Port Macquarie

“ 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. ”

“ Eighteen hours' run by steamer from Sydney is the Hastings River, on the southern bank of which, a mile from the bar, is the old-time town of Port Macquarie, a quaint, sleepy little place of six hundred inhabitants, who spend their days in fishing and sleeping and waiting for better times. ”

“ All the goods out of the vessel were afterwards open to public view in a large store, and some of the cannon balls and other material which belonged to the yacht yet remain in Port Macquarie. The white men from the yacht afterwards spent a good deal of their time at Lake Innes, where they engaged in sporting and other pursuits. ”

“ The second gale arose when the boats had made the coast, and were off a spot known as Point Plomer, near Port Macquarie. Here they again lay-to, but were driven to the south, the next place that land was sighted being off the Camden Haven river. From this place they steered north towards Tacking Point, as some of those on board, from previous experience of the coast, knew [Pg 88] where they were. On arrival at the Boat Harbour, the boats being too large to enter, the pilot boat brought a few of the shipwrecked persons in at a time till they were all safely landed. ”

“ Two of the chief rivers of New South Wales are the Lachlan and Macquarie. Port Macquarie was a rural convict settlement established shortly before he left the colony. There are Macquarie County, Marshes, and Plains, and the Lachlan district. Macquarie Place and Macquarie Street are in Sydney. Tasmania has Macquarie Harbour, and the town thereon, Macquarie Plains, and Macquarie River. Macquarie Island, south of Tasmania, was discovered in 1811. ”

“ Later she accompanied the Mermaid, under Captain King, to Port Macquarie when he followed Flinders' track through Torres Strait, and during her long period of service she visited different parts of the coast, including Moreton Bay, Port Essington, and Melville Island. Precisely how many voyages she made as a pioneer will probably never be known. The ship, at least, played many parts: now acting as King's messenger and carrying despatches from the Governor to Norfolk Island; now fetching grain grown at the Hawkesbury, or coals from Newcastle for the use of the increasing population at Sydney ”

“ The natural productions of this place are, in a great measure, similar to those of the neighbourhood of Port Jackson; but many plants were found which are not known in the colony; and as these grow in all parts within the tropic, the climate of Port Macquarie may naturally be suspected to be favourable to the cotton-plant and the sugar-cane, neither of which have yet been cultivated to the southward: among these plants, we found the Pandanus pedunculatus, which Mr. Brown found in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and many other parts within the tropic, in Captain Flinders' voyage. ”

“ It must not however be imagined, from the foregoing observations, that I consider the coast country, north of Port Macquarie, superior to other parts of the colony for agricultural and pastoral pursuits, or other ordinary colonial occupations, unless vineyards. For it is too mountainous, densely wooded, and swampy, to be so good as many other parts for sheep, and wheat and potatoes do not grow there so well as in the extreme southern districts. ”

“ The climate of the district of Port Macquarie is much more agreeable than that of Sydney; the mountains approaching nearer to the coast collect the vapours from the sea, and cause more frequent rains; in summer, especially, the heat is mitigated by many heavy thunder showers. Notwithstanding its comparative vicinity to the tropics, Port Macquarie seems almost entirely exempt from those hot scorching winds, which so frequently occur during the summer months at Sydney; or if they ever happen in the Port Macquarie district, they are so slight as to be scarcely felt. ”

“ As it was my intention to take the northerly passage through Torres Strait, I proposed, in my way up the East Coast, to examine Port Macquarie; and, in order that his Excellency the Governor might be informed of the result of our proceedings as soon as possible, Lieutenant Oxley, R.N., the Surveyor-general of the colony, accompanied me in the Lady Nelson, colonial brig. ”

“ Shortly after Port Macquarie was made a Penal Settlement, several men of considerable wealth visited and settled in the district, and were granted large areas of land in and around the Settlement. Amongst these was Major Innes, who became the possessor of a large area of land about six miles from the town, which was and is known as Lake Innes. On this property the "Major" built a beautiful residence, with all the conveniences that money could command. It was not long before he commenced to breed horses for the Indian market, and frequently sent shipments of valuable horses to India. ”

“ Should cheap labourers, such as Chinese or Coolies, ever be introduced into the colony, it is not improbable that, at some future period, the banks of these northern rivers may be diversified by plantations of sugar-cane, cotton, coffee, rice, &c.; for all these productions have been ascertained from experiments to succeed well north of Port Macquarie. There would be one great advantage also, that the climate would be better suited to Europeans, than that of almost any other country in which these productions are grown. ”

“ On the 19th February, 1816, the Traveller, an American schooner carrying teas and other merchandise, arrived at Port Jackson bearing a clearance in proper order from Canton. She was the first American ship which had visited Sydney since the conclusion of peace, and Macquarie gave her permission to unload her cargo. He was absent from Sydney for a few days, and when he returned on the 29th February, he found that the unloading had been stopped and the schooner seized as a lawful prize under the Navigation Act by the Rev. Mr. Vale and W. H. Moore. ”

“ Early in 1821 Macquarie made a tour of Van Diemen's Land, and on his return to Sydney was received, as he had been in 1812 with an address of welcome and a general illumination of the town. [84] Soon afterwards he started on his last progress through New South Wales, and it was while he was absent that Brisbane arrived at Port Jackson. On the 21st of November Macquarie returned to headquarters, and Sydney saw the spectacle of "Their Excellencies" riding through the streets together. ”

“ The floor of the gaol was not right on the ground, but built up somewhat, and therefore an aperture existed between it and the ground. A flooring board used to be removed underneath one of the beds, and only one man worked at a time, being relieved by another when he had done his quota. It was one morning about daylight that these six men made their escape, and proceeded along the Old Lake road (which leads from Port Macquarie to Lake Innes) , removing [Pg 90] the leg irons which they wore as soon as the bush was reached. ”

“ He country available for grazing at this river is of excellent quality, and much more extensive than that at the MacLeay; for the country bordering on the Clarence and its tributaries is generally level, and the mountains do not attain any great elevation, except at the sources of the streams.
A great number of squatters have formed stations at the Clarence river. The communication between the table land along the main range, and the navigable estuary of the Clarence, is naturally much less difficult than at Port Macquarie ”

“ He always passed as "Brickbat T——" after that, and left Port Macquarie for the goldfields near Bathurst about the year 1851; so a very handy man to mind anything was lost.
Some of these fellows were made constables in one boss's time, but when a change occurred and another boss came, they were sent to the roads to work with a pick and shovel. And fine specimens they were at work, too; it took them nearly all their time to look at the blisters on their hands. Some of them appeared to have been brought up well, though, and one of these was Harry ——, a noted highwayman. This man had no nose ”

“ A tall old fellow, named S——, used to be a kind of "flunky" in Port Macquarie, and he was a great rum-drinker. His bed was near the window in a house facing the main street. Fish were biting well, and one night a shovel-nosed shark was landed. This old fellow was lying in his bed drunk, so it was arranged to have some fun with him. The shark was carried up ”

“ Ellis Bent's letter criticising the new patent and Macquarie's administration [116] reached England in June, 1815. In December the Governor's despatch of February, 1815, which described the dispute over the Port Regulations, was received. The Secretary of State addressed a reply to Bent on the 11th December, 1815.
"I should," he wrote, "willingly have taken your observations into consideration if there had been any intention ... of remodelling the charter ... so lately promulgated." ”

“ Details of population, accounts of expenditure, judicial reports, all had to be copied in duplicate or triplicate and transmitted to the Colonial Office.
In the first year of Macquarie's rule, the means of conveyance were very irregular. By the most direct routes, by the Cape of Good Hope or Rio Janeiro, the voyage occupied from four to eight months. But many of the ships touching at Sydney returned to England by way of India or were bound for the whale-fisheries in the South Seas. ”

“ Macquarie—a river which rises in the northern part of the county of Monmouth, and flowing through Somerset, by Ross and Lincoln, joins the Lake after receiving the waters of the Elizabeth, Blackman's, and Isis. The district through which the Macquarie flows, is one of the finest in the island, and on its banks are the residences of numerous settlers. On the eastern bank, about five miles from Campbell Town, there is a presbyterian church, having a resident minister. There is also a post station. ”

“ The country, therefore, through which the Macquarie would have to flow during the remainder of its course of 1700 miles, in order to gain the N.W. coast, would not be a gradually inclined plain, but for the most part a dead level, and the fact of its failure is a sufficient proof in itself how short the course of a river so circumstanced must necessarily be. ”

“ It is the characteristic of the streams falling westerly from the eastern, or coast ranges, to maintain a breadth of channel and a rapidity of current more immediately near their sources, that ill accords with their diminished size, and the sluggish flow of their waters in the more depressed interior. In truth, neither the Macquarie nor the Castlereagh can strictly be considered as permanent rivers. The last particularly is nothing more than a mountain torrent. The Macquarie, although it at length ceased to run, kept up the appearance of a river to the very marshes ”

“ The little paddocks, interspersed among the buildings and lofty-paled fences, that give the whole island the look of a fortified place, vie in verdure with English meadows.—The capacity of the country about Macquarie Harbour, for cultivation, does not however appear to be great. Such lands as are sufficiently clear to admit of being ploughed, are peaty and wet ”

“ Macquarie returned home in 1822, leaving New South Wales four times as populous, and twenty times as large as when he went out, and many years in advance of what it might have been under a less able and energetic governor. The discovery of the fine pastures beyond the Blue Mountains settled the destiny of the colony. The settlers came up thither with their flocks long before Macquarie's road was finished; and it turned out that the downs of Australia were the best sheep-walks in the world. The sheep thrives better there, and produces finer and more abundant wool, than anywhere else. ”

“ Macquarie Harbour was explored by Captain Kelly, at the expense of a merchant whose name is borne by Birch's River, and that of his wife by Sarah Island. It is an inlet of the sea, on the western coast: by water, about 200 miles from Hobart Town. It penetrates the country twenty miles to its junction with Gordon River, where, diverging to the right, Sarah Island becomes visible—once the principal station, now deserted and desolate. This region is lashed with tempests; the sky is cloudy, and the rain falls more frequently than elsewhere. ”

“ It would be as presumptuous as useless to speculate on the probable termination of the Macquarie River, when a few months will (it is to be hoped) decide the long disputed point, whether Australia, with a surface nearly as extensive as Europe, is, from its geological formation, destitute of rivers, either terminating in interior seas, or having their estuaries on the coast. ”

“ The marsh of the Macquarie is nothing more than an ordinary marsh or swamp in another country. However large a space it covers, it is no more than a concavity or basin for the reception of the waters of the river itself, nor has it any influence whatever on the country to the westward of it, in respect to inundation; the general features of the latter being a regular alternation of plain and brush. These facts are in themselves sufficient to give a fresh interest to the interior of the Australian continent, and to increase its importance. ”