The present state and prospects of the Port Philip District of New South Wales

Preface

. The principal object of the writer of the following pages has been to lay before the British public an unbiassed picture of Australia Felix, both as regards its physical and social state, in order to enable them to form a judgment as to its eligibility as a field for emigration. He feels that, at a period like the present, when this subject occupies so much of public attention, and has indeed become a matter of such vital importance to England, it is peculiarly desirable that the fullest information should be afforded. In doing this, he has not attempted to conceal any disadvantages under which the colony may labour, nor has he shrunk from exposing what seem to him (whether right or wrong) the errors of the systems winch have been, or are still in force. If, in the per formance of this ungracious task, he has inad vertently made use of expressions which may be considered strong, he disclaims, once for all, while finding fault with some of their measures, the ■> 1

PREFACE.

. intention of attributing to the government, whether home or colonial, any feeling but that of zeal for the welfare of the colony. Much of what follows was written to divert the solitude of an Australian hut, and possibly, in such a situation, some things may have appeared of an importance to which they are not entitled, and have been treated of with a detail which may prove wearisome to the general reader. Nor is the author vain enough to suppose, that mixing in the same pursuits with the majority of settlers, affected by the same interests, and having in view the same ends, he has escaped those prejudices from which no class is entirely exempt. All that he can say with confidence is, that he has not knowingly either misrepresented or exaggerated. Whether he has succeeded in attaining the end which he has proposed to himself, will be best decided by his brother colonists.

Until their verdict be known, the British public must be content to take the Avork on trust, or at best to judge of its truth by the intrinsic evidence it may contain. Dublin, 15th November, 1844. CONTENTS

Chapter I. Paoe

Town and Neighbourhood of Melbourne — River Yarra — Soil of the Country In general — Division of it into four qualities — Command of Water — Climate — Hot Winds — Salubrity — Meteorological Tables — Comparison with Climate of Madeira, Rome, &c. — Productions. .... 1

Chapter VI

New Legislative Council— Exclusion of the Pastoral Interest from the Exercise of the Elective Franchise — Their Importance — Impossibility of Port Phillip's being adequately represented at Sydney— Universal desire of Separation from Sydney— Statement of the Revenue and Expenditure of Fort Phillip — First Session of Legislative Council — Its Legislation and General Demeanour — District Councils— Corporation of Melbourne , CONTENTS.

Chapter XI

Mode of Dealing with the Aborigines — Their Relations with the White Settlers — Lamentable want of Success of the Missions and Protectorate — Extract from Lord Stanley's Despatch on this Subject . . . .168 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF POET PHILLIP.

Chapter I. Town And Neighbourhood Of Melbourne

— RIVER YARRA — SOIL OF THE COUNTRY IN GENERAL — DIVISION OF IT INTO FOUR QUALITIES — COM- MAND OF WATER — CLIMATE — POT WINDS — SALUBRITY — METEOROLOGICAL TABLES — COMPARISON WITH CLIMATE OF MADEIRA, ROME, ETC. — PRO- DIFCTIONS. It is not until a man has seen the colonies of England that he can duly estimate her strength and resources, or appreciate the untiring energy of her sons, whose bloodless conquests have extended the empire of civilization to the furthest quarters of the globe. It has been said that Paris is France. But how much more noble is the boast of the Englishman, that England is not circumscribed by the walls of her capital, nor even by the four seas that gird her cliffs, hut that wherever, under her red-cross flag, her laws are observed, her institutions retained, and her memory cherished, there England does in fact exist.

That, like the banyan tree of India, she sends forth shoots through which the sap B PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS of the old tree still circulates, but which themselves presently take root, becoming in time sources of strength and nourishment to the parent stem. Nothing so forcibly struck me on my arrival at Port Phillip, in 1840, as the state of advancement in civilization already attained by the colony. I had frequently to pause in order to realize the fact, that where I saw a civilized town of considerable extent, supplied with most of the comforts and luxuries of life, there, only four years before, had been an untrodden wild ; that where I found the bustle and excitement of business, and din of trade, so short a time before, the echoes had only been awakened by the hum of insects, or the cry of the savage ; that the tame, quiet-looking teams of horses and oxen were the immediate successors of the wild dog and kangaroo, and that the substantial brick houses by which I was surrounded, had so lately super seded the rude' mi-mis* of the native.

But the wonder did not stop here ; for still more astonishing was it to see the comfortable villas, with their smiling gardens and thriving crops, in the neighbourhood of the town ; and to reflect that not only had all this been done within such a limited space of time, but that in addition to this, a territory, superior in extent to Ireland, had been explored, occupied, and, in a great measure, stocked with sheep and cattle, during this period, while roads and lines of communication had been established, not * The mi-mi. is a kind of break -weather, formed of branches of trees and bark, which the natives use instead of buildin"s of any kind. only through the different parts of the district itself, but had been connected with Sydney on the one hand, and with Adelaide on the other — each at a distance of about five hundred miles from the town of Melbourne, this by a population which, at the time I speak of, had not reached 10,000 souls, surrounded, too, by tribes of hostile natives.

That part of this rapid growth might be attributed to the proximity of the older colonies, from whence a supply of stock was obtained with com parative ease, and that too much of it could be traced to the over-stimulus of excessive speculation, were facts with which subsequent experience made me acquainted, but which did not obtrude themselves to lessen my first surprise at the progress of the infant settlement ; nor, even when I look back at this distance of time, can they destroy the feeling of admiration with which I regard the enterprise and energy of tbe men by whom these circumstances were turned to so much account. The district of Port Phillip was occupied as a permanent British settlement in the year 1836, when a few huts were put up for the accommodation of the government officers, on the spot where Melbourne now stands, — a town, the population of which, at the close of 1841, was supposed to be underrated at 9000 persons.

Melbourne is built on the banks of the river Yarra, and occupies two eminences of moderate elevation, and the valley which divides them. Both of these hills slope gradually down to the river. The town covers a space of about a mile in length, by half a mile in breadth. The westernmost of these eminences, com monly called the Western Hill, is bounded on the southwest by a declivity, which leads down to a succession of low flats, while on the south-east it slopes down to the river. The west end of the town thus occupies a corner of high ground, which rather increases in elevation for about half a mile, as it stretches to the northward. In the other direction, that is, on the river-front, there is an open valley, which, running at right angles with the river, divides the two hills which I have spoken of.

Across the valley the town extends, and also up the eastern bill. The principal street, Collm's-street, running from the western limits of the town, in a direction nearly parallel to the river, crosses the valley, and stretches up the eastern hill to its eastern limits. About a quarter of a mile further on iu this direction is a suburb called Collingwood. As all the other streets and lanes are either parallel to, or at right angles with Collin's-street, the plan of the town is perfectly regular, and simple enough to please the greatest lover of parallelograms. There is great variety in the style of architecture of the buildings which compose the town, ascending, as it does, from the frail weather-boarded tenement of the first settler, to the new court house, a substantial cut stone building, which may be taken as the extremes of a series, the mean terms of which include the baby house-looking imported wooden house, the neat four and five roomed brick cottage, the substantial store, the flashy shop, the square solid-looking bank, the plain dissenting chapel, a gloomy and, strange to say, antique looking Church of England church, built of a dark brown stone, and a Roman Catholic chapel of more pretension but less solidity.

I am sorry to add that the demon of Roman cement has doubled the Cape, and begun to revel in all the luxuriance of the Regent street school of architecture. Most of the houses are built of brick, and roofed principally, I might almost say entirely, with shingles, which are imported from Van Dieman's Land. The exceptions are a few which are roofed, some with zinc, and others with Welch slate, both of which can be imported on reasonable terms. The general appearance of the town is more that of an English country town than of any thing else to which I can compare it. The weather-boarded houses and numerous stores giving it, however, a character peculiar to itself, while the long teams of bullocks, with their wild-looking drivers, and occasionally a straggling tribe of natives, followed by a host of mangy dogs, remind you that you are not in the British isles.

There is also a deficiency in that neatness for which English country towns are generally remarkable, but which is naturally to be attributed to the circumstances of the place. The streets are alternately immoderately wide and inconveniently narrow — the former being one hun dred feet, the latter not more than thirty feet, in width : this gives the town a straggling appearance. Until very lately the streets were in so bad a state as to be absolutely dangerous, owing to the rain having been suffered to make channels for itself, some of which yawn most fearfully in the middle of the principal streets, and even where this is not the case, they give one in wet weather a lively idea of the condition of the world in its tran sition state, when it is supposed to have been the abode of the Saurian reptiles.

In consequence of this state of things many serious accidents have occurred, accompanied, in more than one instance, with loss of Use. However since the establishment of the corporation an attempt has been made to improve the streets, by making drains for the water to escape. This attempt, humble as it is, has been hailed as the beginning of a better order of things, but the original error, in laying out the streets of so great a width, will always tell disadvan tageously against the town, as the expense of forming them into roads, and keeping them in good repair, will always be nearly double what it would have been, had they been of a more moderate width, while in summer the dust is far greater than it would have been, had the surface on which it is formed been smaller. The river Yarra, which I mentioned as bounding Mel bourne on one side, is a deep, but rapid river of about forty or fifty yards wide, the banks of which are lined with gum-trees and mimosas.

There is a natural dam across it at the place where Melbourne is built, which has been rendered more effective by art. This serves to keep the water above it fresh : this water is of ex cellent quality. Up to this point the tide flows, and the river is navigable for ships of two hundred tons burden ; and many of the vessels from Van Dieman's Land, and the steam-boats from Sydney and Geelong, take in and discharge their cargoes at the wharf. The anchorage for ships of larger size is at Hobson's Bay, which is about seven miles from Melbourne by the river, though not more than four or five in a direct line. Be tween these points small steamers ply, carrying passen gers to and from Williamstown, and towing up lighters employed in discharging the cargoes of merchantmen in the bay. The Yarra is subject to heavy floods in winter and spring, but at other times presents a very uniform appearance, the volume of its stream not appa rently suffering much diminution during the drought of summer.

It is supposed to rise in the spurs of the snowy Alps to the eastward of Melbourne ; but the impracticable nature of the country in that direction has made the exact locality a matter of conjecture. The country in the neighbourhood of Melbourne is very picturesque, though without any decidedly promi nent features, the scenery being chiefly what, is charac terized by painters as woodland, and by the writers on this country as open forest. There is a good deal of it which is perfectly clear of timber ; other parts are wooded about as thickly as the open parts of an English park ; while in those most heavily timbered the trees are generally from about ten to thirty yards apart, with grass growing under them, and the ground perfectly free from brushwood of any kind, though flowering shrubs are interspersed here and there.

This is indeed the general character of the open forest-land, which occupies so large a portion of the district. Near the mouth of the river there is a belt of tea-tree scrub which borders it for a mile or two between Melbourne and the sea. On the south side of the Yarra the timber is thickest ; from thence, in a north-westerly direction, the country gradually assumes a more open character ; and at about four miles to the westward of Melbourne commence the plains, which, beginning about a mile beyond the Salt-water river, extend to the westward for forty miles. Near the Salt-water river are some beautiful situations, with just enough of timber on them for ornament and use. The distant moun tains, Mount Macedon to the northward, the Snowy Alps and the Dandenong range to the eastward and south ward, adding much to the effect on clear days.

Along the Yarra river, the Moone ponds, and also on the shores of the bay are some very beautiful views. That which from my first arrival has always struck me as the main characteristic of the country is, its remarkably civilized appearance. It is difficult when you see trees intermixed with the most graceful flowering shrubs, grouped with all the effect which a landscape gardener could desire, and growing from* a green sward, entirely free from overgrowing weeds or brushwood, not to fancy that the hand of man had been engaged in combining and arranging these elements of natural beauty. If to this be added a group of cattle resting in the shade, a rustic paling, or a winding road, you have a landscape such as our English artists delight • to pourtray. I own that before leaving England I received descriptions of the same tenor with the foregoing with considerable distrust, making allowance for the language of enthusiasm excited by novelty, and anxious to find every charm in a country which the writer had adopted as his home.

I cannot therefore expect that my descriptions should obtain more implicit credence. What I have stated is, nevertheless, perfectly true. The land throughout the district may be divided into four classes. First — Rich alluvial plots of deep brown loam, formed of decomposed trap, generally free from timber, with the exception of a few large trees. Secondly — Plains entirely free from timber, or else thinly sprinkled over with sheoaks or stunted honeysuckle-trees ; sometimes of a light reddish clay soil, mixed with sand ; in others of a brown loam, but producing every where excellent food for sheep. Thirdly — Open forest, varying in fertility, but every where producing excellent food for sheep or cattle. Fourthly — Stringy bark ranges, which are in general too closely timbered to form good sheep runs, but which afford a good change for cattle in the summer.

The soil is in general poor and stony on these ranges ; but it is, nevertheless, here that we find the greatest variety of beautiful flowers. This division does not of course pretend to accuracy. The characteristics of the three first classes, particularly the first and third, are so frequently blended into each other, that there are many tracts of country that could with equal propriety be placed in one or the other of them — still it may be of use as a rough kind of classification. A great part of the country from Geelong to the river Grange, on the way to Portland Bay, going the southern road by the lakes Colac, Poorambeet, and Caramgemite, and more to the southward still, towards Port Fairy, a tract of probably one hundred and fifty miles long, and varying from ten to thirty miles in breadth, consists of the first description.

This is admirably adapted for cattle or tillage, but not so well calculated for sheep, which on this rich soil are apt to suffer from footrot, unless very well looked after. The second division comprises the plains, which stretch from Melbourne for about forty miles to the west, where they meet the b Brisbane range ; and from the ranges to the north of the Salt-water river, (towards Mount Macedon,) to Geelong, which is as great a distance in a north and south direction, interrupted, it is true, by a belt of forest on the banks of the Wearribbee, and by Station Peak, a mountain range which cuts them nearly across. It also comprises the Mount Elephant plains, which stretch from near Geelong to the river Hopkins. Over these latter plains the middle road from Geelong to Portland runs for three days' journey ; and the northern road from Mount Emu to the Hopkins river, a distance of forty miles.

From north to south they extend from near the Pyrennees on the north to the lakes on the southward, a distance of probably more than a hundred miles. Some of the best sheep runs in the country are on these plains. Similar tracts occur on the Campaspe, and in different parts of the country ; hut I have par ticularized these in order to give some idea of their extent. The third division occupies the far greater portion of the country, and includes every variety of woodland scenery from open lawns, with a few single trees, to that which deserves the name of forest, but the whole forming excellent pasture for sheep or cattle. Through districts of this kind are scattered many alluvial flats, some of them of great extent, which belong to the first division. The stringy bark and iron bark ranges, which form the fourth division, are but limited in extent, and are scattered through different parts of the wooded districts.

They are chiefly valued as affording the best timber for fencing or building. The stringy bark, (which is a variety of the Eucalyptus,) possessing the quality of splitting straight and freely in greater perfection than any other member of the family known in the Port Phillip district, is peculiarly valuable to the settler, who thus obtains his slabs (rough planks) for building, and his posts and rails for fencing, without the trouble and expense of sawing. Next in importance to the soil of a country is its command of water. And here I am bound to say that, though not absolutely niggard, nature has not been so bountiful as in her gifts of soil and climate. There are in the Port Phillip district, but few rivers which flow all through the year, of which the Murray, with its tributaries, and the Yarra, are the principal.

There are others which flow for eight or nine months in each year, and whose beds, even in the dry seasons, contain many deep lagoons. There are many other similar lagoons (or waterholes as they are called) in creeks, which are filled occasionally by a heavy fall of rain, and retain water for two or three years without any fresh supply. Besides this, the settlers every now and then discover springs ; but with all these sources the country cannot be said to be at present plentifully watered, though were its inhabitants placed in a position to use artificial means, such as sinkiug wells and building tanks, (for the latter of which the undulations of the ground and the abundance of rain afford great facilities,) I have no doubt that on this head there would be no room for complaint. But, until the stockholders are given some interest in the land, it cannot be expected that any im provement of this kind can be made.

This absence of permanent water-courses, though far from a desirable feature in the country, is one of the causes which have tended to the rapid development of its resources ; there being few spots on the face of the globe where the nature of the surface would have permitted a handful of men to spread themselves as fearlessly, and to occupy such an extent of territoty, as they have done in Aus tralia, and which, of course, they could not have done had the deep rivers been more numerous. The climate of Port Phillip is one of the circumstan ces which most favourably distinguish it. In winter the cold is never excessive, though the frost is generally sufficient to freeze the ponds for two or three days in each season. Snow occasionally falls, but this is of more rare occurrence. There is, however, for three or four months a considerable quantity of wet and cold weather.

In summer, the heat is for the most part tempered by a cool breeze, and the nights are always cool, except during the prevalence of the hot winds ; so much so, that for nine months in the year a fire is very acceptable in the mornings and evenings. Indeed, as regards climate, the period of these hot winds is the only one that can be really complained of. The)- are exceedingly disagreeable, particularly to the new-comer, should he be obliged to expose himself. Fortunately, they do not occur more than six or seven times a season, and seldom last longer than a day or two at a time. They are generally succeeded by thunder and rain, accompanied by a strong southerly wind, colonially called a Brickfielder. When the south wind comes up, the change of temperature is very rapid. I have frequently known the thermometer to fall from upwards of ninety, or even a hundred degrees, down to sixty-five in a few hours.

These rapid changes do not, however, seem pre judicial to health, nor have I ever known any ill consequences to result from them. It should not be forgotten, in connexion with this subject, that though these changes are sudden, and the fall of the thermometer very great, the lowest limit is seldom below sixty degrees, some where about summer heat in England — a temperature most conducive to health, and one in which the animal heat is easily supported and the nervous energy suffers no depression ; that the heat, though great during the hot winds, is totally unaccompanied by moisture, and that it does not continue long enough to relax the frame. Practically, the reaction in the system caused by the change is felt to be most grateful. There is no doubt that the effect of these vicissitudes might be very different if they took place under different conditions : if, for instance, the fall of the thermometer, instead of being within its present limits, were from 60° to 30°, or if the great heat were of longer duration or accompanied by a moist atmosphere.

The causes of these quick transitions from heat to cold may perhaps be found in the absence of high ranges of mountains, whose ridges might form a protection against the force of the wind, and amongst whose valleys the cool blasts would have become, as it were, entangled, until they had time to be tempered with the milder air of the regions in which they had just arrived, and to absorb some warmth from the heated earth. Here there is nothing to stop the south wind from the time it leaves the icebergs of the Antarctic circle until it comes against your cheek ; it is, however, rendered mild by passing over such an expanse of ocean, and has nothing even remotely approaching to the cutting dryness of the east wind of the west of Europe. Indeed, at no time of the year has the air anything of that disagreeable harshness.

Two circumstances which, in all probability, tend in a great measure to the healthfulness of the climate are : first — the general coolness of the nights ; secondly — the circumstance that wet is invariably attended with a certain degree of cold, and that consequently there is none of that warm, moist, relaxing, muggy weather so favourable to vegetable, and so pernicious to animal, or at least to human life. Another fact may be taken into considera tion, which is probably not without its influence in a country abounding with forests, namely, that none of the trees are deciduous, and that such leaves as do fall seem full of an aromatic vegetable oil, which preserves them from rotting and leaves them to crumble to pow der ; and hence there are none of those accumulations of putrid vegetable matter which seem in Africa and America the fruitful sources of malaria and its atten dants, ague and fever.

The fact of the salubrity of the climate of New South Wales may be inferred as well from general testimony, founded on an experience of sixty years, as from returns laid on the table of the legislative council, from which it appears that the entire population of New South Wales on the 30th September, 1843, amounted to 164,026; the number of deaths, from the 1st of January, 1843, to that day, to 1,720, and of births to 5,387, the proportion of births being 1 in 30, and of deaths 1 in 95, for seven months ; being a proportion of 1 in 17 and 1 in .55 respectively for twelve months. Comparing this with other statistical accounts, I find that the average proportion of deaths is In England and Wales . . . 1 in 60 Sweden and Holland . . . 1 in 48 France . . . . . 1 in 40 Europe generally . . . 1 in 41* It should be remembered, too, that if there were any thing in the climate unfavourable to human life or health, it would be likely soon to show itself amongst the number of emigrants who from time to time arrive, and who, from the effects of a long voyage, would be of course peculiarly susceptible of injurious influences.

The following table will give a more complete view of the particulars of the meteorological phenomena : — ■ * An average of the proportion of deaths in the Sydney district for the twelve years ending in January, 1841, gives 1 in 53-15 — See Mansfield's Tables, Sydney, 1S41. ABSTRACT Of Meteorological Journal kept fit Melbourne, nnd published in the Government Gazette. • Iti* possible that the dew point is not correctly mceitained, ob there :a n note appended to the observation* to tide etfect;— " The wet bulbed Thermometer ehowi v. hat is tailed the dwv point," without any aUution to the mcesmvry correction!!. f Through an accident these tables arc imperfect. MOMTHL1 MEANS. BAROMETER. DETACHED THERMOMETER IN SHADE. MONTHLY MEANS. i°i DEW* POINT. MONTHLY MEANS. Half-past Two p.m. 8 6 4 13 9 15 13 14 ! 13 I ■IK. 1-918 Eight A.M. Half-past Two p.m. Nine p.m. Highest Range of Barometer.

Lowest Range of Barometer. Half-past Eight a.m. Hahf-past Two p.m. Sunset.

The place where these observations are made is at the flag-staff close to the town, which is placed on a hill, I should think, about one hundred feet above theJevel of the sea, and open to the sea breeze. This circumstance, no doubt, renders the climate more equable, and tempers the extreme beat. And I find accordingly, from a table which I kept for some time at my station, that in January, 1842, the thermometer in an open verandah rose as high as 104 deg., while at Melbourne it only reached 98 deg. The place I speak of is, however, situated in a valley about forty miles inland. On reference to an article on climate, contributed by Sir James Clark to the Cyclopædia of Practical Medi cine, I find that the mean annual temperature, extreme range of thermometer, &c, at Madeira, Pisa, Rome, Naples, and Nice are as follows : — * The observations at Paramatta are by Key.

W. B. Clark, resident of that place g i s B. a s t c I I I a ? a % h --- a a -s; I a ;§ fl 9 9 C J. s r I Funehal in Madeira ... . . . Paramatta(near' Sydni Melbouri Naples Rome ( Nice Pisa 32=37' N. 33°48' 8. 38 18' s. 40.-51' s. ) 41 =53' ( 43°44' f 44cnearlyy 6a = 65° •V) 14° 840 62° 113 -a 27-6 inches. 116 98°| 32 = 36= 59 28° nearl; (Rome) It is evident from this comparison that it is by the greater range of the thermometer, and by the sudden ness and violence of the transitions, that the climate of Australia is to be distinguished from that of the most favoured parts of Europe. That this is not a distinction by any means in its favour evenone must admit. That it does not act injuriously on the health of people in general, may now be taken to be a fact established by experience. I have thrown out some suggestions as to the probable or possible causes of its not having that effect, but leave it to scientific medical men to analyse the matter more thoroughly.