AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER (4th JAN. 1920)
In an interesting interview, Mr James SHARROCK (b:1838), an old pioneer, who now lives at Bessiebelle, gave the following history of his life:
I landed at Melbourne in the early forties with my father and mother and lived there for some time. Melbourne at that time was a very small town. There was no bridge over the Yarra, and anyone who wished to cross. the river had to do so on an old punt. There were about twenty or thirty blacks on the spot where Flinders Street Station now stands, and Elizabeth Street was over the boot tops in mud.
After living there for a short time we came across to Geelong, and remained there for a period. My father, who was a carpenter, built the first mail stable in Geelong. About the end of 1847 I came up to Colac and got employment at Green Hill station, looking after cattle; my age being at that time about eleven years. All that time there were no buildings on the track from Geelong to Colac, except one at the Barwon River. About one year after my father and mother left Geelong, and came up to Colac, purchasing a block of land, where they grew the first wheat at Colac. At that time there were only three huts and one hotel at Colac, and only two huts at Camperdown. That same year my father took up a run at the head of the Barwon River, where he built a house and yards, and lived with part of his family.
ln the year 1851, in the month of July, the Clunes diggings were discovered and about the end of August my father and I, with my two brothers, started across countrv for Mount Buninyong, with a team of eight bullocks and a dray. In those times there were no roads or, tracks to follow We struck the Leigh River at Winter's Flat, and met two men there who informed us that gold had been discovered at Ballarat at the old Golden Point. So instead of going on to the Clunes Fields, we turned five miles up the Leigh River to Ballarat. When we arrived there were only 13 tents erected, and our made 14 in a] I . This old Golden Point was discovered by two men named Merrick and Wilson on Sunday, August 24th, 1851. We worked there till the end of October and got about 800 worth of gold. About that time gold was discovered at Castlemaine, and as my father got anxious to see the new diggings my eldest brother went over to Warrenheip and brought back our bullocks, and in three days we arrived at Castlemaine and started digging. We worked about a fortnight, and had not much luck, so on Monday morning my father and I started out prospecting to a place called White Horse Hill. There my father started a small hole like a post hole in among the whip sticks. I was a little distance away digging also, when I saw him beckon to me to come over to where he was digging. When I got there he showed me about an ounce or more of gold which he had taken out of the hole. He then told me to go back to the camp and bring the bullocks and dray. I went back and brought them, and we loaded on the dray two half bags of the rich wash dirt, took it back to the camp and emptied it into pudling tubs. It being dinner time one of the men said that .;c had better go to dinner, but my father said "Go on George, and puddle that dirt, you won't want any dinner when you have finished". When the dirt was washed it turned out nearly nine ounces of pure gold. We worked that claim, and another one, and that took us till five days before Christmas, and the profits turned out 200 per than at the diggings. We got f rom the two d i gg i ngs a little over 1, 300 i n not qu i te f our mont hs . We then yoked up the bullocks and started for home at Colac, a distance of about 110 miles, which we did in five days. We stayed home for Christmas and New Year, and abo.ut the middle of January, 1852, we arrived at the Bendigo diggings, and started to work in Long Gully. We did fairly well here for about two months, and we then shifted to Ironbark Gully, where we worked till May. I carted this wash dirt myself to Bullock Creek, a distance of about eight miles, with the bullocks and dray, and the fresh water for drinking had to be carted back in the same manner. At the end of May we started back home again to Colac.
About that time the bushrangers began to give trouble. We stayed home through the winter, and sent two loads of flour up to the diggings, for which we got about 18 per bag. Carting at that time was a difficult matter, as there were no bridges or fords over creeks or rivers. We did some work at home during the winter, and in September we started back to the Eureka diggings. In due time we arrived at Eureka, and camped on the creek opposite the Stockade. We went to work on Pennyweight Flat, and it was named right, for we did no good there. My father met there a party of three men, one being a doctor, another a schoolmaster and a third, a lawyer. These men owned a very good claim, but they had worked it in such a poor manner that it had become dangerous, and likely to fall in and bury them alive. They offered this claim to my father for six ounces of gold. My father and his mate then went down the shaft to examine it, and they found that it was cracked eight feet on the east side, so they agreed to buy it if they were first allowed to go down and put three sets of blocks with slabs to form a prop, and make it safe to work in. This was agreed to, and they put in the prop, and found that it would hold, so they bought the claim and worked it in about three weeks. There were four of us in our party, and the claim, which was on the spot where the Eureka Stockade was afterwards built, turned out about 200 per man.
So having a good deal of work to do at home we started back to Colac, but did not get very far the first day. The next day we got to the Leigh River for dinner. We had crossed the river, and started to make a fire, my brother was watering the bullocks on the ford, and my father was sitting on the pole of the dray with a double barrel gun near him, when' all at once he cal led to me, "Jim, have a look at the road. I think I can hear horsemen coming." I got on the pole, and I saw three horsemen coming down the hill. They rode up and pulled in their horses within' about twelve yards of the dray. They did not look like gold diggers or squatters. One of them asked my father to give them a drink, but father said ;:we haven't got any tea boiled yet" and the spokesman said, Have you anything stronger than tea?". My father then said, "Jim, go to the box and bring out that bottle of gin." I brought the bottle and a pint pannikin, which I took to the first speaker, and gave him a good drink, and when he lifted his hand to take it, I saw the butts of two revolvers sticking out of his belt. I served the other two men the same, and I noticed that they were armed also. My father then said, "Can I do anything more for you?" but the leader answered "No" and thanked father for the drink. He then said "Captain Melville is not overfond of standing in front of a double barrel gun and revolver". and with that they nodded and rode away across the ford, the way they had come. We drove the bullocks hard that afternoon, and the next day we arrived at Colac, that being near Christmas in 1852.
About the end of January 1853, my father being determined to take another trip to the diggings, we started for Canadian Gully,. near Ballarat. We arrived there, and took up a claim about one hundred yards down the lead from the place where the one hundred and twenty pounds nugget, called the Lady Orthum nugget was found. This claim did not pay as well as expected, and we had bad luck for my father broke his collar bone, and afterwards his partner, James Wearrum, toot.' the fever and died. We buried him in the old Ballarat cemetery, which had not been surveyed very long, he being the first buried there. Soon after this we left and went home.
| After we had got home my father wanted to buy some good land, and he went to Melbourne for that purpose, but the government were not inclined to sell. My father was one of the men who worked to get Victoria separated from New South Wales. About a fortnight after he came back from Melbourne father got a letter from the Government stating that there were two auctions of land for sale at Mount Rouse, in the Parish of Yallemby. There was, staying with us, at that time, one of Captain Fyans' men, who told father that this was first class land. My father then went to Melbourne, and purchased the land at once. This place was named Moorambool, but my mother afterwards called it Lovely Banks.
In the month of August we started for Mount Rouse, with ten bullocks and a dray loaded with tools and outfit for making a start building and fencing a stockyard. We put part of the house up, and shortly before Christmas we went back to Colac again. My father then sold all his property in the Colac district. Just about that time my father heard that there were two of his bullocks in the Burnbank pound, so I started on the Friday morning for them, as they were to be sold out of the pound on Saturday, and the distance was between 90 and 100 miles, so I had not much time to spare. I rode fast for about 35 miles, and then steadied down to give the horse a rest. Presently I saw a horseman riding towards me out of the Forest near Mount Mercer. He came up and as I did not stop he rode along with me, after passing the time of day. After a little while he asked me if I would oblige him with a few matched, so I gave him some. When he took the matched from me he lifted his coat and I noticed a couple of revolvers in his belt. I was riding a good horse at the time, and I noticed that he had his eye on it all the time. His own horse looked knocked up. I recognized him as Captain Melville, the bushranger. He looked at me, and said "I have met you before. I know that white curly head of yours". And with that he turned away and rode into the forest again. I thought that he meant to take my horse, but Captain Melville was not mean enough to rob a boy. Three days after I got back to the same place with the bullocks, and I began to think about Captain Melville again. I came about eight miles nearer home, and on Gardener's Creek I met a man from the station who told me that Captain Melville and two others had been there and robbed the station, getting about 100. When he had taken all the money from the station hands, he called up two boys who were among them, and gave them back their money, saying, "I don't rob boys". I arrived at Colac the next day, and found that they had one draft of cattle ready to go to the new home at Mount Rouse. I took these on to Mount Rouse, and left them there with my brother and another man to look after them. I then went back to Colac, and found them all busy mustering cattle and getting ready with two teams and drays, with all our baggage. We also drove about 150 head of cattle, and in about ten days we arrived at our new home. We then set to work and finished our house, which we had started before. We then started dairying, and by spring time we had a good dairy herd in full milk. At that time Ararat diggings broke out, and there was a great demand for dairy produce. We went up to the diggings every month with a load of dairy produce, for which we obtained high prices. We also did a little farming, putting in about ten acres of wheat, which yielded a very good crop. We threshed this, and I carted it to the mill to get it ground. This was the first wheat ground in Hamilton, the mill being situated on the bank of the Grange Creek, and owned by Mr. Hutchinson. My wheat having been ground, I got a start about eleven o'clock next morning. When I got on top of the hill, i met a man named Waggelon, who also had a load of wheat, his being the second that was ground in Hamilton. Forty years later we met again and had a talk about these same loads of wheat. We carried on dairying on a large scale until 1858. In that year I married the second eldest daughter of the late Mrs. Porter of Blackwood Station, who was formerly housekeeper for the late James Ritchie.
All my father's brothers, having been left in England, he was very anxious to get them out to Austral i a, so he sent home, and brought them out: three brothers, with their wives and families; fourteen in all. They landed in Port Fairy in the end of June in 1858, and my 'brother Joe and I met them there with two teams of bullocks, and took them all up to my father's place at Lovely Banks. They stayed at my father's place for about eight months, and then the two eldest left and went on their own, and did very well.
A little later Duffys land Act came in, and they both got farms on Black fellows Creek near Penshurst. In the year 1859 we put in a lot of crop and had a splendid harvest in January 1860. Four days after this crop had been carted into stacks, a big fire came down from the north west, about eight miles wide and as there was long grass, the f lames reached in some places to about 20 feet high, and travelled at the rate of about five miles an hour. This fire swept everything before it, burning all the stacks, milking sheds, dairy, kitchen, storehouse, one and a half tons of bacon and cheese, and all the grass for twenty miles around.
Our fattening paddock of 400 acres, with a number of fat bullocks in it, got on fire, but by good luck the cattle broke through the fence, and escaped with a severe singeing. This fire proved a great loss to us, for, as the grass was all burnt, the dairying had to be stopped for six months. At that time we owned part of Burnbrae.
My eldest son was born at Mount Rouse, and about that time my father settled his youngest brother on a block of land between the two roads, and built him a comfortable house. About that time my father with two other gentlemen went about to get separation from the Port Fairy Shire, and to form a Shire at Mount Rouse; and in about six months they got this settled and formed a council of seven members, my father being one of them. He remained in the Council for nine years, and then retired on account of his health. He had bad health from that time till his death, which occurred in the year 1871, he being only 57 years of age when he died.
In the year 1873, I purchased some land at Bessiebelle, on the lower Eumeralla River. I had a good many ups and downs, at that time, for the place was very rough and infested with dingoes, the damage to my sheep can well be imagined. They killed a great many of the, but later on I began to do better, and the last thirty five years as my family began to grow up, we did very well. I have five sons and three daughters living, and all are married and living on their own farms, within three and a half miles of the old homestead, and there is no better family in Australia. Their mother , the late Mrs. James Sharrock died in May 1919. This was a great blow to me and my family She was one of the best wives and mothers. I have 31 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren. My age is 83, and I reside at Lewer Eumeralla Bessiebelle and my principal mate now is my little grandson Eric James Sharrock, aged two and a half years.
THIS IS A COPY OF AN ARTICLE WHICH WAS IN HAMILTON SPECTATOR 4th JAN. 1920. |