by A B Facey
As I walked along the winding bush track, I kept listening for the sound of horses approaching, ready to move off the track if I did. My listening for the horses so keenly made the bush noises seem extra loud – I heard more bush noises that night than the previous night.
After walking for about three hours or more, I judged the time to be about ten or a little later. (I was judging the time by the moon as I knew it would set at eleven thirty.) Then, while walking over a small hill, I noticed a faint light. It was a long way ahead of me and looked to be in the right direction. This lifted my feelings and I started to walk faster; I even forgot how thirsty I was. It might be Gillimanning. There was an old settler there, so Jimmy had told me. Each time the track went over a rise I could see the light, and it seemed to be brighter each time, so I knew that I was getting closer. I forgot about the weird noises and the chance of horsemen coming. My ambition was to get to that light.
I must have travelled two or three more miles before I came close to the light. I could see now that it was a fire; it looked like a fire that someone had left. I remembered that we were all taught how dangerous it was to leave a fire burning, as the bush was a fire hazard. All new settlers were warned. Then, as I got closer I could see people, some were standing and some were sitting around the fire. Then all at once my feet felt sore. I had left the track walking towards the fire, and in my excitement I had forgotten about my bag boots. The pair I had on had worn through and I had been walking on the rough ground. So, I sat on the ground and put on the last pair of boots and then I approached the fire.
When I got within one hundred yards, I could see the faces of the people who were around the fire. Then all at once two big dogs came towards me, barking savagely. A large man came after them, calling to the dogs. Then he called out, ‘Who’s that there?’ I kept walking towards the fire and yelled, ‘It’s me, a boy.’ As I approached the fire the man said, ‘Where in the blazes did you come from?’ I said, ‘I’m on my way to my uncle’s place. It’s near Snows Well.’ The man seemed surprised to see a boy at this time of night. He was a short man, but very broad shouldered, and he looked big to me in the fire light.
As we walked back to the fire he noticed my bag boots and asked me why I was wearing moccasins. I didn’t know what he meant and he told me that ‘moccasins’ was the name of the type of boots I was wearing. A lady, his wife, then spoke to me and asked me had I had anything to eat. I told her I was very thirsty, and one of the children got me a pannikin of water which I drank and then asked for more. I told the lady that I hadn’t had any food since early that morning and that I had walked many miles. She got me some food at once, she was a nice person.
The couple had four children; two boys and two girls. After I had eaten the food the man told me to come and sit on the box near the fire and tell them all about my troubles. ‘You look like you have had a bad time,’ he said. So I told them all that had happened to me since I went from Uncle’s with big Bob, including the flogging. To prove it I pulled my rag shirt off and showed them the whip marks. The man said he wouldn’t have believed that anyone could be so cruel and that if anyone did that to one of his kids he would kill them. He went on to say that they were new settlers and that they had only been here about three months. They were from Scotland. He said he knew about Snows Well and he had been told about Uncle and, as luck had it, he wanted to have a talk with Uncle about buying some horses and a cow. He said that he believed Uncle was an expert with stock, and continued on to say, ‘In the morning I will drive you over to your uncle’s place in my spring-cart. It is about nine miles or so. Now we must go to bed.’ He called his eldest son, Jack, and told him that I was to doss in with him for the night. I felt very shy as the boys changed into their night clothes and I had to sleep in the clothes that I was wearing; all I took off was my rag hat and bag boots. I had no sooner laid my head on the pillow than I was asleep.
The next thing I knew it was daylight. The lady was up and the man had gone to get the horse that was in a paddock they had made by running barbed wire from tree to tree around a few acres. During the day they hobbled the horse and let him feed near the camp with a bell on so they could hear where he was. After breakfast the man and the second son, about my age, got into the cart with me and we set out for Uncle’s place.
The road was just a winding track – there were no made roads in those days. We arrived at Uncle’s place, as I could guess by looking at the sun, at about eleven o’clock in the forenoon. Judging the time by how far or near the sun was to overhead was the only way I had of knowing the time. I never had a clock or watch.
Arriving at Uncle’s place I could see the many changes that had been made. They had about one hundred acres cleared and a lot of the land had been fenced. They were all out working, clearing more land for cropping in the winter. This was to be the first crop that Uncle planted. He had bought a milking cow and the women were making their own butter.
One of Uncle’s daughters saw us and ran to tell the others, and they all came to see me. Dear old Grandma threw her arms around me and cried with joy. The Scotsman made himself known to them and told them how he came to be there and also about the scars all over my body. Uncle made me take off my shirt and Grandma, Aunt Alice and Uncle Archie stood and looked at me. Uncle went white with rage and he made me tell them what the flogging was for. Then he said he would go to Narrogin the next day and see what the police had to say about it. Grandma and Aunt got me some of my cousin Bill’s clothes. He was about the same age as I, but I was much bigger. His clothes fitted me all right though, because Aunt always bought them a little big for him, as he was growing.
After we had had our midday meal, Uncle had a long talk with the Scotsman before he and his son set off back home. I thanked him for his kindness and for bringing me home. Grandma, Uncle and Aunt also thanked him and Uncle said he would give the Scotsman all the help and advice he could. When he left, Grandma made me have a bath and washed my feet in salt water, then made me go to bed.
The next day Uncle went to town to see what could be done about having Bob punished. I was kept in bed the three days he was away. When Uncle Archie returned he was not very hopeful of bringing Bob to justice. The police knew of him and the whole Cave Rock mob, but had said that it would be hard to prove anything against them because everyone living near was scared of them. But the police said they would send a man to make enquiries and see what could be done. They told Uncle that the Cave Rock mob were a bad lot and had been gaoled for horse and cattle stealing, and that anyone giving information against them put themselves in great danger as they would stop at nothing to get even. There were many ways that a new settler could be attacked so that it was hard to prove who had done it.
Grandma looked after me like a baby and would come and talk with me for hours. She made me tell her all about my stay at Cave Rock and she shed many tears for letting me go. Uncle bought me a pair of boots, two shirts, two pairs of shorts, some socks, and also a cap and coat while he was in Narrogin. I was now over my sore feet and able to go and help with the clearing and possum snaring. They were still dependent on the possum skin money to make ends meet.
BUSH SCHOOLING
1905–1908
‘I DIDN’T KNOW YOU. YOUR SWAG IS BIGGER THAN YOU ARE.’
9
A SNAKE BITE
I turned eleven years old on August thirty-first 1905. My birthday went unnoticed, a common thing those days. I stayed with Uncle until October 1905 and by then he had one hundred acres of wheat growing and would be ready to harvest in about twelve weeks. It was a lovely crop, the first wheat grown with an artificial fertiliser which the farmers called Thomas’s manure. It was a bluish black colour and very heavy. The Government helped the settlers with the purchase and delivery of this fertiliser.
Grandma told me about a new scheme the Government had brought in to help the settlers become established so that they could grow enough wheat, and stock their properties. The scheme was that the Government woul
d pay twenty shillings for every acre the settler cleared ready for cropping. Also, they paid so much for fencing and any other improvements that were made. This money was by way of a loan, and a mortgage of the full amount at the end of the year was taken out against the property. This money was free of interest and the settlers were to pay it back over twenty-five years. No repayments were to be made, or interest charged, for five years, to give the settler a chance to have his property producing before the repayments started. There was also provision made for loans for stock and machinery. That was how a settler could take up land and settle on it without much or any money. By this time all the land around Uncle Archie’s had been taken up so that now he had neighbours on all sides.
A new settler took up land adjoining Uncle’s. He was a short, stout man about fifty years old, with a wife in her twenties. Uncle said that the man was hard to get along with, and Roy and the other kids were all scared of him.
The new settler built a mud and stone house of two rooms, with a roof of iron and a dirt floor. He had to cart water from the soak near Uncle’s place, so the first thing he wanted to do was to put down a well. He came and asked Uncle to give him some advice as to where he might find water. Uncle was always happy to give advice and went with the man to have a good look over his property. He finally pointed out a spot where there might be water, about forty to fifty feet down. The neighbour said he would sink the well at the place Uncle had pointed out.
One morning, about two weeks later, Roy, Aunt Alice, Grandma, and us kids were working in a paddock not far from the house, when we heard a man’s voice calling loudly, ‘Nell, Nell, this way Nell.’ Roy said, ‘I think that’s the man from next door.’ As the man got closer, still calling, ‘Nell, Nell, this way Nell,’ at the top of his voice, Aunt said, ‘Something must have happened to their child.’ Roy told me and the other kids to get under a big log that lay on the ground near us, and he got an axe and said, ‘If he comes near you kids I’ll whack him with this axe.’
The man was now only about one hundred yards away, and still yelling out. Aunt Alice went to meet him calling out, ‘What is the matter? What has happened?’ He was only a few yards away from Aunt and he was panting and gasping for breath. Finally he said, ‘I’ve been bitten by a snake, a big black bugger,’ pointing to his right arm just below the shoulder. His wife, Nell, had put a tight cord around the arm just above where he had been bitten. He had stopped now and was looking back for Nell.
He told Aunt that Nell had cut the snake bite and sucked out the blood, and they had decided he should run to the nearest neighbour for help to get a doctor. His nearest neighbour was three miles away, and as Nell had to carry their two-year-old daughter, he had run ahead and yelled all the way, so that she would know where he was. When he got close to the neighbour’s place he remembered that he had quarrelled with him the day before, so he wouldn’t go there, but continued running on to Uncle’s place, two miles further on.
Aunt Alice sent Roy to get Uncle who was doing some fencing not far away. When Roy told Uncle what had happened Uncle hurried home. He harnessed the horse to the cart and handed the man a drink of brandy. The man wouldn’t drink it as he said he was a teetotaller.
Uncle put him in the cart and drove him over to a neighbour who had a smart horse and sulky. With this neighbour, who insisted on going with them, they set out for the doctor at Narrogin.
Uncle was away three days and when he came home he told us about the terrible time they had with the man, trying to keep him awake. They had had to leave their horse on a farm about twelve miles from Narrogin as it was exhausted, and the farmer lent them another horse to complete the trip. When they arrived at Narrogin the sick man wouldn’t go to the doctor until he had seen an agent named Watts who represented a firm, Elder Shenton and Company, which had sent him a letter about an account he hadn’t paid. He wanted to tell Watts what he thought of him and the firm, in case he died. That convinced Uncle that the man was mad.
The doctor kept the man in hospital for about five days. He completely recovered and got a ride back with another settler. A few weeks later his wife became very sick. She went to see the doctor who found that she was suffering from blood poisoning. She had several decayed teeth, so that when she had sucked out the poison from the snake bite wound, some had entered into her bloodstream. She was very ill and had to stay in hospital.
Aunt Alice and Grandma minded her two-year-old baby girl while she was away; she was such a lovely, pretty little girl. The father was very grateful to Aunt and Grandma for taking care of her. He was terrified of snakes and every time he came to see his daughter he would give Aunt a lecture about snakes. As the weeks went by, then the months, the mother got worse and finally she passed away. After she was buried her husband took the little girl to his sister who was living in Perth.
10
TAKEN AGAIN
By now my brothers, Eric and Roy, were becoming unsettled because Uncle couldn’t afford to pay them wages. They took a contract job to clear land for one of Uncle’s neighbours and left in early October. Then one day another of Uncle’s neighbours offered me a job at five shillings per week and keep. He knew Uncle and Grandma and asked them before approaching me, saying that I was free to work for him if I liked. He was a big Irishman named Moran, and was single and wanted a boy for company and to look after his poultry. He had about two hundred fowls.
So with Grandma’s blessing, I went. At first I liked the job and my new boss was good to me and took me with him every time he went to a dance or picnic. Also the food was good and I was given new clothes.
The first two or three months the boss used to go away on Monday morning and arrive back the following Saturday evening. He was building stockyards for a man who ran cattle. The job was eight miles away and it was too much travelling for him to come home each day as his only way of getting around was on horseback. He finished the job early in the New Year and then, like Uncle, he started to get some land cleared for cropping that year.
From then on things changed for me. My boss expected me to work all day in the paddock and do the other chores around the house as well. This went on until near the end of April and by then we had cleared, ready for the plough, sixty acres of land. Knowing that he was getting twenty shillings from the Government for each acre cleared, and as I had never asked him for any wages (although he used to tell me how much he made building stockyards), I quietly asked him one evening for five pounds. I had more than this amount coming to me. I said to him, ‘Tom,’ (he always insisted that I call him Tom), ‘could you let me have five pounds?’ He looked at me and said, ‘Who said that I was going to pay you wages?’ I said, ‘You told me, Uncle and Grandma that you would pay me five shillings a week and keep.’ He replied, ‘So I did, but not also buy your clothes, your keep in food and a place to sleep.’ ‘But,’ I said, ‘you haven’t bought me any clothes. Up to now all I’ve got is what you gave me when I came here.’ With this he replied, ‘If you’re not satisfied you know what to do. There’s no money for you.’ That was all that was said.
The boss went over to a neighbour’s, about four miles away, to see if the neighbour would sell him some wheat. When he had been gone about an hour, I packed my few things together and cleared out. I was frightened of this big Irishman and felt sure that he would have belted me for leaving, and have bullied me into staying.
My experience up to now made me doubt the word of everyone. I went to Tom’s neighbours, two Germans named Otto and Herman Meikle, who lived five miles away in a north-west direction. About a month before, Otto had been over at Tom’s place. I was working clearing not far from the house and Otto had had a talk with me about my job with Tom and what wages I was getting. I told him the set up and he said that I was not being paid enough, and that if I ever wanted a job he would give me ten shillings a week and keep and that I wouldn’t have to work as hard for him as I did at Tom’s. When Tom refused my wages I remembered what Otto had said.
The Meikles welcom
ed me and when I told them that I had left Tom they both agreed I could have the job on the terms Otto had offered me. It was late in the evening when I arrived and they showed me where I would sleep. They only had a two-roomed bag hut with a small lean-to verandah built on the north side. I was to sleep in the lean-to. They had two kangaroo dogs that slept under the lean-to, near me.
One of the Meikles was preparing the evening meal when I arrived. We sat down at a home-made table which consisted of four forked posts put into the ground, two bush rails put across from fork to fork, and boards nailed across these, which were about six feet long and about two feet across. The floors were earth, like in all new settlers’ huts. The meal consisted of two boiled eggs (they kept fowls), a cup of black tea and dry damper. That night I was nearly eaten alive by dog fleas – there were thousands of them. In fact, while I was sitting at the table I was pestered by hundreds crawling up my legs.
The next morning we had fried eggs for breakfast with dry damper, then fried eggs for the midday meal, again with dry damper; and with all meals, black tea without sugar or milk. This went on for six days and my stomach couldn’t take any more. As fast as I tried to swallow the eggs I would have to run outside and vomit them up again. This suited the dogs as they didn’t mind them. They were waiting for me to vomit each meal time; they were half-starved.
