ILLAWARRA AND SHOALHAVEN 1839 - 1840: The Descriptive Diary of the Reverend W.B. Clarke

Introduction

W.B. Clarke circa 1939

Oh! How this Colony teaches one the depravity of human nature...

In these almost despairing words the not-so-young Reverend William Branwhite Clarke addresed his diary for 8 March 1840. Admittedly, on their arrival in Sydney on 27 May 1839, the health of himself, his wife, and young family had been seriously impaired, a condition in no way relieved by finding things far below their expectations. Though he had fallen temporarily the attractive post of headmaster of The King’s School, Parramatta, he already had had occasion to write to his mother on 9 September 1839:

I advise no one to come hither. Dirt, disease, bugs, fleas, flies, ants, centipedes, lizards, scorpions, snakes of all descriptions, together with the heat and dust, horrible roads, want of comfort in houses, honesty of servants, and the morality of the public generally render this country the very antipodes of what it is represented. Had I known this I would never have come to it, now I am here I will do the best I can in it.

So much for Australia. Fortunately, he had planned staying here for only five years or so; but, strangely, there was never any later talk of returning to England.  The fascination of a new land, working on a brilliant, wide-ranging intellect, saw to it that he spent the remainder of his long life here. Happily, he had had an initial reaction to the Colony, earlier than those quoted; and that first impression, rather than the two cries from his heart, proved eventually to be right. Unsuspecting of hardships to come, he had written excitedly on arrival,

Truly he who is without thought or reflection here would be a blockhead anywhere. Past, present and future all rush together to carry away the mind by storm.

That, after all, was surely the case with Clarke; the two adverse reactions quoted above, and others like them, were ephemeral. Australia had already won him over completely and permanently. Yet he probably did not realise that he had succumbed.

Born in East Suffolk, England, on 2 June 1798, Clarke was the son of a schoolmaster who might well have been proud of his scholarly son. The young student graduated in 1824 at Cambridge as Master of Arts. After ordination in the Church of England, the arts could fairly have claimed him, for not only was he accomplished in the classics,  but he had literary talent, establishing himself as no mean poet; further, he was quite a competent artist with pencil and brush. Marrying in 1832, and conscientious in attention to pastoral duties, he was set fair for a conventional career in the church if opportunity came his way.

But another stream of interest had entered his life; at Cambridge he had been diverted towards what was then the new science of geology, which soon assumed the ascendancy in his mind. Having published learned papers on studies in this field which had been broadened for him by excursions in England and on the continent, he was well on the way to recognition in the world of science when, in 1838, he decided to emigrate to New South Wales. In this he was motivated by several factors: attacks of rheumatism called for a warmer climate; and advancement in the church was disappointingly slow for a man, always poor, but now, having a small family to maintain, poorer still.  On the other hand, the chosen colony was an entirely new geological field, so that there were consolations in view. Yet, overall, it was with regrets and an inward promise to return home soon that he had left his home at Stanley Green and sailed early in 1839. His conflicting thoughts on arrival and as he settled in have already been noted.

So it was a man of unusually wide intellectual horizons who soon took his rightful place in the sparse ranks of scientists who sought to make something of this new land. Since Clarke was half way through his allotted lifespan on arrival, the more productive part of his life remained to be spent here, making lively contributions on matters of astronomy, meteorology, botany, the education fo the young, the welfare and understanding of Aborigines, and the study of wildlife. These, however, were merely incidental to his main lifework, that science which he advanced by indefatigable exertions in the field, all in addition to normal pastoral duties. Nor did he give up as the decades went by. He had just turned a venerable eighty years of age when, full of honours and with grand achievements, he died in Sydney on 16 June 1878. It was ironical that whilst others had made huge fortunes out of his studies, mainly in gold and coal, he died a poor man, however richly he had endowed Australian science. But he had earned the title, never since denied him, of Father of Australian Geology.

There was even more to him than this. He was fully alive to the whole Australian scene, for he was, as his latest biographer has said, “a robust worker in the field, a man of common sense, physical energy and humour, cheerfully accepting along the way quarters for the night more primitive than any he had experienced on his journeys in Europe and the British Isles.”  This was true, in particular, in relation to a journey the “new chum” scientist made through Illawarra and Shoalhaven in late 1839 and early 1840. It was during the time between Clarke’s apostrophe on bugs and fleas, and his later lament on the depravity of human nature.

That journey came about by sudden chance. On the morning of 30 November 1839, when Clarke had been only a few months in the colony, Sydney citizens were shocked to find a squadron of foreign ships riding in the harbour just off Fort Macquarie. Initial alarm - for Sydney was quite defenseless - was allayed when it was discovered that the intruders were friendly. The vessels made up the United States Exploring Expedition in the Pacific under Commander Charles Wilkes.  This was stirring news for Clarke, because one of the team of scientists turned out to be a young mineralogist, James Dwight Dana (1813 - 1895), who was already famous. Their common interests soon brought the two men together and induced a determination to collaborate on an excursion. But where should they go?  Somewhere close, of course, somewhere of special interest; but Clarke as yet had never been able to venture beyond the limits of his parochial charges, all in Sydney’s periphery. Illawarra, already famous, provided the ready answer. Clarke’s diary, here presented for the first time in print, is his record of the resulting journeys which proved to be as exciting and fresh for him as it was for the American visitor.

‘Rev. W.B. Clarke’

Clarke set out on 29 December 1839 and travelled through Campbelltown and Appin to Wollongong, there to meet Dana and others of the U.S. Expedition who had gone there from Sydney by the steamers Maitland and William IV. Then together he and Dana travelled through Dapto over the mountains into Kangaroo Valley, thence to Shoalhaven, and so back through Gerringong, Kiama, Minnamurra, Jamberoo, to Dapto, Wollongong and home again through Appin. In all, the journey extended over fourteen days of remarkably rich observation; and during that time Clarke’s Australian experience began in earnest. Indeed, the diary’s beginnings have all the marks of the “new chum”. It will be seen that he speaks of “cockchafers” for want of a better name for cicadas or beetles; and the best name he can find for the white cockatoo is macaw; nor can he hide lingering homesickness. Even so, the diarist is a different man - a happy man - at the end of the journey. It is pleasing to think that this Illawarra and Shoalhaven venture was the true beginning of Clarke’s reconciliation with and absorption into Australian life.

But, “new chum” or not, on one aspect there was never any doubt; the acute power of observation was already in him, and he used it most effectively. One has only to read the section of his diary here published to see that its author was of the liveliest intelligence, attracted by everything that came under his all-seeing eye; and he took good care that he missed nothing. Most of all, what he saw was scrutinized with the same keen power which a man of narrower outlook might have reserved for his specialist interest.

It is not to be thought, however, that Clarke neglected systematic geologizing as he progressed. True, there are frequent geological references in the text, but not nearly so many as one would expect. The reason is simple: he kept two accounts - his geological notes were recorded in a field book which, regrettably, has not survived. It was most likely destroyed many years later in a fire which consumed practically all such priceless memorials.  So what we now have - the second account - is his ordinary, general journal, the original of which is in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. The specialist who seeks geological findings will find them in chapter IX of Volume X of the published results of the U.S. Exploring Expedition. Though an extremely rare book, copies are available in Australia.  

For the general reader, however, what we now have, is anything but the myopic musing of a scientist who, limiting his interest to his own specialty, could see nothing around him but rocks and stones. It is the product of a man of the widest human outlook: a man of “expansive, affectionate, generous nature”; a scientist who could not resist hammering bits off rocks as he roved the bush, but who was just as likely to have a ring-tailed possum in his pocket; a churchman who - amazingly for Victorian times - remained open-minded in fascination about what most others of the cloth regarded as the profane teachings of Darwinism,  and who could perform a lifetime of dogged field-work and scholarly polemics on broad aspects of science, whilst always administering faithfully to his parishioners. His, in short, as his latest biographer has well said, was a love affair with the Earth; yet he never lost his interest in people. He liked them, and they liked him. And that is what shines clearly in this illuminating Illawarra journal: his quick understanding of a region and of its people, be they rough stockmen, gentry, or Aborigines. Given this, the diary could not fail to be a social document of prime importance, for observations of this quality are indeed rare. Further, the text bears every appearance of having been written day to day, conveying immediacy and freshness, scrawled as it was at top speed in a hand which was never good, for Clarke was too busy to observe niceties of calligraphy. But the point is that he managed to get his thoughts and recollections set down and illustrated where necessary by quick pen sketches. The product is something not only to instruct and inform later generations, but to delight them. 

Over the years Clarke, who travelled widely in scientific pursuits, was to make a number of  journeys to the Illawarra and Shoalhaven.  In 1839-40 he had not progressed on the coastline much north of Wollongong. But during December 1845, in company with the famous English scientist, Joseph Beete Jukes (1811-1869), then visiting Sydney as one of the staff on the survey vessel HMS Fly, he made his way to Wollongong and examined the coal measures up to Coalcliff in the north. Their joint conclusions are reflected in a paper Jukes contributed to the Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, and in the latter’s 1850 book on Australian geology and geography.  But this, like Dana’s seminal work, is for the specialist. The field notes which Clarke would undoubtedly have written must be presumed lost in that lamentably destructive fire. And as for the general scene at that time, the mounting pressures of life by then prevented Clarke keeping the sort of journal he had written in 1839-40. All he then had time for was at best the briefest daily jottings. Consequently for this 1845 venture into Illawarra we sadly have nothing.

But that only goes to show how very fortunate we are that Clarke’s primary record has survived. The documentation of Illawarra’s early history is indeed rich, perhaps unusually so; and of all those riches there is little, if anything, to surpass this diary for acute perception, sympathetic and tolerant awareness, and absorbing interest.                                                                                                                             

Edgar Beale  

Editorial Comment

Clarke having apparently written with the speed of a man of quick mind with no time to spare, his handwriting is never easy to read; yet there are relatively few passages which are illegible or even doubtful. Those which are have been indicated in the transcript in square brackets, as have other editorial insertions for the purpose of clarifying the text where deemed essential or helpful for better understanding. At the same time the policy of this series has been observed, that the text should stand in its own right with minimal editorial intervention.

Transcription and proof-reading have been as accurate as possible so that occasional misspellings and misconstructions are to be taken as being in accordance with the original, thus avoiding continual use of [sic]. This will explain inconsistencies, observable throughout the text, in Clarke’s use of names, particularly Aboriginal names; all have been printed as he spelt them for the moment, because on the latter who is to say which spelling is right and which wrong when, for example, he renders the one word variously as Khanternigee, Khanternigy, Khanterintee? Similarly, he is not always consistent in the use of ordinary words; for instance “blowhole” sometimes appears as one word, sometimes two, sometimes hyphenated.

Words underlined by Clarke have been italicized; and for what is deemed ease of reading the sign &, (not by any means always used) has been extended to “and” throughout. Vowels joined as diphthongs have been separated (e.g. Casuarinae) to suit modern topography.

The diarist’s occasional footnotes have proved virtually impossible to reproduce as written. They have therefore been inserted in the text in square brackets where they best belong logically.  

U.S.S. Personnel Named in Text

Clarke having joined forces with several men from the U.S. Exploring Expedition to make up a party, their names appear sporadically, but otherwise unexplained. The exception is that of Dana, who is referred to continually, and as to whom see the introduction. The “gentlemen” (as their leader, Wilkes, described them) are listed in the Narrative as:

J.D. Dana

Alfred T.Agate - Artist
Joseph Pitty Couthouy - Naturalist

James Dwight Dana - Mineralogist

Joseph Drayton - Artist

William Rich - Botanist

Local Identities Named in Text

Alexander Berry - Landowner, Shoalhaven.

David Berry - Cousin of Alexander Berry

Biggs - Aboriginal guide

Mr & Mrs Bloomfield - Owners of Denham Court, near Appin

Mr Burnett - Government surveyor

Mr & Mrs Cavill

Ellen - Ellen Maynard Clarke, born 21 October 1835

Forrest - Church of England minister at Sydney

Mr Foster - Barrister of Sydney, with property at Wollongong

Mr Gregory - Resident of Appin

Hal

Mr Hancock - Edward Hancock, storekeep at Wollongong

Mr Manning - William Manning, Sydney businessman

Reverend Mathew Devenish Meares - Church of England clergyman for Illawarra

Mr Murphy

Mr Nichols - Store owner at Wollongong 

Old Frying Pan - Aboriginal of Wollongong - also known as “Brown Brew”. 

Dr Alick Osborne - Settler at Dapto 

Henry Osborne - Settler at Marshall Mount, Dapto 

Dr John Osborne - Settler at Wollongong 

Postman - Possibly Ben Rixon

Mr Rigney - Roman Catholic priest at Illawarra 

Mr & Mrs Sporling - Residents of Appin 

Mr Street

Mr Tingcombe - Church of England minister 

Mr Troughton - Reverend John Troughton, second in charge at King’s School, Parramata 

Captain Westmacott - Sydney businessman and Illawarra landholder

Mr Wilkinson - C.S. Wilkinson, former Church of England minister at Illawarra

Glossary of Geological Terms 

Basalt

Basaltic

Calcareous sandstone

Coal

Fault

Fossils

Ironstones

Jurassic

-----------------------------

Reverend W.B. Clarke

Diary of a Journey to Illawarra and Shoalhaven

29 December 1839 - 11 January 1840

[1839]  [p213] Sunday Decr. 29  Mr Tingcombe accompanied me to Dural, where I preached at 11 on old year Ps. 34.8. Returned by way of Pennant Hills and North Rocks a ride in a broiling sun of 26 miles. Cockchafers eating the Gum Trees. Dined afterwards with Mr T.   Monday Decr 30.  Spent an hour at the Court House on the Bench. Met Mr Street who in[vite]d me to go to Sydney on my way to the Hunter. But changed my mind and remained till tomorrow. Not feeling well. The Tingcombes called and took Ellen out in their Carriage. A hot oppressive day. Rode out a few miles in the Ev[enin]g. Jones the Stable Keeper was drunk, as he has been for the last 6 days, in bed. His fits generally last 14 days! Resolved to go to Illawarra: and get Mr Troughton or  Forrest to do duty at Castle Hill. [p214]  Tuesday, Decr 31.  Rose at 7. Left at 9. Reached Liverpool in a burning sun at 12. Lunched at Solomon’s Ship Hotel. Mr and Mrs Cavill there from the interior with 2 dozen little parrots, some of them hardly fledged, a very interesting family.

The waiter was a black from Madras. Mr Soloman came in to see ‘how I was getting on’, and seeing a spoon wh[ich] had been brought me rather brown from vinegar, he took it ‘to break the deuced fellow’s head with it,’ an elegant mode of keeping his plate clean and his pate lean.

The road to Campbelltown rather dull. 1/2 way passed Denham Court, and called upon the Bloomfield’s at dinner. Seeing a range on the right, rode thither - it is certainly a basaltic ridge, having on it the regular Sydney stone and a calc[areous] sandstone of wh[ich] I found specimens, besides ironstones and coal fossils.

On the left the vale of Bunburey Curren having beyond the wooded ravines of the Cataract River and the Toggerai Creek. Reached C.T. [Campbelltown] [p215] at 7, & stopped at Miss Andrew’s Hotel, where I found all things wanting but mosquitoes, fleas, flies, spiders, cockroaches and ants.

Went to a quarry of Trap according to Major Mitchell & found it to be Shale - just such a cliff as our Parramatta one; with 3 faults in it. Under it lies the white coaley sandstone. The range to the right of C.T. looks older. Called at a shop & bought a wax-candle to kill the vermin by at night. Went to bed at 9 1/2 and lay awake till 5. Herds of game slain by the wax-candle - 52 mosquitoes, 1 tarantula, 1 centepede, a dozen or so of fleas: jumping, buzzing, flying & running things all about the bed.

Slept at 5. Woke at 6, covered with mountains pelein in opeu & opaeu olympus, the mole hills, but not beauty spots, of my face and hands. Memo: never to believe Troughton’s character of an inn again. I certainly worked out the old year and watched in the New, & did everything but bless my visitors. [p216]  [1840]

Wednesday Jany. 1.  A glorious hot day for the New Year to begin with. None of your cold English welcome but a regular frying pan sky - the mare flagged so much under it that, though the road is a good one, she had some work to get to Appin by noon.

Called at Mr Sporling’s, whose garden is fringed with Cape Oaks, and who persuaded me to stay all day with him. I did so. Went with him and Mrs Sporling to Mr Gregory’s where the labourer of the farm were dancing in the barn to the tune of a fiddle. Dined with the Sporling’s - he a gentleman, she a lady.

Walked with Mr Hull, their nephew, to the Cataract River. A fine scene of rock, water and wood - the banks perfectly vertical about 200 feet high, and the river a few yards over. In the woods we found several boulders of trap. Overhead were flying about 100 macaws, making the woods ring again with their noise, as much like a rook’s melody as possible. In fact they may be considered as the rooks of Appin in white chemises.

At this point of the Cataract River there is a small branch in flow from it, which was once always and is now, in floods, filled with water. A ledge of rock extends across and seperates the two streams. It formed then a waterfall. [p217]

For the first time these many months, I had at the dairy a bowl of good new milk - a sort of delicacy unknown at Paramatta, where it is all sky blue. The woman queried that we put it there and says she never puts water with it, but the water is very clever and gnits get in alive, for on Sunday we found in the milk pail at breakfast the larvae of gnits - the only time I ever thought mosquitoes incessable.

Slept in a back room at Sporlings - enough chambers in the wall for David and the prophets where there is a wooden window - no paper on the wall but a stump bed and stretcher, at least cushions and without a single visitor of any kind or shape. This made it better than any bed I have slept in for months and months. I was induced to stop by reports of the road to Illawarra, which I decided to take instead of going to the Hunter. The Razorback Ridge and the Blue Mountains were to the right of the road to Appin. Stopped by the road to break with a hammer the rocks. [p218]  

Thursday Jan 2  Up at 7. Breakfast and off at 10. Sporling and Hogg accompanied me a little way on the road - the former as far as the Cataract River, where we arrived at 40 before 12, having stood in the bush awhile. The road lies through banks of shale Stayed here ten minutes.

The descent to the river is down a steep precipitous escarpment with projecting points of falling stone. It took 40 minutes to induce the horses to descend, and then only was it accomplished by coaxing, beating and guiding their feet into the opening in the rock. The Madame was frightened to lead herself, but at last I got her down. When, however, we tried to cross the water, she positively refused to do so.

The river here runs over a ledge of narrow rocks, having deep water on each side and slippery. She advanced full 20 times half way over then suddenly backing, being alarmed by the motion and noise of the water, twisted around with great dexterity and reached the bank [p219] she came from.

I kindly went into the water to attempt to lead her over, but all in vain. Neither pulling her mane, nor whipping her flanks could move her. At last an Irishman coming on foot from Wollongong descended the pass on the other side of the mountain, and him we persuaded to assist us. I took off boots and stockings, and entered the stream also; and for and hour, during which Madame got herself off the ledge and remained in the deep water to the left, we tried persuasion and all kinds of ‘artful dodged’, but in vain. Philosophy, however, came to her aid at last, and thinking perhaps there was no chance of getting a few oats or corn in the middle of ‘Jordan’s Pass’, she yielded to my kind words and like a good mare as she is, bolted on shore. After a few minutes delay she began the ascent but not till she had seen 3 other horses and 3 other bipeds, 2 male and 1 female (in a riding dress and stockings over her heels) descend and cross.  * [Iron Stone in nodules in Rock at Jordans Pass]  Mr Sporling [p220] here took leave and gave the Irishman 2/6d for his trouble. I led Madame to the top of the cliff, where I found the ridge for some little way extremely rocky. Over this dangerous pass however is the mail regularly carried day by day, when by carriage the machine stops on the top of the mountain and the horse, passengers and baggage go over as they came, another astride standing amongst the trees on the farther side.

It is a great shame that the Government does not bridge the river and mound the road. 200 pound would make both passable. As it is, many lives have been lost there, and there is not one horse in 100 that will cross the fall without equal delay and difficulty.

For about 12 miles I rode through thick brush along a queer sort of road, alighting at a cottage called ‘Stringy Bark Hut’ which is to be called an inn some day, where I found a cup of tea and a bottle of ale. Then on for about 8 or 9 miles farther over [p221] pointed rocks, through a wilderness of woods, having deep ravines on either side, to the top of the mountain above Illawarra. Previous to which I passed a bog which extends right and left in patches along the mountains all the way on one side to Botany Bay, on the other side Bong Bong.

Springs of water break out occassionally but the mare was too frightened to drink. Enormous anthills rose here and there. One I measured was 6 feet high and 21 feet round, a regular pyramid of clay and sand. More marvelous in point of size compared with the ---- than those of Egypt. I noticed in some cases that and old decayed trunk of a tree rose from the midst of the cone. Before I reached the end of the wilderness I saw that I was approaching a mountainous region, in fact since I left Appin I have been riding on a ridge about 300 ft high - on my left rose a peaked hill which was enveloped in the clouds, from which rain was beginning to fall, and which obscured the outline. On my right also [p222] were mountains - the Mittagong Range very prominent.

The round hill to the left was Keera, above Wollongong. Ravines of great depth and most precipitous character extend far and near, and it was in their rugged edges that the road lay. I saw the same effect of trees rooting up the surface rock as observed before and elsewhere; but at one point, about half way from ‘Stringy Bark’, the surface was covered with broken masses which seemed to be the result of decomposition in situ; they were minature tors as in Cornwell.

The road at length lands you in the commencement of the descent, and here a new world bursts upon the eye. A deep ravine on the left filled with lofty trees; Keera beyond feathered to the summit 1800 feet at least above the sea; [p223] on the right Kembla about 1400 feet high, feathered also to the summit; an amphitheatre between, the wall of which afforded the descent by a winding road, is clothed with a dense forest, the procenium being a fertile flat as seen from this elevation, with the ocean beyond and to the right hand Illawarra Lake, and the Five Islands off Red Point.

Nothing can equal the splendour of the view. As you descend, the path - for it is little else - runs between the fragrant shrubs of verdant green so close as to brush the traveller as he passed, whilst right and left rise lofty cedar trees, the cabbage palm full 100 feet high without a leaf between its base and the bunch of glossy green foliage at he top, and a hundred kinds of new trees and shrubs, -------------------- whilst in the shady coverts and gullies that descend into the valley below, under the canopy of higher trees, rises the tree fern of great beauty - the zamia and the nettle trees, which last though horrid to handle, is extremely pretty, and many [p224] other less lofty but equally pretty plants. By the side of the pathway also grow many plants of the native raspberry, the fruit of which, now nearly ripe, is not unpleasant, though very unlike its European namesake, The birds do not appear to be numerous. The bell bird, so called from its single note, the laughing jack - ass and one or two others, make up with the squalling of parrots and cockatoos the whole of the music of the groves.

About half way down, the sandstone rock puts on a single character. It lies in the bank amidst clay in huge round masses having concentric coats about one inch thick and so decomposing 5 1/2 feet over - and evident result of trap nearby. A little beyond on the left, near a spring and a creek which seems to indicate a fault, is a trap dyke 26 feet wide, which has altered the adjoining sandstone and lifted it in vertical layers. I was disappointed before at not seeing trap in abundance, as [p225] Major Mitchell says the Illawarra mountain is all trap, which it is not. At the foot of the descent coming from under Keera, showing a dip of about 8- to N.E., crop out beds of coal, shale, clay, interesting coal fossils and layers of orbicular sandstone, having in advance a rising hill, beyond which lies Wollongong, on irregular ground, a little distance from the sea. It may be 2 miles from the town to the bottom of the hill. Perhaps sandstone comes from under the coal beds, nearer the town.

The country is nearly all cleared below the mountains, and the work of destruction seems to be going on fast in all the woods around.

Wollongong, at last reached, presented a number of scattered houses lying nevertheless in wide regular streets, and is possessed with a flagstaff, several inns, a Catholic chapel, a house in progress for the establishment of the British Foreign School Society, and a post office. 

 

I cast [p226] anchor at the Wollongong Hotel, commanding a view of the beach, and containing 3 good rooms, and two closets under a verandah in the front, the right of which was assigned to me as a bedroom, the left as a sitting room. I ordered my dinner, ate it and went out. But scarcely had I returned when I saw Mr Drayton and Mr Dana (U.S.S.) who were staying there. I therefore abandoned my verandah room and joined them at tea in a well proportioned, well furnished apartment. They introduced me to Mr Foster and his son, a barrister, who was there also; and in the evening came Mr Rigney, the Roman Catholic priest, to enlarge upon the wonders of Illawarra and recommend it to the newcomers.         

I had a ramble on the beach for a few minutes, spent a quiet evening in chat, and went to bed, where I slept pretty well, having only 3 or 4 mosquitoes to tease me. Mightly pleased with what I saw of Wollongong, a place 5 years since not in existence. [p227]  

Friday, January 3  Relying on Forrest’s agreement that Troughton should go to Castle Hill, I remained at Wollongong instead of returning.

This day is the anniversary of my marriage - a day I have never yet spent away from my own beloved partner. I am not now absent but in body, and have endeavoued to make up for that by being present in the shape of an Epistle to be sent by Mr Murphy of Parramatta, whom I have just seen and who returns thether on Monday. May God preserve her and enable me to provide for her as she deserves!

After breakfast I accompanied Mr Dana to the beach. Here we found on the left a low cliff about 20 or 25 feet high of greenish sandstone crested with yellow, full of shells, corallines, etc. The flat slabs of stone below the cliff are intersected by innumerable lines of firm stone, and also divided into regular figures, without any general direction except into two lines - containing many nodular connections, [p228] perfectly round, the nucleus of some shell or coralline, which are found upon breaking off the connections with the hammer. The ironstone lines are crowded together - 6 or 7 at a time squeezed into a schistose structure. There is a good deal of clay in the upper part of the rock. A large open dyke seems to pass through the face of the cliff, but not in the direction of a trap dyke which appears upon the bench and which is seperated into 2 parts. At the end of the cliff there is a sort of cave excavated in the lower beds. They are all inclined from 8- to 10- to N.E. An ancient bench lies about 12 to 20 feet on the top. At the right of the road to the beach there is a raised sea beach about 20 feet high on the left side, containing the Trochus Australis and other usual shells. A little beyond, a cliff extends some distance into the sea to the east, having its north side excavated very deeply to form a basin for the steamers. The upper parts of the beds are yellowish clay with sandstone, the lower are the greenish gray rock, abundant in nodules and fossils. [p229] 

Many of the shells are 6 to 9 inches across. The east side of this cliff is seperated by a platform of flat rock from a long ridge of rock against which the ocean beats most violently, and having a tower-like mass at the south end 25 feet or more in size, with crystals of feldspar decomposing. This mass much resembles the Lion’s Hill at Cape Town. This mass and others of like kind along the coast have been islands. 

At the south end of the cliff, where the flagstaff is, there is a large open dyke running from the S.E. direction into and open circular cove now used as a bathing place. The wall of rock between the cliff and overlying pillar is pierced by a hole like a window. Fossil wood occurs here as in the cliff and beach to the north. The rock is very hard and contains many concretions. 

In those places where removed concretions have left circular cups and basins, sea shells, supula, seaweed, corallines and actinae of beautiful forms and [p230] colour occupy the sides, and nothing can equal the beautiful appearance of those little natural fish ponds. When large, they are frequently filled with fish, the toad fish and other spotted varieties swimming amongst the seaweeds. Asteria are also common. The fossil kind nearly allied to the living species occupied an occassional nodulous concretion. 

The variety of sponges also is great, some of them the counterpart of the ventriculites as of the English chalk and Wiltshire flints. 

The modern shingle consists of trap, the sandstone of the cliffs, abundance of fossil wood, and granite nodules. The shore between the seperate points of the coast is a fore dune, affording good promenade. Blown sandhills are found along the edge of the raised beach, which extends all along about the same level and altitude, bound down by the arenites etc. as in England. Mr Drayton brought in a handsome green frog with black eggs who, when touched, cried out like a frog. Mr Foster and his son returned in the evening with 20 quails killed that day, out of 22 shot. They were large and more like the partridge than any bird I ever saw. [p231]  

Saturday, January 4  Geologised again along the shore. Mr Agate and Mr Rich joined our party, having arrived by the steamer in the morning early. Mr Manning, Chairman of the Geological Society, also called and dined with us today at 3.      

  

I rode before dinner to Towrudgi about 4 miles along the beach, [and] in returning going through the bush thither. The soil black, the vegetation rich. Passed a creek which is bridged (when bridge is perfect) by palm trees, and through some maize fields into a woody marsh behind the sandhills, near the road to Bulli.    

Towridgi Point is sandstone of Wollongong at the extremity, but half the way nearest the shore is occupied by enormous blocks of black trap which also appears below as a dyke, direction approximately N.E. I could not trace it beyond the sandhill. The sea was very rough and the wind high and there was a consistent mist of sea water coming from the spray, evident to the eye as well as the face. On the point there were pieces of fossil wood, of granite, shale etc. [p232]   

        

The beach was marked by the impressions of 2 naked feet which had come from Bulli, evidently a black fellow’s. The sand blown up high is stratified by the wind and ribbed. The mare at first did not like the sea, but galloped on gladly afterwards. On going we crossed the dry bed of a stream which runs into the sea between Towridgi and Wollongong. The road crossed the stream where the water was flowing, near some hard rocks cutting huge masses of trap. In the mud of the fresh water we found several curios. I saw no birds save a crow-like gull. 

In the evening strolled out with Mr Dana and Mr Rich behind the Quarry. But the sea was so high that the spray wetted us all through, and we returned.         

The Steamer was about to start for Sydney - the beach was piled high with boxes and foxcages, and at 7 a large party of convicts went on board through a heavy surf, and light rain, and after them a smaller boat, and at last the steamer departed. [p233] I was reminded of departing in the Calais Mail from Dover Bay. I had sent off by her a box of specimens. 

The evening was spent in instructive converse, till about 9 when Mr Agate, Mr Rich and myself went off to attend a corrobery, a meeting of the blacks, to which we had been invited by ‘old Frying Pan’, alias Brown Bean, and some others, whom we got to throw the Boomerang for our amusement after dinner.             

‘Frying Pan’ I had seen at Mr Nichol’s store yesterday and again today - he was also a guide to Mr Foster. He is a fisherman, but when I asked him to catch me some Dildils, a huge prawn abounding here, he was angry, and said only women took them. Men catch nothing but with a spear.  

        

About 10 we reached the corrobery ground. It was in the bush where several large Teatrees were growing. Three of four fires made known the spot, to which we are at first directed by [p234] the laughter of the blacks. Beside a fire to the right over which sat an old woman whom we had seen in town dressed in a dirty pink gown thrown over her, lay 8 naked fellows, daubing themselves over with white pipe clay, which they first chewed to make soft, and red ochre etc.       

     

They lay on their backs forming bands of white over their chests, arms and legs; and then they rubbed each others backs with red ochre, rising from time to time, that the old lady might see that all was perfectly properly done. They then bound their middles with strips of linen, having a tassle at each end, one of which hung down before, the other behind.      

      

When this was done, during which time their spears stood against a tree, they sipped some liquid from a tin pot which they had got at by means of a piece of rope-yarn. The liquor turned out to be sugar and water.           

Around the other fires lay various groups of men and women, some partly and some wholly clad, [p235] others quite naked. One fellow who was as black as Erebos wore a large straw hat, and as we came up, said in excellent English “I have nothing to do with getting up this corrobery. I have not been at one for several years.” The facility with which the blacks acquire our language is wonderful - several spoke as well as this fellow. When the ball was ready to be begun they told us to go to a fire which two half-naked women were making. I lent a hand and plucked some of the soft tea-tree bark for them and in a few minutes there was a great blaze, illumining the overhanging arches of the tree and showing their trunks like the column of a cathredal aisle. I could not fail to be impressed with a feeling of wild sublimity, especially as fire after fire blazed up and I found myself amongst at least 100 native savages, many of them in a state of perfect nudity and looking most [p236] unearthly. One, a tall, thin fellow without a rag upon him, sat over a solitary fire alone, stirring the ashes with a stick having a hook to it, the machine with which he catches worms and maggots from the trees. By another fire sat a man with his wife and child, the latter ill with fever. I asked how old it was, the answer was “holding up the hands twice and two fingers twice, 2 years or 24 moons.”       

  

About five minutes after we had assembled we heard from a dark corner a low melancholy sort of chant, and a beating of a waddy against a shield; the shout grew louder, at first it was sung by two voices, then by several - voices chiming in till it burst out in a most unearthly howl - the noise increasing. ‘O Roa’ seemed to be frequently repeated. After the first chant, the singers came out into the night and we then saw one man with a reddish cotton [p237] pocket handkerchief on his shoulders beating the waddy against the shield, the chief musician who sang with another beside him. The sound appeared to be emmitted from the chest with a great straining of muscles, as if it caused pain.

The dancers, 8 in number, then came out, each having in his hand a bunch of fresh leaves, the very bouquet of an English belle - and when the chant began again, in which all seemed to join, they commenced the dance - by moving the right limb first, the left afterwards, backwards and forwards with a low grunting coincident with the kicking out of the limbs. Then one at a time they advanced, opened their legs, stood perfectly erect and stiff, and jerked the whole body by a violent muscular movement in and out by the knees. This was clearly a difficult part, and very painful to continue, as it lasted for a moment, and I observed that they [p238] whisked the green boughs about them after it as if to cool themselves.            

The song was going on all the while, and the entertainment consisted in repeating the song and dance together. This was done several times when the party who were looking on, reminding me strongly of the old dowagers and aunts and uncles at an English ball, began to express dissatisfaction. Amongst the complainers was Mr Frying Pan, who with a red night-cap on his head, sat beside the first fire. He made a great noise and when, as I was informed by an interpreter, he urged the dancers on and they said they could not get more than themselves to dance - he said “if the man wont dance why don’t you take the woman?” which afforded great merriment to all who understood him. I use the word ‘understood’ because it appears that this corrobery was called by the Sydney Blacks, [p239] and the ball given by them to the Blacks of Kiama, Wollongong, Liverpool, Brisbane Water and Newcastle, from which places some came to this meeting. Now, as they are of different tribes and do not speak the same dialect, several did not understand a single word of the song, which was a new one, and therefore no wonder it did not give satisfaction to them.           

On enquiry I find the burden of the song to be: “that the white man came to Sydney in ships and landed the horses in the saltwater.” It is of such ridiculous subjects that the Blacks of New Holland make their songs - and any trifling event is celebrated by a song. They appeared to be perfectly harmless, nor was there the slightest indecorum in their conduct on this occasion. There was a degree of quiet and silent gravity I was astonished at, and I could compare their behavior to nothing so [p240] much as to that of well-behaved people at a similar Corrobery or Ball in England. On grave occassions the Corrobery has doubtless a different character, varying with circumstances .. the only signs of war here were the spears with which some of the men danced, held upright before them. I recognised one of the dancers as a man with one arm, wearing a plate in the day time as chief of Wollongong; he had told me that he lost his arm in the General Hospital. Another I knew to be the man who had thrown the Boomerang in the morning.              

  

Of the Blacks it may be generally remarked, that they are fond of seeing the whites amongst them ... they have kindness enough to perceive our advantages over them, and they generally ask for a little sixpence as Frying Pan did tonight. It was 12 o’clock before I left, when this [p241] Australian opera was not nearly done. As we returned home we heard the noise of song and dance evidently continued with uninterrupted ardour.       

 

Old Frying Pan, whom I had seen before, seemed to have some notions of Religion, but it is certain they are in part borrowed from the whites. I examined him closely on the subject of Cannibalism. He was very angry at the idea, and said none of his people ever ate flesh. But he allowed some bad fellows did up the country far away. I asked him what happened after death. He said “Go up on high tree - then go to great governor. He give bull (drink), plenty kangaroo, plenty opossum, plenty fish.” On further enquiry he satisfied me this was not all original, for he used the term “God Almighty.”          

The Blacks, however, certainly believe in a state after death, for they have an idea that [p242] they are turned into white-men, into whales, porpoises, etc., and many of them go so far as to address a whale or other great fish as their Uncle, Father, etc., and call them to come on shore with them. Nay, so far is this carried, that some time ago a white man was asked by a Black to make atonement for an injury done by another, who was dead, because there happened to be a great resemblance between the dead man and the white.      

The most extraordinary thing is the perfect way in which they pronounce and express themselves in English. Their own dialects appear to be pronounced thickly, only perfectly clear and well defined, even the harshest sounds. I observed tonight a great diversity of colour and countenance. There were evidently more than one race. [p243]

Sunday, January 5  Mr Hancock called this morning early to invite our party to Mr Meares’ tomorrow and to propose a route by the Kangaroo Ground, instead of going directly to Kiama with Mr Burnet, the Surveyor whom I saw yesterday.         

       

At 10.30 I called on Mr Meares. He asked me to read prayers. I agreed, and at 11 joined him at service in the School House, where about 100 persons attended. He preached a plain practical discourse. Dr. Osborne was at his house afterwards. He asked us to lunch with him tomorrow. The Wollongong church not yet commenced but the site well chosen on the top of the hill. The afternoon was extremely wet. Walked out with Dana to the beach and saw a heavy rolling surf setting in. Returning I saw the Roman Catholic priest coming from church. It is a most curious specimen of building. The Roman Catholic chapels in New South Wales are all singular in their architecture and position: insulated and elevated, evidently to attract attention. [p244]    

          

Mr Drayton returned from the Illawarra Lake - reputed it to be now closed up from the sea: not open since 4 years - water higher than ever known, owing to fresh water from the late rains and fresh water rivers. Numerous enormous pelicans stand fishing just inside the border. The blacks say that the oysters are all dying. From the fresh water no doubt. The shore of the lake is 6 rods further inland than formerly. A trap dyke extends from the lake to the west. Tom Thumb’s lagoon still open. To bed early.  

Monday, January 6  Rose at 6. Breakfasted with Mr Meares at 7, with Mr Hancock, Dana, Drayton and Burnet. Off at 9. Hancock and Meares accompanying Dana and me and the guide (Biggs) to Dapto. The road leaves that over Keira to the right, then descends to country much like the coal district of England - through a woody region to Charcoal Creek, which is bridged by palm trees, passing an enormous fig-tree, at the foot of which old Timbery, a black, was born, and which [p245] his people venerate. There is another tree which the blacks say contains the names of their tribe and its history, by some hieroglyphical interpretation of its branches: a real genealogical tree.   

After riding a considerable distance through the open bush, crossing a trap dyke running N.W. of E. into Keira under which the road goes for some way towards Kembla, we forded Mullet Creek which runs into Illawarra Lake and reached Dapto. Ascending the hill and cantering along a scrubby lane reached Dr. Alex Osborne’s, a small cottage commanding a fine view of Kembla, Carangalea, and Wongawilli mountains where we waited 2 hours from 12 to 2. Dr. Osborne showed us a Bill in Spanish granting indulgences from the Pope dated 1834, also several scapulas worked in silk, one containing a figure of a crown, and another that of the letters M.A.(Ave Maria) .. a proof that Dr. Ullathorne and Bishop Poulding know nothing about their church.       

 After a hasty dinner we left at 2 p.m., the guide, Dana and I. We rode like Jehu’s first cousins [p246] into the bush, crossed a maize field, down hills and up hills for several miles, crossing the Macquarie River and several dry creeks, till about 4 p.m.                 

We commenced an ascent of nearly 1000 feet up a grassy steep slope amidst lofty trees to the foot of a vertical wall of rock 1000 feet higher, which we had to clamber as we could, [on] all fours sometimes, dragging the horses after us. Up this ascent we passed numerous palm and fern trees as well as zamia. After many slips and much difficulty and labour we gained the summit, whence we had a splendid view of the lakes, the sea, and the mountains, and the deep defiles filled with thick forests which we had passed, Dr.Osborne’s place lying before and far below us.          

Just at the summit we passed a trap dyke. Then into a thick scrubby bush, crossing several brooks, the last of which having the character of a river, rising in a bog which we crossed. About 30 yards from the crossing it precipitates itself down a vertical fissure nearly 300 feet deep.  [p247] 

[Drawing]  [p248] 

[Drawing]  [p249] 

The nearest resemblance to this fall is the Chute de Chade in the road between Sollenches and Chamonix in Savoie, of which I made a sketch now stitched up on my copy of Boel’s Switzerland. The singular way in which the rock is here fissured adds however to the scene. The ravine itself is very narrow and the walls perfectly vertical.   

Shale we saw for about 20 feet below the upper bed, but from the character of the lower beds I believe them to be columnar trap. The vegetation is very rich in the sides of this fissure, but the trees on the crests are not particularly striking. Several large trees grow below the surface down the sides of the fissure, but their branches do not reach the top. The water descends in 2 parts, unites, and is broken into spray as to make no impression on the clear still pond below. The ravine about 100 yards here, extends about 300 feet and spans into a transverse mountainous valley, the bounding hills of which are high and peaked. [p250]          

Altogether it was a thriling scene, such as one would gladly have painted had I time or ability. The ravine runs E. and W. The gullied pot-worn surface of the rocks above the fall shows plainly that sometimes the water is far more abundant. In times of great rain what a magnificent fall this must be. Hard argilaceous shale lies in the left bank.      

Seven miles over a wild black burnt forest carried us to a dividing road to Jamberoo marked by a tree cut all round - the only guide post here. Another mile brought us to the beginning of the descent which was quite as steep as the ascent amidst palms and ferns etc.       

About 1/4 way we came under a rock of vertical sandstone, having shale and coal plants embedded about 6 feet above the ledge. Then down a gully filled with pebbles of trap and shale to where, as Biggs said, Captain Westmacott lost his pen knife when he crossed. The lower part of [p251] the descent was through a perfect forest of ferns, which, from the rain which had begun to fall, wetted us so much we were obliged to ride, though compelled frequently to alight. Before us was a high mountain, ridges bounding Stuart’s Valley, which we now entered in the rain, galloping up and down the green buttress slopes, crossing river after river, leaping over fallen trees (a regular fox-hunt) passing dry creeks and running all sorts of dangers (as it was getting darker) from the great stones in the beds of the streams, reaching Mr Meares’s Station after dark about 8pm. About 2 miles from it we raised several wild cattle, who scampered off when we rode into their herd full speed. Several hundreds of wild bulls and cows are here about; the first we saw was a black sturdy brut, but he soon fled.                 

The station we could not see clearly, but we heard the cuckoo on our arrival very distinctly. [p252] The old English sound, but not the English bird. Our guides horse, Juke, a white and excellent animal seen in the dusk with his straw-hatted rider scamping along, was now at home again, and he came for his evening allowance of corn to the door of the hut.            

   

The good woman quickly prepared us a fire and some tea and we lay down on stretchers in a rush-floored log hut, having holes between the planks in the wall, without curtains, and though the night was damp we slept soundly, the great log fire blazing cheerily in the great wooden chimney till awakened by the crowing of cocks and the quacking of ducks next morning. We were annoyed by wicked mosquitoes and bugs - a few fleas danced a welcome to Kangaroo Valley, but the wall near the fireplace was covered with thousands of cockroaches, which gave us no trouble. People in London would call this hut a pig-stye, perhaps English piggeries are better built, but we [p253] found it comfortable, convenient and warm, and after riding upwards of 40 miles, ascending and descending a mountain 2000 feet high, and crossing 11 rivers and about 20 dry creeks, we found a cup of tea, a new egg, a slice of damper, and a stretcher before a log-fire, a comfort that many a Dandy in London would envy. The pass we had kept up on the riding forward was such as a Meltonian would not have despised; and this with a cloak before me on the saddle, and a pair of saddle-bags containing my wardrobe and specimens of geology of which I collected not a few.        

    

At 11 I was asleep dreaming like the Friars of the Grey Orders of ‘fat pullets and clotted cream,’ both of which were within a call.     

The storekeeper has several parrots - one a small but most talkative little creature chatted with us on arrival. This day 18 months ago I left dear old Stanley Green on my way to N.S.W. The evening was rainy then as now. I cried myself to sleep at Dorchester. To-night I slept without crying. [p254]  

Tuesday, January 7  Having taken a comfortable breakfast and inspected the stables and farm buildings, we went out to explore. The house in which we had slept was built of logs and shingled, the chimney being a wide wooden building added on at the end.     

The windows are mere frames, with no glass, only a wooden shutter. Between each board in the walls, which were unplastered you could not only see but put your hand. This is the case with all the farmhouses in the country.   

Two high square stools, such as naughty boys sit on at school, and a table equally rude, made up the furniture of our sitting room; yet we had contrived to make ourselves tolerably comfortable. Two rooms such as this, with a reed floor, make the master’s apartment. The servants, i.e. the steward and his wife, had two rooms containing more dairy utensils but not more furniture. [p255] 

The regular farm servants, who were assigned ‘convicts’, live in a large shed apart from the others and with as little comfort as may be necessary. Yet in the climate of Australia this is a very good way of passing life and if one should wonder how people accustomed to better things at home put up with these miserable accomodations here, the answer is, when comforts cannot be had the wise man learns to make contentment supply their place. 

The view from the hut was of a lofty mountain clad to the summit, having a river, that which we had passed at the waterfall yesterday, at its base, and between the hut and the river a field of wheat cut and sheaved. The valleys here being surrounded with lofty mountains affording no outlet for carriages, only sufficient grain is grown for home consumption, the object of each station [p256] being the increase of cattle, horses, etc...      

          

Following the course of the river, and crossing a branch of it now dry, its bed filled with boulders of trap and granite with an occassional round mass of sandstone, over which a fine and beautiful grove of Casuarina hung its pensile boughs and in the thick branches of which were innumerable ‘Laughing Jack Asses’ who well deserve their name, we entered through a wide open pass of ferns and forest, a wide and lengthened valley entirely shut right and left by lofty mountains. The ends of this valley were also enclosed by mountains, and at its exit a belt of forest obscured the outlet of the river. The mountains were all clad to the summit.        

We recognised the pass by which we descended yesterday, and a steward of Dr Osborne’s farm pointed out to us several spots which in rainy weather are marked by waterfalls. ‘Broughton’s Head’ - a lofty mountain, stood conspicuously to the north-east. Over this we were about to make our departure from the valley.     

The sides of this valley evidently show a correspondence to a [p257] remarkable conical peak at each end (which are both basaltic) limits the view. The lower parts of the mountains being slopes, are hid by forest trees and the intermediate flat valley shows signs of having been at no distant period a lake. The soil being a black vegetable cork; the geological features agreeing perfectly with the accounts received, that within the last 17 years the ground was swampy and covered with reeds.   

Mr Dana thought the sea had occupied it as a gulf. I do not. I think it was fed by the waterfall river and other numerous streams now passing into that, and that the barrier was burst and the water let out. At any rate this valley, if not so completely secluded from the world, would on account of its rich soil and perfect level, be a valuable acquisition. It is perfectly inaccessible to carriages. The Bong Bong mountains limit it to the Northward, the principal heights being Marcilla, Barenjewry, Jacks Hill, Big Brush Mountain, etc. [p258]   

To the south and east the range has for nearly 3 parts down, trap rock above the sandstone. Maize grows abundantly in part of the flat. The rest is untilled it takes its name, as well as the river through which it flows, from the Kangaroo which formerly abounded there, now extinct. The river was crossed by a fallen tree - often the only bridge in N.S.W. The multitude of trap pebbles in its bed caused subject for speculation, but it is clear that they came from hills on the rivers course, which perhaps we shall explore further on.         

We took a bush dinner of tea, damper and fryed chicken and departed for Coolangatta at 2 p.m. Our road lay to the right of that by which we arrived yesterday and through another portion of the Valley running E.N.E. and W.S.W., where the green open forest was most beautiful. This bush-riding has quite an air of romance about it. You gallop along over a green but not level track, studded with splendid trees, through which you wind your way, every trunk [p259] varying with the interchange of light and shade, which in this country is stronger than elsewhere. Suddenly you come upon some dry watercourse with lofty banks, the bed of which is strewn with fragments of rocks over which and through we must ride, Then, again, you cross rivers full of water, gliding along under a canopy of branches, and having a thick jungle of ferns upon their edges, affording spots of the most cooling aspect amidst the sultry heat of the noon-day sun. And sometimes you pass through a thick scrub, or close packed forest, where the number of trees is so increased as to diminish the light or reduce it to sort of noon light. Occassionally on this route, which consisted not of a regular road but of rather a footpath trodden as by cattle or sheep, we had to leap innumerable trees fallen across it so that the ride has more the character of a steeple chase than anything else, and frequently recalled [p260] to my mind our boyish game of ‘follow the leader’ as one saw the stockman guide cantering along in the rain without slacking his speed, over trees, through stumps, suddenly disappearing down a steep bank and suddenly rising again up the opposite bank.             

These variations of level are occassioned by the slope of the lower ranges that run from the vertical heights into the Valleys. The ground was frequently strewn also with lumps of Basalt or Sandstone, which required some caution and passed over the edge of some projection, dyke or upturned structure.                 

After riding in this way for 1 1/2 hours we began to ascend a steep ascent in a S.W. direction, the only passage for drays into the Shoalhaven district. So steep was it that it was nearly vertical in places and great exertion, even on foot, was required to keep the ground. The bullock drays occassionally go up thither; with 13 or more bullocks in the lead, and it not [p261] unusually happens that the whole concern is thrown over two or three times in going up.              

About a third of the height was composed of sandstone and clay covered with tall gum trees and she-oak trees. Then we came upon trap, the very rock we had been in search of, and it was clear that Broughton’s Head was for the remainder of the way of this rock alone. The vegetation immediately assumed a tropical character, proving again that the hills are of the richer soil, and warmer than the valleys; tree ferns, palm trees and zamia, creeping ferns, berries of immense size festooning the tree, and parasites hanging and rooting in every branch of enormous fig trees, the nettle trees, the musk tree, the cedar and an infinity of shrubs of the brightest glossy green formed the forest jungle at the top which continued all over the summits of the mountains and afforded the most interesting and splendid scenery imaginable. One figtree was fully 120 feet high, all [p262] roots (itself a parasite), shot up its columns of fibre, every branch holding as in a flower pot enormous ferns - whilst besides it the palms and zamia reared themselves in lofty grandeur. One variety of creeping fern forming tendrills around the trees struck me much.         

After riding along in this thick jungle we came to the summit where we found a trap rock, containing veins of conglomerate running in all directions, a phenomenom new to me and Mr Dana. Tthe descent led us through quite as steep a declivity, and many dangerous umbrageous groves, where the soil was a rich vegetable mud, and in which the only signs of human life were two saw-fish and palm-leaved huts occupied by cedar cutters - to a lower picturesque region of open forest having on our left a far loftier mountain then Broughton’s Head, with a narrow, steep, knife-like summit ridge covered with trees, where the wood alternated with an occassional swamp or [p263] meadow flat, having beyond a view on one side of the Bush, on the other of the Ocean.     

We came about 5 o’clock to a river, which we crossed, then to the saw-mill established by Mr Berry, which we visited. The machinery is simple and washed by water in the American plan. Here I saw three gins - one woman of about 40 having her shoulders and bosom tattooed (marks of mourning, cut with a glass bottle or stone, the very custom of old time Leviticus XIX 28, XXI 5), the other very young, one with a child extremely small in her blanket behind her. I asked them the name of the waterfall we had seen yesterday. They did not know. I said “where are you going?” - they said “Walkabout”. As I knew they were in search of food I gave the old one a shilling which she thanked me for, and putting on her blanket she walked off. The youngest of these women was very good-looking. Their husbands, they said, were at home. [p264] No doubt asleep, whilst their wives were “raising the wind”.           

Shortly after, we forded the waterfall river, which even here feels the tide from Shoalhaven, and struck off into the bush, crossing a range between Coolangatta and the mountain, which was green and varied in aspect; finally passing a large swamp, near which there were two or three huts, and reaching Mr Berry’s place about 6 o’clock.             

We entered a rather large court formed of stables, dwelling place, stores, and in by a gate opposite to the dwelling house of the family, and presenting a letter of introduction from Mr Mason, were received (at first I thought coldly, but afterwards I saw) with real simple-hearted hospitality.

The party was a large one, but our host anticipating our need told us we might go to bed early. We were provided with an excellent room - and every accomodation, and passed a quiet night free from visitors, whether creeping or flying, dreaming of the palm trees by which [p265] we had passed on the day, without having seen or heard of the various animals which frequent other countries where tropical vegetation grows.            

The country in geological point of view was trap on the mountain, sandstone with shells below, and at the bottom the slatey Parramatta stone with scaley impressions. The thermometer stood at 74- on arriving. Our distance today was about 30 miles.  

Wednesday, January 8  Poor Hal’s Birthday, would he were here. Thermometer at 8am 76- at noon 80-. Rose at 6 1/2 the morning being fine and walked on the verandah with Mr Berry. ‘A native companion’ was in the garden, the second specimen I have seen. It is a beautiful bird and very tame. Its name is derived from its fondness for the human [p266] society. The other I saw at Parramatta. The impression of the feet of that bird walking on the soft dust of the road there exactly correspond with those in the Conneticut sandstone, so far as the character of some of the marks is involved. The steps were about 8 feet 3 ins apart.        

I saw at Mr Berry’s immense crowds of a little hemipterous insect, red and black, running over the fences and trees, and over the grass. I understand that it is common in other places, though I have not met with it. After breakfast we went down afield near the house and saw a stone precisely like the Parramatta slate stone which was being dug there and which contains teste. Mr David Berry fossil shells. I saw in it traces of coaly matter. The Shoalhaven river is here an apparently large stream, but its banks are occupied by mangrove trees and the ground is very marshy. A few huts of Mr Berry’s people occupy its borders, and on the other side he has a cattle and sheep station. Coolangatta [p267] is the name of this house derived from the mountain of that name which runs close to it, and forms a three terraced hill upwards of 900 feet high. The walk to its summit formed our first excursion. Mr David Berry accompanied us. The accent was very steep amidst long grass and trees partly cut down, and the terraces found by nearly vertical sections strewed with sandstone and trees. The former rock occupies a third of the hill - then trap and lastly sandstone which is here full of fossils, identical with those of Wollongong and which break out on the steep escarpment towards the south.           

     

The top of the hill is not seen from the house; it is very small in extent and circular, crusted with trees and zamia. Mosquitoes there were terrible plagues to the sketcher. The view from this hill is very fine. The coast line from Black Head to Jervis Bay and Ulladulla is clearly defined with its sandy beach and fringing wood to the north. The mouth of the Shoalhaven was blocked up with sand - the lagoon beyond [p268] and the curious indentations forming Jervis Bay, Point Perpendicular and the island at the entrance, as it were, nearly bevelled in. The sea for some distance, as well as the Shoalhaven, is to the same yellow hue as the Solway Firth seen from Shiddaw and is so coloured by sands. These shift continually and Mr Berry said the mouth of the river has altered within the last fortnight. It is clear that now not even a boat can enter it, owing to the bar. Shoalhaven therefore will never furnish a safe or possible harbour. Sharks abound in the sea here and river: a blackfellow was lately killed by one while fishing.           

The mangrove flats seem to occupy the country on each side for a considerable way up the river. The hill of Nowra, of a pyramid form, being the only break. That too is clad in wood. In the extreme horizon to the S.W. we saw two or three conical hills, the tops of the farthest ranges - then came Diddel, alias the Pigeon House, which though so far off, seen through the telescope presents a vertically stratified outline and seems to be [p269] sandstone. Near it is a small table mountain and further on a large table mountain called Wambamoway, which is part of a nearer range. Further to the north the hills increase in height till they become blended with the ranges we have lately passed. Intermediate between these points the country is intersected by deep ravines, which in the light of the sun in the cleared sky alternately came into view, and we clearly saw the course of the Shoalhaven River coming through an enormous gorge, nearly vertical.            

Below the mountains, the country is all of a flat character and wooded everywhere. Broughton’s Head ---- lay opposite to us on the other side, having thick flanks, the swamps and woods etc. we passed yesterday and over it the razor topped ridge (Broughton’s Head) which runs down to Black Head.          

After enjoying the view for some time, in which the wide expanse of Ocean [p270] without a sail and as blue as the sky was a principal feature, we descended, took lunch, arranged our fossils and set out for Kiama. Mr David Berry accompanying us to Gerringong. 

We rode at first under Coolangatta which appears full its measured height of nearly 1000 feet, then crossed a flat composed of sea sand and ancient shelly beach for full a mile, the part nearest the sea for 1/2 the distance being occupied by forests which here grows in sand (showing by the size of the trees the antiquity of the shelly sand deposit) and made our appearance on the beach, just as two bushrangers were taken there by the Kiama Constables. The fellonry were part of 4 who had bolted from Wollongong and taken to the bush.    

The ride to Black Head was all along the beach, and as the sea was rough, and enormous billows were rolling in from S.E. under the influence of a violet wind, the spray and sand were blowing about with a light shower that was passing over. [p271]   

The mare did not like it, but we trotted along under the bank of blown sand and brush wood which borders the shore till, crossing a river bed nearly dry at its outlet, we came to Black Head, where fastening our horses to a bush, Dana and I took to the rocks. Our surprise was great to find the whole of the low cliffs which forms Black Head and the flat rocks below filled with innumerable concretions as at Wollongong, containing shells and coralline with masses of granitic and porphyritic rock and divided by iron seams in every direction. Many of the shells were completely agatized.              

Through the first bench ran a trap dyke S.W. and N.E. direct into Coolangatta 11 miles distant. The dyke was 3 feet wide, having the rocks on each side altered for 6 inches and for 8 feet on each side divided by vertical joints as in the dyke. As elsewhere in this country, the dyke was an open one to the sea, the trap decomposing more readily owing to its columnar structure than the embedding hard [p272] iron bound rock. I found in the lower bed of greenish gray sandstone part of a fossil tree, the exposed portion was 3 feet long and 6 inches in diameter. The spot must be visited again. It is more abundant in fossils than any I have ever seen. The onerinites and products as well as Corallines would lead to an idea of its being the representation of the Mountain Lime - though perhaps it belong to the Jurassic period after all.            

Layers of rolled trap rocks occupy the lower portion of the cliffs; whilst fragments of fossil wood (so abundant at Wollongong) lies frequent in the great shingle blocks thrown up under the cliffs. After hammering away lustily we ascended the hill, rode through a region having an occassional sandstone boulder, in the ground which is all covered with basalt, and which is covered with open as well as close Illawarra Brush, to Mr Berry’s farm at Gerringong, where we saw a large heap of black basalt collected from one paddock. Here we [p273] saw an immense number of calves, and they, whilst we were in the dairy drinking a bowl of milk, frightened the horses, so that two of the three broke their bridles, my lady for a wonder having escaped from the fence without damage.         

Biggs the guide had left us foolishly at Black Head, and believing we had gone round by the coast, had ridden on and was just returned; but having gone to light his pipe, he left the horses, which were frightened by the noise of the calves.     

The ground here was well cleared, the appearance of the farm a great relief to the monotony of the Bush. The dairy is very neat and small round wooden pens having each a corner set apart and stools all round, being well filled. Dear as milk is at Parramatta, it was a treat of no common kind to know we could drink here ad libitas without fear of mosquito larvae or dirty salt water in it.         

The first part of the road ran up the hill of which Black Head forms a part, to a small farm station at [p274] the edge of a swamp, which we ascended together with 3 bridges of palm tree trunks to another hut, where we again found Basalt in a dirty watercourse, out of which the horses would drink. Then on through a thick palm tree scrub, where the bush was, if possible, finer then any we had yet seen, to the extremities of the lower range of the Nunimina mountains, on the last of which, but one, we met the Postmaster of Wollongong, the only traveller we had met in this part of the journey since leaving that place. Near this spot were several trees bearing a large purple fruit, very cold and hard, which Biggs called the native plum. I took two or three specimens, but I found afterwards that they were not good company for the linen in the saddle bags, dieing the shirts etc.   

Soon after this we came to a cliff of Basalt. Boonam - a small farm station on the edge of a steep cliff which grows an enormous fig tree. Here we Descended to the sea shore at the head of a small [p275] bay, the stones of which were of very hard rock which at first resembled hardened sandstone, being crossed by innumerable lines of iron and filled with immense nodules of calcareous spar, quartz grains, pebbles of granite, syenite, trap etc. The northern granitied cliffs perhaps 25 feet high, having a yellowish sandstone (Wollongong Rock) below the trap. The sea was going over it in fine style, the spray being carried far up into the wood above. The head of this bay was formed by a dry river, and immense multitudes of rounded pebbles was the barrier between its mouth and the sea. This rock was the hardest I ever saw. Mr Dana had an argument with me respecting the nature of the rock; but we at last agreed that it was true trap. [p276]       

A ride of about 2 miles through a forest passing near the edge of smaller cliffs of trap, where we saw the allotments marked out for a township, brought us to Kiama, which stands between two little bays, the southern extremities of the south being trap, and the intermediate of the same rock; the northern head being of red sandstone.     

Kiama at present consists of three houses - a respectable small inn where we halted - a private or government house - and a cottage, consisting of palm tree trunds, as a store. On the beach on the northern bay near an enormous fig tree were two tents, one inhabited by Mr Burnet, the other by his men. Here we were hospitably received. A hot fried chicken, tea in tin mugs, and a fresh damper were our tent fare.   

Mr Burnett lives here 9 months of the year. His gun, carpet bag, maps, and opossum skin rug, a small table, a box, and a camp stool made up the contents of this small camp dwelling. Opposite [p277] to the entrance was a large log fire and the warmth from it after our ride was almost too much. We found the mosquitoes very troublesome, and Mr Burnett, pointing to his ear, showed us a tick under it; telling us he often was attacked in this way in the back. They, as well as fleas and bugs, are generally found in the bush. The tick inserts itself into the skin and burrows, and in many cases produces very bad sores, and sometimes occassions an incurable wound. There is also a land leach, yellow and greenish black with many orifices at its mouth, which attacks the legs of the native blacks or whoever goes unguarded into the grassy places.         

We slept very comfortably at the Inn, soothed to sleep by the murmuring of the Pacific. The vegetation was very thick all the way and tropical. Previous to coming to Borwarri Cove we ascended a steep hill, on which the trees were all bent extremely from [p278] the S.E. [p279]          

Thursday, January 9  Rose at 6. While at breakfast a black fellow, his gin, and child, came to the house, begging. The man afterwards lay down to sleep on the grass and sent the woman to fish. I first visited the little cove to the right which we passed last night. The rock there was all hard basalt and like what we saw at Boonaira. We then called at Mr Burnett’s tent in front of which I found a dyke of porphyritic trap of a red colour running along the shore approximately from N. to S. We then went passed a cottage building for a store, the walls of which were made of palm trees, in which were three black fellows, one making a handle of a hatchet, another acting as servant, and the third as shopman. This fellow was very intelligent and was dressed in a blue jersey frock with a black stock round his neck. He seemed proud of his attire. I understand that he has had the shop in charge for several days at a time and that he is capable of serving out small articles. [p280] From him I learned the name of the waterfall - Tsejingouera. He was much pleased when I showed him a sketch of it.       

Past this building we came upon the point of land which divides the bays and coves at Kiama, which is called in the native tongue, as I learned here, Khanterintee, from the phenomenon which I shall now describe. This point of land runs out into the sea to the east nearly 1/2 mile, being composed above of the hard brown Basalt we have seen before in the upper part, and below of regular columnar basalt, having on a small scale the appearance of the Giant’s Causeway. On approaching the extremity of the first portion, for the end of the point is nearly insular, I found the rock hollowed into a large cauldron, about 100 yards over and about 20 deep, having a hole in the bottom through which every few seconds the sea burst through, sending upwards with a loud puffing sound volumes of spray, in which a splendid Iris was seen spanning the whole vapour. [p281]            

During the intervals of repose I saw plainly rising and falling below. This sudden eruption of spray has gained for the Promontory the name it bears - in English the Blow Hole, resembling as it does the blow-hole of the whale. On the other horn of the right hand cove there is another smaller one. So also, in New Zealand, such phenomena appear, and again in Nohant in the U.S.A. as Mr Couthouy tells me, and in all cases trap or basalt is the perforated rock. Newfoundland also. On crossing the ridge above the hole, and descending under from the sea, and gradually passing into the variety of rock above. A dyke, evidently a prolongation of the columnar variety which is black (about 16 inches wide, about 40 feet above the sea) runs into the upper rock; it comes towards S. (nearly E. and W. generally) for 6 feet, then goes up in general direction passing to the south of the blow hole. The Basaltic columns have been removed [p282] in the line of dyke, the sea enters violently under the influence of the usual S.E. swell, and forces itself against the sides of the opening.   

At the end the rock appears to be a little hollowed - so that instead of returning it flies up as spray does from under the curved side of a ship, and mounts through the opening - the noise is occassioned by the air which is forced through with it. The cauldron-like surface above is no doubt formed by the constant action of the water forced through and running down, the effect of which upon the surface of the upper portions has been [to] wear away the rock into a lava like substance, which being there exceedingly ferrigenous, has the appearance of lava, and no doubt occassioned the idea that this is a true Crater - a notion I find commonly held.        

The entrance to the blow-hole is so much like that of Fingal’s Cave in the Island of Staffa, that it may be fairly said this Khanterintee is the [p283] Staffa of N.S.W. The direction of entrance, so near as my compass would tell (for the rock influenced it) is E.S.E and W.N.W. The entrance is about 20 yards and about 60 feet high. The Basalt contains zeolite, analcine quartz (2 feet across), calc, spar, jasper veins etc. [p284] 

[Drawings]  [p285] 

From an examination of the Blow Hole we proceeded passed the tents to the opposite headland, called the English Pheasant Point, but by the blacks Pungoialee. This point consists of horizontally bedded sandstone, containing layers of pebbles of trap, granite, Basalt, porphyric etc., being intersected by hollow dykes, which, traced across the flat rocks below, appear to be originally of trap. Near the bench runs a dyke of trap intersecting the flat rocks and meeting the hollow dyke in the cliff. This dyke is about 8 feet wide, enlarging to 16, inclosing a mass of the red sand rock about 5 feet wide. It runs E.S.E. and W.S.W. between 1 foot and 3 feet of trap. Further on there is another dyke 10 feet wide.     

The height of the cliffs is about 80 feet, about 20 feet from below white sandstone is embodied in patches and in concentric nodules. The conglomerate beds are from 2 to 4 feet thick, alternating at intervals of from 3 to 10 feet. The cliff is vertically split. Beyond it is a bay with a fine sandy beach running to Wangorang, [p286] the other head seen beyond this from the Blow Hole Point.           

We round Pungoialee and then Mr Dana continued his route on foot to Wangorang. I and Mr Burnett scrambled up the face of the cliffs, cross it, and descended to the bay near his tent. I then ordered my horse and rode off with Mr Burnett in company, he promising to send the specimens I had collected by a vessel then lying in the Bay.                 

As we rode up the steep I saw three blacks, father mother and child, all lying naked together on the beach along our path. Mr Burnett accosted the lady with “Well, Maria?” She replied “Yes Master”. Returning a few seconds afterwards for something I had left behind I saw her going into the tent of the men, and from their manner they did not like her to be seen. But the picaninny betrayed her. [p287]     

As I came back again, she was half clad in her blanket outside, and evidently beaten about. Two other black fellows came down the hill, one of whom threw a waddy into the bush nearby. I stopped and took it up. It was shaped thus:    and was made of hard wood. I asked if he ever beat his gin with it; he said no, but being further questioned, he said that he would “beat a black fellow who should meddle with her, but would not touch a white fellow - let him do what he might. The fact is, white fellows carry white money as well, black fellows have nothing but black skins to recommend them.”    

It is a remarkable fact that scarcely a black child is now to be seen. The young ones are now more or less mongrel. I saw one the other day with a pale skin and red hair - a dark red or rose colour.    

We descended to the small bay at the foot of Wangorang, left the [p288] horses in charge of Biggs, and went off to explore. I found the lower part of the cliff for about 30 feet to be of Red Sandstone as at Pungoialee - about it are basaltic columns about 80 or 90 feet high - having a wide crop of decomposed materials about 1/2 of the way towards the point, up which I clambered returning.     

The junction of the Red Sandstone and Basalt was very interesting. The rock there was a mixture of decomposed particles, small nodules of trap occurring in the Red Sandstone and stilbite red matter from below occurring in the Basalt above. A dyke about 10 feet wide, striking S.W and N.E runs into the Red Sandstone just passed the opening, and below the cliff on the other side occur several other dykes, the end of the heas being perforated through both rocks a considerable space by a large cavern, the result of the sea. Huge blocks of sandstone and columns of Basalt line [p289] the edge of the cliff.    

On reaching the other side I returned for the horses, and not finding Dana trotted on with Mr Burnett. Our cries were answered by some black fellows fishing, one of whom came past us with a fish nearly as large and much like a salmon. A descent and ascent brought us in view of another cliff of Basalt having circular projecting maps. Beyond these were seen Hooling and Point Bass, alias Wongoora, the first points being all of undurated trap.        

The river Minamurra being too full I could not cross it, and therefore was obliged to turn up the country to Jamberoo. After striking into the bush some distance we came to the side of a hill where we found the ground much cleared and clearing, [p290] and at last stopped at a farm house where the good people gave us some new milk. Then again we entered the bush, and passing in view of a great swamp (Terragong Swamp), which appeared on our right, we came to a place called Wintye Wintye where we found ourselves in the midst of an encampment of blacks, in the Fig Tree Forest.   

    

The only protection these people had against wind and sun was a screen of dried palm leaves, and these they lay near their fires, asleep in a burning hot day. Dogs and picaninnies were abundant, and when I spoke to one a child threw a tomahawk at one of the dogs to keep him quiet.     A venerable old man was here with a beard as white as snow. I asked him if they had been at the Corrobberes at Wollongong to which they replied No.

The Terragong swamp looks as green as an emerald owing to the reeds with which it is covered. I could not help thinking it a type of the prospects imagined by [p291] emigrants to N.S.W.: all green and smooth to the eye at a distance, but in reality hollow and deceitful to the tread.           

A farm overlooks this green field as it appears on the edge of the bush. On crossing a muddy brook near here, I was unfortunately led into a mess by the mare, who floundered about in it, till she and I were in a wretched plight.

After passing the swamp we came to an inn at Jamberoo in front of which sat two well dressed Englishwomen and stood 6 or 7 dirty and naked black gins with their children. A mutual stare was all our salutation; but I think they were quizzing Mr Burnett’s beard (which he does not shave in the back) and my dirty legs, for they laughed heartily as we passed.            

Galloping along after this we ascended a hill where Mr Burnett took leave of me, and I and Biggs went on alone. The high mountain we ascended on Monday was close on my [p292] left, overhanging the Minamurra, which I shortly after passed, and the open forest land which succeeded to this bush. I recognized our old ground but was not in the same direction. The soil is good and the rock trap came with occassional blocks of sandstone.             

We next ascended and descended the Stoney Range, a fossiliferous sandstone with trap dyke N.W. and S.E. coming into a fine open forest with a view of Illawarra Lake to the right; Kembla, Burelli and Gennigalla etc., in the distance before me. Here in a thicker part of the bush we were accosted by two armed men, whom at first I took to be Bushrangers, but who afterwards turned out to be Constables of Wollongong in search for the fellows who escaped from the gang there and were taken (Biggs told the men) at a point half-way on the road between Coolangatta and Black Head just as we were passing there. [p293]    

After this we came suddenly upon Macquarie River. Two men who had just swum over and were dressing told us to “hold up” for the water was deep. Biggs’ horse went in and crossed but my mare would not follow; after several attempts I was obliged to recall him and taking one of my reins and leading her she at last struck into the stream and carried me over, with no other accident than a wet saddlebag and a wet leg, for it was deep to ride dry on a frisky animal.       

In emerging we struck into a path which seemed the right one but which was not. A woman from a hut set us right, and then we came up to Terry’s Farm, where was much cleared land. Here we passed the postman on his second visit to Kiama and Shoalhaven, and cantered on till we again lost ourselves in a bog and swamp which was [p294] difficult to cross. Biggs was trying to make a short cut and lost his way.                

We emerged through a potato field at the foot of Mount Brown, where a drover was watering his team of bullocks, and who told us where and how we went astray. We ascended this mountain and after an hours long riding came again to Dapto near Illawarra Lake, where crossing first Mullett Creek, we stopped at the new inn there. Whilst the horses fed, Biggs dined and I took tea, after a gallop of at least 29 miles.       

Setting out and crossing the old line of country at Charcoal Creek, I reached Wollongong at 7 p.m. and found the Hotel deserted. Another cup of tea made my supper, and at 9 I fell asleep in my old quarters. (In all about 40 miles.)  Mount Dapto is not a native name. I understand it was so called from a man cutting off his toe with a hatchet. [p295]  

Friday, January 10  Called on Mr Meares’ - ran down to the beach - met Mr Hancock etc. and rode off with the postman at 10, who carried my bag. This man has a faculty for tracking - so valuable in a bush country. He told me that he had often been suspected of robbery by tracking so accurately the course of fugitives.

The ravines on the right he told me were full of water. Those on the left have none; and that the way I passed soon after reaching the top of the Illawarra mountain runs on the summit all the way to Botany. He said the road such as it is was all made by him, and that the Government send the mails by it without doing the least thing towards it.    

We stopped for tea at the Stringy Bark, the woman there being as he said his sister-in-law. His pay is £100 per annum. Saw several snake tracks over 4 inches wide on the road. [p296]        

The day was extremely hot and I was glad of the rest. At Jordans Pass the mare went over without any difficulty, but was evidently reminded of her former adventures. It does not appear difficult to make a bridge over this Creek, and £200 would I am sure be sufficient. As it is, it is most dangerous. The descent on either side cannot be less than 300 feet - the width may be 400 yards at the top, and the whole height alone 900 feet - it would not be difficult to construct a stone dyke where the fall now is and prevent many of the accidents which occur.   

Mr Sporling at Appin received me again and I slept there in the ‘chamber in the wall’, as sound as before. The shale at Appin is disturbed, as in Pitt Street, Sydney by (apparently) vapours from below.            

Before dinner Mr Sporling took me into the [p297] Bush opposite his house. I there saw the river running in a narrow channel suddenly stopped at a projecting ledge of high rock full of holes, which evidently forms a waterfall in times of flood. The rock is cut by true joints and a deep pool is below. The water filtering through between the stones under the ledge or within it. I saw several hollow places or caverns which had been formerly the sleeping places of bushrangers. Passing on we saw some Appin laundresses washing linen as in France - on the edge of the Creek. [p298]  

Saturday, January 11  Breakfasted and off to Campbelltown at 9. Dined at 1 with Mr Troughton and Mr Wilkinson. I went also to the shale cliff again and saw more of it. It rests as at Parramatta on the white and red sandstone. Saw no trap and heard of none. Called on my way passed at the inn I slept at last week and heard an auctioneer selling off the goods. This accounts for the carelessness with which I was attended before.                

On passing --- Bridge I saw before me in a field a blackish patch like a quarry - to the left of the sand. On entering it I found it was the horizontal shale traversed by a Basaltic dyke 3 feet thick cutting the shale vertically for several feet on each side. Direction S. and N. rising to E. [p299] It probably extends to Menangle, South Creek and Prospect.          

Reached Liverpool at 5, and was once more at dear old Maria’s at 7, tired and hot but in good spirits. On passing I called at Mr Bobart’s and arranged to take the duty tomorrow at Parramatta.   

Appendix 1

Extract from C. Wilkes’ Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition

[As might be expected from an exploring expedition on a national scale, the United States enterprise was comprehensively recorded (see Introduction) in several editions of what was initially a five volume book, with atlas, released in 1844, with variations in pagination but substantially the same text (refer to Ferguson’s Bibliography of Australia, items 3954, 4209-12, 5584 and 18560*). The section on the expedition’s association with Illawarra and Shoalhaven (taken from pp.257-260 of volume 2 of the imperial octavo edition) is not entirely accurate, but is interesting and reliable enough to be included here]

Several of the gentlemen who were left at Sydney, visited the Illawarra district, which has already been more than once spoken of. They made the passage from Sydney to Woolongong in a steamer. Owing to the steamer not being well adapted for a sea-voyage, much inconvenience, delay, and disappointment occur on this route, although upon the whole it facilitates the intercommunication between this district and the city. Woolongong, the port at which the steamer stops, is a small thriving town, and will be the principal one of this district.                

It has no natural harbour, but one is now under construction, at the expense of the government, by excavating the solid rock (limestone), for the accommodation of steamers and small vessels: a large number of convicts were at work upon it. The port will never be fully protected until the proposed pier or breakwater is built, for during half the year, the sea makes it dangerous to lie at anchor in the roadstead, notwithstanding the strong moorings which have been laid down. It will also be very difficult to enter the basin in bad weather, until such a breakwater is in existence to protect it. The basin, when completed, will contain about half a dozen vessels. The construction of the breakwater is carried on at the same time as that of the basin, the stone excavated from the one is used in the construction of the other. Both were to have been finished in 1842.              

The district of Illawarra is held by a few persons, who have large grants of land. The roads are constructed and kept in order at the expense of the government. When one of the residents was asked whether the road was a public one, he answered, it was a “government road”. The convict population, including ticket-of-leave holders, in this district, bears a proportion to the free as one to three. Of the remaining two-thirds, more than one-half are emancipists and expirees. The proportion of women to men is also about one to three.             

For the hospitable reception given them by Mr Plunket, the Attorney-General of the colony, our gentlemen are under great obligation. He happened to be spending some time at his farm, near Woolongong. This contains about two hundred acres, and is exceedingly pretty. The residence of Mr Plunket is a neat cottage, built after the manner of the country. It is surrounded by the most luxuriant foliage, nearly all of which has a tropical character, and includes palms, cabbage-trees, and several varieties of tree-ferns, all growing to a great height.              

A drive through the woods, accompanied by the ladies of the family, afforded many opportunities of making collections, and getting information. Some idea may be formed of the advancement of this district, and the rise in the value of property, from the fact that Mr Plunket sold his farm for fourteen thousand pounds, which, but two years before, he had bought for seven hundred.        

Dr Osborne, R.N., has a farm likewise, near Lake Illawarra, which is now divided by a narrow sand-beach from the sea. This lake is shallow, and is about six miles long, by four miles wide. It contains a great quantity of fish, principally mullet. [Footnote: One of our gentlemen was assured by a fisherman that there were thirteen kinds of fish in Illawarra Lake.] Large quantities of shells are to be seen on its banks. These are burnt into lime, which is used both for building and a manure. On the borders of the lake reside several fishermen, and it is a general resort for the natives. Mullet, caught in large quantities, are salted and dried.    

Daisy Bank, the seat of Dr Osborne, is about ten miles from Woolongong. Here also our gentlemen met with that kind hospitality, which reigns throughout this country. This part of the district is nearly all brought into cultivation. The mountain scenery is fine, and a few very large trees are conspicuous objects in it. The side of the mountain affords a good field for making botanical collections, as it is not easily accessible to cattle. A large accession was made to our collection of seeds. The woods were alive with birds, among which were the white cockatoo, which collects in flocks, and does infinite mischief to the wheat-fields. They are difficult to approach in consequence of the good look-out kept by the old birds. The small species of the kangaroo, called the wallaby, is found here, as are large black and diamond snakes, lizards, black and white cockatoos, and sand-leeches. The latter is much dreaded, as its bite is venomous, and produces ulcers. It is very troublesome, crawling up and attaching itself to the flesh, where it gloats upon the blood, and not unfrequently bursts from repletion.                

This district is level, and was thought to resemble some parts of our own country after the harvest was gathered in. Silicified wood is very common in Illawarra, and many stumps of it are seen in passing along the road. In some of them, the texture of the wood is well preserved; and so natural is their aspect, that at first sight they appear as if they were now standing where they have originally grown. The diameter of some of them is about two and a half feet, and the whole mass is completely petrified. They are quite black, except where bleached by exposure.             

The Illawarra district extends from Woolongong to Shoalhaven, and is the most interesting portion of Australia to visit. In this small compass is found some of the most remarkable of the sandstone scenery, and there is also an opportunity of viewing a basaltic formation, which is no where else to be found in the colony. 

Kiama is remarkable for the number of deep and wild caverns, through which the sea forces a passage to the distance of one hundred yards or more, sweeping along at a furious rate; and when the noise of its progress has nearly died away, loud thunderings are heard rushing through its vaults. The Blow-Hole of Kiama Point, is already a place of some celebrity, and it merits to be so. A subterranean passage of about twenty feet broad by eighteen high, receives the advancing wave, which passes quietly along for two hundred feet. It then meets a basaltic wall, against which it dashes with a sullen roar, and passes upwards through a narrow opening above, rising at times to a height of one hundred feet, throwing off innumerable jets in all directions, and which fall around in ever-changing forms.               

Some of the basaltic scenery about Kiama, will bear comparison with the famed Giant’s Causeway, and the rocks of Staffa, if it does not surpass them, united as it is with the lixuriant and splendid forests of palms, tree-ferns and the woody creepers of the tropics.                

About Shoalhaven, is one of the largest and finest farming and grazing districts in the colony. Its scenery is extremely picturesque, particularly when viewed from the summit of Coolangata. The broad Shoalhaven river is seen to the southward, flowing through rich meadows and farms, enclosing a delta; while the deep and sinous bays with which the coast is indented, and which enclose innumerable islets, appear like a crowded cluster of lakes.               

To the north, a wide verdant plain extends to a mountain bluff, called Broughton’s Head. Through this the Broughton river winds, and beyond it is seen the Illawarra mountain range.         

On a wide platform around Woolongong Point, are to be seen at high-water mark, globular concretions that resemble cannon-balls in appearance. They vary in size, from one inch to four in diameter, and are very compact and tough. They generally contain some foreign body, and in about a third of them, Mr Dana found a single fossil shell, in a beautiful state of preservation. For a full detail of the geological structure of this district, which is exceedingly interesting, I must refer to the Geological Report.  

Appendix 2 

Extracts from Charles Wilkes’ Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition (Condensed and Abridged Edition, Whittaker & Co., London, 1845)

{p.120} The most remarkable part of New South Wales is the district of Illawarra, situated on the cost, about sixty miles to the south of Port Jackson. This is a narrow strip, that seems to be formed by the retreat of the sandstone cliffs from the sea, to a distance which varies from one to ten miles. The cliffs or mountains vary in height from one thousand to two thousand feet. This region is extremely fruitful; its forests are rich with a great variety of foliage, and of creeping plants which twine around the trees. The great size and number of the trees served to remind the gentlemen who visited it, of the vegetation of the tropical islands, luxuriant with tree-ferns, bananas, banyans, and cabbage palms. This luxuriance is in part owing to a rich and light soil, composed of decomposed basalt and argillaceous sandstone, mixed with vegetable mould, but more to the peculiarity of its climate. The high cliffs which bound to the west, keep off the scorching winds which reach other parts of the coast from that quarter, and the moisture of the sea-breeze intercepted by them is condensed, falling in gentle showers. For this reason it is not subject to the long and frequent droughts that occur in other parts of New South Wales. 

{p.121} There is a portion of this country that is an exception to the general rule of aridity, namely, the district of Illawarra. This forms a belt of from one to ten miles wide, and has the range of the Kangaroo Hills just behind it, of one thousand feet; these are sufficiently high at this distance from the coast to condense the moisture, and also to protect the district from the blighting effects of the blasts from the interior. 

{p.123} In the Illawarra district a totally distinct state of things exists. Here is to be found all the luxuriance of the tropics - lofty palms, among them the corypha australis, with tree-ferns of two or more varieties, differant species of ficus, a scadent piper, and very many vines. The forest of this district is thick, and alive with animal life. This district is about fifty miles long, and forms a semicircular area about thirty miles in its greatest width. The peculiarity of the situation of this district would tend to show what would have been the probable state of New Holland, or rather its eastern side, if the mountains were sufficiently high to intercept the moisture of the ocean, and prevent the access to it of the dry hot winds from the interior. Illawarra may be termed the granary of New South Wales; here the crops seldom, if ever, fail, and are very abundant.

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Last updated: 22 January 2023
Michael Organ