‘The Valley of Lagoons’

Evening Star, Issue 22535, 31 December 1936, Page 2

‘The Valley of Lagoons’

A Saga of Australia’s Pioneers By A. E. YARRA. (AUTHOR OF ‘ THE VANISHING HORSEMEN,’ ETC.) (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.) CHAPTER 11.

SILVER RIVER. The schooner Blackhoy sailed out of Port Jackson on her maiden voyage with a fair wind, the deep blue rollers of the Pacific Ocean thrusting her torward on her venture, and a sky pouring showers of golden sunlight down on her as though in blessing for Dick handled the ship on the first voyage. He uttered prophecies of boiling and blistering for hmselfif the tight little vessel was not to be the best seaboat, the fastest sailer, and the easiest craft to handle that ever dipped her nose in a Pacific swell. Lieutenant Blair, the naval, man, paced the deck, with Dick limping on his mahogany leg beside him. He smiled, but when he. had seen Blackhoy round the high, green , h^ c ‘ land at Silver River, entrance m halt* gale, thread the white maze of broken water amongst the reefs, go bounding over the deadly bar at the mouthof the stream, ’to be brought to in the calm water of the estuary, he turned and smiled on Dick, and said; ~ “Bravo, skipper! The Navy could do no better!” O’Hegarty and Kramm, leaning over the rail' forward, were scanning the scene about them, with eager eyes. Here was to them a new world, vast, empty, where unheard-of millions ot acres of rich land waited for the herdmastehs, the ploughman, and orimardists to turn it into a Garden of Men, and their hearts beat more quickly as they drank in the prospect. A mile wide at the entrance, the noble spread of Silver River was, as they knew, a perfect-waterway for ships into a land of promise, rising in the mountain range and fed by clear streams from rocky gorges and green valleys until it broadened and divided into two big rivers, surrounding a chain of green, mangrove-fringed islands, each of them a natural sheep or cattle station, farm, orchard, or fishing headquarters needing no fences to guard the owner’s stock when he should take possession. From' the dense brush at the water s edge to the top of the range that rolled away inland to the westward, the fragrant forests were rich with the giant red cedar trees for which ships were sailing to the new land from the ports of the world; rosewood and turpentine, ash, oak and gum, kurrajong and native plum, tulip and sycamore, daphne laurel and kauri towering like giants in Lilliputia above the brush; almost priceless to tho wave of free colonists 1 that was sweeping out over the new home of the British race, clamouring for materials with which to build and beautify their homes and their business premises. And ns fast as the timber was cut there would be rich lands for the farmers, and after the farmers would come the townsmen. . The valleys and hills back from the river held, millions of acres of grazing lands, aching for vast flocks and herds to eat down the luscious grasses. The ranges almost certainly held valuable minerals.

As John Blair, the English naval officer, pointed out, here was a great unknown, peopled by a few scanty tribes of naked savages, wandering after the game, ignorant of even the crudest beginnings of agriculture, and less than a score of ex-convicts living in rude slab huts on the river bank, growing a few vegetables, felling nothing but the red cedar giants that grew close >to the water’s edge, pit-sawing them into sizes that could be handled, and floating them, as rafts, down the river, where they were secured by chains pntil a rare ship should call to take them away. It was an awe-inspiring thing for the three men leaning over the rail forward, with the figure-head of a black savage carved in wood by a master hand, leading them up this mighty river to start a new outpost of,civilisation. Just inside the estuary, as they looker' about them, the Blackboy party saw a big tribe of naked aboriginals beckoning to them with every show of friendship from the sand dunes on the north shore, but Blair advised against landing. There

was treachery to fear, he said, and little to gain, as the country about the mouth of 'the river had nothing to olfer the They wanted a suitable depot in the heart of the cedar country. Here were only sandy hillocks, myall scrub, and fringes of mangrove. ■ , So the Blackhoy threaded the channel between the islands for three days until the party saw a natural wharf of green turf, with four fathoms of water at low tide, on the north bank. They tied up the schooner to the trees, ran out a gangway ladder, and sent a party ashore to explore. The forest was an Eldorado of red cedar. A clear stream ran down from the blue hills to the river. A natural clearing provided pasture for the horses and cattle that were stalled on the deck of the schooner and observation of anybody approaching the depot. At sunset, as Kramm and Eric returned to the schooner to report that spot was ideal for their purpose, a sound of rowlocks was heard up the river. Presently a whale boat, manned by five men, came into view round the bend. “Ahoy, there, the schooner!” hailed a voice from the boat. “Ahoy! the whale boat!” bellowed Captain Dick. “ We wants to come aboard, guv’nor. Wc be friendly loike, cuttin’ cedar aways up the river, an’ if so be ye was after selling’ stores an’ loadin’ timber for southern ports, well, we doant see as we can’t do business wi’ ye. We be here more’n half a year, an’ there’s a mite o’ good red logs awaitin’!” “ Come aboard, one o’ ye, an’ no more, and let’s see the cut o’ ye,” bellowed tho captain. The boat was promptly and skilfully pulled alongside and held there by four powerful fellows burned almost black in the sun, with great corded muscles showing in their bare arms and necks. The mark of bard and. steadfast labour was on their faces. The hope of and friendship shone in their eyes. The fifth, a fine upstanding man of 35 or so, he who had spoken from the whale boat, climbed up the Jacob’s ladder. He touched his forelock as he stepped on to the deck. He had a powerful frame, a fearless grey eye, and a hard-bitten, though engaging grin. “ Name o’ Blake,” he said, as Dick Galloway and the others looked him over. “ I be s'kipper o’ the party, I be. We be all honest men and hard workers, though we be all lags, every last one of us. Seven year men. Poachin’ a hare or two, selling a pheasant or eatin’ partridges from Squire’s coverts it was as done it for me. An’ the rest be likewise. Jerry, there, in tho bow, he be a forester an’ a danged good one, from Lancashire, as was sent out for seven year for scraggin’ a young squire as interfered with his darter. Never croaked the young , but ’twasn’t Jerry’s fault. They clubbed him afore the job was done, Captain. But Jerry be as honest as the sun, he be, an’ as harmless as a kitten. His darter bo the one that turned him back from sailin’ home an’ finishing the job, she be. A good lass, but beguiled, like, wi’ fine words from a gay young wastrel. She be cornin' out soon to live wi’ Jerry, an’ help him make his fortune. “ An’ there be Silas, the stroke. A woodworker, he be, as can turn out a houseful o’ slap-up furniture from the right kind o’ timber—red cedar the same as we be cuttin’ up tho river, Captain. Jined the navy, he did, when his lass turned her back on him, an’ deserted, an’ they sept him out for seven year when they ketched him in the Blue Anchor Tavern, fightin’ drunk, lambastin’ three men from his ship as tried to take him aboard in irons. Near dead they was, and had to bo carried aboard an! put in the sick bay from what Silas did to ’em, so they did. But Silas> be a good man, and the lass be cornin’ out to him wheu us ’as made our pile, Captain.” “And who are the other two?” asked Lieut. Blair, crisply. “ T’other two’s William and Samuel,” said Blake. “ William were a sojer as smacked his sergeant on the

head wi’ a musket butt, when he didn’t like his talk, an’ Samuel scragged tho corporal as tried to down William wi’ a bayonet —an’ it was seven year for both. Honest men we be, an’ no thieves or murderers —good British men as can see a fine thing here in the colony if so be we stick it out. Papers is all in order, captain.’ Blake fished up from the inside of his coarse shirt a clean red handkerchief, and Unwinding it, presented a number of papers to Captain Dick, who scanned them closely, and handed them to his partners, who nodded, satisfied. So the other five were invited to come aboard and be inspected. There were, half a dozen cargoes of timber waiting for the schooner, they said. Blake offered to obtain the help of a clan of blackfellows to assist with the loading. Ho could manage the dialect. We would arrange for the blacks to help with'establishing a depot for the Blackhoy party. Blake was as good as his word, too. At dawn on the morrow a rather fear-some-looking crowd of naked blackfellows, their women and children and a horde of dogs, appeared as by magic and set up a tremendous chatter on the bank above the schooner. The men carried bunches of spears. Tho women were loaded with camp gear, while the other children lugged little black babies on their hips. Blake translated the pandemonium as an offer, first to procure sheets of bark for the building of huts, and then to help with the unloading of the schooner. In payment they asked for fish hooks and axes. Karl Kramm, the storekeeper of the party, had invested in a supply of such commodities, with his natural foresight. When, as an earnest of further reward, he presented tho bearded elder of the clan with an American axe that worthy first danced in joy, clearing a ring amongst his fellows .by swinging the tool as a battle axe around his bead, and then jabbered excitedly to the lingo-speaking cedar-gctter, who translated to Kramm. It appeared that the loader was so delighted with the present (he had been trying for months to steal such an axe from the cedar camps) that he offered to find for each member of the Blackboy party, immediately, a temporary wjfe from amongst the women of the tribe. Within limits the members of tho party were invited to look over the dusky ladies and take their pick. This magnificent offer was received in various ways. . Kramm swore volubly in German that ho had a frau, a beautiful, white, Christian, sweet-smelling one who bathed every day, and he needed no greasy, stinking nigger woman. With robust German curses he instructed Blake to make this clear. Blake waited for tho others to speak before complying. Eric Strong, as befitted a young and newly-married member of tho church, blushed, dropped his glance from a plump young oliocolate-colourod full-breasted and bright of eye, who gazed straight at him from a position amongst the women and children, slightly to the rear. Ho shook his head and held his peace. Captain Dick’s roar of laughter was like a cool southerly buster in hot December. He slapped his thigh, poked Eric in the ribs, fetched tho bearded older a resounding smack on the back, and vowed that he’d like to know how the niggers had discovered that a sailor was supposed to have a wife in every port. Boil and blister him if he wouldn’t. Blair, the naval officer, smiled frostily and said;— v “ This is a business venture, not a matrimonial one, as far as it concerns me.” O’Hegarty’s reply was typical of the man. He removed his hat with a sweeping bow to the leader, and the black gins, young and old, clustered behind him. “Faith,” he smiled, and Ids blue eyes twinkled merrily at a young woman whoso sole adornment was a pet opossum, carried on her head, “ tell the ould gentleman I would be delighted to avail myself of his generosity, and that I see amongst his people some charming young wpmen. His Holiness the Pope forbids temporary marriages. But as one gentleman to another (you might mention that the O’Hegartys were elders of their tribe) I appreciate the honour." Point out that bis Reverence Father O’Toole would collapse on the altar steps if he should see a dusky bride, dressed in a broad grin and a couple of seashell hair combs, being led up the aisle on the arm of my future father-in-law, who was wearing nothing but a long black beard and a bone through.his nose. Make it clear that I am not ready for marriage for a year or two until I have made my pile.” Blake was hardly so explicit. He scratched his head, looked at each of the white men in turn, made a swift downward gesture of dissent with his hand to the savage leader, and said; “Baal Budgery ” (no good)._ The vigorous manner in which he shook his head would have made his meaning clear, even if the blacks had not understood his words. The tribe, as one man, laughed aloud, showing white teeth and black and white eyes in their delight at this gesture of real friendship on the part of the white men. They turned eagerly to their task of earning more axes. The big, dignified leader, whom O’Hegarty chistened Absolam, led them into the bush, where all and sundry —men, women, boys, and girls—using axes of sharp stone flakes fastened to handles of wood by the dried sinews of animals, removed great strips of bark from the trees, carried them to the river bank, and, holding them over a fire, straightened them into flat sheets, waterproof and windproof. So the venturers came to Silver River, and their first temporary depot of bark and poles was built and the stores and tools and firearms stowed in it. Half a dozen horses, including the black mare, were taken out of the ■ship and secured in a yard of poles on the river side of the clearing. The schooner was loaded with cedar. Letters were written and farewells said, and the Blackhoy sailed down the river again, bound for Sydney Town, leaving behind her a stout whaleboat and three intrepid white men to found a settlement that was to grow into a famous city. When the Blackhoy returned to Silver River she bad in her hold a team of working bullocks to draw cedar to the bank for loading. In her cabin were a score of sheepmen and cattlemen, seeking new pastures for their stock. These explored the country, promptly selected stations, and returned south to bring their flocks and herds overland or to charter ships. Blake rode with ono of them over the ranges, and found for his employer a route by which he could travel his stock to his new leases. They called it Blake’s Line, and it was destined to become a great highway across the mountain to the Big Plateau. Before a year had passed tho bullock teams had brought over Blake’s Lino the first load of wool from the big runs in the south-west, to be shipped in the Blackhoy to Sydney Town.

In two years transportation of convicts from England had ceased, and in the place of these unhappy beings came hearty, hopeful, free men and°women swarming on (ho immigrant ships to the new land of the sunny south.

Kramm, the Gorman, had established a wharf and store, a wool depot for the squatters. Blair, with Eric Strong as partner, had surveyed for the Government many big leases for incoming sheep and cattlemen. Between the river and the ranges there were 300 settlers. The whaleboats of the cedar-getters had been augmented by rowing boats and sailing cutters that plied up and down the river with stores and passengers, connecting with the ships from Sydney. Many of the islands had been taken up by settlers. Ships came from New Zealand and other ports to load timber. Parties of horsemen travelling from the Tableland were making Silver River their port of connection -with the sailing ships and steamers for Sydney Town. Lieutenant Blair, Karl Kramm, and Eric Strong were preparing to bring their wives, the first white women, to Silver River. Kramm built his gabled house, with assigned convict labour from Sydney Town, of stout timber, pit-sawn, with a roof of hardwood shingles, behind his wharf and store. Blair and Strong engaged a party to quarry stone down the river and raft it up to the Elbow, there to be built into a pair of substantial cottages, side by side, on a green, sloping bank above flood mark, facing a wide, dancing river, open to the south-east breeze which tempered the hot climate in summer. Margaret Strong made several voyages up from Sydney Town in the Blackboy, whose Norwegian skipper had his wife on board, and her visits were landmarks in the progress of the settlement. She organised concerts for them, mended their clothes, sang to them, arranged church services, with Blair as leader; visited Blake and his party, and was given the name of the Grey Dove ” for her gentleness. In return they took her up and down the river in a cutter, taught her to ride the black mare, enthroned her where she could watch the cedar-cutters at work; loaded her cabin with wild flowers and blossoms from the tropical trees ; guarded her like a queen while she was ashore, and gathered on the bank of the river to give her three ringing cheers as the Blackboy carried her away out of their lives for another few months, after they had assured her that she sould have the finest house and garden, hen yard and dairy, orchard and stables in New South Wales when she was ready to live at Silver River. It was O’Hegarty who said it, but the chorus of “ Hear, hears!” made it clear that he was putting their thoughts into words for them. (To be continued.)