SURF BATHING, MANLY, NEAR SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES.
For us Sydney will always mean Kirribilli Point, and the old house, whose owner called it by the pretty native name of Wyreepi—“Come and stay”—a name eloquent of the unfailing kindness and hospitality within its portals—an old house shuttered and barred against the depredations of the early lawless convict settlers who had helped to build it. The name evokes a mental picture of its red gables and chocolate-coloured walls, with the gravel paths to match; its hedge of grey, closely clipped salt bush, its sloping lawns and tall trees, its beds of sweet peas and stocks, sweetest of spring flowers, the coral-tree its bare boughs hanging with scarlet flowers; and in front the grass sloping to the water’s edge, and the endless panorama of the harbour.
* * * * *
Those who have unlimited time at their disposal can choose between taking ship at Sydney and coasting up to Brisbane in preference to the very long and exhausting railway journey of about thirty hours; though by so doing they would miss the magnificent scenery of the Hawkesbury River, and the smiling suburban country-side that the train passes through after leaving Sydney, with the red iron-roofed houses scattered among the gum trees. The Hawkesbury River runs into the northern extremity of Broken Bay, bordered here by a national reserve of great beauty called Kuring-gai-Chase. Formerly trains from Sydney were met on the shores of the river by a steamer, which took passengers across to the other side to continue their journey; a delightful experience on a fine day, for every traveller on its shores must long to make a closer acquaintance with this noble and mighty river. Now, however, it is spanned by a bridge, which crosses to Long Island, where it resembles an Italian lake. Along the shore the water showed through a fringe of coral-trees. Farther north the country grew more tropical; we noticed a tiny house flanked on either side by two tall brugmancias in flower. And the undergrowth of the bush became more varied. We saw for the first time a curious kind of white bulrush, growing like the “black boys” of Western Australia. They looked just like very tall church candles, their black spikes forming the wick. The bush is always the same, that is, it is always a forest of gums; but it has nevertheless an individual character from the undergrowth in the different states and latitudes.
We stopped for some time at Newcastle, an inferno of smoking chimneys and coal-dust. The coal deposits of New South Wales are its most important source of mineral wealth, and her coalfields are greater in area, and produce a better quality of coal than those of any other state; it is hoped for that reason that New South Wales may become the principal centre of manufacture in the continent. Coal was first discovered in 1797 in the coalfield south of Sydney, and soon after coal was found in the cliffs at Newcastle, which has become an important centre of export.
After leaving Newcastle the line turns westward from the coast and crosses the fertile Hunter River valley, where the soil is so rich that it yields as many as eight crops in one year, averaging between three and four tons to the acre. We stopped for dinner at what we supposed to be in the dark a small wayside station called Singleton. It is actually a town of considerable importance, with a population of 10,000, and the neighbourhood is famous for its breed of horses. We dined in the characteristic wooden, iron-roofed hall. An immense advertisement of the local hairdresser at one end inquired, “Is your hair ringbarked?” A selection of the population, boys in front and men behind, a serious, rough-looking group, watched us at our meal with silent and rapt attention from the open doorway.
Soon after passing Singleton the line ascends steeply, crosses the Liverpool Range and runs through the Liverpool Plains, where some of the best wheat is grown. We awoke next morning to find ourselves passing through forest, and changed trains at Wallangarra, the border station where the gauge changes from four feet eight and a half inches to three feet six, so that all passengers and luggage must be transferred.