Moreton Bay

“ In regard to the free emigrants, the climate of Moreton Bay, though somewhat hotter than that of Sydney, is equally salubrious; while the banks of the Brisbane river, and of the other two navigable streams that empty themselves into the Bay, together with the upland interior, present a vast extent of land of the very first quality, sufficient, at all events, to afford eligible localities for at least ten thousand families. Wheat grows sufficiently well on the uplands at Moreton Bay, but maize, or Indian corn, is a much more certain crop on the low grounds ”

“ The approach to Moreton Bay by the South Passage should be discouraged, as the banks move about in a remarkable manner; and variation in the depth of water and direction of the channels being of frequent occurrence, it should be attempted only by men possessing good local knowledge, in vessels of light draught. ”

“ Moreton Bay, shortly after its examination by the late Surveyor-General, was made a penal settlement for convicts under colonial sentences, and free settlers were not permitted to resort thither; but a year or two ago, the convicts were withdrawn, and this fine district was thrown open for location. Brisbane Town, a few miles up the river, contains some very good houses and stores of stone or brick, and it possesses the advantage of having in its vicinity excellent building stone, lime, coal, iron, cedar, pine, and other superior timber of useful kinds. ”

“ Western Australia, again, is not favoured with many inlets Exmouth Gulf and Shark Bay being the only bays of any size. The same remark may be made of the rest of the sea-board ; for, with the exception of Spencer Gulf, the Gulf of St Vincent, and Port Phillip, on the south, and Moreton Bay, Hervey Bay, and Broad Sound, in the east, the coast line is singularly uniform. The conformation of the interior of Australia is very peculiar, and may perhaps be explained by the theory of the land having been, at a comparatively recent period, the bed of an ocean. ”

“ Some German missionaries have been for some time among the blacks at Moreton Bay, and one of them has obtained considerable notoriety from having deliberately accused the squatters in that district of having poisoned upwards of fifty of the native blacks. The squatters of Moreton Bay, are almost all gentlemen of education and good connections, many of them being retired officers ”

“ The Moreton Bay district is perhaps one of the most fertile on the continent, combining the advantages of great partial elevation and of proximity to the equator, so that, within a comparatively short distance, the productions of both the tropical and the temperate zones may be found. Corn grows on the high plains; bananas, raisins, etc., on the lowlands; in short, as in Mexico, the traveller finds, in ascending from the sea-coast to the summit of the hills, almost the same successive gradations of climate as in passing from the tropics towards the poles. ”

“ But the east coast and the country at the back of the new settlement of Moreton Bay, now commands our attention, Such an important discovery as that made by Cunningham of the Darling Downs, needless to say, attracted the attention of the graziers of the settled districts in search of fresh pastures. The country west of the Darling having received such an unfavourable name from the explorers who had made any efforts beyond it. The westward march of the overlanders was checked in that direction, and their stock spread to the north, south, and south-cast. ”

“ On the 18th July, 1855, they left Sydney for Moreton Bay, in the barque MONARCH, attended by the schooner TOM TOUGH. At Moreton Bay they took on board the remainder of the party, with fifty horses and two hundred sheep, and after some accidents caused by the MONARCH running on a reef, reached Point Pearce at the mouth of the Victoria River, on the 24th September. Here the horses were landed, much weakened by their voyage, and Gregory, Dr. Mueller, and seven men proceeded to the upper part of the Victoria overland, leaving the schooner to work her way up the river with the sheep on board. ”

“ In the charming suburbs on the slopes of the green hills, the houses are all built high on piles, each capped by its inverted saucer to ward off the depredations of white ants. The deep, verandahed houses are screened from the sun by straw blinds.
Politically, Queensland is the youngest of all the Colonies. A convict settlement was founded at Moreton Bay by Governor Brisbane in 1824, but it languished and was soon afterwards abandoned. In 1842 Moreton Bay was proclaimed a free settlement. ”

“ With a thorough knowledge and appreciation of the many difficulties, dangers, and discomforts, inseparable from such an expedition, Dr Ludwig Leichhardt, a German gentleman, remarkable for enterprising spirit and scientific zeal, left Moreton Bay, upon the east coast of Australia, in September 1844, to proceed overland in a north-westerly direction to Port Essington, on the north coast, a distance of more than three thousand miles. ”

“ The banks at the northern entrance to Moreton Bay are constantly shifting, and the maintenance of the necessary lights and buoys to enable vessels to enter and clear the port in safety is a source of continual anxiety. ”

“ The soil and climate of the country adjoining Moreton Bay would suggest the propriety of encouraging the settlement of emigrants from the continent of Europe, and especially from the German provinces on the Rhine, in that district; several of the productions which it is practicable to raise, in that part of the colonial territory, being altogether different from those to which persons trained to agricultural pursuits in the United Kingdom are at all accustomed. ”

“ The flood tide having ceased to run, they anchored at noon, and by the sun's meridional altitude, in 27 degrees 27 minutes 16 seconds south latitude. The third island, on which the natives were, bore W 4 degrees S one and a half or two miles distant, and the centres of the two northern ones N 40 degrees and N 15 degrees W. The entrance from Moreton Bay bearing N 68 degrees E from this anchorage, corroborated its latitude by the observation of the 14th, which was taken on the sea side of it although it differed considerably from that given by Captain Cook. ”

“ I have remarked that the blacks between Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay, are much more circumscribed in the extent of country roamed over by each tribe, than those in the thinly wooded tracts in the western and southern parts of the colony. Thus, whereas, in the interior, Sir Thomas Mitchell found on the Murray, the identical natives that had attacked his party on the Darling, 400 miles distant, and who again displayed the peculiar ferocity for which they had been before distinguished; the tribes in the north-eastern coast districts, invariably keep within very narrow limits ”

“ We are aware that in all new colonies, where capital, industry, and perseverance are brought to bear upon the barren wastes, the speedy transition to a smiling scene of plenty is the inevitable result. But in most there is an air of freshness about everything, which proclaims it a new place; while in those towns of Moreton Bay the case is very different. ”

“ There are various other localities, indeed, on the east coast, to the northward of Port Macquarie, which is situated on the thirty-first parallel of south latitude, that would probably be found equally eligible for such settlements, as well to the southward as to the northward of Moreton Bay; there being navigable rivers, with a large extent of eligible land on their banks, in both directions. ”

“ The dugong-hunting season at Moreton Bay, where the animals are supposed to resort from tropical seas to give birth to their young, lasts through the winter weather. The submarine pastures upon which they feed, says a writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine," "lie at a depth of from eight to fourteen feet, and the favorite grounds are banks protected from the sea, in bays and straits. They graze in company, and feed down the herbage so close that they leave a well-defined track to indicate their movements. ”

“ Why, a very small portion of the convict labour, which has been absolutely thrown away at the penal settlement of Moreton Bay during the last ten years, would have been sufficient to have effected the immediate settlement of at least ten thousand of the virtuous and industrious, but unemployed and starving poor of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, in that most promising locality. ”

“ Should it happen, that, at any future period, labour became sufficiently cheap and abundant, to render it profitable to clear and cultivate the rich brush land on the banks of the Brisbane and Bremer rivers at Moreton Bay, for the production of cotton, sugar, coffee, indigo, rice, &c. that district will become the most flourishing part of the colony. ”

“ The saloon is shortened for the quarters of the single women aft, and narrowed by having the cabins ranged on either side. On the return voyage, when there are no emigrants, and the deck is clear, there are plenty of quiet places for reading and erecting deck tables and chairs, and a camp bed, which we have brought with us, in the event of sleeping on deck. So smooth was our passage that we only once had the opportunity of testing the Merkara's sea-going capacities, and that was in the heavy sea now running as we left Moreton Bay. ”

“ Kootjary, Talegalla lathami. Kvíkkal, Perameles nasuta. Kvíngan, evil spirit, devil. Mah, Maja, not, no. Mal [Moreton Bay: malar. Yelta: mallé] , man, especially of a strange and hostile tribe. Mállan, hand. Mally, good, excellent. Mami, master. Mánta, membrum virile. Manta korán, an oath of uncertain meaning, also a word of abuse. Márbo, louse. Márgin, gun. Máwa, crawfish. Mílka [verb] , produce rain. Míll, eye. Minná [cf. Moreton Bay: menäh] , how? Minná-minnana-gó, how in the world? 313Mítta, hut. Mogil [Moreton Bay: magul] , head. Mólle, near. Móngan, mountain. ”

“ From the great number of experiments which have been made in these two settlements, there is no doubt whatever of those productions succeeding, if largely cultivated, especially at Moreton Bay. Specimens of cotton, grown in the colony, have been manufactured into yarn at Glasgow, and pronounced of superior quality. The coffee shrub grows very well, and as I have already observed elsewhere, sugar has been made at the plains on the Wilson river, at Port Macquarie, during the time that that place was a penal settlement; and I have myself seen sugar-cane growing luxuriantly in Mr. ”

“ The elders were more inclined to sit still, or went only a little way up the cliff; but several of the grown-up young ladies and gentlemen climbed up by somewhat steep paths to the downs above. The younger ones, the tide being low, very naturally preferred scrambling out on the rocks in search of sea-anemones, and other marine curiosities. There were numerous projecting rocks forming small bays in the large bay, and thus completely hiding the different parties from each other. No two boys could have had a more sincere regard for each other than had David Moreton and Harry Merryweather. ”

“ 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 deep narrow valley yawned in misty obscurity, like a fathomless abyss at our feet, whilst the lofty mountains, which bounded it to the northward, stood forth in bold, well defined outline against the illuminated sky Around us, and down the steep slopes of the range we were upon, the dazzling whiteness of the branches, and upper parts of the trunks of the huge black-butt trees, and the grassy slopes bathed in mellow moonlight, formed a strong contrast to the pitchy darkness of the glen and the mountains opposite. ”

“ Having passed along the foot of Mount Caoulapatamba, a large round-topped hill on the range between the Wilson and the Hastings, I crossed the Wilson again in an alluvial brush, and a little farther on arrived at Ballengarra, where the Wilson river becomes affected by the tide, and is navigable for boats. The police magistrate at Port Macquarie has stationed some men here with a punt, for the convenience of the settlers at the Wilson. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Fish, in the numerous rivers along this part of the coast, forms a never- failing article of food for the blacks, whom I have seen, at the MacLeay and Nambucca rivers, spear in a few minutes sufficient fish for the whole tribe, on the shallow sand-banks and mud-flats on that part of the river, which rises and falls with the tide. ”

“ Round this point to the north-west, the country declined considerably in elevation, and had much the appearance of extended plains and low undulating hills, well, but not heavily, wooded. The only elevations of magnitude were some hills seven or eight hundred feet high, which we passed to the northward. The appearance and formation of the country, the slowness of the current even at ebb tide, and the depth of the water, induced me to conclude that the river will be found navigable for vessels of burden to a much greater distance, probably not less than fifty miles. ”

“ The Bellengen river, viewed from the grassy point on which we now stood, formed here a wide and extensive reach, fringed by mangroves, and backed by tea-tree and myrtle thickets. The main river stretched away to the northward of the bar, for two or three miles before it turned inland, and was upwards of a mile wide, containing extensive sand-flats, covered by curlews, white cranes, spoonbills, and other aquatic birds. ”