ADELAIDE.
The Murray is a noble stream; but, at the present day, not a particularly interesting, or, at any rate, a highly picturesque river. The banks throughout are pretty, sometimes even romantic, but from the sameness of the forest trees—consisting chiefly of gum tree glades—and the expanse of flooded surface through which, at this season, the vessel passed, the scenery cannot but be regarded as generally tame. The reaches, nevertheless, at times are fine, and, here and there, cliffs of moderate height, varied colours, and perhaps grotesque shape, occur to break the monotony of an otherwise interminable flat. The volume of water rolled down by the Murray is imposing, the breadth of the stream after passing Lake Alexandrina (a sheet of water about thirty miles in length and twenty-five in breadth), averaging from 150 to 300 yards; the current is ordinarily from two to three knots per hour; and the course of the river, after the first 250 miles, tortuous in the extreme. The steamer generally came to anchor in the evening, about nine or ten o’clock; and started in the morning, before dawn. Wood had been provided, at certain stations, by previous arrangement; at other points, parties from the vessel went ashore to provide fuel, the consumption of which averaged about three fourths of a ton per hour. It took 168 hours steaming to reach the Darling, where we arrived at midnight, on the 6th of September, under sail and steam; the distance being calculated at about 650 miles from the Goolwa. On the point of reaching this station, we managed to upset a native canoe or “mungo,” propelled by a black and his “lubra,” or spouse. The former scrambled up the vessel, but the female was compelled to swim to the shore. The man being asked why he had not attempted to assist his dusky helpmate, answered, with the utmost composure, “Plenty cold; black lubra walk well!” So much for native gallantry. The blacks on the Murray are not now so numerous as formerly, infanticide prevailing among them, it is said, to a great extent; indeed, we observed but one child in our passage up to the Murrumbidgee.
The principal stations, up to this point of the voyage, had been Mr. Mason’s, Wellington; Mr. Walsh’s; Mr. Scott’s, Moorundee; Messrs. Chambers’, Wigley’s, Chapmans’, Moruna, the Jackson’s (commonly called Bob and Harry’s), and the inn at the Darling (McLeod’s). Here blacks were generally found in greater or less numbers; and, as far as we could learn, they had everywhere proved of service to the settlers. They are protected by the Government, and to a certain extent fed and clothed; but the issues of blankets and flour, in South Australia at least, are as yet too scanty. Several of these people were taken by Captain Cadell up the river, to assist his crew in procuring fuel, and they proved useful and obliging upon these occasions.
No accident, save the temporary indisposition of some of the ladies of our party, and Captain Davidson’s unfortunate entanglement of his foot in the machinery, occurred to interrupt the serenity of our voyage; some atrocities, however, committed by the natives upon white men, had, it appeared, disturbed the tranquillity of the river. Mr. Scott, the Government officer from Moorundee, we found, had been in pursuit of some of these malefactors, and from this gentleman, whom with his brother we encountered at Chapman’s Station (Paringa), we learned that one of these natives had been wounded desperately in an attempt to escape from the police; and that another had been killed by the settlers, whilst endeavouring to arrest him. A third, captured by one of the Adelaide police, we conveyed to the Darling, where he was handed over to Mr. Fletcher, a Magistrate of New South Wales[8], whose professional services (for he had formerly been a medical practitioner) had been called in request on Mr. Davidson’s account. This gentleman, who lived fifteen miles from McLeod’s, where a tolerable inn and some good horses were discovered, was sent for at His Excellency’s request, and in obeying the requisition unfortunately received a fall from his horse, which, though inflicting no severer injury than a bruised forehead and face, must have been sufficiently annoying to spoil the pleasure which, in common with all other settlers upon the river, he evidently derived at the arrival of the steamer. His services, I may also mention, were called into play by the sudden illness of one of the ladies of our party, whose rashness in bathing, at an early or unseasonable hour appears to have been followed by serious though brief indisposition. Mr. Fletcher spoke with some degree of feeling of a barbarous murder committed by a black, about ten days before, upon a white man, whose horse he had undertaken to guide through a ford. Indeed, these acts of reiterated villany call for the active interference of the Sydney authorities.
The land on the Murray to this point (the Darling) is all occupied, chiefly by large stock proprietors or squatters; for agriculture, whether on account of the excessive dryness of the soil, or for want of labour, appears little attended to. The settlers seem to want energy in their pursuits, but perhaps the badness of the communications hitherto with a market, and the uncertain tenure of their runs, may explain their inactivity. Irrigation and embankment could not fail to improve the land, but if there existed no means of disposing of produce, it is easily imagined why these labours have not been tried.
On this subject, or rather with regard to the present system of land allotment, I may here observe, that His Excellency, after proclaiming, as the “Hundred of the Murray,” the two miles frontage on each bank, proposes to offer for public sale blocks of land of from ten to 640 acres, granting to the occupiers a commonage in rear of their property for pastoral purposes. It is probable that such an alteration in the existing system of leases may induce a larger proportion of settlers to look to the Murray for their locations.
With respect to the much-engrossing pursuit of gold digging, which now occupies so large a portion of the population of these two Provinces (Victoria and New South Wales), it would seem that further discoveries are likely to take place. A Mr. Paterson, or a Mr. Walsh (I am not certain of the name), who visited us at the Darling, mentioned as a fact that a nugget of three or four ounces weight had been picked up on the upper Darling, by one of the settlers, in the ranges which abut on that river, and as quartz hills exist still further back, it is not improbable that considerable gold deposits may be found in these localities.
The animal and vegetable kingdom of the Murray is apparently not productive in uncommon or very peculiar productions. Of the four-footed inhabitants of the bush, up to this point of our trip (the vicinity of the Thirteen Lakes[9]), I have heard of none being seen by our party, save and except one solitary kangaroo. Ducks and quail are abundant; the former comprising the musk, black, and wood duck, teal, and widgeon. These are netted by the natives with considerable success; the plan of action being, I understood, to spread the nets over the mouths of the creeks or brooks, and then drive the birds towards them. Wild turkeys are said to be plentiful near the lakes, which are numerous on some parts of the banks, but none have as yet been seen. The white cockatoos are numerous, and occasionally a pretty parroquet has been observed. These, with pelicans, cranes, and sometimes, though rarely, a swan, comprise the chief portion of the feathered inhabitants of the Murray and its banks, but very small birds, unknown by name to those on board, have been also seen.[10] The fish of the Murray consist chiefly of the cod, perch, and cray fish, with a few small turtles, and, in the adjoining lakes, a kind of smelt. The cod is of large size and weight, and well tasted. The most delicate fish is, however, found in the Darling—the name I could not gather.
The timber on the Murray is almost entirely confined to the gum, of which there are three varieties—the white, red, and flooded; and occasionally a few pines. Edible roots are found by the natives, and comprise a considerable portion of their food; but the only fruit, as far as I could learn, in use amongst the whites, is that called the “quandong”—a species of wild peach, which is largely used as a preserve. Wild flowers are generally abundant.