THE RESOURCES OF THE COLONY: -- HORSES FOR INDIA -- WINE -- DRIED
FRUITS -- COTTON -- COAL -- WOOL -- CORN -- WHALE-OIL -- A WHALE-
HUNT -- CURED FISH -- SHIP TIMBER.
The geographical position of Western Australia makes it one of the
most desirable colonies of the British empire. The French would be
delighted to possess so advantageous a station in that part of the
world, whence they could sally forth and grievously annoy our
shipping-trade. Vessels bound for China and the Eastern Islands pass
within a few days' sail of the colony. For my part, I confess I
should feel by no means sorry were we to fall into the hands of the
French for a few years, as they would not hesitate to make such
lasting improvements as would materially add to the importance of the
settlement. It requires that Government should be made to feel the
value of this colony as a naval station before it will rise into
anything like consequence. The anchorage of Cockburn Sound, lying
between Garden Island and the main land, presents a splendid harbour,
where hundreds of ships of war might lie throughout all weathers in
perfect safety. Enemy's cruisers passing along the coast cannot come
within Garden Island from the south, and they would scarcely venture
without a pilot from the north, except with a great deal of
deliberation and caution, so that small vessels might readily slip
away and avoid the danger; and numbers of ships might lie so close
under Garden Island, that they never would be perceived by men-of-war
reconnoitring the coast.
There is no other colony in Australia so admirably situated with
respect to other countries. The Cape of Good Hope is four or five
weeks sail distant; Ceylon about twenty days; Calcutta, Sincapore,
and Batavia are all within easy reach. In exporting live-stock, this
is of vast importance; and in time of war a central position like
this would afford an admirable place for vessels to repair to in
order to refit. With the finest timber in the world for naval
purposes in unlimited profusion; with a soil teeming with various
metals; with harbours and dock-yards almost ready made by the hand of
Nature, all things requisite for the wants of shipping may be
obtained whenever a Government shall see fit to resort to them.
It must doubtless surprise many that more has not been done in a
colony possessing such natural advantages. The reason is, that the
prejudices which have so long prevailed against this settlement have
retarded the progress of immigration, and the small number of
inhabitants has ever precluded the possibility of any great effort
being made by the colony itself.
Public opinion in England must turn in its favour before it can rise
from obscurity into importance; but public opinion is never in favour
of the poor and deserted. Time, however, will eventually develope
those resources, which at present lie dormant for want of capital and
opportunity.
The proximity of this colony to India peculiarly marks it as the most
advantageous spot for the breeding of horses for that market. From
Van Dieman's Land or New South Wales, ships are generally about eight
weeks in reaching an Indian port, and must proceed either by the
north of New Holland, through the dangerous navigation of Torres
Straits, or by the south and west, round Cape Lewin. Either route
presents a long and rough passage, highly detrimental to stock, and
of course increasing the cost of the horses exported. The voyage
from Fremantle may be performed in half the time, and the animals
will therefore arrive at their destination in much finer order, and
with much less loss.
It is well known that none of these colonies afford better or more
extensive pasture-ground for horses and cattle than ours. Nothing is
wanted but capital and population to produce a thriving traffic in
horse-flesh between this settlement and India.
There is every reason to believe that Western Australia will one day
become a great wine country. Its vineyards are becoming more
numerous and extensive every year, and the wine produced in them is
of a quality to lead us to believe that when the art of preparing it
is better understood, it will be found of very superior quality. It
will, however, be a new kind of wine; and therefore, before it will
be prized in Europe, prejudices in favour of older wines have to be
overcome. Soil and climate combined, give to different wines their
peculiar flavour. The vines which in Madeira produce the wine of
that name, when brought to another country, even in a corresponding
latitude, and planted in soil that chemically approaches as closely
as possible to that which they have left, will produce a wine
materially different from that called Madeira. So with the vines of
Xeres and Oporto; of Teneriffe or Constantia. Different countries
produce wines peculiar to themselves; and the wine of Western
Australia will be found to be entirely sui generis. All that I
have tasted, though made from the poorest of grapes, the common
sweet-water, have one peculiarity; a good draught, instead of
affecting the head or flushing the face, causes a most delightful
glow to pervade the stomach; and it is of so comforting a nature,
that the labourers in harvest prefer the home-made colonial wine to
any other beverage. Every farm-settler is now adding a vineyard to
his estate. The olive is also being extensively cultivated. In a
few years' time, dried fruits will be exported in large quantities;
but we almost fear that the colonists are giving too much of their
attention to the cultivation of grapes and other fruits. In addition
to exports, on a large scale, of wool, horses, timber, and metals,
these articles of commerce are not undeserving of attention, but they
should not be brought so prominently forward as to form the principal
feature in the trade of the colony. Wine and fruit countries are
always poor countries; let us think of substantials first, and of
wine and fruit only by way of dessert.
Cotton is a plant that grows extremely well in this colony, and might
be cultivated on a large scale, and doubtless with great success.
Mr. Hutt, the late governor, whose constant anxiety to promote the
interests of the settlers in every way must long endear him to their
memories, always appeared extremely sanguine as to the practicability
of making this a great cotton country.
But Western Australia contains, perhaps, greater internal wealth than
that which appears on the surface. She abounds in iron, which must
some day come into the Indian market; and as the metal lies close to
the surface, it may be obtained without much expenditure of capital.
There is no doubt, also, that she is equally rich in copper and
platina, but capital is wanting at present to enable the settlers to
work the mines. Soon, however, companies will be formed, and
operations will be carried on rivalling those of South Australia.
Extensive fields of excellent COAL have lately been discovered, and
will prove the source of vast wealth to the colony. Steam-vessels in
the Indian ocean will be supplied with coal from Western Australia;
and the depots at Sincapore, Point-de-Galle, and perhaps at Aden,
will afford a constant market for this valuable commodity.
The staple export of the colony is, of course, at present wool. Our
flocks, unfortunately, increase in a much greater ratio than the
inhabitants, and thus the scarcity of labour becomes severely felt.
A large flock becomes an evil, and men are burdened and impoverished
by the very sources of wealth. The expense of maintaining becomes
greater than the returns. The emigrants who are most sure of
improving their condition in a colony, are those men who begin as
shepherds, and having established a good character for themselves,
undertake the care of a flock upon shares; that is, they receive a
certain proportion -- a third, and sometimes even a half -- of the
annual increase and wool, delivering the remainder to the owner at
the seaport, ready packed for shipping. These men, of course, soon
acquire a flock of their own, and then abandon the original employer
to his old embarrassment, leaving him, (a resident probably in the
capital, and already a prey to multitudinous distractions,) to find
out a new shepherd on still more exorbitant terms. As large grants
of land may be obtained by tenants for merely nominal rents, or in
consideration of their erecting stock-yards or farm-buildings in the
course of a term of years, there is every inducement to men of this
class to become settlers.
The houses in some districts are built of clay, or prepared earth,
rammed down between boards, and thus forming solid walls of twelve or
eighteen inches in thickness, that harden in a short time almost to
the consistency of stone. The windows and doorways are cut out of
the walls. These edifices are built at a very cheap rate; and when
laths or battens are fixed inside of them, may be covered with
plaister, and either whitewashed or painted.
Besides the extensive sheep-runs of the colony, there is an unlimited
extent of excellent corn-land. The crops in the Northam, Toodyay,
and York districts -- though inferior to those of the midland
counties of England, for want of manure, and a more careful system of
husbandry -- are extremely fine; and there is land enough, if
cultivated, to supply the whole of the southern hemisphere with grain.
The sea on the western coast of New Holland still abounds with
whales, although the Americans for many years made it one of their
principal stations, and have consequently driven many of the animals
away. The whale is a very suspicious and timid creature, and when it
has been once chased it seldom returns to the same locality. The
Americans tell us that Geographe Bay, about twenty years ago,
abounded with whales at certain seasons. Many of them came there
apparently to die, and the shore was covered with their carcases and
bones. About the month of June, the whales proceed along the coast,
going northward; and then visit the various bays and inlets as they
pass, in pursuit of the shoals of small fish that precede them in
their migration. They generally return towards the south about six
weeks afterwards, and at these times the whale-fishery is eagerly
pursued both by the Americans and the colonists. Bay-whaling is
followed with various success at Fremantle, Bunbury, the Vasse,
Augusta, and King George's Sound.
At these times swarms of sharks of enormous dimensions infest the
coast. At the Vasse, they were so numerous in 1845, that the men in
the boats became quite cowed by their audacity. Were a whale killed
in the evening, two-thirds of it would be eaten before morning by the
sharks. The monsters (sometimes thirty feet in length) would follow
the whale-boats, and strike against them with their snouts and fins;
until the men were so intimidated that they even refused to go in
pursuit of a whale which otherwise they might easily have captured.
Mr. Robert Viveash, one of the principals at this station, told me,
among other anecdotes, that one day, standing on the deck of a small
schooner, watching the evolutions of an enormous shark, he saw it
seize the rudder with its teeth in a kind of frenzy, or else in mere
sport, and shake it so violently that the tiller, striking against
some heavy object on deck, was actually broken in two pieces. It is
a well-authenticated fact, that some years ago a shark, playing round
a whaling vessel of upwards of 300 tons, whilst lying at anchor
during a calm, got entangled in the buoy-rope of the anchor, and in
its efforts to free itself actually tripped the anchor. The people
on board, perceiving something extraordinary had happened, hove up
the anchor, and brought the struggling shark to the surface. Having
thrown a rope over its head and secured it by a running bowline knot
under the pectoral fins, the fish was boused up to the fore-yard; and
its length was so great, that when its nose touched the yard, its
tail was still lashing the water.
There is something highly exciting in the chase of the whale. I have
watched the proceedings for hours from Arthur's Head, the high rock
between Fremantle and the sea. A man stationed here on the look out,
perceives a whale spouting about six miles off, between the main-land
and the opposite islands. He immediately hoists a flag, and makes
signals indicating the direction.
The crews of six whale-boats, which have been lying ready on the
beach, with their lines carefully coiled in a tub, and harpoon and
lances all at hand, assemble like magic. The boats are launched, and
pulling rapidly out of the bay, each with its own particular flag
flying at the bows; the steersman leans forward, and gives additional
force to the stroke-oar by the assistance of his weight and strength;
the men pull strongly and well-together; the boats dance over the
flashing waves, and silence and determination reign among the crews.
The object is to meet the whale, and come down upon him in front;
none but a lubber or a knave would cross his wake; for his eyes are
so placed that he can see laterally and behind better than straight
before him, and the moment he detects a boat in pursuit he begins to
run. The lubber crosses his wake, because he has not steered so as
to be able to avoid doing so; the knave, because either out of spite
to his employer, or because he is bribed by an adverse company, is
desirous that the fish should be lost. If the boats are a long
distance astern when the whale begins to run, pursuit is useless, and
the men return, hoping for better luck another time.
The boats come round Arthur's Head almost together. The men, knowing
that many hours of severe toil are probably before them, pull
steadily, but not so as to exhaust themselves at the outset. At
length one boat creeps out from the rest; the others gradually drop
into line, and the distance between each widens perceptibly. The
last boat, a heavy sailer, is half-a-mile astern of the first. From
the boats, your eye wanders to the spot where the whale was last seen
to blow. For some time you can discern nothing, and fancy he must be
gone off to sea again. At last a thin white column of vapour is
perceptible; the animal is carelessly sporting about, unconscious of
danger. The first boat draws rapidly down upon him; it approaches
nearer and nearer. The fish has disappeared, but his enemies seem to
know the direction in which he is going, and are ready awaiting him
when he returns to the surface. You now perceive him blowing close
to the first boat, the steersman of which draws in the steer-oar and
runs forward, whilst the men have all peaked their oars, and remain
quiet in their seats. The steersman has seized the harpoon to which
the long line of coiled rope is attached; in a moment he has plunged
it into the animal's side. Starting at the stroke, away it darts;
the line flies out of the tub over the bow of the boat; the men begin
to pull, in order to ease the shock when the line is all run out; and
now away they go, the whale drawing the boat after him at such speed
that the water flies off from the bows in broad flakes.
After running upwards of a mile, the fish dives down to the bottom;
there he remains some minutes, until compelled to return to the
surface for breath. His reappearance is heralded by a column of
water spouted from his nostrils.
Two of the boats are able to approach near enough to allow lances to
be thrown at him, which, penetrating through the blubber, pierce his
vitals, and cause him to run again as swiftly as before. Again he
sinks, and again appears on the surface; the column which he now
spouts forth is tinged with red. The boats again approach, the more
lances are driven into his sides, but he is not yet subdued; he
breaks away from the assassins, and tries once more to escape; but,
alas! his strength and his life-blood are fast ebbing away; his
breath begins to fail, and he cannot remain long beneath the surface.
He comes up suddenly in the very midst of the boats, and, as he rolls
from side to side, he strikes one of them with his fin, staving it in
and making it a wreck upon the water. The drowning men are picked up
by their companions, and the whale is again pursued. He is now in
the death-flurry, spinning round and round, and lashing the sea into
foam with his broad tail. He is still; and now the boats venture to
come close up to the carcase, and fixing grapnels in it, with
tow-lines attached, they form in a line, and commence towing their
conquest to the shore, singing as they row, their measured paeans of
victory.
When the blubber is cut off and tryed out, it produces from three to
ten tons of oil.
Besides whales, there are immense quantities of fish upon this coast.
The best kind are called tailors, and have a good deal of the
mackerel flavour; and snappers, which somewhat resemble cod-fish.
The mullets and whitings are better than those on the English coast,
but every other fish is much inferior in flavour to those known in
England. We have nothing to equal salmon, turbot, soles, cod, or
mackerel; nevertheless, a snapper of twenty pounds weight is a very
eatable fish.
They are caught in great quantities, salted and exported to the
Mauritius, where they are acknowledged to be superior to the fish
imported from the Cape of Good Hope. Snapper-fishing is not bad
sport, as they bite freely. They go in immense shoals, and it is not
an uncommon thing to catch twenty-hundred weight at a single haul.
When H.M.S. Challenger was lying in Cockburn Sound, some of the
men with a very large seine-net, caught two thousand fish at a single
haul -- averaging five pounds a-piece. This is almost incredible,
but it is related on good authority.
The fresh-water rivers have no fish but a small craw-fish, that
buries itself in the ground when the bed of the stream is dry; and a
flat-headed, tapering fish called a cobbler. This is about twelve
inches long, and has a sharp, serrated bone an inch in length on each
side of its head, that lies flat and perfectly concealed until an
enemy approaches. This bone is hollow, like an adder's tooth, and
contains a virulent poison, which is injected into the wound, and
causes intense pain for several hours. Men are frequently stung by
these wretches, whilst wading through the water.
There are several valuable kinds of wood in this colony, which do not
exist in South Australia or New South Wales. We may mention the
sandalwood, which now finds a market in Ceylon, where it fetches
about 22 pounds per ton; but if it were sent direct to China, (its
ultimate destination,) it would obtain probably 35 pounds per ton.
Sandal-wood is burnt in large quantities in China, as a kind of
incense. There is another highly-fragrant wood peculiar to this
colony, called by the settlers raspberry jam, from its resembling
that sweet-meat in its scent. A small quantity sent to
Tonbridge-Wells, was worked up into boxes, and highly approved of by
the cabinet-makers, who gave it the name of violet wood.
One of the most beautiful trees in the colony is called the
peppermint-tree; its leaves, which are very abundant, resemble those
of the willow, and, on being rubbed, smell strongly of peppermint.
It bears a small yellow flower. These is much reason to believe that
this is of the same species as the tree which yields the valuable
Cajeput oil, and it is highly desirable that an endeavour should be
made to distil this oil from the leaves.
Many of the vegetable productions of Western Australia appear to
correspond with those of Java and others of the Eastern Islands,
modified by the difference of climate.
The timber adapted to ship-building purposes, extends in vast
quantities down the line of coast, and is of three kinds, all
varieties of the eucalyptus. The tooart in the districts of
Bunbury and the Vasse, and the blue-gum which abounds at Augusta
and Nornalup, are woods of large size, and remarkably hard and
close-grained in texture. It is well adapted for keel-pieces,
stern-posts, capstan-heads, and heavy beams: and its fibres are so
closely matted and interwoven together, that it is scarcely possible
to split it. It grows in lengths of from 30 to 60 feet, and measures
from 15 to 30 inches in diameter.
But the wood most highly prized and most easily attainable is the
Jarra, which grows upon the entire range of the Darling Hills,
distant from sixteen to twenty miles from the coast, and extends over
a country averaging at least twenty miles in breadth. It was for a
long time erroneously called mahogany by the settlers, as it takes an
excellent polish, and is extremely useful for cabinet purposes. A
small quantity recently sent to England for the purpose of being
worked up with furniture, has been thus reported upon: --
"We have just inspected about two tons of wood brought to this town
(Leeds) under the name of Swan River Mahogany. Some of the wood is
firm and close in texture, with a very great abundance of cross
mottle; -- in fact, it is quite crowded with figure. The colour is
something like old Jamaica mahogany, and it bears a strong
resemblance in some of its figures to the wood so celebrated by
Messrs. Collard as Ocean Wood. We are quite firm in our opinion,
that it is NOT mahogany, and do not know why it should be nicknamed.
Why not call it by its proper name? -- for it has sufficiently strong
claims to maintain its own independence.
"J. Kendell and Co.
"Cabinet Manufacturers, Leeds."
Mr. Bond, of the firm of Gillows and Co., cabinet manufacturers, 176
and 177 Oxford-street, London, to whom a small quantity was submitted,
has also made an equally favourable report. Messrs. Chaloner and
Fleming, of Liverpool, whose firm is one of the most extensive
importers of timber in the empire, have reported that they "consider
the specimens submitted to them to be of rich figure, and very fine
quality, although the colour is rather dark. It is quite as fine in
texture as the best Spanish mahogany, and takes the polish remarkably
well."
It is not, however, as cabinet wood that the Jarra is so highly
valuable. It has been found to be some of the best ship-timber in
the world. It is so extremely durable, that when it is cut in a
healthy state, it is never found to rot, even though it be buried in
the ground for years. For seventeen years it has been constantly
used in the colony for a variety of purposes. As it resists the
white-ant, an insect that destroys oak and every other kind of wood,
and is never subject to the dry-rot, it is invaluable for building
purposes. Boats constructed of it, which have been in the water
during the whole of this period, and entirely unprotected by paint,
are still as sound as they were when first launched.
It resists the sea-worm; and our colonial vessels, when hove down for
repairs or survey at Sincapore, Launceston, or other ports, have
always excited the admiration of the surveyors, and have been
pronounced not to require to be coppered. This wood is long in the
grain, but very close and tough, and not only makes very good
planking, but excellent beams, keel-pieces, and many other portions
of a ship. Growing without a branch to the height of from fifty to
one hundred feet, and from eighteen inches to three feet and upwards
in diameter, it excites the admiration of all practical men; and as
its properties have been so long tested, and are so generally
admitted in the southern hemisphere, it is matter of no less surprise
than regret that it should be still unknown in the English markets.
Strong prejudice, and the interest of parties connected with the
timber-trade in other countries, have served to keep the
inexhaustible forests of Western Australia in the obscurity which has
hung over them from primeval times. Besides this, although the Jarra
wood exists not in other parts of Australia, and is confined to the
Western coast alone, timber has been imported to England from New
South Wales, and is very little prized there. Timber-merchants,
therefore, who confound all the Australian colonies together, as most
other people in England do, are willing to believe that the Jarra of
Western Australia is the same as the Stringy-bark of New South Wales,
and therefore worth little or nothing for ship-building purposes.
The experience of seventeen years has proved the contrary. Not only
have the valuable qualities of the Jarra been tested in vessels built
in the colony, and employed in trading to the neighbouring ports; but
men-of-war and merchant ships have been frequently repaired with it,
and the wood so employed has always been highly esteemed when
subsequently inspected abroad.
In the autumn of 1845, the Halifax Packet, a barque of 400 tons,
having parted from her anchor in a gale, and drifted ashore,
underwent repairs at Fremantle, to the extent of about eleven hundred
pounds. On being surveyed at the Port of London on her return home,
the new timber, which had never been previously recognized at
Lloyd's, though many efforts have been made to obtain that sanction,
was allowed to remain in the ship as being perfectly serviceable.
The following memorandum was addressed by the Surveyor of Lloyd's to
A. Andrews, Esq., a gentleman interested in the welfare of the colony:
"The wood used in the repairs of the Halifax Packet at Swan River,
appears to answer the purpose very well. It is not found necessary
to remove any part thereof.
"From the samples which I have seen of Swan River timber, I am of
opinion that it will form a very desirable and serviceable wood in
ship-building; but this must be regarded as my private opinion, the
Society of Lloyd's Register, to which I belong, not having as yet
assigned any character to it in their rules.
(Signed) "P. Courtney, Lloyd's Surveyor.
"Lloyd's, 24th February, 1846."
This extraordinary timber grows to a size that would appear
incredible to readers in England. It is perhaps only manageable and
remunerative from 40 to 60 feet; but in the southern districts of the
colony -- especially to the back of Nornalup and Wilson's Inlet -- it
is found growing to 120 and 150 feet in height, before the first
branch appears. My brother and his servant, when exploring in that
district, took refuge once from a storm in the hollow of an old Jarra
tree, which not only sheltered themselves but their horses; and the
interior actually measured in diameter three times the length of the
largest horse, an animal sixteen hands high and very long backed.
This may appear an astounding assertion, but the following is not
less so. The same parties found a Jarra tree which had fallen
completely across a broad and deep river (called the Deep River)
running between high precipitous banks, thus forming a natural
bridge, along which a bullock cart might have passed!
Timber of such large dimensions is perfectly useless; but there are,
of course, trees of every size, growing in boundless profusion.
As Indian teak and African oak are now scarcely obtainable, we look
upon our colony as a store-house for the British navy; and though we
have hitherto vainly battled against prejudice and private interest
to make this timber known to our rulers, the day will arrive when the
wants of the naval service will compel men in authority to
acknowledge the value of wood, which is most highly prized by all who
have had the opportunity of testing its qualities.
It is due to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to state, that
on two occasions they have promised to receive a quantity of this
timber, provided it were delivered at one of the royal dockyards, and
to allow a fair price for it. But unfortunately, there is so great a
scarcity of labour and of capital in the colony, that the settlers
have shrunk from the outlay necessary to perform what would be, after
all, only an experiment.
It cannot be supposed, that timber which has been tested in every way
for seventeen years, and is known throughout Australia to be
indisputably FIRST-RATE for ship-building purposes, should be
condemned at home as unserviceable. But the colonists know how many
prejudices and interested feelings environ the Admiralty; and in
general shrink from the experiment.