CHAPTER II
Traveling from Melbourne to Adelaide, 483 miles, gave opportunity to study Australian railways. The railroads are State or government owned, and the fare is two to three cents a mile. The coaches are of European type, the schedule 30 miles an hour. Compartments are generally fitted for eight persons. One difference was observed in these coaches from the South African—no free sleeping accommodation was provided. Sleeping cars are run on Australian lines, however, but a berth costs $2.40 a night. The system of heating the compartments in chilly weather is by iron pipes, like those used in the South African trains—foot warmers. But there is one commendable feature about the Australian railway system, namely, no steps to the cars, the platforms of all stations being built on a level with the platform of the passenger coach.
"Mate, you may share part of my rug," spoke the man sitting opposite in the compartment. "There'll be no chance to get our feet on the foot-warmer, and the atmosphere will grow chilly before morning. It is large enough for us both," he kindly added. As in South Africa, almost every one in Australia carries a rug, or blanket, as we call them. His kindness was much appreciated, for, as it turned out, the foot-warmer did not move in our direction for the night. This is another instance of how obliging I found Australians.
A city looking more like a large park than a business center is how Adelaide appeared. When laid out, in 1837, it comprised a tract of land a mile square, and around this area is a park strip of land half a mile wide. The mile square area was originally the business and home section of Adelaide, but residential requirements have far outgrown the original space. Over two thousand acres of land in and about the city are set apart for public and botanical gardens, park squares and for sports grounds. The city is located in a fertile plain, encircled by a range of green hills on two sides, and has as a foreground the blue water of St. Vincent's Gulf.
A pathetic incident accompanied the laying-out of this beautiful city. After the surveyor, Colonel William Light, had selected the site and surveyed the streets his plan was ridiculed by his fellow colonists. Being of a sensitive nature, their criticisms and jibes so worried him that he found relief from taunts in an early grave. In Victoria Square stands a splendid bronze monument to the designer of Adelaide, with this brief inscription chiseled out of the granite base: "Light."
Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, has a population of 200,000. Its wide streets and great park space make the area as large as that usually required for a city of half a million.
An agricultural college, mining college, and other means of popular education insures a high percentage of intellectual attainment. The same splendid public school system that has been touched on as existing in West Australia and Victoria is maintained by both the municipal and State educational departments here. Money for educational purposes is voted to an almost reckless degree by the States of the Commonwealth.
The homes of the people of Adelaide are fine. Where they are not entirely built of stone, there is at least a stone front and brick side walls. The houses are mostly one story, containing from five to seven rooms, with a veranda on each and flowers in every yard. Most of these homes are owned by the families who occupy them, but some rent at from $3.50 to $4.50 weekly. "Poor," "slum" and "wealthy" residential distinctions are pleasantly absent in Australian cities.
The botanical garden, zoo, museum, State and municipal buildings, business blocks, the lighting and street railway systems are all very good. The ambition of the Australian seems to aspire to the best, as little of a shoddy character is in evidence. The statues about the cities also are as good as one will see the world over. The stores and shops compare with any for quality and attractiveness.
Ordinary meals could be had for 25 cents, and comfortable accommodation, with good food, was obtainable in any of the cities for $1.50 a day.
The bird life of the country adds to its attractiveness. The emu, next in size to the ostrich, is on his native heath, and the lyre bird is a native of Australia, too. In the "bush," as the woods of Australia are termed, revel the cockatoo, macaw, parrots of different species; the kookooburra, or laughing jackass, and the smart magpie are quite numerous. Australians are very proud of the native birds. Chasing the emu on horseback is a sport indulged in in some sections.
The English sparrow was taken to Australia by settlers from the British Isles, and he has proved a source of annoyance to the people of that country, as well as that of others. Another bird imported from England, the starling, a very dirty and destructive one to berries, is also an eyesore to the people. This bird is numerous in Adelaide. Rabbits were unknown in Australia before settlers from the North made that country their home. Being very destructive to crops, large sums of money are expended to build rabbit-proof fences about tracts of farming land owing to the millions of these creatures that infest the country. The moderate climate admits of perpetual breeding. Australians do not eat rabbit meat.
The rabbit trapper of Australia is an independent sort of a citizen. His disposition is akin to that of the fellow who will sit on a log all day to catch a six-inch fish, and considers his time well spent when he walks into his home, carrying his quarry by a spear of long grass pulled through the vent in the gills. Ships loaded with frozen rabbits leave Australian ports for England at frequent sailings.
The kangaroo is termed in Australia "the native," and is harmless when met with under any circumstances. The smaller specie is known as the wallaby. Kangaroo is the biggest game on the Australian continent. Its tail is the only part used as food, and then only for soup.
A story is told of an English woman who became engaged to a native Australian. She started from England to meet her fiancé at Adelaide. She had told her friends she was to be married to an Australian native. When she reached the end of her long journey and came ashore friends in Australia who met her, pointing to a kangaroo close by, remarked that the animal was the native Australian. "What!" shouted the bride-to-be. "Am I engaged to marry a kangaroo?"
The national flower is that of the wattle tree. This tree grows large, its leaves are small and of a very dark green color, and the limbs are dense. Blossoms come out very thick, and leaves, limbs and body of the tree are hidden from view under a profusion of rich, gold-colored flowers. Tracts of wattle-tree groves extend for miles, and when all the trees are in bloom it is a treat for the eyes seeking floral beauty.
Mutton and lamb are the meats chiefly eaten. One seldom gets a good cup of coffee in British territory, for the reason that the British are a tea-drinking race, and the same applies to Australia. As evidence of the hospitality met with in homes of British colonists, food dainties are always served with tea to callers.
After having said good-by to Adelaide, we boarded a train going to Melbourne. Upon reaching Ballarat, having heard of the Eureka Stockade, behind which gold miners defied militia in 1854, induced a longing to see this historical spot on the Australian continent where men faced each other with firearms. The skirmish between miners and troops came about through the authorities charging miners exorbitant sums for gold mining licenses. A stockade was thrown up—it is there to-day—and from that shelter bullets whizzed at the troops, and soldiers' bullets whizzed at the miners. The battle lasted ten minutes, after two dozen miners had been killed. With this exception, Australia is as barren of warfare lore as a large part of the country is of vegetation. Gold mining is still in active operation, and profitable. While gold is mined in all the States of the Commonwealth, the output of the West Australia mines is greater than the combined production of the other five.
When gold was discovered in Ballarat, in 1850, 65,000 people landed in Melbourne the next year, and in five years 337,000 had found their way to the diggings, although in those days vessels were small and slow, and the distance from Europe to Melbourne is 13,000 miles.
Ballarat has a population of 50,000, is in the State of Victoria, and 75 miles west of Melbourne. One of the principal streets is 168 feet wide. How many cities are there in the United States, the size of Ballarat, having an art gallery, a museum and creditable botanical garden? Ballarat has these. A nice lake also is within the city limits. The attractiveness of this place is unusual for a gold mining center.
With an acquaintance, a football game between two crack elevens was attended, and the price of admission to the grounds was 12 cents.
Ballarat holds her own in the matter of buildings, good lighting and street car systems.