Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia Volume II Part 37

I ascended without having been obliged to alight from my horse, and I found that the summit was very s.p.a.cious, being covered towards the south with tree-ferns, and the musk-plant grew in great luxuriance. I saw also many other plants found at the Illawarra, on the eastern coast of the colony of New South Wales. The summit was full of wombat holes and, unlike that side by which I had ascended, it was covered with the dead trunks of enormous trees in all stages of decay.

PORT PHILLIP DIMLY SEEN FROM IT.

I had two important objects in view in ascending this hill; one being to determine its position trigonometrically as a point likely to be seen from the country to which I was going, where it might be useful to me in fixing other points; the other being to obtain a view of Port Phillip, and thus to connect my survey with that harbour. But the tree-fern, musk-plant, brush, and lofty timber together shut us up for a long time from any prospect of the low country to the southward, and it was not until I had nearly exhausted a fine sunny afternoon in wandering round the broad summit that I could distinguish and recognise some of the hills to the westward; and when I at length obtained a glimpse of the country towards the coast the features of the earth could scarcely be distinguished from the sky or sea, although one dark point looked more like a cape than a cloud and seemed to remain steady. With my gla.s.s I perceived that water lay inside of that cape and that low plains extended northward from the water. I next discovered a hilly point outside of the cape or towards the sea; and on descending the hill to where the trees grew less thickly I obtained an uninterrupted view of the whole piece of water. As the sun went down the distant horizon became clearer towards the coast and I intersected at length the two capes; also one at the head of the bay and several detached hills. I perceived distinctly the course of the Exe and Arundell rivers and a line of mangrove trees along the low sh.o.r.e. In short I at length recognised Port Phillip and the intervening country around it at a distance afterwards ascertained to be upwards of fifty miles from Indented Head, which proved to be the first cape I had seen; that outside (at A) being Point Nepean on the east side of the entrance to this bay. At that vast distance I could trace no signs of life about this harbour. No stockyards, cattle, nor even smoke, although at the highest northern point of the bay I saw a ma.s.s of white objects which might have been either tents or vessels. I perceived a white speck, which I took for breakers or white sand, on the projecting point of the north-eastern sh.o.r.e. (B.) On that day nine years exactly I first beheld the heads of Port Jackson, a rather singular coincidence. Thus the mountain on which I stood became an important point in my survey, and I gave it the name of Mount Macedon, with reference to that of Port Phillip.* It had been long dark before I reached the base of the mountain and picked out a dry bit of turf on which to lie down for the night.

(*Footnote. Geboor is the native name of this hill, as since ascertained by my friend Captain King, and it is a much better one, having fewer letters and being aboriginal.)

October 1.

The morning was cloudy with drizzling rain, a circ.u.mstance which prevented me from re-ascending a naked rock on the north-eastern summit to extend my observations over the country we were about to traverse. I found decomposed gneiss at the base of this hill.

RETURN TO THE CAMP.

While returning to the camp we saw great numbers of kangaroos but could not add to our stock of provisions, having neither dogs nor a rifle with us. I found on my arrival at the camp that the boat-carriage having been made once more serviceable, the party was quite ready to move forward in the morning.

October 2.

The day being Sunday and the weather unfavourable, as it rained heavily, the barometer having also fallen more than half an inch, I made it a day of rest for the benefit of our jaded horses, notwithstanding our own short rations. I was also very desirous to complete some work on the map.

CONTINUE OUR HOMEWARD JOURNEY.

October 3.

A clear morning: I buried another letter for Mr. Stapylton, informing him how he might best avoid the mud; and then we proceeded along the highest points of the ground, thus keeping clear of that which was boggy, and we found the surface to improve much in this respect as we receded from the base of the higher range. We crossed some fine valleys, each watered by a running stream; and all the hills consisted of granite. The various rivulets we crossed fell southwards into one we had seen in a valley on our right which continued from the base of the mountain, and this rivulet at length entered a still deeper valley in which there was very little wood, the hills on the opposite side being uncommonly level at the top.

In this valley a fine stream ran northward, being undoubtedly the Barnard, or first river crossed by us on our way to Mount Macedon. We succeeded in finding a ford, but although it was deep a greater difficulty to be overcome was the descent of our carts to it, so abrupt and steep-sided was the ravine in which the Barnard flowed.

WATERFALL OF COBAW.

When we had effected at length a descent and a pa.s.sage across, having also established our camp beyond this stream, I rode up the bank towards a noise of falling water, and thus came to a very fine cascade of upwards of sixty feet. The river indeed fell more than double that height, but in the lower part the water escaped unseen, flowing amongst large blocks of granite. I had visited several waterfalls in Scotland, but this was certainly the most picturesque I had witnessed; although the effect was not so much in the body of water falling, or the loud noise, as in the bold character of the rocks over and amongst which it fell. Their colour and shape were harmonized into a more complete scene than nature usually presents, resembling the finished subject of an artist, foreground and all. The prevailing hues were light red and purple-grey, the rocks being finely interlaced with a small-leaved creeper of the brightest green. A dark-coloured moss, which presents a warm green in the sun, covered the lower ma.s.ses and relieved and supported the brighter hues, while a brilliant iris shone steadily in the spray, and blended into perfect harmony the lighter hues of the higher rocks and the whiteness of the torrent rushing over them. The banks of this stream were of so bold a character that in all probability other picturesque scenery, perhaps finer than this, may yet be found upon it.

SINGULAR COUNTRY ON THE BARNARD.

The geological character of the adjacent country was sufficiently striking--the left bank consisted of undulating hills and bold rocks of granite; the right of trap-rock in the higher part, and presented a remarkable contrast to the other, from the perfectly level character of the summits of adjacent hills, as if the whole had been once in a fluid state. Some of these table hills were separated by dry gra.s.sy vales of excellent soil. Further back the rugged crests of a wooded range of a different formation rendered the level character of this ancient lava or vesicular trap more obvious. The hills behind consisted in the higher parts of a felspathic conglomerate and clay-slate dipping to the eastward.

The country looked fine to the south and also northward, or down the stream. By keeping along a winding valley we ascended without inconvenience between these curiously scarped trap hills.

October 5.

We found the trees on the low range much broken like those near Mount Macedon, and the ground strewed here also with withering boughs, the result apparently of the same storm, the destructive effects of which we had noticed on the trees there.

CROSS THE CAMPASPE.

Beyond the clay-stone range we entered on another open and gra.s.sy tract where trap-rock again appeared; and at four miles and a half we descended into a gra.s.sy ravine in which we found another river flowing northward; this being apparently the second river crossed in my ride to Mount Macedon and which I now named the Campaspe. It was difficult to find in this stream any fordable place where the banks could be approached by the carts, one side or the other always proving too steep; but at length we succeeded. Strata of clay-slate inclined almost perpendicularly to the horizon projected at parts of the left bank, and over this clay-slate I found trap-rock. Beyond the Campaspe we crossed plains and much open land. At length on descending a little from a sort of table the trap was no longer to be seen, and we entered a wood where sandstone seemed to predominate, the strata dipping to the south-west. Fine gra.s.sy slopes extended through this forest, which was also so open that we could see each way for several miles. A rich variety of yellow flowers adorned the verdure among which the Caladenia and Diuris aurea, and also a large white Anguillaria, were very abundant.

AN ENGLISH RAZOR FOUND.

Piper found at an old native encampment a razor, and I had the satisfaction of reading on the blade the words "Old English" in this wild region, still so remote from civilised man's dominion! In the afternoon a remarkable change took place in the weather, for we had rain with an easterly wind, the thermometer being at 68 degrees. We encamped on a chain of deep ponds falling to the northward; reeds grew in them and we endeavoured to catch cod-perch but without success, probably because the natives of the country were too expert fishers to leave any in such holes.

ASCEND MOUNT CAMPBELL.

October 6.

At two miles on we reached the summit of the range near Mount Campbell which had partly bounded my view eastward from Mount Byng. A slight scrub grew on this range but not so thickly as to be impervious to carts; and after crossing it, as well as a succession of lower ridges, a good valley at length appeared on the left, while another which was very wide and green lay before us. At the further side of this and under another range ran a deep mountain stream which was joined a little lower down by one from the valley on the left: thus by following this stream I might have turned the range, but it was not too steep to be crossed, and I required some angles with the surrounding hills and the country before us. We ascended it therefore and comparatively with ease; and from amongst the trees on a hill I saw and intersected more points than I expected to see; even Mount Macedon was visible and, to the eastward, summits which I was almost certain lay beyond the river Goulburn. The descent from this ridge to the eastward was rather steep; but we immediately after entered an open forest in a valley which led very nearly in the direction of my intended route.

NATIVE BEVERAGE.

The adjacent forest consisted of large trees of ironbark, the first of that species of eucalyptus that we had seen for a considerable time. This tree was then in flower, and we found in a large canoe at an old native encampment a considerable quant.i.ty of the blossoms, which had not been long cut. Piper explained the purpose for which these flowers had been gathered by informing me that, by steeping them a night in water, the natives make a sweet beverage named bool.

VALLEY OF THE DEEGAY.

October 7.

The whole of this day's journey (fourteen miles) was along the same valley that we had entered yesterday. The deep bed of a stream, then containing a chain of ponds only, pursued a meandering course through it.

We saw in this valley a pair of c.o.c.katoos with the scarlet and yellow top-knot. (Plate 23.) We had not been long encamped when intelligence was brought me by Piper that a party of natives were following our track, and soon after, Burnett and he having gone out to encourage them to come up, seven, including an old man and two boys, approached and I hastened out to meet them that they might not sit down too close to our camp. They told us the creek watering this long valley was named Deegay.

NATIVES EXCHANGE BASKETS FOR AXES.

Three of them carried very neatly-wrought baskets, and I gave two tomahawks in exchange for two of the baskets, and then making signs that it was time to sleep I returned to my tent, hoping that they would go to their tribe.

THEY LINGER ABOUT OUR CAMP.

On looking out however some time after, I found that two had walked boldly up to our fires, while the others continued to cower over a few embers at the spot where I left them; the evening being very cold and stormy. Piper, who at first seemed much disposed to make friends of these people, had found that his endeavours to conciliate strange natives were as usual in vain, and was now going about sword in hand, while three of the strangers seemed desirous to a.s.suage his anger by telling him a long yarn. The other, who was the old man, was casting a covetous eye on all things around the camp. When I went out they retired to the group, but long after it had become quite dark there they still sat, having scarcely any fire and evidently bent on mischief.

EFFECT OF FIREWORKS, ETC.

I really was not sorry then to find that they still continued, for I had made arrangements for having a little amus.e.m.e.nt in that case, although their object in lingering there was nothing less than to kill us when asleep. Accordingly at a given signal Burnett suddenly sallied forth wearing a gilt mask and holding in his hand a blue light with which he fired a rocket.* Two men concealed behind the boat-carriage bellowed hideously through speaking trumpets, while all the others shouted and discharged their carabines in the air. Burnett marched solemnly towards the astonished natives who were seen through the gloom but for an instant as they made their escape and disappeared forever; leaving behind them however rough-shaped heavy clubs which they had made there in the dark with the new tomahawks we had given them, and which clubs were doubtless made for the sole purpose of beating out our brains as soon as we fell asleep. Thus their savage thirst for our blood only afforded us some hearty laughing. Such an instance of ingrat.i.tude was to me however a subject of painful reflection. The clubs made in the dark, during a very cold night, with the tomahawks I had given them, enabled me to understand better what the intentions of the natives had been in other similar cases; and I was at length convinced that no kindness had the slightest effect in altering the disposition and savage desire of these wild men to kill white strangers on their first coming among them. That Australia can never be explored with safety except by very powerful parties will probably be proved by the treacherous murder of many brave white men.**

(*Footnote. The use of these masks, which I on several occasions displayed with success, was first suggested to me by Sir John Jamison.)

(**Footnote. A distressing instance of this hostility towards the whites on the part of the aborigines has since occurred not far from the very spot where I wrote the above portion of my journal. Our line of route soon became the high road from Sydney to Port Phillip, and it appears by the Sydney newspapers (see Appendix 2.3) that the natives attacked a party of fifteen men proceeding with cattle into these recently explored regions. Although the whites had firearms the blacks killed seven of them, leaving another so severely wounded that his recovery was deemed hopeless. The winding swamp where this sudden attack by aboriginal natives took place is marked Swampy River on the map, and from the a.s.sembling of such a number at that point, exactly midway between the Murrumbidgee and Port Phillip, therefore the most remote from settled parts, and especially from the SUDDENNESS of that attack, the reader may imagine the perilous situation of my party on the Darling and the lower part of the Murray where, had any such attack but commenced successfully, it is extremely improbable that any white man would have returned to the settled districts.)

October 8.

The windings of the creek were this day more in our way as we proceeded along the valley and, when in doubt whether it would be best for our purpose to cross this channel or one joining it there from the south, I perceived a small hill at no great distance beyond, upon which I halted the party and ascended, when I saw that several ranges previously observed were at no great distance before us. In these ranges a gap to the south-east seemed to be the bed of the river which I knew we were approaching, and which I therefore concluded we should find in the low intervening country. Westward of the gap or ravine stood a large ma.s.s which I thought might be the Mount Disappointment of Mr. Hume.

ARRIVAL AT, AND Pa.s.sAGE OF, THE GOULBURN.

On returning to the party we crossed the channel of the Deegay; but at less than a mile further we were obliged to pa.s.s again to the right bank at a point where its course tended northward. Soon after recrossing it we met with a broad dry channel or lagoon, with lofty gum trees of the yarra species on its borders, a proof that the river was at hand; and on advancing three-quarters of a mile further we made the bank of the Goulburn or Hovell, a fine river somewhat larger than the Murrumbidgee.*

Its banks and bed were firm; the breadth 60 yards; the mean depth as ascertained by soundings being somewhat more there than two fathoms. The velocity was at the rate of 100 yards in three minutes, or one mile and 240 yards per hour; the temperature of the water 54 degrees Fahrenheit.

After having ascertained that this river was nowhere fordable at that time I sought an eligible place for swimming the cattle and horses across and immediately launched the boat. All the animals reached the opposite bank in safety; and by the evening every part of our equipment except the boat-carriage was also across.

(*Footnote. This river has been unfortunate in obtaining a variety of names and therefore less objection can be made to my preference of the aboriginal which I ascertained through Piper to be Bayunga. We already have a river Goulburn in New South Wales.)

FISH CAUGHT.

In this river we caught one or two very fine cod-perch, our old friends Gristes peelii.

CHAPTER 3.13.