REMINISCENCES OF AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER REMINISCENCES OP AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER BY ROBERT D. BARTON With Portraii SYDNEY TYRRELL'S LIMITED 99 CASTLEREAGH ST. 1917 Wholly set up and printed in Australia by Websdale, Shoosmith, Ltd., Sydney. DLL CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. ABOUT MY FATHER 1 II. THE LAND LAWS 14 III. REGARDING SOME OF THE OLD PIONEERS 36 IV. ADOLESCENCE 43 V. IIORSES 51 VI. A FEW BUSHRANGIKG STORIES 66 VII. ABOUT THE BLACKS 79 VIII. IN WHICH I Go TO GURLEY 100 IX. ON WEATHER AND VEGETATION 110 X. PLAGUES OF BIRDS, RATS AND MICE 125 XI. DISPUTES ABOUT GURLEY BOUNDARIES 139 XII. LIFE AT GURLEY, AND THE MULE 148 XIII. MY FRIEND BAKER, AND OTHERS 159 XIV. A TRIP TO JEWANDAH 171 XV. A BATTLE ROYAL 182 XVI. MY START IN NELLGOWRIE 187 XVII. A TRIP THROUGH QUEENSLAND IN 1884 198 XVIII. I VISIT NEW ZEALAND 206 XIX. BURREN 217 XX. UNIONS AND STRIKES 230 XXI. THE 1897-1902 DROUGHT 261 XXII. HEADINGLY 278 890553 PREFACE IN writing these reminiscences I have been persuaded by my friends to give my life and anecdotes exactly as they stand in my memory, but in doing so I find some difficulty in blowing my own horn without making myself out to be more than I am. However, as no one else can give my life, I must ask my readers to remember, in the lines of Will Carleton, that "For people's lives, full well we know, Two sets of things recall, The one of which we always tell, The other not at all." I was born in 1842, and, if not a pioneer, I certainly think I was a pioneer baby of those born two hundred miles west of Sydney, and I was probably a year or two old before the first clergyman came into that part of the country. This was a Mr. Gunther, who came from Mudgee, and had a field day of christenings, I believe, at Boree, the wool-shed having to act as church, as there was no room in the house for the families that came to have their offspring christened. Of course, I do not recollect this, but that is what I was told. My aim is to record my memories, which may, however, in some cases, have been coloured by circum- stances and conditions that followed later. Since my birth and first experiences I have been in the van of civilisation all my life, and, though the discomforts and troubles that always go with the viii PREFACE pioneer have been mine, I realise that they have never equalled the troubles and privations that were under- gone by the real pioneers, among whom were my parents. The remarks that I shall make about the convicts and assigned servants are, as you will gather, princi- pally very old hearsay recollections, but I should particularly like to point out that these men were not all the hardened ruffians and criminals that they have been represented to be. As far as my knowledge of them goes (and I knew many) they were mainly honest and hard-working. Those who succeeded in life, of whom there were many, were the best of citizens, and almost invariably left the best of descendants. I have found it impossible to omit reference to the varied and complicated legislation that has affected the man on the land, and I say advisedly that I consider the greatest trouble that the man on the land has had, even up to the present day, is the shifting policy of governments with regard to our various holdings. To sum the matter up in a few words, the system of party government, combined with the landlordship of leasehold areas, has been a great mistake, and has retarded development, and I hope that in putting this in my recollections I shall not hurt the feelings of anyone. I shall also touch on the unions and the difficulties that they have caused in the working of all holdings. I must ask the consideration of any who may read these lines, and trust they will be able to see that I have told nothing except what I really believe to be true. THE AUTHOR. CHAPTER I. ABOUT MY FATHER. father was a commander in the East Indian MY Service, and left that employment when that Service ceased to exist, and was, as I understand it, bought out by the English Government. From con- versations with him and others, I came to the conclu- sion that the East India Company had, by their contracts with the government, secured the whole of the British commerce, and at that time (as pirates were about) the fleet of merchantmen sailed under the escort of a warship. No doubt it would be a poor sort of warship, but it answered its purpose. Perhaps, whilst on the subject of my father, I ought to relate some of his stories that may interest my readers, but before doing so, I should explain that I learned at an early- age that he was a very bad unfitted for farmer ; absolutely such an occupation. I first discovered this one day when he had bought some poultry, among which was a turkey-cock, at a neighbour's sale. The birds were duly delivered, and my father went to inspect them. He thereupon got very angry, and told the man who delivered them that he had brought the wrong turkey-cock. "You have changed the bird; I am not going to have anything to do with you." The man assured him that the bird \vas the one he had bought. "No," said 2 REMINISCENCES my father, "the bird I bought had a red head; this one has got a blue one," and my mother had to come out and assure him that the bird was probably the correct one, as their heads were not always the same colour. One of his ship stories is, perhaps, worth relating: The battleship that conducted the mer- chantmen carried any passengers there might be, and on one occasion there were two young gentlemen and a very attractive young lady on board. The gentle- men both became violently attached to the lady, who was prepared 'to accept either, and the only way to decide who was to be the lucky man was to fight a duel. They came to my father and asked if they might be allowed to fight a duel on the quarter-deck (duelling was allowed in those days). He said he had no objection, and would clear the deck for them. They then asked him if he could supply them with pistols. He replied: "No; I cannot do that, but I'll tell you what T will do I'll give one of you the ship 's gun at the bow, and the other the ship 's gun at the stern, and then you can blaze away." The absurdity of this ended the duel for the time being, and I do not know what happened afterwards to the young lady. *There is another story of those days which may be worth telling; it certainly would be if I could repeat it as he told it, but there is many a story with- out much point that is inimitable when told by the author, and very poor if put in writing or told by one who has not the gift. The East India Company found that they had a great deal of trouble to pre- vent the ships being filled with all sorts of birds and ABOUT MY FATHER 3 animals at the various native places where they called. (All birds were called by the natives "parrots," and all other animals "monkeys.") An order was issued that no sailor or officer would be allowed to purchase any of these, on account of filling up the ship with rubbish. On one occasion, however, the purser smuggled on board an immense baboon, out of which he hoped to make a fortune when he got back to the Old Country. He got the beast down in the lower hold, and chainei him to the foot of the mast, and the voyage progressed for some distance without anyone being aware of the baboon's presence, the pur- ser being the only one who fed him and knew of his whereabouts. After a while, our friend, the purser, thought that the baboon was quite harmless and tame, and that for the good of his health he would let him have a run off the chain. However, when the chain was undone', he very soon found out his mis- take, for the baboon gave him a very rough time, nearly killing him, and then went up through the hatches like a lamp-lighter, frightened the seven senses out of those on deck, and went straight up to the top of the mast. The captain came out of his cabin, and the first thing that he noticed was this object at the top of his mast. He simply ordered up the marines, said "Shoot that beas.t," and returned to his cabin. Two Scotchmen found a pig's nest, where a sow had some young ones in a cave, the entrance to which was very narrow, and they decided to steal the young ones before the sow returned. One of them went down to secure the little pigs, which at once com- menced to squeal and make a great noise, and the 4 REMINISCENCES other one stood in the opening to keep guard for the old sow's re-appearance, but he became so interested in leaning over trying to see what was going on, that the sow darted through the opening before he saw her coming.