LIGHTHOUSE (OLD AND NEW)
I must confess to feeling very giddy in the head when I stepped on the balcony outside the dome, but it was the grandest sight of my tour. On the north side was Hamelin Bay, on the east the mouth of the beautiful Blackwood, and the many little islands, reefs and rocks, lying at our feet; also Cumberland Island; while away on the land side stretches the vast forest with its millions of giant trees, combining to form a picture not easily forgotten.
The lighthouse-keepers, of whom there are six, work four hours each and are then relieved. They report every ship that passes, and wind up the clockwork weights every hour. Coming down to terra firma again, and before leaving this grand piece of man’s work, I read the following inscription on a huge block of stone: “Foundation-stone laid by Sir John Forrest, Premier of the Colony, 13th December 1895.” And on the other side: “Dedicated to the World’s Mariners, 10th December 1896.”
Outside are some comfortable-looking stone cottages, where the lighthouse-keepers live. My only feeling of regret as I left was that Leeuwin Lighthouse is not more accessible, so that many people could take the same enjoyable tour that I had taken; but time may change even this cape’s inaccessibility.
CHAPTER XIII
Pretty Newcastle—Oranges!—New Norcia—Native Love—The Mission—Northam—The Grand Old Man—Ploughing Match—Oat Crop—The Show.
There is without doubt a great field in Western Australia for workers who will settle on the land and cultivate it. Newcastle is a little town, nestling at the foot of hills and beautifully situated near the Avon river. It is a splendid farming district; the soil will grow almost everything. I saw some magnificent oranges and vegetables. The cattle are as fat and sleek as can be. Rain had been falling when I was there, and now the sun was shining and a beautiful rainbow rose over the hills. The pink everlasting flowers—acres of them—surrounded by the green grass, the pretty winding river, the white bridges and long good roads made up a very pleasant picture. There is plenty of good land around here waiting to be taken up and utilised. Newcastle is one of the oldest Westralian towns, and the roads and bridges were nearly all made by convict labour in days gone by. There is a great quantity of stone lying about, and granite is obtainable in large quantities a little way off. There are vineyards and orchards, and an elderly woman at the Clackline Junction Station seemed to be doing a good trade with an enormous basket of splendid oranges and bunches of pink everlasting flowers. She came across the meadows and joined the train at Delmore on the way to Newcastle a boy helping her with the big basket of oranges just gathered from the trees. She told me she came to meet all the trains and invariably did good business.