A Typical Australian Settlement, 1849
The lapse of ten days brought me to the snug little harbour of Ulladulla, where, for a time, my wanderings were to cease. This place is about 150 miles to…
From: 1849 C.E. To: 1849 C.E.
Location: Ulladulla, NSW, Australia
From Rambles and Observations in New South Wales by Joseph Townsend, 1849.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
The lapse of ten days brought me to the snug little harbour of Ulladulla, where, for a time, my wanderings were to cease. This place is about 150 miles to the southward of Sydney, and is commonly called “Holy Dollar." The origin of the corruption of the native name is this: it used to be the practice to cut the centre out of a dollar, and the middle piece was called “a dump," and the remainder of the original coin “a holey dollar." To such shifts, in the early days of the colony, were people driven for small change!
Our vessel had long been anxiously expected; night after night, a fire had been lighted on an eminence to guide us in; and, consequently, our arrival was hailed with no small satisfaction by those who had feared that we were in the clutches of the notorious Davy Jones. I had now before me a pleasant walk of four miles to "the settlement," as a farm in the woods is usually called. To me, all was fairy land. The uncouth natives clamoured around; and as I trudged along, with my guide, through a country thickly wooded with large forest trees, I could hardly credit that I should have, as every-day acquaintances, the king-parrot, with its red breast, and green wings merging into a brilliant ultra-marine blue, and his many bright companions, who “made gay the sun-shine as they glanced along." Crossing a rude bridge, thrown over a running stream, we entered the farm; and I had the pleasure of greeting a relative, who, being as tall as myself, from that day forward, in some degree, kept me in countenance.
A neat slab-built and shingled cottage, with a verandah to the northward, or sunny quarter, occupied the crown of a slope. The dining-room was a bachelor's hall, and its corners were occupied by guns, whips, spurs, and so forth; book-shelves were placed against the walls; and it opened, on each side into a cheerful sleeping room. French windows gave access to the verandah and the garden; and two rooms, under a sloping roof, were added at the back of the house.
Such a dwelling, plastered and whitewashed within and without, might now be built for sixty pounds, and would last twenty years. The kitchen was detached, and, at mid-day, there issued from it, under the auspices of a smiling handmaid, a most lovely sucking-pig. Justice Greedy would have hailed its advent with rapture; especially if, after eight days starvation in Botany Bay, "his belly had rang noon."
“Honest, pretty, cook! thy hand; again! How I love thee! Are good dishes still in being? Speak, lass.”
The method of establishing oneself in the woods, or, to use the colonial term, of “sitting down" there, is simple enough. Having fixed upon the site most eligible for a dwelling—and this is generally determined by the facility of access to fresh water—the settler wields the axe, and attacks the ancient lords of the forest. The trees felled are split into lengths, and furnish the materials for the domicile, which is covered with "shingles" or wooden tiles.
Huge ant-hills, nearly six feet in height, and formed of hard, strong, red clay, are found in the woods; and this clay, when well trodden, forms excellent floors. The settler carefully spreads it; and then, taking off his shoes and stockings, dances a hornpipe until he has formed a floor to his satisfaction. Thus Virgil, in the first Georgic—
"Delve of convenient depth your thrashing floor With tempered clay, then fill and face it o’er; And let the weighty roller [settler] run the round To smooth the surface of th' unequal ground.”
Many floors are formed of weatherboards but imperfectly seasoned, and through their chinks the wind whistles most viciously. The settler's hornpipe is probably akin to the Irish process of “welting the flure."
When housed, the next object is to split up posts and rails, and fence in a part of the bush, which is then called "the Bush Paddock," and is devoted to the use of the horses and working bullocks; but those who are wise live in a tent, or even in a hammock slung in the trees, until this necessary inclosure is completed.
In the great work of clearing land for cultivation, a strong team of bullocks and a logging chain are used, to draw together, for the purpose of consuming it, the timber that has been felled; and thus huge fires are formed that would eclipse the Staffordshire coke-heaps, and which, at night, illumine the dark recesses of the forest. When the trees felled have been thus "burnt off," their stumps are attacked. Many of these are grubbed up, and against others is piled a small fire which gradually consumes them. The land is now pronounced fit for the plough; which is, in fact, often put into the ground before "stumping.”
The operation of taming the stubborn soil is anything but pastime—
“They yoke the sturdy steer. And goad him till he groans beneath the toil,"
and many a bullock dies of heat and exhaustion; whilst his master, on his part, has much to contend against. The plough is continually obstructed by roots and stones; the share or the beam is often broken, while the ploughman receives violent concussions, and is sometimes thrown headforemost amongst the bullocks.
The average cost of clearing heavily-timbered land on the coast, and of putting in a first crop, is, even with the assistance of convict labour, about ten pounds per acre. The first crop is generally wheat; and, next to it in importance, is maize. At Ulladulla the wheat was very excellent, and on the best land averaged thirty bushels to the acre, and maize sixty-five; but the average produce of wheat per acre, throughout the colony, is fourteen bushels. Manure is rarely used, and some think it burns up the land; but the ashes of the wood fires contribute much to the improvement of the soil; and a "stump-hole" is always indicated by the superior luxuriance of the wheat immediately around it. Couch grass spreads on cultivated land in every direction, and is a spontaneous production.
A field of maize is a fine sight. The plant runs up to the height of seven feet; its green stem, which is much like a large reed, has a feathery top; and, from each joint in the stem, spring flag-like leaves, and from the upper ones the "cobs of corn." Between the rows of maize, pumpkins are planted; and these are not only excellent food for cattle and for pigs, but a good substitute for potatoes. They are also made into a pie, which, when seasoned with lime juice, is a favourite dish. They keep a length of time, and are often used by sea-going ships. Very fine black potatoes are also grown on the coast; but I observed, in the local papers, that the potato disease made its appearance in the colony in August, 1846.
Townsend, Joseph. Rambles and Observations in New South Wales. Chapman and Hall, 1849.
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