I have before me as I write a picture of Sir John as he was in 1866, 34 years ago; also a picture of the third expedition crossing the spinifex desert; terrible country to go through. An extract from Sir John’s diary says: “Tommy (a native) went on with the only horse not knocked up to find water. I followed his tracks, leading the two done-up horses. Spinifex everywhere. We can only crawl along, having to walk and drag the horses with us.” At some places the aborigines were very troublesome, the camp being attacked one night by 60 of them, who could not be driven off until some of them had been shot. Sir John Forrest is a man who has the colony’s interests at heart. By his wisdom and foresight great tracts of land are being opened up. In his own words: “We have a great work to do in the great continent of Australia, all of it encircled by the sea, and flying the flag of Old England, no other nation having any right or part in it. And what a continent it is! The Western Australian territory is as big as France, Spain, Italy, Austria, and Germany, and contains 973,000 miles (square). If you were to walk round it, you would have nearly a 4000-mile walk. The Empire of Australia represents nearly one-seventeenth part of the world’s surface. We have great works and great responsibilities before us, and we are proud of Western Australia. We want to be in the future one of the brightest gems in the English Crown.” In 1890 Sir John spoke the following words into Edison’s phonograph: “I firmly believe that Western Australia has started on a progressive and prosperous career.” Such words bring to mind the prophetic words of Cowper’s “Boadicea”:
The progeny that springs from the forests of our land
Armed with thunder, clad with wings, shall a wider world command;
Regions Cæsar never knew thy posterity shall sway
Where his Eagles never flew, none invincible as they.
It was in 1890 that representative government was granted to Western Australia, and Mr. Forrest chosen as Premier. In 1891 her Majesty Queen Victoria conferred on him the honour of knighthood, and for ten years Sir John Forrest remained Premier of Western Australia (establishing a record in Australia’s history), a post which he resigned in order to assume that of Postmaster-General for Australia; but has since been appointed Minister of Federal Defence in the Ministry of the Commonwealth of Federated Australia. Not long before her lamented death, our late beloved Queen was pleased to bestow on Sir John Forrest the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George, he being, I believe, the first Australian born who has received that honour.
I was quite surprised to find such a fine hotel as Gordon’s Pier in a country town. The dinner was excellently served, the meat especially tender, the fish sweeter, the vegetables nicer, and the fruit more juicy, than usual. Perhaps it was because I had been roughing it a little just before that I valued the extra comfort I obtained here. A splendid balcony reached right round the hotel, from which was visible the sparkling water of Koombanah Bay, with its long pier and beach of silver sand. The lighthouse on the hill, with its square tower and grey walls, stood like a sentinel against the sky. The light that shines out to sea at night is 117 feet above high water, and is visible 12 miles. As it was a hot night, most of the guests were out on the balcony. I lay back in my comfortable lounge-chair, inhaled the health-giving sea breeze, and thoroughly enjoyed a cup of delicious coffee brought me by the attentive waiter. From the drawing-room, where some of the guests were passing a pleasant half-hour, and while singing for their own pleasure, also affording gratification to the visitors outside, came strains of music. I retired early, and was agreeably surprised to find my bedroom lit up with electric light. The noise from the machinery rather kept me awake at first, but I soon passed into the land of dreams. The housemaid told me in the morning that a great many people from the goldfields stay here in the summer to recoup after the dryness and heat of the fields, and that the managers of the mines usually wish to have their bedrooms on the side near the machine-room, as the noise is home-like, or mine-like, and lulls them off to sleep.
In the morning I took a waggonette and drove out to explore Bunbury, going first to the Leschenault Estuary, a sheet of water divided from the sea by a strip of land 10 or 12 miles long. The surface was dotted with wild fowl and its depths are full of fish. The Collie and Preston rivers fall into the estuary. On the shore there are plenty of black swans and wild duck which seem to be quite tame. On the east side of the estuary is the site of Australind, to which, 57 years ago, many people came from England to settle, but finding the place was not what it had been represented to them by unscrupulous agents, they disbanded and settled in different parts of the colony, so that Australind now is merely a name. It is very prettily situated at the junction of the Brunswick and Collie rivers. There are large dykes about there not yet explored, which may contain wonderful mineral wealth. Manna gum-trees are to be found, and yield sometimes as much as fifty tons of gum from one tree.
Bunbury’s history dates from the first settlement of the colony, when New South Wales sent soldiers to King George’s Sound in order to circumvent the French, who nearly had possession of Western Australia. Governor Stirling took up large tracts of country near Bunbury in lieu of salary, and settlers were granted 200 and 300 acres of land as an inducement to go there. When, 60 years ago, the intending settlers arrived and pitched their camps, a few soldiers were stationed for their protection, but as the natives were mostly friendly and intelligent, the soldiers had little to do, so whiled away the time by helping the settlers, and as many hands make light work the little community soon became prosperous.