RETROSPECT

by James McInnes Sinclair in 1930

Looking back over a period of 75 years when the writer was born in the Bendigo goldfield, memories of a varied life, not only in Australia, but also in many other countries, are recalled.

The Australian portion of it embraces a fairly comprehensive section of the progress and development of the State of Victoria.

At the date of his birth the five miles of railway from Flinders Street to Sandridge or Port Melbourne constituted the total mileage of railways in Victoria. The whole of the present system has been constructed since then, also the making of roads throughout the country.

Some recollections of his past life may, therefore, possess some interest to young Australians living under present conditions.

How Australia, so distant and remote from Europe, a voyage to which then required some courage to contemplate, attracted the largest proportion of its pioneer population is in a certain degree a romance of history. The people taking part in it were chiefly those among the population of Great Britain and Ireland who had a background of courage and pluck, and were prepared to encounter the hardships and struggle incidental to a new unsettled country.

It was practically a selection of the best and most courageous among the community and this naturally accompanied with indispensable requisites, physique and intelligence. There were, of course, many among the numbers participating in this exodus to the far distant south land incited by the lure of the gold discoveries, who were absolutely unfitted for a life of hard work or hardship, and of no value as colonists, but the majority were people of a fine type.

How the writer came to be an Australian may be referred to.

Scotland is a small rugged country where the struggle for existence has been the means of developing a race possessing a high average standard of education, also an inherent courage in overcoming obstacles in the battle of life. They invariably were thrifty and hard working.

This country has been able to send out large numbers of people to become leading factors in the colonisation of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The Scotsman is to be found in every country of the world, and everywhere has proved himself worthy of the respect of the People among whom he was living. My father was from Lossiemouth, Morayshire. This happens to be the birthplace of the present Prime Minister of Great Britain. Four of my father's brothers settled in the United States. As a young man, my father was in the Army, an officer in a Highland regiment. In 1846 he went to the United States and also visited Argentina.

In 1847 the United States declared war against Mexico and he entered the American army under General Taylor. After the war was over, my father remained in Mexico. In March, 1848, gold was discovered in California, the news reaching my father, whom with several others, purchased mules and rode up through the deserts of Arizona to proceed to the goldfields. They had a journey of great hardship. Arriving at the old Spanish Mission of Los Angeles, where the city of that name now stands, they rested far a time. Traversing the Mohave Desert and through lower California, they arrived on the diggings in the latter part of the year before the great rush of 1849 took place. About 30 years ago, the writer travelled by train from Los Angeles into Mexico, and passed through the deserts traversed on mule back b] his father. The heat and dust in the train was most disagreeable and he recalled the grit and courage necessary for accomplishment of the journey in 1848.

When first visiting California 36 years ago I met Genera. Bidwell who had been in the Mexican War, and had subsequently settled in California. He informed me that he knew my father they had met on the diggings in 1848. My father remained in California until 1852 when he sailed for Melbourne.

My mother came from Argyleshire. Her father was in the Navy and was present at the Battle of Trafalgar with Nelson.

He died at Clunes in 1870 at the age of 95 years. Branch of my mother's family sailed from Scotland for South Australia in 1838, chartering an old barque and bringing out some stock, taking 6 months on the voyage. A brother of hers came out to Melbourne in 1839, having knowledge of shipbuilding He had previously visited India and China.

In 1842, he entered the employment of Benjamin Boyd of Two Fold Bay and Sydney. Boyd, a Scotsman, was the head of British Company owning nine whaling ships with headquarters Two Fold Bay where he established a town. They owned 6 or large cattle and sheep stations in New South Wales, and had three steamers running between Sydney and Melbourne. My uncle remained with Boyd until 1850 when he left and went to the Californian diggings, working mates with my father. He returned to Melbourne in 1850.

My mother and grandfather sailed from Scotland in 1852 in vessel of 500 tons named the "Aberfoyle". There were passengers on board, one being Duncan Gillies, afterwards leading politician in Victoria. There was no fresh meat, only salted, during the voyage of three months.

Contrast travelling in palatial steamers now, with the discomfort experienced in small overcrowded sailing ships.

My father married my mother in Melbourne and shortly afterwards, he went on to the Bendigo diggings. He first worked at Kangaroo Flat. My mother and grandfather followed later going up by coach, the fares for the journey being ten pounds. My elder brother was born at Kangaroo Flat. Afterwards, our family removed to Derwent Gully at its junction with Long Cully, my father erecting a log house, the material being obtained from the ironbark forest in the neighbourhood. In this house the writer was born in 1855.

This substantial house stood there afterwards for about 35 years. The point of land on Derwent Cully where I was born, in after years, when quartz mining developed, was occupied by Cornish miners' cottages and they named the place St. Just's Point. At Derwent Gully my father had a puddle machine for washing the dirt for gold, but as with others, he had varying luck, never obtaining anything very rich.

At this time, and old friend of my father's, Mr. J.M. Grant, who had also been in California, was returned as Member of Parliament for Bendigo. He was a solicitor and had previously defended free of charge, those diggers arrested for being concerned in the fight at Eureka Stockade, Ballarat. In 1869, as Minister for Lands, he was able to introduce, and have passed, a liberal Land Act, enabling settlers to take up 320 acres of Crown lands on easy terms. This became the means. of settling people in Northern Victoria and Gippsland.

At Bendigo, my father became acquainted with a Scotsman named McInnes who had come from New Zealand. He was a chemist by profession and had studied geology, and had been one of the first white settlers in New Zealand, and there, had married a chief's daughter. He brought over with him his half-caste son, a strong youth 17 years of age.

He was fairly well off and purchased a strong mule, a light dray, tent. and complete camping outfit with mining tools, ropes, windlass and cradle, and spent most of his time prospecting for gold. He disliked a crowd, and if a rush set in, would strike camp and move on to some new locality where indications were favourable for prospecting. Rich gold having been discovered at Daisy Hill (now Amherst), McInnes who had been working at Tarrengower diggings (now Maldon), set out to inspect the country in that direction.

He crossed Deep Creek, near Carisbrook, and following an old station track going through Simpson's Ranges for four or five miles, saw a flat among low hills which he thought should be prospected. He pitched his tent and put the mule out in hobbles on a grassy position and he and his son commenced putting down a shaft. The next day they bottomed on wash dirt at 6 or 7 feet, with some good colour of gold showing They brought up a quantity of this for washing,

by carting to a waterhole some distance away, the following morning. tracks Next morning they found the mule had gone off, showing that it had gone in the direction of Carisbrook, the hobble probably broken.

McInnes left the son and started out in search of the mule. During the day, a party of diggers coming the other way along the track seeing the tent and hole, turned aside and questioned the lad but could get no definite information. They looked at the wash dirt and then camped and started sinking holes near the other one. McInnes did not return with the mule until after two days absence. In the meantime, a larger party of diggers passing, stopped, and interviewing the others, also camped and commenced digging, one of them taking possession of McInnes’ prospecting shaft. On his return, finding all these men at work, and his claim jumped, he struck camp and packing up, moved to a new place. These men discovered rich gold, and in a few weeks a big rush set in, and although at first called Simpson’s, was eventually named Maryborough.

Rich leads were developed extending over miles of country.

In 1857, our family moved away from Bendigo, and spending a little time at Tarrengower, went on to White Hills and Havelock diggings, a continuation of the Maryborough field, three or four miles northward.

When here, a store was stuck up one night, and one of the men was wounded with a cheese knife by the storekeeper and subsequently captured by diggers. The diggers mustered, and visiting this camp, tore down the tents and ripped them to pieces, and under threats cleared the gang and women with them off the field.

I may state that my father possessed a horse and dray and a large strong tent of canvas, with a pine frame which could be bolted together, easily erected or dismantled in case of removal.

Over the tent a second covering of canvas, termed a "fly" was placed. Ropes to railings on either side secured this.

The tent could be divided into three compartments. It was lined inside with green baize, making it warmer in winter and cooler in summer. An additional smaller tent was also carried and erected. With a small framework on the dray, everything could be carried and room for persons to ride, although when removing to a distance another dray could always be hired.

While we were at Havelock my father also visited the Dunolly Rush a few miles north. Afterwards we moved to Back Creek (now Talbot) where a large number of diggers were working. A considerable town had been established, the streets having been surveyed by Wills, who afterwards with Burke, conducted the exploring expedition through central Australia, losing their lives at Cooper's Creek, South Australia in 1860. In Back Creek In a theatre, I can just remember seeing Booth the actor, who lost his life in the wreck of the "London" in 1866

We went from there to Lamplough rush near the Pyrenees, afterwards to Mia Mia, three miles from Talbot.

In March 1863, the Prince of Wales (King Edward) married the Princess Alexandra and the diggers at Talbot celebrated the day in royal style. A bullock was roasted, and a brewery which had been in existence for three or four years, furnished ample supplies of beer.

My father and uncle took my brother and self to see the proceedings. I remember the diggers in hundreds, with new pannikins, drinking what seemed to me, yellow water, but afterwards I learned it was called beer. Rain commenced to fall, developing later into a deluge, in the afternoon. Returning to Mia Mia in the evening, my brother and self had to be carried across a flooded creek.

Looking back to early boyhood memories of the alluvial goldfields, one recalls tents everywhere and men either digging or shovelling dirt out of holes three to six feet in depth; others working the windlasses, hauling dirt up in large buckets, and if the hole was any great depth a windsail projected at the end of the shaft; the latter caught any breeze, the air from which was conveyed in a calico hose down to the diggers at the bottom or into a drive where the wash dirt was being excavated.

Near water holes, dame or creeks, cradles were rocking into which wash dirt was placed on a moveable sieve, the man rocking with a dipper and long handle attached, from time to time lifting water and pouring it onto the dirt. Others used what were termed "long Toms' made of sawn boards to form a long trough. These were placed on a slope near the waterhole, and wash dirt sluiced in them, a rake being used in stirring and disintegrating it in the water. Other men could be seen "panning off with a large pan and placing the gold obtained in a small tin canister.

In the evenings, there were campfires, and diggers cooking, or at their evening meal, and the noise of picks being sharpened by heating the points and hammering on small anvils or pieces or iron, were heard.

On Sundays, the diggers did their washing, also appearing in their best clothes, gathering in groups, chatting or visiting other parts of the field and comparing notes with other diggers.

Except on Saturday afternoons near saloons or hotels, good order prevailed.

There existed a spirit of good comradeship, and they were always ready and willing to render help or assistance if opportunity presented itself. My mother in later life often referred to what she termed the fine manly men, working on the early alluvial goldfields. On some, a woman was a rarity, and on others, very few. She said she was always treated with respect and courtesy, and stated that an insult to a woman, if known, received prompt punishment.

It will thus be seen that the great majority of men there in he early fifties were of a fine type. The life they led brought out the best qualities, making them broad-minded, capable, self reliant and independent.

There were many diggers on the early fields who when successful in making rich finds of gold, went off to Melbourne and had a wild time until it was spent, and returned to resume further digging. They had an idea their good luck would continue; others went back to their homeland.

In Edinburgh about 30 years ago, one of the largest merchants, since knighted, informed me that in 1852 he was an employee for a grocery firm there, and was tempted to leave and come out to the Victorian diggings. With a mate at Bendigo, within the first year they obtained 10,000 pounds worth of gold. With his half, he returned to Edinburgh and started business with ample capital, and became one of the leading merchants of hat City.

The high cost of living on the goldfields prevented thousands, who did not make rich strikes, from accumulating much wealth Much labour went for no reward, in sinking holes, tailed "duffers· in which no gold would be found, and savings lent in the meantime. To a certain degree, it was like a lottery, but the lure in expectation of making a good find, prevailed with the real digger. To him, there was a fascination connected with the work which prevented him giving up and adopting a more certain and lucrative class of employment. Many injured or in old age as fossickers" about the abandoned gold fields living in little huts, keeping a few fowls, sometimes a small garden. Many of these were men of education, and the majority great readers and delightful men to spend an evening with. There were no old age pensions and it is doubtful whether any of them would have accepted such a dole.

The work carried out on the alluvial gold fields was enormous, the hundreds of thousands of holes or shafts sunk, and :he large proportion of valueless ones or "duffers". I never pass through any of our old gold fields, extending over miles of country, with shafts fallen in, mouldering heaps of excavations low covered with a young forest or scrub, but my memory wanders back; the myriads of tents and the thousands of men working, the loaded coaches coming and going, passenger and sway laden, the heavily laden drays and wagons bringing food and other supplies from Melbourne and men with heavy swage and billies, often a pick and shovel strapped on the swag.

Chinese formed little camps and worked together, often reworking holes abandoned because the gold yield was small. It must be admitted that if a rich lead was discovered, the Chinese were given no show of obtaining claims. They were however, rarely molested, although there was an old joke often heard, when a digger mentioned he had not slept well, someone would remark 'Oh, he killed a Chinaman" or a sleepless digger "I did not sleep well, I suppose I'm still troubling about that dead Chinaman"

There were however later, in the early seventies, Rheola diggings (also called Berlin) where the ground was all nuggetty no fine gold where the Chinese secured a number of large nuggets of gold from 10 to 80 and 100 Ibs. weight.

The models of some of these nuggets can be seen in the Geological Museum, Melbourne, each bearing a Chinese name such as Kum Tow" etc. Many of these Chinese diggers settled down as fossickers in the old fields, or became market gardeners. As old men, quite a number ended their days in inland hospitals removed there, helpless and sick.

One disadvantage of the early gold fields, for the children j on them, was the absence of schools, as with the shifting population, there was no possibility of their establishment. Church services were, however, often held by various denominations, sometimes in the open air under a tree. The first Sunday School I attended (organised by Presbyterians) was in a bark shed at Mia Mia. I was taught to read by my mother, who like most Scottish mothers, was devoted to her family and their welfare in life.

The first plaything, prized very much, was a tomahawk, and when 7 years of age, a deal of time was devoted to felling young saplings. Later a light axe was furnished and I became quite proficient, receiving lessons from my father in swinging and delivering straight effective blows and making chips fly. This early training was helpful in later years.

In 1863, we removed to Clunes about 15 miles distant.

Here, deep quartz gold mining companies were being worked. There was a population of between 3000 and 4000 and increasing yearly. The country round Clunes was entirely different to the goldfields areas further round. It was open country of volcanic formation with numerous scattered hills in view. Many of these had at one time, been volcanoes, the lava from which had flowed over and covered the Silurian formation in which the gold bearing

quartz was found. The country between Clunes and Ballarat 22 miles southward, was even at that time, occupied by small farms, large areas being rich soil growing wheat, oats and potatoes.

To me as a lad, Clunes was a striking contrast to the goldfields we had just left, in the absence of tents. Everyone lived in houses and I felt as if transferred into a new world.

Regular streets with shops, churches and schools, and also brass bands were in evidence. Streets thronged on Saturday nights with well dressed men and women, and on Sundays, there were church bells ringing and large attendant congregations and many people driving in from the country to attend.

My father purchased 10 acres of land close to the town and built a home on it. It was rich soil, but full of stones for which labour was engaged to clear, to enable the land to be broken up and afterwards planted into an orchard.

A short distance away on the bank of a creek was the old homestead of Cameron, the pioneer squatter who had settled there in 1839.

Near our place there was a large wool shed, the walls built of great slabs split in Bullarook Forest 12 miles distant. The roof was of split shingles as corrugated iron was unknown at that period.

Adjacent were men’s huts, also constructed of slabs and shingles, the walls of some being loopholed for defence against the blacks, in the first period of settlement, the blacks being then numerous. There were still a number camped at a swamp three 3 miles distant and the lubras and children occasionally came to our house and received food from my mother.

After my father informed me that Cameron had been the first settler there, before the advent of the town and its people, I regarded his buildings as something very ancient, and belonging to a very remote era of civilisation. This feeling of mine at that period was recalled when I first visited Winnipeg in Canada in 1894. It was built on the site of Fort Carry of the Hudson Bay Co. whose charter was granted in the reign of Charles 2nd. I observed a big building with a large flag flying from the roof.

The flag had the letters H.B.C. on it, and I felt curious as to their significance. At the hotel I asked a man standing at the door what those letters H.B.C. meant, pointing to them in the distance. He looked at me and said ·Guess you are a stranger, those letters mean "Here before Christ, but afterwards reduced it to Hudson's Bay Co. over whose building the flag was flying. The Company's settlement in Canada was evidently regarded as belonging to a remote age. Clunes, by the way, was named after a place in the Highlands of Scotland where the pioneer Cameron had come from. A number of hills and localities around Clunes still bear Scottish names given to them at that period.

The first discovery of gold in Victoria was made on Cameron’s property on the face of a hill half a mile from his homestead. James Esmond, who had worked in the district in the forties, went to the Californian diggings and returning, was the first prospector to discover gold here in 1851 and announced the fact of his discovery.

There is, however, undoubted proof that a squatter named Campbell, having a station 25 miles north On the Loddon River, saw gold at this spot 12 months previously, when on a visit to his friend Cameron. They agreed not to disclose the fact of gold being there owing to the possible effect it might have on the pioneer sheep runs depending on the employment of shepherds.

Esmond's discovery, followed quickly by Hiscock's discovery of gold at Ballarat, and some other finds in other places, caused a great rush to them from Melbourne and Geelong. When the news reached Ct. Britain, it resulted in the commencement of the great emigration referred to previously. It meant a Fleet of sailing ships crowded with passengers and a migration to a land 12,000 miles distant. A vast movement under conditions and surroundings such as the world had never previously experienced. Esmond, I often saw, when a boy, he then being engaged at one of the mines and his eldest son was a schoolmate.

Although alluvial gold was worked at Clunes, the quartz outcrops worked downwards to great depths, was where the greatest amount of gold was obtained. A mining Company formed in London named the Port Phillip Goldmining Co. was the chief one of the large companies operating.

A great sum was spent in machinery and a large crushing plant or battery of 120 head of stamps pulverised the quartz rock to enable the gold to be extracted. There were four or five other great mining companies all working payable reefs worked to great depths. These mines used great quantities of timber for the underground works, also for developing steam for working machinery. This resulted in employment of large numbers of bullock and horse teams, hauling timber from the bush from 6 to 12 miles distant. Large supplies had to be stocked in summer as the unmade roads became impassable for laden teams in winter.

The miners engaged were chiefly Cornish and men from the Newcastle and Lancashire coals mines. The former had been trained to mining at great depths in the tin mines. They furnished distinct types of people, with different dialects. The Cumberland men were termed "Geordies" and the Cornish, Cousin Jacks. The Geordie was sport loving, fond of quoit playing in "pitches" at hotels, pigeon shooting, etc.

Both "Geordies" and Cousin Jacks had their wrestling matches in which the Cumberland and Cornish styles could be seen, at contests held on a sandy flat near the Creek. The Cornish folk furnished large congregations for the Methodist and Wesley Churches, and revival meetings with attendant testimonies from converts took place annually.

There were occasions when some reprobate, attracted by the crowd and revival singing, wandered in and coming under emotional influence, went forward to the platform, and confessing his lapses, announced the turning over of a new leaf, and that he felt safe from the wrath to come. A celebrated evangelist from England named Burnet, visiting Clunes, had night and day revival meetings with great results.

There was a State educational system then, but half a dozen schools under various teachers were charging fees of 1/- per week per pupil upwards. With my brother, I attended one with about 200 pupils. After two years, we went to another, the head teacher being a clever bachelor Irishman, fond of convivial company, which was his weakness. He had lived in Rome and was fond of dealing with its history. On one occasion in conclusion he remarked, looking round at the dozen boys in that class, "I don't think any of you boys will ever see Rome". That remark was recalled to me in after years when I, perhaps the only one of those lads, was in Rome seeing the places he had described.

It may be mentioned that this Irish school master was a member of the local Rifle Rangers. He and other members were shooting at a target placed at the base of a hill. They were at the 500 yards range. One the brow of the hill, about 100 yards beyond the target, a cow was grazing. The schoolmaster was about to take his turn at shooting when one of the others said he would like to bet him five pounds that he could not hit the cow.

The shooter replied "All right" and took aim and fired and killed the cow. He received the five pounds, but had to pay considerably more to the owner of the cow.

After leaving the school referred to, I was for a short term, at a Grammar School, when circumstances prevented further attendance and at the age of 13 1/2 years, my school days were over. Altogether, I had been at school for four years. Fond of learning, good progress had been made under existing circumstances. My father, who was well read, encouraged me to improve by a selection of books, and I continued the pursuit of knowledge in this way. The land we owned had been cleared and planted with an orchard, and I was able to receive an early training in habits of industry, which as years went on, became valuable. In 1865, my uncle took my brother and self on a visit to Melbourne. We were driven to Ballarat and went thence by rail, naturally a wonderful journey. The sights of the great City and the sea and ships long remained a bright memory.

As the majority of the older goldfields became worked without extensive new fields being discovered in the early sixties, and no factories or secondary industries to engage labour, men went to any class of employment. Many went into N.S.W. to work at fencing and other developmental work, and many settled on small areas of land where available. Wages in Clunes in the sixties, and this applied to nearly all Victoria, were from two pounds five shillings to two pounds ten shillings per week, tradesmen ten shillings additional; daily labour on road making or similar work six shillings and sixpence to seven shillings per day and men on farms received from seventeen shillings and sixpence to one pound per week, and found.

Meat was cheap, also eggs, butter and potatoes. With regard to meat, there was no export from Australia, freezing being then unknown, and after shearing, thousands of sheep were boiled down for their fat, this to be exported as tallow. There was one boiling down establishment 12 miles from Clunes, and the hind legs on which there was no fat, were not treated and were given away free, for removal. When operations were being conducted, men used to be there and cart them to Clunes and Ballarat and hawk then around for 9d. to one shilling per leg. Now, allowing for these cheap articles of food, the natural thrift of the people enabled them to bring up large families decently at from two pounds five shillings to two pounds ten shillings per week. Many of the boys from these families eventually occupied good positions in Australia and other countries.

People occupied small but comfortable houses, and had plain serviceable furniture which would last.

The majority of the floors were hardwood, as imported pine was limited to Melbourne, Geelong, or some large houses in Ballarat. The floors were kept well scrubbed, and with working people, were carpetless. Nearly every cottage had its garden for vegetables and fruit trees. With all the restless excitement, pleasure and worship of sport in these days, those in Clunes and similar places living in the conditions described, got perhaps a greater degree of real enjoyment out of life. They had, even at that period, cricket clubs, and athletic sports received great attention.

One matter relating to that period may be referred to. The only inland railways in the early sixties were to Bendigo and Ballarat. The latter was the terminus for north western Victoria. Goods arriving for Stawell, St. Arnaud, Dunolly, Maryborough, Talbot and all other settlements were conveyed by train to Ballarat. From this place they were transported by horse teams to the inland centres referred to, this furnishing employment for great numbers of carriers. They used large wagons, with convex hoops supporting canvas covers to protect goods from rain, and were drawn by 4 to 6 horses. They were to be met with a night at camping places, and many roads and hotels benefited by them. This carrying business lasted for many years, and many persons earned good returns from it. The majority of these carriers eventually settled on land and became farmers.

In 1870, a great fire occurred in Clunes, destroying portion of the main street. It was followed by great floods, which also occurred all over Victoria, due to an abnormal rainfall. These floods were the highest and most destructive ever experienced before or since that time. Scores of bridges were swept away. In Northern Victoria the rivers overflowed, practically submerging the plains, the Campaspe and the Avoca.

At this time, my father's health broke down with the result that it became evident he would never regain it. He encouraged me to read and study in my spare time. He had always, by precept and example, taught me to be upright and honourable, and to have courage to encounter trouble or obstacles in life. My splendid mother was always a directing influence, with an inspiration for high ideals. I realised how much they understood life, and owe to them a life guiding influence, always helpful.

In 1870, my grandfather, the Trafalgar veteran, died and a military funeral was proposed, but my parents declined. The following year - 1871 - my father died, and the loss to us all seemed a terrible visitation and difficult to realise, until time softened the blow. I was then 15 1/2 years of age. Mother’s brother who had been in California remained with us, taking an interest in the family. He was a true man in every sense of the word. Our orchard furnished an occupation for my brother and self, but with the loss of our parent, I began to take a more serious view of life. Had I desired, I could have entered a bank, but I was a lover of nature and an open air occupation.

In the course of the next two years Clunes had a population it of 7000, reaching its zenith. Then some of the mines began to close down, having an effect on business, and people began leaving the town. In 1873, there was plain evidence that the prosperity of it was declining; more mines ceased to work. Many residents went north to new settlements opening up. Every day, wagons and stock were passing from southern districts, people going to settle in northern Victoria. There was a love of pioneering life and of the bush inborn in me, and I determined to go away north and work until I could get a start in obtaining land of my own in virgin country

Eventually, arrangements were made with a neighbour who was going north to select a farm, for me to accompany him. With a horse, spring cart and camping outfit, we started to proceed to Wychitella, situated between the Loddon and Avoca Rivers, in the Charlton district. Other friends had returned from there after selecting areas of and, and gave good reports of the fertility and suitability of the country for settlement. We passed through Maryborough, Dunolly and Wedderburn, and at the end of the day arrived at our destination.

It was a wide expanse of forest near hills, then open plain country dotted with occasional clumps of trees. It formed part of a large sheep run, with the homestead on the Avoca at Charlton, twelve miles distant. There were plenty of kangaroos, emus and wild turkey in the open country, but no one living there except a boundary rider and my friend's brother, who had recently taken up land. A large area of country had been surveyed into 320-acre blocks and granted to new settlers who had yet to reside. This country was nearly 70 miles from Bendigo, the nearest railway station, and thirteen miles from Wedderburn, the nearest town. After spending two or three days inspecting my decided upon area of land, I decided to apply for it and have it surveyed. We were informed the occupation of the large area of surveyed country would take place in the autumn when the rains set in. We decided to go to Bridgewater on the Loddon, where wheat harvesting would soon commence, and work there. We drove there, a distance of forty five miles, and obtained harvest work on a large farm. I particularly desired to obtain a practical insight and experience of this class of farm work, having decided to become a farmer. I was eager and willing and not afraid of doing extra work when it appeared necessary. I was now 18 years of age.

At that time, before the advent of the stripper or modern harvesters, the ripe wheat was cut with a reaping machine followed by a team of 8 men hand binding the sheaves, placing these out of the way of the next round of the reaper. The weather was hot and the work required endurance in addition to skill and activity. This work was learned quickly and done in a workmanlike manner.

The farmer was so satisfied with us that when the reaping was finished after three weeks work, and we were being paid off, he asked us to remain another three weeks

for the carting and stacking of the grain. Here again, was additional experience of value to me. On completion of our work, before leaving, the farmer expressed satisfaction with us, and with other members of his family bade us a kindly farewell with their good wishes.

I may mention here, twenty two years later, the farmer who had become a leading merchant, attended a banquet given to me prior to my departure for London to take up the position of Commercial Agent or General Agent for the Victorian Government. In speaking at it, he stated that he was proud to refer to me as an old friend, and had followed my career on from our first meeting.

We returned to Clunes, and after a short stay at home, a tent and other requisites for camping in the bush were obtained. A party of settlers was going north to Wychitella and I joined them, driving a mob of cattle for the various owners. On arriving at our destination, I went in to camp in the bush, splitting posts and rails on contract for settlers requiring them for enclosing their new farms.

This work may appear to require no special skill or intelligence beyond strength or endurance, but to be successful at it, much had to be learned. It was a box forest, and it required judgment to select trees that would split freely into posts and rails. The trees had to be felled with the axe, then cross cut sawn into the required lengths. These cut lengths of log had to be split open with maul and wedges, and the two halves again split into two sections before splitting them into posts and rails.

This work, either felling the trees, or sawing into lengths and splitting, is of the most laborious character, and requires strength, endurance, and also resolution. I was, from early training, a fine axeman and had also the will power to compel myself at work constantly. I was receiving 25 shillings per 100 for the posts and rails split, and the greater number I could split each day, the more money earned. I had to earn money to enable me to take up land for a farm, and this furnished an incentive.

After obtaining a thorough knowledge of the work, I set myself a number that had to be split each day, and as time went on, kept increasing this minimum. A time came, two or three years later, when I was able to split 25 and 30 percent more posts and rails daily than other bushmen following that occupation, and was spoken of for my prowess. I may here mention that in 1879 I was matched against a champion from another district in a four days splitting contest for 20 pounds aside. It was perhaps, the greatest of its kind held in northern Victoria, and hundreds of people came to see it. The length of the match and the nature of the timber made it a great test of strength and endurance. I won this match.

At the commencement of my work in the bush, I used the axe right handed, but I compelled myself to use it left handed also, and eventually was equally proficient with either hand, a great advantage in felling trees. I kept a tally of my splitting in a pocket book, and during the various periods when I had to engage in this work to earn money, I split posts and rails single handed and of an aggregate total, to make a fence twenty six and a half miles long, one rail and post.

To resume, at first I was camped near others in the bush, but they moved away and I was alone.

I had to bake my bread, a camp oven being used, cook my food, and do my own washing and ironing. For night reading or wet weather, I borrowed books from settlers, but the following year, was able to get several at a time from a library in Wedderburn.

These were brought out and taken back by settlers for me. Among them, I cannot remember a work of fiction. I was able to purchase "Vestiges of Creation" by Chambers, which gave my first definite knowledge of geology, a subject always of engrossing interest to me, from information derived from my father. It was the commencement of a study that has continued through life, and of increasing interest to me when subsequently travelling in various countries over the world.

In after years, I read Lyell, Murchison and others. As opportunity offered I studied the geological formation of the works, schist, granite, Silurian, etc. in the adjacent country.

Subsequently, in my years of quiet pioneering life, I obtained Carlyle's Sartor Resartus" and "Heroes and Hero worship". The reading and study of "Sartor" was a revelation to me, and afterwards became a directing and lasting influence on my life. Carlyle became to me a second father. I realised more impressively, from reading "Sartor" what life really was, it seemed to dissect every phase, showing above all that sincerity and truth should not be abstract virtues to be merely spoken of, but ever present portions of our being, guiding both thought and action.

The dignity of true work, either mental or physical, was so clearly shown, also the dishonesty of idleness. "We must all work, or steal (however we may name our stealing) which is worse". "Up, up, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. Work while it is called To-day, for the night cometh wherein no man can work". Carlyle's teaching, pondered over in those days of solitude made a deep impression on me, and they became a life influence. Long years after this on an early Sunday morning I spent two hours alone beside Carlyle's grave in Ecclefechan, Scotland, in reverence to the memory of a man who had influenced my life, in addition to countless others, throughout the world.

In 1894, when in Canada, knowing that Carlyle's only surviving sister, Mrs. Hanning, was living at Drumquin, Ontario. I went to see her, then an old lady of 82. I spent three hours in her and her daughter's company. On leaving, Mrs. Banning gave me one of Thomas Carlyle's letters to her, which is prized very much. Before leaving this reference to my reading, during the many years of my pioneering life, I may state that I read every book on history, biography and travels obtainable, and I had a habit of having a note book at hand so that anything of special note and worthy of impressing on my memory was made a note of, and this notebook carried with me at work.

I have often stopped work for a few moments, to look at notes made, so refreshing my memory. This system enabled me to cultivate or develop my memory in a marked degree, which became of especial value in after years when investigating and seeking information in various countries abroad, also in connection with trade and commerce. I enjoyed those early days of labour in the bush, the early mornings especially with their glorious magpie notes, and the laugh of the kookaburras - the bush comedians with some fresh joke to cackle over.

Also the companionable Willie-wags, the apostles, parson birds, jays, and the ever present inquisitive minahs, the latter being the scout or alarm bird of the bush, and the flights of all sorts of parrots. There was plenty of hard work during the day, often continued until darkness set in, then the evening meal and perhaps some cooking for the morrow, some reading by the slush light, then to rest - with rustling leaves around or quietness only disturbed by the noise of possums, mopoke and various night birds. With no living person within several miles, I got used to solitude, a faithful dog, and my only companion. Often from Sunday to Sunday, I never saw a human being.

Each Sunday morning, I would walk on to a settler's home and spend the day there, receiving any letter that would arrive, and hear news from outside, returning to my camp before dark. There came a time when I lost count of the days of the week. On what I supposed was Saturday, about 10 in the morning, a settler rode up to where I had just cut down a tree. He said he did not know that I included Sunday as a workday. I asked what he meant and he replied "You work on Sunday the same as any other day". I said I did not, that I always respected Sunday. You are working now on Sunday morning" he stated. I asked if he was keeping that day as Sunday and he said he was. I said I heard of people in the bush losing the run of the days and he was furnishing the first example to me. He mentioned he was right and then I began to check over each day's work in my notebook and found he was right. I stopped work, and going to my camp, cleaned up and set out to make my usual Sunday visit. Had that settler not arrived, I would have been keeping Monday for Sunday.

Settlers were continuing to arrive and settle on their areas of land. I saw that if I wanted land in that district for a farm I would have to make a prompt decision even if I had not earned as much money as deemed necessary. If I decided on an area and made application for it, I knew that with so much surveying going on, several weeks would elapse before my area could be surveyed, and after that Land Boards were held at monthly intervals, and I need not appear at the first or second ii meeting, this all giving me time for making a first payment. I therefore selected and applied for 245 acres that had remained up on account of it being a full block of 320 acres. With the exception of 50 acres of plain or open country the land was heavily timbered with box forest. The land was surveyed and I appeared before a Land Board at Wedderburn, and my application was granted. I was then three months under 19 years of age, and was afterwards referred to as the youngest settler on his own in that part of the country. I could not go at once on to my land, as I had to earn more capital before I could hope to commence its development.