difiiculty m making a beautiful garden in a very few
years. Pine -apples and plantains seem the principal
fruits here ; the former are delicious, the latter very poor,
and requiring to be improved by cultivation. The fruit
of the passion-flower is also abundant and very nice, par-
ticularly m hot weather, when its slight acid flavour is
refreshing.
Soon after our arrival here the races began. The
Governor and Lady Bowen took us to see them. It was
the first time the racecourse had been used, and great
excitement prevailed as to how the races would go off,
particularly as the rain of the few previous days had
considerably altered the state of the ground. The
course is about three miles from the town, the latter
part of the way through bush. It seemed as if by
another year it might be very pretty ; but the ground
in the centre required clearing, as there the trees
were still so numerous, that only glimpses of the horses
going round could he obtained. The Grand Stand was
quite in the rough, and the zinc roof made it very
hot ; but there were certainly some good races and fine
horses.
An Anglo-Saxon crowd never, I think, strikes one as
particularly picturesque or interesting, and a Colonial
74 BRISBANE,
Anglo-Saxon crowd is even less so than one at home.
A greater contrast could hardly be imagined than be-
tween the appearance of those composing a crowd here,
and in India, where the brightness of colour and variety
of costume make any assemblage of people, of whatever
class, so attractive a sight.
The last day was devoted to ' Corinthian Races,' at
which the company was much more select than on the
previous days. The riders were mostly gentlemen, Sir
George Bowen being particularly fortunate m having,
among his ministers and immediate friends, several who
were really such, not only by virtue of land and wool.
One couldn't help feeling that it must be a good thing
for ' young Australia ' to see English gentlemen excelling
in all manly sports and exercises, and at the same time
speaking and behaving like gentlemen. The colonial
youth seem to be under the impression that refinement
of manners and of speech must of necessity be accom-
panied by effeminacy and dandyism. There were, how-
ever, in and near Brisbane, quite enough young English-
men, of good birth and education, to show the contrary
to be the case.
We had many extremely pleasant rides while here.
Lady B. having the talent, possessed so frequently by
foreigners, but so rarely by English people, of making
meetings between friends and neighbours very agreeable
without any formality, and with simple arrangements.
She had established periodical riding-parties in this way,
going out twelve or fifteen miles to some pretty place,
or to where there was good riding-ground, there tying
up the horses for an hour or so, lunching off just what
ENNOGGERA. 75
a couple of orderlies could carry in their holsters, and
riding back in the evening. I have seldom enjoyed any-
thing more than these rides in this perfect climate ; and
there is no way so good for seeing the country, wliich in
some parts is very fine. The views from the top of one
high hill, called ' Single-Tree Hill,' are extensive, and,
as I have said before, much more varied, and brighter,
through the mixture of tropical with other vegetation,
than in the other colonies.
The Governor took us one day to Ennoggera, where
a reservoir for supplying the town with water was being
made. It is about eight miles off, through very pretty
' bush ' and ' scrub,' and will, when completed, have more
the appearance of a mountain lake than of one artificially
constructed. The ground forms a natural basin, and only
one dam is required, so that while standing on this, no-
thing is seen but sloping ground, covered with bush and
scrub to the water's edge, and with hills rising behind.
There was only the water from a small creek runnmg
through the basm when we saw it, and some tune would
have to pass before the reservoir was completed ; as,
after the ground has been cleared, every atom of wood
and stump must be burnt, to prevent the water from
being tainted.
Once or twice Sir George took his dogs out with us,
hoping to find some kangaroo ; but they have grown
shy, bury themselves in the thick bush, and are rarely
seen, except in unfrequented places. The birds also
shun those parts of the bush near a road ; though, if
one wanders off into the bye-paths and solitary places,
flocks of them, plumed in all manner of brilhant coloims,
76 BRISBANE.
fly screaming around. The gay plumage is, however,
hardly visible while the birds are in flight, except when
a flock of them, wheeling in the sunsliine, produces
the efiect of a flash of rosy light. Some of the parrots,
the commonest birds about here, are very beautiful ; but
we were much disappointed in the cockatoos. Their flight
is slow and heavy — a good deal like that of an owl —
and they do not look half so handsome in their wild
state as they do on a perch in captivity. There is a
curious bird, called the ' whip-bird,' constantly heard,
but very rarely seen, in the scrubs near Brisbane. It
was some time before we could beheve that the cry of
this bird was not the cracking of a carter's whip, so
exact is the resemblance.
One day we went a few miles from the town to see
the garden and vineyards of a very old settler. He him-
self was out ; but his quaint old wife, intelligent son, and
depressed-looking daughter, took us over the garden, in
which, besides a great deal of other fruit, were splendid
orange-trees in full bloom and bearing, very fine loquots,
and acres of vines. Here we also saw for the first time
Australian bees, which might be mistaken for flies, they
are so small. They have no sting, build their combs in
a hollow stump, and make their cells roimd. The honey
is very sweet, and the wax is brown. The old woman
took us into the house, and showed an harmonium with
great pride, wliich she asked me ' to perform upon,' and
on my begging to be excused, set her daughter to
play, while we descended to the cellar to taste wine,
some of which was very good, and some very bad. They
had been here for fourteen years, and when they first
THE BELGRAVIA OF BRISBANE. 77
settled ' there wasn't a house nor a woman between them
and Brisbane/ now it is a straggling suburb the whole
way.
The houses in this part of Australia are complete
' bungalows,' with large and numerous M^indows opening
on to wide verandahs, the latter well sheltered from the
sun. With this style of architecture, it needed not the
multitude and viciousness of the mosquitoes to show us
that we had arrived in a latitude closely bordering on,
although not actually within, the tropics. Some of the
houses, standing on rising ground overlooking the river,
have lovely views. The river winds in an extraordinary
way. From Brisbane to Ipswich it is forty-seven miles
by river, and only twenty by the road. One can imagine
the puzzle such continual crossing and recrossing of the
same river must have been to the original explorers, and
how easy it was for them at first to describe a coimtry as
being well watered, v/hich on more extended explorations
they found to be very much the reverse. A bridge over
the river had been opened by the Governor a short time
before our arrival ; though at first only built of wood, it
was in time to be an ' iron- girder ' bridge. It is 152
feet longer than London Bridge. On the other side are
South Brisbane and Kangaroo Point. The latter is a
peninsula, formed by the windings of the river. It is
looked upon as the Belgravia of Brisbane, and we were
told that the dwellers there were very exclusive and
particular in the choice of their associates.
We were agreeably surprised here to see how very
well Sunday was kept. In the afternoon the Botanical
Gardens were crowded with smartly-dressed, but very
78 BRISBANE.
respectable-looking, well-behaved people, evidently en-
joying themselves thoroughly, though quietly. In the
evening, too, when going to, and returning from, church,
there was no noise in the streets ; and, though almost
every other house is a public-house, they also were per-
fectly quiet ; and, in spite of the fearful accounts given
of the prevalence of drunkenness among the lower orders,
we saw very rare instances of it in Brisbane.
The order in which everybody is kept, to prevent
encroaching on the Sunday holiday, claimed by all ser-
vants, is a marvel of discipline. This was, to a certain
extent, the same in Sydney. We there found one
morning, on returning from church, a paper, stuck in a
conspicuous position m one of the picture-frames, con-
taining a gentle hint, that it would be much to the
satisfaction of all parties concerned in the preparation
of the meal, if we would dine at one o'clock instead
of seven o'clock. But in Brisbane the servants appear
to be still more particular. I was summoned the first
Sunday of our stay to a mysterious interview with our
landlady. She had sent to me, she said, because she
wished to know whether we should object to having
the tea-things on the table at dinner : ' for the cooks,
they won't cook dinner on Sunday sinless you call it
tea ; and I 'm sure you 've no idea what a trouble ser-
vants are in this country : we can't make 'em do any-
thing ; and my husband he 's a College man, and I 'm
sure I've ahvays been a lady!' So we called our meal
tea ; but, barring the kettle and the tea-pot, it was a
very good dinner.
Either walking or driving in the streets here at
VOTING SUPPLIES, 79
night is a matter of difficulty, not to say danger. In
walking it requires some practice to take five steps con-
secutively without stumbling. The streets have some-
times one oil-lamp at either end, but of these the mten-
tion is far in advance of the performance. More often
there is no light at all, and the roads are full of holes,
ruts, and quagmires, to say nothing of heaps of rubbish
and broken brick-bats, just where one would least
expect to find anything of the sort. Altogether it is
requisite to learn the topography of the place pretty well,
before risking one's neck, or at any rate one's nose, by
walking about in the dark.
We devoted one morning to the Legislature of the
Colony, attending first the debates in the House of
Assembly, and afterwards a sitting of the Legislative
Council. There was nothing very interesting going on.
In the Assembly they were voting supplies, which caused
some amusing discussions among the ' squatter ' members,
who, of course, each wished to have all the money laid
out upon his one particular bit of road. These gentlemen
were certainly neither parliamentary in their language
nor choice in their expressions. In the Legislative
Council there was more dignity, but it was the ' dignity
of dulness.' To see the way in wliich our Parliament is
imitated in the Colonies rather reminds one of children
playing at 'bemg grown up.'
After staying ten days at Brisbane we left for a short
visit to the Darling Downs, considered, I beheve, the
finest pastoral country in the whole of Australia. In the
other colonies three, three and a half, or four, acres, are
generally reckoned as the average quantity of grass re-
80 BRISBANE.
quired for the support of every sheep, but here two and
a-half is the usual allowance.
We had hired a small drag, very light and roomy,
and a pair of good horses to take us and our baggage ;
and, on making trial of them previous to our departure,
were well satisfied with both. But when the day on
which we were to leave arrived, we found that neither
the driver, nor the carriage, nor the horses, were the
same as those we had engaged. The driver was a
surly fellow, who seemed to think he was conferring a
great favour by taking us at all. The carriage was a
heavy, open fly, with little room for our baggage. The
horses, too, were heavy cart-horse-looking animals, not
promising at all well for long days' journeys over bad
roads. The voluble Irish stable-keeper, from whom we
had hired them, declared that it was not his fault that
we did not have the others ; and, after the fashion of
promise-breakers, assured us that what he had sent was
in every way superior to what we wished to have, &c.
&c. ; to which, though we could by no means agree, we
were obliged to submit ; and packing ourselves in, and
Lucien and the portmanteaux on the box, as well as we
could, we proceeded to Ipswich. There is nothmg note-
worthy on the way, unless the Lunatic Asylum, a sombre-
looking, square buildmg, about thirteen miles from Bris-
bane, may be thought so. We were nearly five hours
accomplishing this twenty miles, which, considermg that
it is a very good road, did not raise our opmion of our
Irish friend nor of the horses that had fallen to our
lot.
The next day we sent on the carriage and horses by
bigg's camp. 81
an early train to Bigg's Camp, and followed later. This
is the only piece of railroad yet opened in Queensland.
The gauge is but three foot, as they could not with
anything wider have managed the sharp curves which
frequently occur in the course of the twenty-one miles.
The gradients in some places are very steep, and look
still steeper from the narrowness of the line. The car-
riages take three persons abreast, but, to enable them to
do so, are made to project considerably on either side
of the wheels ; so that, in going round some of the
sharpest curves, one can see easily into the next carriage
but one. An old woman in our carriage was very proud
of this little bit of railroad : ' she had said, thirteen
years ago, that Ipswich was a progressive place ; and it
is a progressive place — why, look at this 'ere railway !'
She had lived in London all her life till she emigrated,
but that city seemed to have shrunk in the same pro-
portion as Ipswich had grown, in her mental vision.
Especially did she seem to despise it when she learnt
that, though I really had been in London, I could not
particularly recall ' the house next the Dissenting chapel
in the Edge ware Road.'
On arriving at Bigg's Camp we drove sixteen miles
through most uninteresting ' bush ' to Gatton. The air
was made detestable the whole way by the smell of
carrion. Water had been, and still was, so scarce, that
the cattle were dying in numbers ; and having, poor
things ! come to the track, as being the most likely means
of arriving at a place where they would obtain some,
had died by the roadside, and now poisoned the whole
atmosphere.
G
82 BRISBANE.
It was late before we arrived at Gatton, but the
latter part of the way we had been amused by watching
several sets of drovers and carriers making up their
camps for the night. The moon was bright, and very
picturesque the people looked by her light and that
of the camp-fires, making up their beds or cookmg their
suppers, with the unharnessed oxen or horses grouped
around. They seemed so comfortable that we quite
longed to join them, instead of joggmg along in our
slow vehicle. We were destined to spend the night in
a very ' lath-and-plaster ' inn, in which sleep became im-
possible from opossums running about the roof all night
long.
The next day we left Gatton early, expecting to
arrive at Toowoomba, twenty-five miles off", by about
2 P.M. Our wretched horses, however, found the car-
riage heavier to drag through bush and up steep hills
than even over the bad roads at Brisbane, though the
plausible stable-keeper assured us that they were used
to the work. When we arrived at the Main Range (a
mountain-pass of four or five miles, with some really
steep ' pitches ' on it, and a considerable incline the whole
way), our case seemed hopeless. At the top of the first
steep place we came to a stand-still. And there we
stood ; the worst of the horses looking the very im-
personation of obstinacy as he hugged the pole, with eyes
half shut, his head in the air, and his ears laid back.
We now discovered that the horses were the property of
the driver ; consequently, he did not choose to give the
flogging, which was the proper way to treat such an
animal, but left us, and went off" to see if he could meet
A TEAM OF BULLOCKS. 83
a dray coming down the hill, from which we might
borrow a pair of leaders.
The heat of the sun was intense as we waited here
till our coachma^lf returned, announcing the approach of
an empty dray, drawn by a team of eighteen bullocks,
from which two were to be detached to help us on our
way. The team was guided by a man and a woman.
The speech of the former seemed intelligible to none save
himself and the bullocks ; but the latter was incessantly
shouting, talking, and swearing. She addressed each one
of the team by its own particular name, so that by the
time we arrived at the top I had become well acquainted
with all of them. It was the woman who undertook the
entire management of our affairs. My father said he
should walk up, as being quicker ; I said I should not, as
being hotter. Seeing me still seated, she exclaimed, —
' You gal there, had best come out.'
'Why?'
' Oh, my ! there 's gy^eat danger. Bullocks ain't like
horses, yer know ! '
' No : but I don't think they '11 upset me. Will
they ?'
' Noo : p'raps not upset yer ; but yer might be jolted
out, yer know.'
I assured her I would do my best to hold on, and
away we went, sidhng along, and slowly and deliberately
overcoming the rough obstructions that lay in our road.
When the worst was over, the coachman was of opinion
that the horses could manage the rest of the way by
themselves. They went fairly as long as the road was
level ; but at the first rise our old friend stopped short,
84 BRISBANE.
and began gibbing, and no exertions on the parts of
Lncien and the coachman would induce him to move
forward. So we had to wait till the dray reappeared,
and beg renewed assistance from the^^ld woman, who
seemed to think that we deserved our fate. Wlien at
last we reached the top, where my father had been for
some time, she began reproaching him for his hard-
heartedness in leaving me to face the perils alone, saying,
' Yer didn't know what might happen.' And when he
replied that he had expected her to take care of me, she
exclaimed, ' By Garge, I wouldn't like to be answerable
for her!' and evidently considered we had done great
things in getting up at all.
85
CHAPTER VII.
WESTBROOK.
Sunset was approaching when we arrived at Too-
woomba, but we were assured that from thence the
road was good, and that there would be no difficulty in
reaching our destination, ten miles off, before midnight ;
and our being rather late would not signify, as there was
a good moon. So the horses were baited, we had some
tea, and then set off again for Westbrook. We soon
lost our way, but fortunately met a man, more civil than
sober, who, after wandering about a field in a vague kind
of way for some time, found a particular gate. From
this point he took his bearings, and put us into a bush-
track, which ultimately brought us to our destination.
We had been eleven hours doing thirty-five miles.
Westbrook is a valuable station, belonging to a gentle-
man whose acquaintance we had made at Sydney. His
parliamentary duties kept him in Brisbane, but his ma-
nager was at home, and, like all the other ' squatters '
we met with, gave us a most hospitable welcome. We
spent a couple of days here very pleasantly, learning the
mysteries of a squatter's life. The houses are comfortable
— perfect ' bungalows,' with low, sloping roofs, extending
86 WESTBROOK.
over the wide verandahs, on to which all the rooms open.
The head station is in fact the ' home-farm/ and is sur-
rounded by out-buildings. One of these is devoted to
the accommodation of any persons, squatters, managers,
head-men, or, in short, any travellers, who, without being
known to the propiietor of the station, claim hospitality
and shelter for themselves and their beasts, simply and
solely on the plea of being wanderers.
The day after our amval we rode over to Gowrie,
the nearest station, about eight miles off, which is here
looked upon as next door. Fifteen or twenty miles is
considered quite close ; and we heard of people, far up-
country, describing themselves as ' not so very lonely/
their nearest neighbours being only seventy miles off.
The ride over the prairie was delightful, but the
want of water was obvious. The ground, which in this
Australian spring-time, should have been brilliant with
patches of flowers and fresh young grass, was brown and
jjarched as a desert. In some parts the country is very
undulating, with tracts of ' bush ' here and there ; and
immediately round Westbrook there were low, and, fur-
ther off, high hills, covered with magnificent ' scrub.'
We saw some flocks of wild turkeys (bustard), but they
were too shy to let us approach them. I rode a horse
which had formerly belonged to one of the notorious
' bushrangers,' and still carried a bidlet in his shoidder,
received while bearing his master on some Dick-Turpin-
like adventure.
The squatters live very comfortably, though there is
a great want of servants. Not oidy are good servants
very scarce, but even the roughest and most untamed
A squatter's life. 87
of Irish require enormous wages, and will not stay more
than a few months in the same place. But no one is
surprised at the mistress of the house doing the larger
portion of the work herself, cooking a great part of the
dinner, and being ready to turn her hand to anything.
The freedom from conventionalities, and the self-con-
tained^iess of life on a station, must in many ways be
very agreeable. The squatters have any number of horses
and dogs as companions, and live in a climate where
gardening is scarcely more than leaving nature alone.
We found that here, as elsewhere, distance made no dif-
ference in the interest taken in other people's affairs, for
we heard much gossip respecting our friends and ac-
quaintances in Brisbane and Sydney. The very thoughts,
feelings, and motives, of many with whom we had been
associating, were proclaimed for our benefit ; our friends
themselves being doubtless perfectly unconscious of what
was so kindly attributed to them.
The quantity of land constituting a ' run ' is very
large. Two or two and a half acres per sheep are con-
sidered very good land ; and the sheep are reckoned, on
a 'run' of the smallest pretension, by thousands. On
many ' runs ' there are also cattle and horses, in consi-
derable numbers. And besides all this grazing land ther©
is also cultivated land, and 'bush,' or waste land; so
that, after a time, one becomes accustomed to hear people
in these districts talk as calmly of adding forty or fifty
thousand acres to their ' run,' as they wordd in England
of buying a plot of land of forty or fifty acres.
We left Westbrook for Pilton, a station about thirty
miles off. The result of following the directions of the
88 WESTBROOK.
only person we met in the course of our journey was,
that we lost our way. By the time we ought to have
arrived at Pilton, we had the satisfaction of finding our-
selves close to some telegraph-posts that we had been
particularly warned to have nothing to do with, and
which, in fact, we had kept clear of as long as we were in
the 'bush/ But when we reached the open plain we
found that, without knowing it, we had been pursuing
a path parallel to them. There was not a human creature
to be seen, no hut nor homestead. Nothing but a dreary
waste of brown prairie, crossed by the line of telegraph-
posts, as far as the eye could see in one direction, and
in the other interminable bush. There were some low,
blue liills in the distance, and we knew that amongst
them lay the Pilton valley. But we had no means of
ascertaining the track by which a carriage could cross the
various creeks, that were too narrow to be worth bridg-
ing over, and too wide to be crossed by wheels, excepting
where the banks had been gradually worn down by the
occasional passing of drays and carts. Our driver had
wandered away to seek for a human habitation, but re-
turned after a fruitless search. At length, in the far
distance, we fancied we descried a dark, moving object,
which, on being exammed through our glasses, proved to
be a bullock-dray, crawling along in the usual sleepy
manner. We hailed its appearance with joy, and waited
impatiently the return of the coachman, who had gone
to meet it, in hopes of learning our way. To return to
the right track, we had to cross ground that resembled
a petrified sea, and produced in passing over it nearly the