Rambles in Australia

by Edwin Sharpe Grew; Marion Sharpe Grew

Here we saw growing for the first time the lantana, a hardy shrub, not unlike the “meal tree” of our hedges at home, but with pink and yellow flowers. It is a very decorative thing, but is regarded in Australia, and especially in Queensland, as a noxious weed.

We returned home by way of the Domain, or public park, adjoining the Botanical Gardens, along a road lined by the stately Morton Bay Pine.

SOUTH COAST, NEW SOUTH WALES.

One day in Sydney was devoted to an excursion by boat round the harbour. It is a curious fact that Captain Cook, in his careful survey of the east coast of Australia, should have missed Sydney Harbour. When exploring the east coast of Australia in the “Endeavour,” a ship of 368 tons, he spent some time in Botany Bay in the spring of 1770, where he buried one of his men, took in wood and water, and made some ineffectual attempts at friendly negotiation with the natives. He gave the bay the name by which it was afterwards known because of the “great quantity of plants, that Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander collected in this place.” He then sailed away to the North, passing Sydney Harbour at two or three miles’ distance; merely noting that “there was there a good bay or harbour, in which there appeared to be good anchorage,” which he called Port Jackson. Here, years later, after the revolt of the American colonies; when the English Government was faced with the difficulty of disposing of the convicts, who had been formerly shipped to America; a scheme was set on foot, partly through the initiation of Lord Sydney, for shipping them to Botany Bay, and founding a colony there. An expedition was sent out under Captain Philip, the first governor of the colony. The fleet sailed in May, seventeen years after Captain Cook’s exploration of the coast of New South Wales, as he had named it, and took thirty-six weeks to reach Botany Bay by way of the Cape and Brazil; but on his arrival Governor Philip came to the conclusion that Botany Bay was not suitable for a settlement, and, coasting north, entered the opening between the north and south heads of Port Jackson, and discovered the magnificent harbour inside.

He selected as a landing-place a bay four miles from the opening of the harbour, where there was a good spring of fresh water, and excellent anchorage for many of the largest ships of that day. He therefore made this his landing-place, and called it Sydney Cove, after the then Secretary of State for the Colonies. On January 26th, 1788, the date now commemorated as the anniversary day of the Foundation of the Colony, the rest of Captain Philip’s fleet sailed round from Botany Bay, and anchored in Sydney Cove, near what is now known as the Circular Quay, though at that time the cove ran a good deal farther inland. It was Governor Philip who planned the principal streets of the new township of Sydney with a width of 200 feet, which was instead unfortunately, reduced to sixty feet by his successors, producing a narrow, crowded effect, instead of the generous sense of space characteristic of cities in the new world.

The quay was a process of slow development. As late as 1803 Governor King issued a general order which stated that “The framing, lengthening, and planking of the wharf on the eastern side is complete, and the inhabitants are expected to cart material to fill it up and to make a way to it.” An admirably simple method of accomplishing public works; equally salutary with the measures then in vogue for dealing with loafers: “All persons loitering about the wharves will be put to hard labour for the rest of the day.” The wharves grew up, like the city, in gradual response to the needs of the increasing population.

But in 1900 an outbreak of plague produced stringent reforms. In order to prevent its recurrence the Government took over the whole of the wharves, regardless of cost, placing the business of their reconstruction in the hands of a Harbour Trust, who have swept away old wharves, provided new ones, and had the foreshores made rat-proof.

Sydney Harbour baffles description; pages would give no idea of its varied charm and beauty. It is difficult even to realise that its shores occupy a length of 188 miles, made up of innumerable bays and creeks running up among its wooded hills. Some of these, in the neighbourhood of the main centres of traffic, are fringed with busy wharves and lined with shipping. On the opposite side from them the hills are thickly dotted with villas, but in the more remote arms of the harbour the bush remains still untouched and primeval, hiding quiet sandy beaches in its recesses.

Roughly speaking, one may say the harbour divides itself into two main sections; that on the northern side of the entrance called Middle Harbour, and the more extensive southern portion which, with all its many ramifications, runs west and ends in the Parramatta River. It is on the southern shores of this side of the harbour that the commercial life of Sydney is centred, the great and busy city with all its thronging wharves. On the northern shores are the picturesque houses of the well-to-do residents; for Sydney is also a pleasure city, and the land-locked waters of the upper reaches of the harbour are delightful for sailing, rowing, fishing, and bathing, while in the immediate neighbourhood are the popular surf-bathing beaches of Manly and Coogee.