Clement Hodgkinson

“ I am sorry to observe, that this tribe, which behaved so well to me, was the one which subsequently attacked and murdered the cedar sawyers on their first migration to the Nambucca river.
We had been rising from the last stream along a brushy, narrow ridge, with dense brushy hollows on both sides of us, and we now came to a very steep ascent. Although my pack-horse had a very light load, we were here obliged to take it off, and distribute it among the blacks, who carried their burdens on their heads; and dismounting ourselves, we toiled up to the summit, leading the horses after us. ”

“ Looking east, the eye embraced the dense forest and swamps on the Nambucca river, the silvery glare of its tranquil reaches, and the blue surface of the boundless Pacific Ocean, which was about twenty-five miles distant. ”

“ The stream itself, of crystal brightness, rushes rapidly through the glen, over a bed of large pebbles, and frequently forms diminutive cascades over opposing rocks; this, with the magnificent trees, and beautiful flowering creepers, forming natural arches, with a glimpse of distant hills, softened and blended with the deep azure of an Australian sky, cannot fail of affording gratification to any one who can admire nature unadorned by art. The ranges of hills in the neighbourhood of Dongai Creek, are principally composed of clay-slate, and other soft slaty rocks. ”

“ Having been at that time constantly engaged, for nearly twelve months, in the survey of the MacLeay river, I determined to give the men assigned to me for my surveying party, a little repose; whilst I started with our stockman—an active intelligent fellow, on whose coolness and courage I knew I could rely, in case we encountered any hostility from the blacks—on an excursion over the mountains towards this new river, keeping inland as much as possible, as by so doing I should be better enabled to judge if it were a stream of any importance. ”

“ When we had arrived on the summit of the range, dividing the Bellengen and Odalberree, I perceived that we were about sixteen miles distant from the sea. We now walked about a couple of miles eastward, along the crest of the range, and then turned down a spur leading to the Odalberree. This slope was covered with good grass, and variegated by the graceful tree-ferns, which formed a beautiful underwood to the large black-butt trees, predominating on these hills of micaceous talc. ”

“ This old fellow, though on the brink of the grave, had made one step towards civilization beyond the rest of his companions, in having acquired a knowledge of tobacco, probably from some of the tribes near the MacLeay. The Australian black has an innate predilection for smoking, for the wildest native, on being shewn a pipe for the first time in his life, and instructed how to draw up the smoke into his mouth, enhales his first whiff with a grunt of satisfaction. ”

“ We now crossed a small, gravelly brook, and in ascending the steep bank on the other side, one of my horses rolled backwards into the brook; he would have been killed, had not his fell been arrested by some creepers. We next traversed a thicket swarming with fire-flies, and with luxuriant fern reaching to my shoulders as I sat on horseback; and after passing another gravelly brook, we found ourselves on a beautiful grassy forest bank, overlooking the river Bellengen. We fortunately found here a deserted blacks' camp, so that we had abundance of bark to build a secure shelter for the night. ”

“ The luxuriant and vigorous character of the brush, on alluvial land, in the northern part of the territory of New South Wales, cannot be surpassed in any tropical region. When this brush land is cleared, and cultivated, its fertility seems inexhaustible. For even in the old settled parts of the colony, near Sydney, the productiveness of the thickly wooded alluvial flats is most wonderful; thus, on the banks of the Hawkesbury, there is some land of this description, which has now been cultivated for forty years, without intermission, and without any renovating application to the soil ”

“ There is, indeed, scarcely any country where the surface rocks exercise so great an influence on the fertility of the soil, and the aspect of the vegetation, as in Australia. Thus, sandstone, the all-pervading rock of the central part of the colony, and of which the Blue Mountains are composed, from the Shoalhaven to the Liverpool range, except in a few places where it is overlaid by whinstone, is always indicative of barrenness and sterility ”

“ The soft slaty ranges just mentioned, are very general in the basin of the MacLeay, especially on the south side of the river, the strata form a considerable angle with the horizon, and their edges are almost in every instance more than usually disintegrated and decomposed, forming, in consequence, a rich loose soil, on which the grass is generally comparatively better than on ranges of other formations. The clay-slate ranges rise in smooth, round, waving summits; they are not in general thickly wooded, and would be pre-eminently suitable for the growth of the vine. ”

“ The alluvial brushes on its banks are now frequently superseded by park-like forest ground, verdant rocky eminences, and luxuriant grassy flats of the greatest richness, lightly timbered with Apple trees, (Angophora lanceolata,) whose gnarled branches, and light green foliage, resembling that of the English oak, render it the most picturesque forest tree in Australia. Several small tributary streams now begin to join the river. The first we meet, on the south side, is Dongai Creek. ”

“ Sir Thomas Mitchell, in the valuable dissertation on the geology of the eastern part of New Holland, given in his interesting work, has observed, that, "by a little attention to the geological structure of Australia, we learn how much the superficial qualities of the soil and productions depend upon it, and where to look for arable spots amid the general barrenness." ”

“ Here they live exposed to the myriads of noxious insects with which the brush abounds, whilst not a breath of air can reach them through the entangled mass of surrounding vegetation.—The cedar dealers furnish them from time to time with salt provisions, flour, tea, and sugar; and every three or four months the sawyers travel down to the cedar dealers, who live at the mouths of the rivers, for a settlement of their accounts. As these latter individuals are not remarkable for delicate scruples of conscience, they generally settle the balance due to the sawyers in a very summary way. ”

“ Trial bay is a good roadstead, being completely protected from all winds but those between north and east, from which quarters the winds are seldom strong. The basis of the country in the immediate vicinity of the mouth of the MacLeay river, is a pink granite, overlaid occasionally by dark-coloured rock of trap formation; a few miles west of the bar, this granite rises abruptly to an altitude of nearly two thousand feet in the Yarra-Hapinni range; which is the termination of the range dividing the basin of the MacLeay river from that of the Nambucca river to the north of it. ”

“ As the cedar on the MacLeay river is now quite exhausted, the cedar sawyers have lately migrated to the brushes at the Nambucca. They were at first exposed to murderous attacks from the native tribes on its banks, who killed and wounded several sawyers; and as retaliatory expeditions were undertaken, in consequence, against the natives, (on which occasion the sawyers mustered together, armed with their guns, and swords, roughly manufactured from their pit-saws,) a great number of blacks were killed in the skirmishes which took place, and they gradually became more peaceably inclined. ”

“ We found it so dense that we were obliged to cut every yard of our way; night was coming on, and to increase our discomfort, it began to rain heavily. The brush-leeches, issuing forth from the dank rotten leaves, soon attacked the calves of our legs; at length we got into a more open brush, and finally reached the forest on the narrow spur we were ascending. Dwarf palms, and ferns, however, usurped the place of grass ”

“ These borders of alluvial brush land on the banks of the river, are generally half a mile, or a mile wide, and are then backed by extensive swamps of many thousand acres in extent, whose verdant sea, of high waving reeds and sedge, stretches away to the base of the distant forest ranges. There are several lagoons in these swamps, and stagnant water is very generally diffused over their surface. Their soil is very good in some parts, and rice would probably grow in them very well ”

“ It is one of the best sheep districts in the colony; and the temperature of the air is, of course, proportionate to its great elevation.
One remarkable characteristic of the round-topped ranges in the bases of the lower MacLeay, is their very great fertility: for their steep slopes are never bare and rocky, but almost invariably covered with soil, clothed with good grass and lofty forest trees, and sometimes tangled brush; they are occasionally stoney on the higher ridges, but the grass is still abundant. ”

“ It is well known that scarcely any thing exercises so much influence on the quality of wine, as the nature of the rocks and soils among which vines are planted. According to the best authorities, clay-slates seem peculiarly favourable for vines. Thus Albertus Magnus has observed, " that the vines thrive well in earth which is mixed with fragments of black roofing slate." And Humboldt remarks, "that the vines which grow upon the mountains of the valley of the Rhine, consisting of black day-slate' afford a most excellent wine." ”

“ The greatest declivities at which ground can be advantageously cultivated have an inclination of thirty degrees." Now I have frequently observed at the MacLeay river, sides of gullies, &c. with an inclination of upwards of fifty degrees, covered with grass and trees; the long roots of the common Australian forest grass may possibly exercise some influence in retaining soil on a rocky surface of so great an inclination, whilst the edges of the almost vertically disposed strata of the schistose formation would occasion a rough surface, along which the soil could not easily slip. ”

“ On breaking through the stalagmitic crust, forming the floor of the most remote passage, I found one bone evidently belonging to a recent animal, as the nature of the rock (mountain limestone) was not such as to lead me to expect the discovery of any ancient organic remains.
Tracing the MacLeay upwards, from Dongai Creek, we pass a great number of squatting stations, belonging mostly to retired officers. The country they occupy as cattle runs is abundantly watered, independently of the river, by a vast number of permanent chains of small ponds, and water-courses ”

“ We now walked easily along the smooth sands, left bare by the tide; crunching under our feet, by thousands, the small blue crabs, which issue from their holes in countless multitudes at low water. When we had walked about six miles along the beach, we saw on the heights a large party of blacks watching us. ”

“ In the narrow valley of this stream, the land is of the richest quality possible, consisting of a narrow border of alluvial flats, covered with broad-bladed grass, growing breast high, and with a few large blue gum trees scattered so far apart as to offer no impediment to immediate tillage. ”

“ The scenes I have witnessed at. the MacLeay river, on these occasions, surpass all description. Men and women, (for many of the sawyers have wives) , lying day and night on the bare grass in a state of intoxication, and only recovering to renew their orgies; casks broken in, and the contents passed round in buckets; men fighting; native blacks, who have been supplied with liquor, yelling and screeching like demons, under the influence of alcohol. Such are a few of the accompaniments of the cedar sawyers' drinking bouts. ”

“ Both my Yarra-Hapinni natives, and the black from the sea coast, were considerably alarmed; as the tribe from the high mountains on the north side of the Bellengen was hostile to their respective tribes, and had come down considerably below their usual beat. Although I wished to ascend the Bellengen as high as the lowest point to which I had examined it in my former excursion, I thought it best to comply with the solicitations of the blacks, and proceed no farther up the river; especially as the Yarra-Hapinni natives told me that the much dreaded invisible tribe would "durallee," (fight us.) ”

“ According to his measurements, "a slope of even fifteen degrees appears steep, and a declivity of thirty-seven degrees so abrupt, that if it be covered with a dense sward, it can scarcely be climbed. The inclination of the pastures of the Alps seldom exceeds an angle of ten or fifteen degrees, and a slope of twenty degrees is pretty steep. At an inclination of forty degrees the surface of the rock is sometimes covered with earth bearing a sward, but at a greater elevation the rocks are usually destitute of soil and vegetation. ”