THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES u $"t/t- SUNNY AUSTRALIA IMPRESSIONS OF THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE To ADRIAN KNOX VIEW FROM THE HILLS NEAR ADELAIDE. [Frontispiece, SUNNY AUSTRALIA IMPRESSIONS OF THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE BY ARCHIBALD MARSHALL WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE RIGHT HON. SIR GEORGE REID, K.C.M.G. HIGH COMMISSIONER OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA ILLUSTRATED HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO Printed &y WcMon Hateil, A Viney, Id., London and Ayletbvry. 104- PREFACE THE Commonwealth is not only large in area, but it possesses many features peculiar to itself, which cannot be understood at first sight. A travelling Englishman who sets out to write a book about Australia is therefore confronted by many difficult problems. Mr. Archibald Marshall seems to have realised that fully. What he has to say of men and manners of city and country life in Australia is put forward with great clear- ness, but as impression only. His views will carry all the more weight on that account. Some very able critics on Australian affairs have lost in force what they have displayed in con- fidence, by printing their flying opinions as if they were the considered judgments of old colonists. This book contains graceful acknowledgments of the kindness which Mr. Marshall received from many Australians. It can safely be said that, in this case, the kindly hospitality for vi PREFACE which the White Continent is famous has been well repaid by Mr. Marshall's generous appre- ciation. The readers of this book will, I think, discover that Mr. Marshall can make excellent word- pictures of scenes through which he passes. He does not profess to have a thorough knowledge of Australian agriculture, and contents himself with transferring to the printed page what he saw through the eye of the trained journalist. Even those who may differ, as I do, from a few of the statements he makes, will acknowledge their friendly nature, and note with hearty approval, as I do, the high order of ability and broad spirit of friendliness which, added to his special gifts as an accurate observer, will, in my opinion, make his book a success both at home and abroad. G. H. REID. March 15, 1911. CONTENTS PART I PAGE RECOLLECTIONS ... 1 PART II IMPRESSIONS ... .121 I THE VOYAGE AND THE PEOPLE . ,123 II A FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE CITIES . .140 III THE HOME STATION . .147 IV SUGAR . 154 vii viii CONTENTS V PAGE OUT WEST . .161 VI THE BUSHRANGER 168 VII "FATHER OF THE " COLONY . .175 VIII BARREN JACK DAM. ; 182 IX DAIRYING. .... 189 X THE SHEEP SHEARING ... CONTENTS XI PAUE MILDURA .... 202 XII TASMANIA 209 XIII ORCHARDING 216 XIV PORT ARTHUR 223 XV WHEAT .... 230 XVI VINEYARDS x CONTENTS XVII PAGE GREEN PASTURES 250 XVIII TIMBER XIX KALGOORLIE 263 APPENDIX IRRIGATION IN VICTORIA . 271 ILLUSTRATIONS VIEW PROM THE HILLS NEAR ADELAIDE . Frontispiece PACING PAGE THE BOAT ON THE LAKE 16 THE CHALET AT BAY VIEW 18 SURF-BATHING 20 A COASTAL ROAD 64 JAMBEROO 66 PURRUMBEETE 76 A VICTORIAN BEAUTY SPOT 86 PORT ARTHUR AS IT WAS 102 AN UNWONTED SIGHT 104 TREE-FELLING 106 MERINOES 178 THE HILLSIDE TOWNSHIP 186 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE DAM 188 THE VALLEY TO BE SUBMERGED 190 SHEARING 196 xii ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAQ1 WOOL-CLASSING 198 WOOL TEAMS ON THE ROAD 200 A WOOL STORE 202 AN IRRIGATION CHANNEL 204 AN OECHAEDIST'S HOUSE ON AN IEEIQATION CHANNEL . 206 ' A HOUSE IN AN IRRIGATION DISTRICT . 208 THE SAME HOUSE A YEAR LATER 210 AN IRRIGATED ORCHARD 212 MILDURA SULTANAS 214 DERWENT RIVER, TASMANIA .216 APPLE-PICKING IN TASMANIA ...... 218 CONVICT FETTERS 228 THE GOVERNOR'S HOUSE 230 A VINEYARD NEAR ADELAIDE 246 A FARM NEAR DORRIGO, N.S.W 252 A DAIRY HERD IN THE NORTH COAST DISTRICT, N.S.W. 254 For kind permission to include certain illustrations in this volume, the author acknowledges the courtesy of Messrs. Merry & Co., Sydney, for the photograph entitled "Tree-Felling "; Mr. Beattie, Hobart, for the Tasmanian photographs; and the States Governments and private friends for a number of the other photographs. PART I RECOLLECTIONS IN the late summer of 1909 I went out to Australia as Special Commissioner of the Daily Mail, to go through the six States of the Commonwealth and write about what I saw there. Most of the chapters in the second part of this book were published in that journal, to the proprietors of which I am indebted for permission to print them here. IT is now nearly over a year since I returned from Australia, and it is possible, as it was not when 1 wrote the second part of this book, to look back upon my journeyings and sojournings in that country as one experience. And I find, as I look back, that that experience was one of pleasure, and that my five months in Australia have set a mark on my life that few other periods of travel have done. I know that I was often very uncomfortably hot, but my after-impression is not one of discomfort. I only remember that the sun shines in Australia, and that I have not seen as much of it as I could wish since I re- turned to England. I know that, sometimes, travelling through mile after mile of monotonous country, without a sign of human occupation, I often longed for just one glimpse of a church tower, or a little hedged-in field, or a cottage garden, or a deep-bosomed English wood for the amenities of an old and long-settled country. But I now only remember the strange, haunting charm of the free, vast, silent spaces of the Bush, 4 UKCOLLECTIONS the blue sea, the white sands, the deep purple distances shimmering in the heat-haze. I know that towards the end of my visit I was longing to find myself at home again, where my life is set, and where I belong. But now that I have been back for nearly a year and taken another long journey to another new country in the meantime, I think of the many friends I made in Australia and wish 1 could walk in again amongst them in some place which would be as familiar to me as any I know in England. They have that faculty of making you at home in Australia, and there are many places there I picture them so vividly that it is difficult to think of as beyond the distance for a week- end visit I know now that I am indebted for the colour of my impressions of Australia, for the sheer, sunny pleasure of them, to the people I met there. I believe that if I had gone about the country as one goes about a European country, staying in hotels, perhaps never meet- ing anybody to talk to who makes any impression upon one's memory, and not missing human companionship because of the surround- ing beauty and interest, I should have come away with the sense of a somewhat interesting but over-lengthy task performed, and of great relief that it was at last over. I should have RECOLLECTIONS 5 been glad that I had seen Australia, and what was doing there, but should also have felt that a month in Italy or Spain would have given me more to store in my memory. For although I did find great interest at the time in all the pastoral and agricultural and other pursuits " " which I set out to see, yet the land is not " one of my subjects," either at home or abroad, and I do not find that my recollections of Australia are greatly concerned with the main object of my visit. That is why I am leaving most of the following articles, greatly compressed as they were out of a mass of available material, in the form in which they were written, instead of expanding them into a book, which any fairly experienced, globe-trotting journalist who had seen less than half of what I have seen of Australia, could write better than I could, and any well-educated Australian with a ready pen better than he could. The chapters are quite inadequate as a finished picture of Australia, wide as is the field they cover. They are and little more but I believe that impressions ; a visitor to an unfamiliar country is better employed in recording his impressions which have some value, for the very reason that it is unfamiliar to him and he sees it in a light that is denied to its inhabitants than in setting him- self down to translate his short experiences into 6 RECOLLECTIONS those of one who has had a long familiarity with all sides of his subject. I find, therefore, that, concerning Australia, I have nothing of any value to add to what I have already written, but concerning the Australians I could write another book as long as this. Australians are commonly re- ported to possess some faults to balance their obvious virtues, but I can unashamedly confess myself blind to them. After my experience I can see only the virtues. It is just possible that I may have been the victim of a gigantic conspiracy. The thousand or so inhabitants of the country whom I met in the course of my travels may have got together " while I was on the way out, and said : Now, this person is coming here to write about us, and for our own sakes we had better give him the time of his life.