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THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES MK IU.NKY ]'AkKl->, K.I .M.c'.. \I-'rfi:: " ' < From a Photo, by y. H. Xeuitnan, Sydnty, and engraved in the Studio of Black and ll'hite. ROUND THE COMPASS IN AUSTRALIA. BY GILBERT PARKER. LONDON : HUTCHINSON AND CO., 25, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1892. [All Rights Keseived.} Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. DU 102 3f Dedicate THIS BOOK OF TRAVEL AND INQUIRY TO THOSE WHO WILL READ IT MOST AND THINK BEST OF 1T- TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER. 1006383 PREFACE. first part of the book, including chapters THEI. to IX., appeared in Harpers Weekly. A considerable portion of the remainder first the in the Herald saw light Sydney Morning \ and papers are included which were contributed to the St. James s Gazette, The English Illus- trated Magazine, Black and White, and The Illustrated London News. To the proprietors of these journals I am indebted for per- mission to republish. The first part of the book is a review of Australian affairs brought to the second is up 1891 ; part an account of my travels and inquiry not carried beyond the time of their occurrence, and a record of impressions received during the period between 1888 and 1891. The chapter on the granting of responsible government to Western Australia may appear to be superfluous, since the new vfii PREFACE. constitution has been launched ; but there is information in it which, I believe, is as important to a knowledge of the colony as when the question of the Enabling Bill was before the public. It is possible that this work may not be of less general interest because it is written by one who, through many years of residence, is familiar with the life and political conditions of the great sister colony, the Dominion of Canada. And Australia has been viewed from the standpoint of this knowledge. G. P. ERRATA. Page 4, fourth line from top. For " " 73,000,000," read about 573,000,000." Page 95, under illustration. For "Black " Trapper," read Black Tracker." Page 447, in the definition given for "Shearer's Joy." For "bear," read "beer." CONTENTS. PART I. CHAP. PAGE I. GLIMPSES OF AUSTRALIAN LIFE: THE PROLOGUE . 3 GLIMPSES OF AUSTRALIAN LIFE: IN TIME OF FLOOD . 17 III. GLIMPSES OF AUSTRALIAN LIFE: IN TIME OF DROUGHT 35 " IV. RURAL AUSTRALIA . 53 V. RURAL AUSTRALIA (continued) 64 VI. RURAL AUSTRALIA (continued) 76 VII. URBAN AUSTRALIA 98 VIII. URBAN AUSTRALIA (continued) 120 PART II. VICTORIA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, NEW SOUTH WALES, QUEENSLAND, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AUS- TRALIA ALL. IX. MELBOURNE AND ADELAIDE IN 1888: THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION 147 X. SOUTH AUSTRALIA IN 1888: FOREST CONSERVATION . 187 XI. BROKEN HILL IN 1888 . 198 CONTENTS. XI L QUEENSLAND IN 1889. Ax THE CAPITAL . 213 XIII. THE QUEENSLANDER AND HIS HERITAGE . 22$ XIV. CAIRNS THE BARRON FALLS THE CAIRNS-HER- BERTON RAILWAY . 250 XV. THE HINCHINBROOK CHANNEL TOWNSVILLE CHAR- TERS TOWERS 266 XVI. MACKAY ROCKHAMPTON MOUNT MORGAN MARY- BOROUGH GYMPIE 291 XVII. THE RAILWAYS . THE PASTORAL INDUSTRY . 332 XVIII. WESTERN AUSTRALIA IN 1889-90. THE VOYAGE TO ALBANY 345 XIX. NORTHWARD FROM ALBANY TO PERTH . 365 XX. PERTH, THE CAPITAL FREEMANTLE MINERALS AND LANDS 382 XXI. RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT IN 1889-90 . , 405 XXII. CONFEDERATION IN 1890 AND 1891 . .417 XXIII. STRAY PAPERS: ART NOTES FRONTIER LIFE . 428 GLOSSARY 445 proem. THE Empires of the golden-hearted South was in its Rose, sun-swept, when the Earth prime ; Theirs was the vigour of a splendid youth, A noontide of great deeds, a gift to Time : Their poets caught the singing of the stars, We hear the echoes in this later day, The chords were struck 'mid majesty of wars, And played the prelude to a long decay. to Their sun went down ; the North arose claim The heraldry of power, and there fell The languor of past glory on the name all the and it in a : Of South ; wrapped spell Slow-footed, feeble, all her sons grew wan With looking backward, and they stretched their hands and so waited for the dawn Skyward ; they Of a new sun to shine upon her lands. Long time they waited, and at last there came The crimson streaks the ; morning's rosy palm Was raised in benediction, and a flame shot over all the calm Of swinging light ; And then the Old South strove again to rise, breathe full-breasted with her ancient To might ; But through her striving came the sick surprise That all her strength had vanished in the night. Yet, as one feels the tramp of armed men Shake the quick world and stir the quiet air, There came the march of puissance once again, The New South rising with her forehead bare Her forehead bare to meet the smiling sun in her radiant Australia, panoply ; And far-off kingdoms see her work begun, And her large hope has compassed every sea. PART I. CHAPTER I. GLIMPSES OF AUSTRALIAN LIFE: THE PROLOGUE. shall one see Australia ? That question has HOWbeen answered often enough by men of culture, observation, and literary skill. But the point of outlook has been, in many cases, a metropolitan city and the cheerful comfort which a club-house affords : a dinner at Government if the traveller is well accredited House, ; a run into the for a of miles country couple hundred ; an excursion to the famous Gippsland Lakes and Big- tree a on the beautiful Valleys ; picnic Hawkesbury River a look at Broken a of ; Hill, perhaps ; glimpse a a to the Caves the sugar-plantation ; trip Jenolan ; of Harbour and the is done. exploration Sydney ; thing But it has been done on the arc of a circle. One cannot get into a "railway train at some city on the eastern coast of Australia and cross the continent as one can in cities all the nor as in America, touching way ; Canada, fringing prosperous towns. The population of Australia is massed on the eastern and south-eastern portion of the continent, and the concentration of wealth and com- mercial force is there. But the source of this wealth and force is not there, the influences really Australian, nor the special characteristics which may be recognised as peculiar to this southern continent. The general wealth has come chiefly from wool-growing. To mining ROUND THE COMPASS IN AUSTRALIA. is due a tremendous impetus to settlement, momentary expansions of trade, keenness in exploitation, and some special wealth. There has been taken out of Australia since mining began ^73,000,000 worth of minerals, of which half was gold. Mining was Australia's great advertisement, its radia- tion of attractiveness. It has proved its special blessing and its accidental curse. Wool-growing and cattle- raising arc its staple and reliable resources. But lest what I sketch later may appear a contradiction to this, let it here be stated, that the reliability of the resources is attained by the process of average. One year is not the same as another on this continent, nor one three years the same as another three years. It is, therefore, six years, or five years, at least, on which estimation must be made. In the Land of the Golden Fleece loss and destruction and violent misfortune have success and bountifulness hard at their heels, and in the great average are overtaken by them. The source of the troubles that befall the Australian squatter and ranchman is an un- certain rainfall. So far as settlement goes, one-third of the country at least is a desert, a No Man's Land as yet, and sore perils come as encroachment on that desert proceeds. To see Australia, therefore, one must leave the spots where the clubs and comforts are, and go into the heart of this Greater Britain. It cannot be done in a day. What is written here is the result of nearly four years' travel and responsible inquiry in Australia, as the Special Commissioner of the Sydney Morning Herald, the Times of that country. The best of Australia is in the east. The large rivers and the possible and profitable land are there the land for the many. For there is little profit to a country in the depasturing of 150,000 sheep on 1000 THE PROLOGUE. square miles of land. Along 1500 miles of the west half of the southern coast of Australia there is but one harbour, and not one river flowing .to the sea. There is no Mississippi, no Missouri, no Hudson, no St. nor Lake or Lake Lawrence, any Superior Michigan ; and, far inland from the coast, there is no great watershed. The River Darling, seventy feet deep one year, is a stream on which a skiff could scarcely float the next. The Warrego, the Barcoo, the Mitchell, the Fitzroy, the Ashburton, and many others are of the same fashion. The centre of the continent should be a land of infinite promise, like the heart of the American continent. It is, however, a land of tested and perilous uncertainty. It is a basin, not a plateau, a vast and arid sponge which drinks up moisture at a marvellous rate, and still is thirsty. None of the rivers, save the Darling or Murray, drain any considerable extent of country. So far as the eye of the explorer could see there were no foundations for dominion. How empire is being wrung from nature, like Hercules wrestling with death, is history that is being written on the face of the land with scars and suffering but written. In Western Australia, where Nature has put her minerals, she has sardonically refused water where she has and ; given land, pastoral pro- she has withheld rain or as often as ductive, cynically ; not, when sending it, has drowned the gaping country, and submerged the town that but yesterday was feverishly praying for moisture.

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