ADVENTURES OF A PIONEER. By W. LOCKHART MORTON. No. XV.-BUSH LIFE IN VICTORIA. In the year 1845 I resigned the comforts of civilisation, and went into the "bush." Never again to the west, but to the north, and ever afterwards, up to a recent date, still further north. In human life there seems to be a destiny to which all are subject. Some small incident, or the paltry action of some insignificant fellow-mortal, may change the course of a whole life. Some obstruction or disturbing force makes a human atom go off at a tangent from its centre of attraction, never to return to it again. In consequence of the treatment I had first met with in the Western District, with the exception of a short residence at Colac I never again even visited that district for thirty-seven years. I had been repelled and driven into a new orbit. I once crossed the extreme west diagonally from the north to Portland, but the pursuit after Gardner, the bushranger, was against my will, and yet could not be left undone. There is no region to be met with, however, from the south coast to the tropical parts of Queensland, to be compared to the western district of Victoria, either in beautiful surroundings or in excellence as a field for pastoral pursuits. In the west are magnificent landscapes, beautified by green mammalloid hills in every direction, some visible 100 miles away; splendid lakes and running streams of clear water; whilst the surface of the whole region is thickly covered with grass and herbage, ever refreshed with rains or dews. In the far north, there is almost nothing to be seen but level plains, so level that one's vision is circumscribed by a horizon from three to five miles distant; or a flat surface covered with dwarf forests or shrubs, through or over which vision can extend but a few hundred yards. There are lake beds with< out water, and creeks which never run. The streams are all white or red, according to the colour of the clay-beds through which they pass. Man and beast in the ever-recurring droughts get only "half-and-half" drinks, that is-half water and half mud, and have to be thankful if there is no worse material mixed therewith, as is generally the case. There is but little grass anywhere, and the less the better; for, like the abundant herbage, it soon perishes in such hot, dry, and droughtafflicted regions. A merciful Providence has clothed vast areas with low shrubs, and has given the instinct of goats to sheep and cattle to eat them and not die. Instead of one acre feeding from five to eight sheep, as in the western district of this colony, in the dry regions of New South Wales and Queensland from five to ten acres are required for every sheep. was In the year above referred to, I got the management of the Sutton Grange station, which is on the east side of Mount Alexander. That hill originally named Mount Byng, in honour of Admiral Byng, by Major Mitchell, but a local resident subsequently took upon himself to name it after Alexander the Great, in the folThe late lowing whimsical manner. Mr. Charles Hotson Ebden, afterwards Treasurer of this colony, had settled at Carlsruhe as a squatter, and one day, when riding with some other gentlemen near where Kyneton is now, one of them, pointing to the hill, asked its name. Mr. Ebden, rising in his saddle, "This said with a pompous gesture:is Mount Macedon and that is Mount Alexander." By an inversion Major Mitchell had named Macedon in allusion to Port Philip-Macedon of Philip, instead of Philip of Macedon -and Mr. Ebden, in a whimsical moment, changed Mount Byng into Mount Alexander, after Alexander the Great of Macedon. It was probably the same gentleman who named the river Campaspe after the favourite mistress of Alexander the Great. Whilst referring to the absurd way in which original names have been changed, the name of Bendigo Creek may be mentioned. It probably originated in the mind of some gold-digging pugilist who thought to perpetuate the name of Bendigo, the English fightingman, or perhaps someone thought it appropriate to the rowdy fighting characters who in numbers first rushed to the new diggings there. The name first given to the locality was Bandicoot Creek, and the one on the east of it was Emu Creek-a name it still retains whilst to the west was Bullock Creek. The latter name, however, has, I believe, itself been changed from the native word "Bollok," which means a creek or swamp or lake, dry in summer. Even Phillip is now erroneously spelt with two "l's." Having always taken a deep interest in geological studies, I knew that the formation in the neighbourhood of Mount Alexander might be rich in metals, and I often washed portions of soil on a shovel or spade, after the method of the Cornish miners—that is, a shovel with some washdirt on it is gently moved from side to side under the surface of water, when the lighter portions are carried away and the heavier remain on the shovel. I found plenty of magnetic iron sand, but no other metal. When I came upon reefs of quartz I often dismounted from my horse and examined the rock, breaking one piece with another, but never found one speck of gold. I used to pick up beautiful specimens of rock crystal, with which I ornamented the mantelpiece of my cottage, but these crystals were all that I found. During the year I resided at Moonee Ponds I often washed portions of soil on a shovel, and made short excursions in search of fossils and metals. I found I some fossils (Silurian) in a cliff on the creek opposite to where Brunswick is now. On one occasion I thought I had discovered a trace of copper. Reducing the stone to powder, I applied nitric acid, and with a feather painted the blade of my knife, on which copper at once appeared. then found, however, that the presence of the metal was due to a part of my testing apparatus. I found also quicksilver in a singular position, and for the presence of which I could never account. The family filter used to filter the creek water failed to act. On opening to reconstruct it I found the whole surface below the upper plate studded with innumerable minute globules of quicksilver. Although quicksilver has twice the specific gravity of iron, it will float like a needle on water if it is divided into minute globules, and, if such globules exist in the dry bed of a creek, when a stream comes down the quicksilver will float away on the surface of the water. This would account for its presence in the filter. The only other way of accounting for it is that the manufacturer put it there. Had it got in by accident it could not have been in such minute globules. During the years (1845-46-47) that I resided at Sutton Grange I consider that I came very near the discovery of gold; and I often think that if I had possessed the practical knowledge of digging, such as I afterwards acquired in actual work and by inspecting operations when Forest Creek was first opened, I might have been successful, for afterwards I generally could find gold in likely, but then untried, places. It was only when about my ordinary duties that I looked for metals. I generally went out hunting wild dogs. twice a week, for they were very numerous and destructive, and we had not then become acquainted with strychnine. Either in hunting or in looking for lost sheep more than half of my time was spent in the saddle. The dogs had to be looked for in the stringy-bark and iron-bark covered ranges to the north and northwest of Mount Alexander. Thus I was often over the future goldfields. But in very hot weather I often came upon them in the shadow of great granite boulders on the crest of the Alexandrine range. In one of these hunting excursions along the range my dogs found some object, and on riding to where they were I saw the spines of a porcupine ant-eater quickly disappearing below the surface. Procuring a lever, I gently raised it to the surface. This was in 1845, and was the first time I had met with the creature. I took off the saddle-cloth and carried it home in front of me. Next morning I found a young one in the case with the mother. It was about the size of a cockchafer beetle, perfectly formed, and its soft, pink-coloured skin was quite naked. Thinking that the mother had given birth to it in the night, and as it was dead, I set the mother at liberty. Afterwards I regretted that I had not examined the mother to ascertain whether the anteater (Echidna) belongs to the class of marsupials or not. It seemed to me certain that the young one was either recently born, or, if the animal was a marsupial, it had been carried in the mother's pouch. I resolved to examine the next one I met with. Some months later three visitors from Melbourne were with me on Mount Alexander, when the dogs found another. I explained to the others what I wished to ascertain, and we each took hold of the toes of a foot and pulled gently till we extended it to its full length, and, as it happened to be a female, we saw that it was a marsupial animal. Some years afterwards Dr. Bennett, of Sydney, seemed to doubt the correctness of my observation, and in a letter to me mentioned that he had dissected numbers of them and had not discovered the usual marsupial bone. Within the last two or three years the ant-eater and other Australian animals belonging to the monotremata have had some attention bestowed upon them. Some discoveries are alleged to have been made by Mr. Caldwell, who was sent out to Queensland for the purpose, but in consequence of the hysterical and blundering telegram sent to the British Association during its meeting at Montreal, not one man in ten thousand can say to-day whether the ant-eater is oviparous, viviparous, or marsupial. My own impression is that this interesting point in natural history has not been settled. It is certainly a marsupial, and we may fairly conclude that, like other marsupials, it is viviparous. If it is oviparous the eggs or egg must be deposited in the pouch till hatched. More light on the subject is required. With At the head of Emu Creek I had an out station, named Preston Vale, and the shepherd there informed me that he had been visited by a stranger, who was coming with stock to take possession of the creek lower down. out delay, I started a flock of sheep to take possession, the bullock-driver with his team, and a splitter. We started on a Monday morning and had to travel nine miles to the spot, but by Wednesday evening the hut was finished, and I had got back to the homestead. We had all the material to cut, split, and cart to the spot selected. The splitter and myself cut quickly all the posts, wall-plates, and rafters, and whilst the bullock-driver was dragging them in we cut down stringy-bark trees and split them into slabs, taking care to save every sheet of bark before we split the logs. Some days afterwards a party arrived with tools to begin operations, and were surprised to find themselves too late. The region was within the recognised boundaries of the run, but in those times, unless one could prove that he had been in possession, the Supreme Court might upset the rightful owner's claim, and even override the authority of the Crown Lands Commission with impunity. A fearful tragedy was enacted a few miles from Sutton Grange shortly after the first settlers arrived from the "Sydney side" along "the Major's line." Seven escaped prisoners had made their appearance in the neighbourhood of the Campaspe. They were then bushrangers, and some volunteers, including Mr. Ebden of Carlsruhe, went out in pursuit of them. They were encamped one night by a small creek on the Stratford Lodge run, and near the track leading to Sutton Grange, subsequently made. A hut afterwards built there was called the murderer's hut. Two of the seven had conspired against the other five, and intended to murder them. The two conspirators were watching by night, whilst the others slept, and they arranged that one of them should murder two, whilst the other had to murder three. They were successful in carrying out their awful workall the five men, their companions, were tomahawked as they lay asleep. The two murderers then made back towards the Murray, but were said to have been afterwards apprehended, tried, and executed. Some sayings of Mr. Ebden's on the occasion referred to were afterwards talked about in the district. He alleged that the men he had with him did not understand the English language. He said, "when I told my men to secrete their arms they did not know what I meant, but when I told them to plant the guns they understood." It was the youthful Mr. Ebden of Carlsruhe who was represented by a Mr. James, who published a small book on Australia, as a young squatter who had remarked to him that he was getting disgustingly rich." Mr. Ebden was very hospitable, but had an objection to entertain, in his own dwelling, travellers that were strangers to him; and he was perhaps the first in the Port Phillip district to provide a cottage for strangers where they were waited upon, and had all their wants attended to. He was such a gentleman as would now be called a pure merino squatter, and whilst he did not choose to entertain strangers in his own house, unlike a cross-bred squatter, he could not humiliate them by sending them to the men's hut. The late Mr. Parker, protector of aborigines at Mount Franklin, called one evening to claim hospitality, and was shown into the strangers' cottage. Mr. Parker was displeased, and next morning left a sovereign as payment for the accommodation. Mr. Parker, of course, should not have done so, but Mr. Ebden was equal to the occasion, and sent the sovereign as a contribution from a stranger to the Darebin Creek Lunatic Asylum. It is very remarkable how far from being correct were some of the estimates regarding the value of pastoral country made by some of the first arrivals from Sydney. Whilst the Western District and the regions near Melbourne were being settled, chiefly from Tasmania, a stream of settlers began to arrive along the "Major's line" from the "Sydney side"-the Major's line being the track by which Major Mitchell returned to Sydney from Portland Bay. Amongst the arrivals from Sydney was the late Mr. A. F. Mollison, one of the most noble-minded and sterlingly just and honourable men that the district ever possessed. Mr. Mollison, on reaching the neighbourhood of Carlsruhe, appears to have thought of going further west. He asked Mr. Ebden if there was any good country in that direction. Mr. Ebden replied, 'Nothing but barren, useless plains.' It was understood afterwards, that the barren, useless plains referred to were those about Glengower and Clunesnearly the very best in the colony for the growth of merino wool and sound sheep. Mr. Mollison "sat down" where Malmsbury is now. Mr. Mollison's journal, recently presented by his sister to the Public Library, must contain many interesting particulars respecting the first days of the settlement. When I In 1846 I undertook to make a tour to find unoccupied pastoral country. I proposed to go out on condition that I should have a half interest in whatever discoveries I made. I started early in 1847, by myself, going first down the Avoca to see the boring operations which the Messrs. Ham, now of Melbourne, had been engaged in to the north of Wycheproof Hill. From the Avoca I afterwards crossed to Swan Water, then in the possession of the late Captain Harrison. got there, after experiencing a period of fearfully hot weather, I learned that three men had been lost in trying to cross over the trackless plains between the Avon and Avoca rivers. Two of them had been rescued from Swan Water station, but the third was supposed to have perished. I learned from Captain Harrison that the three men had got bewildered on the plains. They were steering for Yowen Hill at first, but becoming doubtful whether the landmark to the east was Yowen Hill, they turned and went north in the direction of Mount Jeffcott, till they became exhausted through want of water. Then they resolved to kill the sheep-dog they had with them. They caught the blood in a quart-pot, and each got a share. After they had started again, one of them said he would go back to the dog, and try if he could get more blood; and the other two saw no more of him. The two reached an empty hut, and one of them was able to reach the homestead in a speechless condition. When able to speak he mentioned the two others. Captain Harrison sent a cart to rescue the one at the hut, and sent horsemen all over the plains; but the third man was not found. After hearing this tale of disaster, I started westward for the Avon, over the then trackless plains. I came upon the body of the unfortunate man, and about 100 yards from it the skin and bones of the dog. As in nearly all cases when men perish from thirst, the body was almost naked. do not think that this is the result of I delirium, but of the excessive high temperature which follows the entire suppression of perspiration. I saw where the poor fellow had been sitting, on the west side of a bush, then on the south side, and afterwards on the east -indicating that he had been there during one whole day. He had risen up, taken two steps, and fallen on his face. He had apparently been sensible to the end, for beside his last sittingplace were his boots, carefully placed, and on the other side his cap, in which was a handful of mesembryanthemums, which he had been eating. It was a sad spectacle. I reached the Avon in the evening, a short distance below Mr. Horsefall's Rich Avon station, where I was kindly received. At my request two men were sent with me next morning, and we dug a grave at the spot, and interred the body. We found nothing in the pockets but a discharge from Mr. Jennings' station, near M'Ivor, and a Van Diemen's Land certificate of freedom. The name on both papers was Henry Shepherd. I subsequently communicated all particulars to the Crown. Lands Commissioner. I went out to the westward of the Avon. I might have secured pastoral country there, such as was afterwards the scene of a bush battle between Thomson and Armstrong, and Taylor and M'Pherson, where there was more rough language than bloodshed. The fight took place near a shallow lake, and during the engagement a team of bullocks, left to take care of themselves, wandered into the lake, and all the water quickly disappeared. There was probably only a thin stratum of clay in the bed of the lake, and when this was broken by the bullocks the water went down into the beds of loose marl so common in the Wimmera district. I had quite a companion in my noble horse, "Roy," and he, I thought, regarded me as his companion too. When I camped for the night I turned him out without hobbles, and he was always within view in the morning. One morning, at break of day, a dingo came up to smell me the only instance in my experience of a dingo venturing to do So. I did not like the country I had seen, and, returning to the Avon, I went down to Banyanong, Messrs. Donald and Hamilton's station. From thence I went out to the north and saw the plains to which were afterwards given my name, but not by me. I lost no time in proceeding to Decameron, on the Upper Wimmera, to make application to Mr. W. H. Wright, the Commissioner for the district. On my way home I travelled to Burnbank, and thence made a straight cut through the bush to Mount Alexander. Between M'Neil and Hall's station and Bucknell's I came upon splendid quartz reefs in a forest of iron-bark. I lost much time in dismounting and breaking the quartz rock, but saw no gold. This was in January or February, 1847. I have never been there since, but I believe it must be where the Daisy Hill diggings were afterwards found, and probably in the near vicinity of the spot where gold was discovered by one of M'Neil and Hall's shepherds-the first gold discovered in Victoria, and which produced, either in 1847 or 1848, the first rush of gold-seekers from Melbourne. On that occasion Mr. Latrobe sent up a body of black troopers, as he said, to protect the interests of the Crown. |