty.

English gra.s.ses have been sown at this establishment with great success, one acre of ground now feeding four sheep, instead of as before, four acres being required for one; the improvement in the gra.s.s was also made evident by the excellent condition in which all the stock appeared to be.

HYFIELD.

The garden at Hyfield was quite in keeping with the other parts of the establishment, and it was not a little pleasing to observe a number of English fruit trees. I was told, however, that they suffered exceedingly from blight which was brought by the west winds. In one corner that at first escaped my curiosity, so completely had it been shut out from the gaze of all by a winding bowery walk, I found in a sort of alcove, the tomb of a child; upon it lay a fresh bouquet of flowers, revealing that the dead was not forgotten by those who were left behind. It was easy to divine, and I afterwards learned this to be the case, that it was the mother, Mrs. Curr, who came every morning to pay this tribute of affection to the departed. A weeping willow drooped its supple branches over the tomb; some honey-suckle and sweet-briar surrounded it, loading the air with their rich fragrance; not even the chirping of a bird disturbed the solemn silence that reigned around; everything seemed to conspire to suggest holy and melancholy thoughts, and I lingered awhile to indulge in them; but perceiving by the few footmarks that I was an intruder, hastened to retire, by no means sorry, however, to have discovered this evidence of the enduring love a mother bears her offspring.

In the Park at Hyfield were some fallow deer, imported from England, and seeming to thrive exceedingly well. There were also two emus, the sight of which reminded me of a very curious observation I had before made, and the truth of which again struck me forcibly, namely, that the face of the Emu bears a most remarkable likeness to that of the aborigines of New South Wales. Had there been any intimacy between the native and the Emu, I might have been disposed to resort to this circ.u.mstance as an explanation; for some maintain that the human countenance partakes of the expression and even of the form of whatever, whether man or beast, it is in the habit of a.s.sociating with.

SURREY HILLS.

The Company have another station about sixty miles South-East from Circular Head, at the Surrey hills, from whence the road to Launceston is good and wide. But between it and Circular Head there are several rivers to ford, and the country is not only very hilly, but densely wooded with enormous trees, some of which I was informed were 30 feet in circ.u.mference. This causes great difficulty in clearing the land. They accomplish about fifty acres every year. The establishment consists of one hundred persons, many of whom are convicts. They are kept in excellent order; and their being strictly forbidden the use of spirits no doubt contributes materially to prevent their giving trouble. I could not help thinking that the Company conducted its operations on too extensive a scale to render their undertaking profitable. The high pay of their officers, and the difficulties encountered in clearing the land, are in themselves considerable drawbacks; especially when we consider, that after all the pains bestowed, the soil acquired for the purposes of cultivation is often of very inferior quality.

The soil on the peninsula, of which Circular Head forms the most remarkable feature, is generally speaking of a poor light character, and not well watered. The country lying immediately behind it is low and cut up with branches from a large estuary.

My esteemed friend, Count Strzelecki, traversed the country between Circular Head and Point Woolnorth (North-West extreme of Tasmania) and describes it as presenting "eight rivers as difficult to cross as the Scamander, with deep gullies and rocky ridges, and marshes more difficult to overcome than either ridges or rivers."

MINERAL WATERS.

We learned there were some mineral waters about fifteen miles to the westward of Circular Head. The ingredients they contain, and their medicinal properties, were discovered by Count Strzelecki, who in speaking of them, says, "I have endeavoured to ascertain both--the latter on my own const.i.tution, and the former by chemical a.n.a.lysis. They belong to a cla.s.s of carbonated waters." From his examination he concludes, "that they are aperient and tonic, and sufficiently disgusting to the palate to pa.s.s for highly medicinal."

Whilst here, I was informed that a small party of natives were still at large, though seldom seen, keeping in the remotest recesses of the woods.

They thus succeeded in avoiding for some years their enemy the white man.

Indeed it was only when pressed by hunger that these aboriginal possessors of the soil ventured to emerge from their hiding-places, and rob some of the Company's out-stations of flour. By these means, however, it was that a knowledge was obtained of their existence. For, though they managed so secretly, that it was some time before they were found out, a shepherd at an out-station, began at last frequently to miss flour and tobacco* in a very mysterious manner. He determined accordingly to watch, but was for a long time unsuccessful. At length he saw a native woman steal into the hut, when he drew the door to by a line which communicated with his place of concealment. Of the treatment this poor woman received from the hands of her captor I shall treat hereafter. After being kept a prisoner some time, she was sent to Flinders Island; but it was long before the discovery was made that she had any companions. I was informed that the shepherd who took her, afterwards lost his life by the spear of a native, probably impelled by revenge.

(*Footnote. The fondness exhibited by the aborigines who inhabit the southern parts of Australia for smoking is extraordinary.)

SAIL FOR THE RIVER TAMAR.

We completed our operations on the evening of the day on which we arrived, namely, December 18th, and left for the Tamar river, in order to measure a meridian distance. Pa.s.sing six miles from Rocky Cape, we had 28 fathoms; and steering east, the depth gradually increased to 42 fathoms, with a soft muddy bottom, being then twenty miles North-West by West from Port Dalrymple, the mouth of the Tamar.

The 19th was one of the few fine days it was our good fortune to meet with, and we enjoyed a splendid view of the Alpine features of Tasmania.

Towering peaks connected sometimes by high tablelands, glittered in the sun as if capped with snow.*

(*Footnote. Near Hobart, in February 1836, I saw snow on the side of a mountain.)

PORT DALRYMPLE.

Early in the afternoon, the lighthouse on Low Head appeared like a white speck resting on the blue horizon; and by evening we found ourselves at anchor just within the reefs fronting the west entrance point of Port Dalrymple. The first appearance of the Tamar river is not very inviting to the seaman. A rapid stream, thrown out of its course, hemmed in by numerous reefs, and pa.s.sing over a bottom so uneven as to cause a change in the soundings from 12 to 26, and then 18 fathoms, with a ripple or line of broken water across the mouth renders it impossible in strong North-West winds for a stranger to detect the channels, and raises so much sea that the pilots cannot reach the vessels that arrive off the mouth.

As the Beagle pa.s.sed through the west channel, the shear or first beacon on the west reefs was on with a round-topped hill some distance up the river. Although there is very apparent difficulty in navigating the Tamar, still the first glance shows it to be a stream of importance. Its valley, although not wide, may be traced for miles abruptly separating the ranges of hills. We can easily imagine, therefore, the joy experienced by Captain Flinders on first discovering it in 1798, and thus bestowing a solid and lasting benefit on the future Tasmanian colonists.

This is not, however, the only portion of Australasia whose inhabitants are indebted for the riches they are reaping from the soil, to the enterprising spirit of Captain Flinders.

George Town is a straggling village lying two miles within the entrance of the Tamar; in its neighbourhood were found greenstone, basalt, and trappean rocks. Launceston, the northern capital of Tasmania, lies thirty miles up the river, or rather at the confluence of the two streams called the North and South Esk, which form it.

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

We found that the Governor was attending not only to the present but the future welfare of the colonists, by examining into the most eligible spots for erecting lighthouses at the eastern entrance of Ba.s.s Strait, fronting the North-East extreme of Tasmania, the numerous dangers besetting which have been fatal to several vessels. These buildings will be lasting records of the benefits the colony derived from Sir John Franklin's government.

As we subsequently visited the Tamar, it is needless to give here the little information we gathered during our brief stay. Our observations were made on the south point of Lagoon Bay, where we found a whaleboat belonging to a party of sealers just arrived with birds' feathers and skins for the Launceston market. They had left their wives and families, including their dogs, on the islands they inhabit.

RETURN TO PORT PHILLIP.

On the morning of the 22nd, we were again out of the Tamar, and making the best of our way to Port Phillip for a meridian distance. There was little tide noticed in the middle of the Strait; the greatest depth we found was 47 fathoms, 68 miles North-West from the Tamar, where the nature of the bottom was a grey muddy sand or marl.

At noon on the 23rd, we entered Port Phillip, and ran up through the West Channel in three and three and a half fathoms.

Point Lonsdale, the west entrance point, being kept open of Shortland bluff--a cliffy projection about two miles within it--leads into the entrance; and a clump of trees on the northern slope of Indented Head, was just over a solitary patch of low red cliffs, as we cleared the northern mouth of the channel. From thence to Hobson's Bay, where we anch.o.r.ed at 3 P.M., the course is North by West 22 miles across a splendid sheet of water, of which the depth is 11 and 13 fathoms.

William Town, the seaport town of Australia Felix, named after his Majesty King William IV., stands on a very low piece of land forming the southern sh.o.r.e of Hobson's Bay, called Point Gellibrand, after a gentleman from Hobart, one of the first who brought stock to Port Phillip. He was lost in the bush in a very mysterious manner in 1834. No trace of him or his horse was found till 1842, when some of the natives showed where his mouldering bones lay. The point that bears his name scarcely projects sufficiently to afford large ships shelter from south winds in Hobson's Bay. In the North-West corner of the latter is the mouth of the Yarra-yarra river; but although only one mile and a half from the general anchorage, it is very difficult to be made out. The following anecdote will ill.u.s.trate the difficulty of detecting the mouths of rivers in Australia. Soon after we anch.o.r.ed in Hobson's Bay, a small schooner pa.s.sed, going to Melbourne. Several of the officers were at the time standing on the p.o.o.p, and each selected a spot at which the schooner was to enter the river; and although, as I have before stated, we were only one mile and a half from it, none of us was right. A single tall bushy-topped tree, about a mile inland, rose over the schooner as she left the waters of Hobson's Bay.