Sydney, Saturday morning, July 16/98.

This was to be my sailing day in the “Aorangi” for Wellington.

Before I proceed to chronicle yesterday’s itinerary, there are a few items relating to my Bathurst journey I had omitted & I will now record them to serve as a memo for conversation in days to come.

While at Katoomba station, going up on Tuesday, I saw a bullock team of 14 & waggon. This was a sight I had not previously seen – so many bullock yoked.

Also the river at Bathurst is the “Macquaire” [sic]. Where I saw the rabbits on the platform were Tarana & Locksley station. I have government (NSW) railway guides, also time tables for the railways on which I have travelled, & these will be interesting for reference.

Eskbank, where the collieries & copper smelting works are, & some other minor industries is in the Lithgow valley, which begins at Zig Zag Bottom Points, or as I call it, the Zig Zag low level. The tunnel through the Blue Mountains or Dividing Range is called the Lapstone tunnel, & is 500 yards in length. The train first runs along the mountain side ascending for some little distance. [5:64] Before it enters the tunnel, lamps are lighted at Emu Plains station, the station before leaving the edge of the plain, to ascend the mountain side, & Glenbrook is the first station beyond the Dividing Range or Blue Mountains, this is going Bathurst way. Also on the main road during my drive, we passed the historical spot called the “Mark Tree” which is now only a huge trunk, maybe 25 feet high, very neatly surrounded by a masonry wall & a marble tablet inserted in the face of the wall recording this as the spot furthest reached by the 3 pioneers in the year 1813. Their names are recorded there on: Lawson, Blaxland, & Wentworth. On enquiry at Mount Victoria whether snow ever fell, they told me last winter there was 2 feet laying on the ground after a fall. This has been so far an extremely fine winter. I perhaps did not mention that while at the Linklaters (Maeshow[1]), Adelaide, they told me that snow was such a rarity that when last snow fell up country So. Australia, some was brought into Adelaide in balls & exhibited as a curiosity, & sold at 2d per ounce. She assured me this was absolutely true & within her knowledge.

Also, between Paramatta & Sydney, on my return, the cattle sales had just finished at Flemington. The pens are on an extensive area on the left of railway & I saw a flock of sheep being removed, & on an open space the number was 5,000 & 3 men on horseback driving them. I was amazed at the sight & commented to a neighbouring traveller, an elderly ge[n]tlemanly looking man who had just left the market, & told me about the flock we had just passed. He saw them sold to one man. He himself is in a very big way & is a buyer, & has frequently had commission [5:65] to go far distances on horseback, 2 & 3 hundred miles, & brought 50,000 sheep & 2 & 3 hundred cattle at one stroke, & off one station or “ranch”, as we know them by. He got very interested on learning I was from the “old country” & gave me much interesting information & reminiscences of his life, & about these enormous stations where the area of a station is 30 square miles, & men on horseback ride round these wire fenced bounds continually, taking days to do the round, & for the purpose of seeing that all the fences are whole & none of the cattle strayed. On these stations they have several hundreds of thousands of sheep, & many thousands of cattle. Mr. Whitfield confirmed this & said that these great preserving works will buy 20 to 25 thousands of sheep at one purchase.

Mr. Davis, for this was the gentleman’s name, Mr. Whitfield knows his son, who has a very large butcher’s shop in Canterbury road, not 15 minutes from Lewisham St., he, Mr. Davis, invited me to go & see the splendid meat, always on exhibition, & he sent the meat on to his son. I had heard, while Mr. W. & I were at Mr. Lawson‘s one night, them speaking of butchers & meat, & this Davis was named, & I had remembered it & told him I had heard of his son’s reputation of good meat. Mrs. Whitfield yesterday had been at the shop & got some steak, & it certainly was the finest I have tasted in the colonies. I told Davis I did not think the meat in Australia had the fine, sweet, juicy flavour ours had at home, & he said he was sure what he selected would be found equal to meat in the “old country”, as he sought cattle that were grazing on or near river banks, where the herbage was rich & sappy. We parted at Lewisham station, both regretting the seperation [sic], the conversation having been to me both profitable & interesting.

[5:66]

Well now – yesterday’s doings; I left Lewisham by tram at 11:30 on my way to Mr. Lawson’s. His people had shifted from Bellwood, Marrickville, to corner of Johnson Street, Annandale. I got there about 12:30, saw Mrs. Wood. Her Father, Mr. Lawson, had gone over to Bellwood, but he returned at 1 o’clock & we had a very chatty time. They would have me to stay & have some lunch with them. This over, I asked Mr. Lawson to go to Norton St. with me as I wished to go & ask Mrs. Tolson when Mr. Tolson would be at home. Off we set. Tram stops at Wood’s shop – a stage – let me tell you, they only stop at stages. No setting down or picking up between – not a great distance from Wood’s on the main tram line. Saw Mrs. Tolson for 5 minutes & appointed to go at 5 on Monday night, & have 6 o’clock tea when Mr. Tolson would be at home. I asked Mr. Lawson to go down to Circular Quay with me & have a short sail to one of the pretty bays. It was now 4 o’clock & by the time we got to the Quay, & this is where everything focuses, “Circular Quay”, we took a boat at 20 to 5 for Neutral Bay, a pretty place, never left the boat & returned at ¼ past 5. The sun had in the interval set, & it soon grows cold & dark. I had prospected a long afternoon amongst the many bays but the staying at Wood’s upset all this. After landing we went & viewed a part of original Sydney, a great cutting through a huge rocky mountain across which street are 3 bridges, each connecting streets. This was all done [5:67] by convict labour & is called the “Argyle Cut”. I was pleased to have seen it & Mr. Lawson had not seen it or been in the locality before. It is not ¼ hour from where we landed on return from Neutral Bay. McLean lives at Neutral Bay.

We then got a bus, after going through the cutting, which is a proper street & thoroughfare, the sides being rock & high, & on top are houses built on the very edge. No mistaking their foundation & carried my mind to New Testament scripture[2]. Making our way up George St. stationwards where trams pass & I got Mr. Lawson (who, by the way, is 75) into a Leichardt tram which stops at Wood’s shop, & bade him a good night. He was pleased he had been with me. We’ve got to be great friends, & he & Mrs. Wood ar[e] coming to see me off next Wednesday in the “Elingamite” for Auckland.

Mr. Whitfield goes home by the 20 past 6 every night, a “through” to Lewisham, & as it was now 10 past 6, I pop[p]ed into the station, got my ticket & waited Mr. Whitfield‘s arrival, & we journeyed home together, & spent a nice quiet night. I felt tired after the previous day’s climbing & sight seeing, and now this morning, it is dull & I am going into the city. Mr. W. finishes at 1:00 today, so we are to meet at the Strand restaurant, dine, & go for a sail up the River Paramatta. In my next writing I will record the experience, so will now finish the present, shall I say, wandering rigmarole. I fear it is nothing more but “what’s written (in this case) cannot be unwritten.”

[5:68]

[1] Perhaps named after the Neolithic monument chamber at Maeshow in the Scottish Orkney Islands, first excavated in 1861.

[2] Matthew 7: 24-27; Luke 6:46-49: “…As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.”