Courtesy of Trove Sydney Morning Herald 19 November 1873
THE NORTHERN COAST.
From the city of Grafton, the capital of the Clarence district, to Casino, the principal town of the Richmond, the distance is about seventy miles. Course nearly north, over a fine level good grazing country, which is fairly stocked, but thinly populated. The way for the first twenty-five miles to a traveller proves lonely, for there is but little traffic and few habitations. It is not until the line of the road which leads from Lawrence to the northern part of New England is reached that signs of settlement in the shape of a few cottages, a blacksmith’s shop, and a building which was once a licensed hotel, present themselves. The point where the roads join is twelve miles from Lawrence. Four miles from that junction the line to Casino leads off to the right at a spot where stands a neat little accommodation house. There I made a halt for a night. From this the road to Casino needs little description. There is but one stage along the entire way of forty miles, at a pretty village on Myrtle Creek half way, where a few people have settled down, and a couple of accommodation houses may be found. At one of these, where I had lunch, I was fortunately overtaken by the mailman, and for the remaining twenty miles had company – a rare advantage – for throughout my day’s ride I only met three individuals, wayfares like myself. Solitary rides or walks may to some people be most agreeable but from my experience of this and other trips, I feel inclined to think their constant repetition leads to monotony.
As the South Arm of the Richmond is approached, the country becomes almost a dead level, displaying a few belts of timber surrounding marshy plains, which, at the season I passed through, although rain had not fallen for many months, I found luxuriantly grassed. The township, or the principal part of it, is on the north bank of the river, which at present is crossed at a fall, a very fair ford in fine seasons, but a highly dangerous one after rainfall, for upon the least rise the current is rapid. The approaches to this ford are most excellent – metalled, and of nice easy grade. To provide for contingencies a boat is supplied by the Government for use during the time of freshes in the stream. One hundred yards below the ford the site for the new bridge has been marked out, where the banks are clear, high and solid, close to the spot where the telegraph wire is stretched across. I was favoured by a look at the plans of this bridge, which promises to be a most substantial one. It will consist of two spans of 110 feet each on the M’Callum truss principle, with four small spans of 30 or 35 feet for the approaches, placed two feet above the north bank of the river, over the highest flood mark. The plans are similar to those used for the bridge over the Lachlan at Cowra, one of the largest wooden bridges in the colony; but the spans of the Richmond will be 10 feet wider than those at Cowra. It was originally intended to support the main spans of the Casino bridge by a pier consisting of tapering iron cylinders, but owing to the expense consequent upon the late rise in that metal it has been determined to substitute a stone pier 50 feet high from bed of river to the floor of bridge. The stone for this work can be obtained from a quarry distant only two miles, which furnishes a siliceous sandstone of good quality, quite equal to that of the Pyrmont quarries.
The cost of this structure is estimated to amount to about £6000. Mr Donaldson, the Government road superintendent, has charge of its erection. The contractor cannot be complimented upon the energy displayed by him in pushing on the work, for although the affair has been in hand for a considerable period, I saw but a few loads of timber on the ground.
The township of Casino is situated on the north bank of the main arm of the Richmond River, distant by the course of the river about ninety miles from the heads, or the township of Ballina by road across the country the distance is estimated as fifty miles. The township is well situated, and regularly laid out with spacious streets, presenting about one hundred habitations widely spread along them, and many vacant building lots available for future operations. Placed as the town is, one of the best timber producing countries in the colony, it cannot be wondered at that nearly all the edifices are of wood, many of them of neat design. The Church of England church, which is the only one, occupies a central position in the class of wooden edifices, and is I consider, one of the best specimens of architecture I have met with in my travels: the Rev. W.H. Dunning is the present incumbent.
Close to the site of the new bridge the Government offices are clustered together in buildings not remarkable for size or beauty, consisting of the Court house, Land Office, police quarters and lock-up, and the Post and telegraph offices. There is a resident Police Magistrate (Mr J.C. King), and a C.P.S. (Mr H.E. Stratford). They hold office in the two former, in the latter Mr. Scott acts as telegraph and postmaster. All these officers have plenty of business to transact, for the district is a most extensive one: and Casino is the head-quarters.
The boundaries of the police district of Richmond, as they appear on the map, display the district as holding 25miles of seaboard between the Clarence and Tweed Rivers and back, in the form of an irregularly shaped block, in width about 40 miles and depth 35, embracing a part of the pastoral district of the Clarence and a small portion of the pastoral district of New England. Its population, by the last returns, appears as 5811: of that number 1937 are selectors. In the district 24,471 acres of land have been sold at auction, and 101,012 acres have been conditionally purchased by 1421 selectors.
The stock returns are large, 106,000 head of neat cattle, 4900 horses: of pigs the number is but small compared with the facilities of rearing afforded on the river, it is only 1900. It is estimated that upwards of £50,000 worth of cattle are annually sold from the district. That, with the amount realized for home consumption, must leave a considerable margin on the right side of the books of the pastoral tenants, who really deserve, from the energy displayed by them in improving runs and stock, a good payable business. The land under cultivation in the district is given as 55,000 acres, principally taken up by maize crops. In sugar there is not as yet much done, but efforts are being made to encourage the growth of cane by the introduction of a few good mills.
The town of Casino, although by many visitors considered dull, yet in point of business will compare favourably with many towns on our Northern Rivers , its trade, from its inland position, lies more with the pastoral than the agricultural inhabitants of the district. Of stores there are four in the township, none very extensive, yet all seeming to do a fair share of trade The Public school is a very fair building, well situated in charge of Mr. Walsh, with an average attendance of about 55. One of the neatest structures in the town is occupied by the branch of the Commonwealth Bank, managed by Mr T.A. Rudd; the office is fitted up in a most tasteful style; in it the visitor can inspect specimens of the woods of the district used in its fittings. The cedar, cherry, and bean in the hands of a local tradesman have been made most elegant articles of furniture well worth exhibition. The district has one newspaper, the Richmond River Express, which is published weekly in Casino. Of hotels, there are three, all large and commodious, and, it is pleasing to add kept in a highly respectable style. To and from Sydney to the town, there is a bi weekly mail, via Lawrence. The regular steamer traffic to the Clarence gives in this particular a rare advantage to the Richmond, for strange to think, letters from the metropolis reach the Richmond far quicker than they do the Manning, the Macleay, or the Hastings the three latter districts having to depend upon overland mini conveyance.
The Richmond River takes its rise from the Macpherson range at Mount Lindsay, and flows down to its mouth at Ballina 120 miles, the latter port is situated thirty miles north of the Clarence Heads, about 330 miles north of Sydney. The south branch of the river flows past the township of Casino and Codrington, and is navigable for small river steamers or boats up to within two miles of Casino. The north branch flows past the township of Lismore, which is situated on the junction of the Leycester and Wilson Creeks with the river on the road from Casino to the Tweed and Ballina, where there is a Court house, a Public school, a post-office, two stores, and one hotel, distant from Casino eighteen miles. Four miles from this it passes Gundurimba – a small agricultural township – and lower down a few miles another small township, Wyrallah, where there is a most excellent saw mill, fitted with machinery for sawing, planning, tonguing, and grooving. On the north arm, the river is navigable for sea-going vessels as far as Lismore – a distance of about seventy miles from the heads. The two arms join at Coraki, forty-five miles from the heads, and the river from this point widens into a magnificent stream varying from half-a-mile to 300 yards in width in its course Coraki is a small township, situated on one of the most picturesque spots on the river. It has two churches, a public school, and a few business places.
Close to the town several fine vessels have been built at Messrs Yabsley’s yard. From Coraki in its passage to the sea two small villages are passed, known as Woodburn and Wardell, at the latter saw-mills are at work.
Besides the north and south arms, the river is fed by the Emigrant, Duck, Deep Bungawalbyn, Rocky Mouth, Dyrabba, and Eden Creeks.
To explore the river and the back country, and pay the attention necessary to the industries of the district, its stations, farms, forests, and mills, in order that a fair idea of their importance might be entertained, and a fair clear description given, a traveler would (unless a birds eye sketch was meant and a balloon available) have to reside and continually keep wandering through the district of the Richmond for about three months, for the roads on the lower part are execrable and puzzling, through innumerable belts of scrub, over marshes, and a maze of tracks.
It is a well recognised fact that the residents of the Upper Richmond know very little of the lower and that it is not one man in ten really would trust himself to make a tour of the township without a guide or guides. Timber tracks well marked run in every direction from all kinds of out-of-the-way places down to the River. Now as those tracks are far more clear than the main road there is an excuse for a stranger occasionally making a mistake, and doing a few miles extra by the way of recreation. If parties resident know little of the topography of the district, it is quite plain that parties at a distance know considerably less. I heard a most amusing anecdote illustrative of the knowledge of the Sydney people in office of the position of the places on the Richmond. It ran thus:
“A light is used at the pilot station for the guidance of vessels for the maintenance of which kerosene is necessary. It happened not long since the supply of oil was almost spent, and the pilot wrote to Sydney for instructions stating the case to the effect that darkness was threatened. The Sydney office was prompt enough, and forwarded instructions at once to procure a tin or tins from Casino out of a certain store.” All this would have been well enough in its way if it did not happen that the pilot station is at Ballina, 50 miles by land, and 90 by water from Casino.
To get that tin of kerosene, the pilot or one of his crew would have had a four day journey. I did not hear what the pilot did under the circumstances, but I can hazard a guess that he borrowed some oil at Ballina. How one member manages to represent fairly and understand the wants of the Clarence electorate, which takes in all that country north of the Bellinger River, including the rivers Clarence, Richmond, and Tweed (?) might be propounded as rather a ticklish question. Taking the little intricacies into consideration, my stay in the district having been short, I hope that my few jottings may be excused for their paucity, for I never was in a district where I had so much to see and so few opportunities of seeing.
From Casino I had a ride of eighteen miles to Lismore over a very fair road which runs a few miles from the river, and I had an opportunity of glancing at the prized back country of the Richmond, which, unlike that around our rivers south of it is most excellent, well suited for grazing or agriculture. Around Lismore the soil is magnificent, not only on the alluvial flats, but also on the ridges. For the greater part it is settled upon many thousand acres now only used for grazing purposes, no doubt it will in course of time bear crops of sugarcane, for the success of the Clarence people in that industry will lend capital to be expended upon the Richmond soil. From Lismore I extended my ride as far as Wirallah (eight miles), for the most part of that distance through dense scrubs, by a very rough track. At the latter place I found the Susannah Cuthbert, the regular trading sawmills, taking in a part cargo of sawn pine from the sawmills. The trade done in this timber of late has been somewhat extensive, as the exports which are hereafter given will show. This mill, now the property (I was given to understand) of Mr Keep managed by Mr Breckenridge, is a first class one, containing the latest improvements in machinery, worked by two steam engines, twenty-two men are employed in the building.
I availed myself of the opportunity of the steamer’s departure on the morning after my arrival and shipped for a trip down the river to Ballina. On the way several stoppages were made at the farms for the purpose of taking in maize, coops of fowls &c. At the farms as a rule, there is but little wharf accommodation: the plan pursued is to run the steamer as close in to the bank as possible, and shove a plank ashore over which the sailors have to carry the bags and slide them into the hold. On a wet day, with slippy banks and planks, this work is rather a dangerous one, and it is not an uncommon occurrence at times to find both man and bag overboard. During my trip down I had an opportunity of witnessing one of these contretemps happen to a fine sturdy fellow, one of the Susannah’s crew, who took his ducking as if it were quite a matter of course for forty mile – down the river on each side may be seen farms, with homesteads of a fair class, as is the case on all the rivers I have met with north; each house is surrounded by a small banana plantation. On the Richmond, at the lower part, there is more signs of trade in the shape of shipping to be found – vessels of all kinds, from the ketch to the barque or three masted schooner – all engaged loading timber.
On the way we passed dozens of rafts of cedar and pine floating down to the heads manned by two or three men, who, for shelter, have a small tent rigged in the centre of the mass of logs.
As Ballina is neared the banks become low and sandy, and the country for a few miles uncleared.
Opposite West Ballina the steamer dropped anchor, and I had a look at the town, which is situated on the north side of the river, on a low lying flat. The buildings nearly all face the water. Three hotels display a fair front and glaring signboards. The rest of the buildings, stores, and dwellings are placed close together – none of them appear of that class deemed substantial.
There is an East and a West Ballina. North Creek divides the two. In the former are located the principal public buildings, the Custom-house, and the Public school, (attended by about 60 scholars), the court house and lock up (under the care of a senior-constable), and the pilot station (in charge of pilot Easton). There is also a temperance hall, used as a church by the members of the church of England when their clergyman pays them a visit, which is about once in every three months. The Post-office is situated close to the Custom-house, in charge of Mr. Ross, an enterprising storekeeper and old resident in the district.
The building used as an office and residence for the sub collector of Customs, Mr Eaton, being rather small, a new one is in course of erection. Although there is but a very faint line of demarcation between East and West Ballina, yet there is a certain amount of rivalry existing between the two, the West has nearly all the business places, and the East all the Government offices. Now, it happens that the telegraph line, it is hoped, will be extended to the town, and there is a little unseemly wrangling concerning where the office should be placed, having heard arguments on both sides, I have a leaning towards the East for as the wire will most likely be used for shipping intelligence, the closer the office is to the pilot station the more useful it ought to prove, although some of the Westerners may suffer the inconvenience of a quarter-mile walk to reach it.
A Court is held once a month at Ballina by the police magistrate, Mr King, who has to travel 60 miles of rough road from Casino, to hold same. This seems rather an inconvenient arrangement, which might be obviated by combining the offices of P.M. and Collector of Customs in one, as is the custom at Eden, close to our Southern boundary.
The population of Ballina is estimated at something under 600. With such a number it seems strange that no places of worship have as yet been erected, in fact, it seems as if religion was totally neglected. About four years ago, in consequence of the discovery of gold in the sands of the beach around Ballina, there was a grand rush of diggers to the spot, and several parties for a time did well by washing the sand through quicksilver cradles. Gradually the mining population dwindled down. At the present time only two parties are at work. The gold is remarkably fine, and some people say rather too scarce. Although the diggings proved a failure, yet the rush did no harm to the river, for it was instrumental in settling many people on it, and enlarging Ballina to considerable extent. At present the trade of the town is mainly dependent on the shipping, and as the number of vessels yearly increase it may be assumed that the place, although now dull, will in time become most important. Mails for Sydney leave and arrive at Ballina bi-weekly from the Clarence River Heads via Woolli. This is the most direct way for correspondence to reach the place from the metropolis.
Mistakes have often been made by forwarding telegrams, parcels, &c., to Casino; from that town to Ballina the mail service is only once a week. I mention the matter as a guide to parties having communication with the port.
Within two miles of Ballina there are two sugar mills one worked by steam power, the property of Mr Sharp, is a nice compact little plant, capable of crushing all the cane at present grown in its neighbourhood but as several of the landholders express themselves in favour of the culture, before long it may be estimated that many hundred acres will be under sugar crops.
The following returns, which show the importance of the trade of the Richmond, were kindly furnished by the sub collector – Statistics of 1872 – Shipping entered inwards; foreign, 46 vessels, 506 tons, outwards, 33 vessels, 4122 tons. Coastwise inwards, 161 vessels, 16,285 tons, outwards, 170 vessels, 18,938 tons. The total number of vessels passed through the Customs books, in and out, 409, tonnage; 44,395. This year, taking the past months average, will show an increase; the probable number may be estimated as 467 vessels, tonnage, 50,000. The exports of 1872 were foreign; Cedar, 2,217,200 feet; pine, 304,000 ditto beech, 4000 ditto, spokes, No, 6247, maize, bushels, 8150. Coastwise; Cedar, 1,937,400 feet pine, 7,488,078 ditto, beech, 38,300 ditto, spokes, No. 1100 staves, 25,910 , hides, 2127 maize, bushels, 70,000 , &c ,&c., Rough estimate of value at port of shipment, £60,000, at port of discharge, £80,000.
Undoubtedly the greatest drawback to the progress of the Richmond district is to be found at the mouth of its river in the shape of a “bar,” in this case a most apt name for the erratic bank of sand through which the river forces its way. Were the entrance protected on the south as it is on the north all would be well, but unfortunately on the one side there is nothing but a low lying sandy beach exposed to the action of every south east and southerly gale that blows. Under the influence of these prevailing winds the bar is ever shifting. Inside the harbour is spacious, and were it not for the formation of sand-banks would be excellent.
These sandspits are continually in course of formation, as others are being washed away by the influence of tides and currents. Under these circumstances the greatest care has to be exercised by the pilot and every change must be carefully noted and soundings taken. To give an idea of what delays do occur at this bar and the risk of trade occurred by ships and shippers, one statement founded on reliable authority ought to suffice – “At the commencement of the year 38 vessels were bar-bound for upwards of four months.”
At present two tugs are on the station – the Challenge, a fine powered boat, introduced by a Melbourne company, and a smart little screwboat, Sydney built, named the Athletic; both have done good service when the bar was passable. I have heard that as high rates as £25 per vessel have been paid for this short tow. Such expense, coupled with the loss occasioned by the detention of a vessel and crew, adds considerably to the freight charged to and from the river, and thus seriously hampered its trade.
Various plans have been suggested for improving the entrance to the river, among others, the idea of diverting the North Creek by way of an old watercourse and emptying it into the river about one mile above the Western township, the object being to confine the outward waters so as to secure an impetus in a straight direction to the ocean sufficient to scour the channel, seems practicable enough. A second proposition is to cut a canal from the Pilot Bay, at East Ballina, through the hill upon which the flagstaff stands to the ocean, thus providing by artificial means the deficiency at present felt, a “South head” with a rocky stream in between. Several other plans have been mooted and, by the inhabitants of the district, considered, but the most sensible seems to be a proposition to the effect that the Government procure the services of a well qualified engineer and that a survey should be made by him, and the improvement of the bar well considered. The district being a most valuable one, of vast resources, and one which has increased and is likely to increase the revenue, the residents of the district think in justice they may demand legislative action in the matter.
In the early part of last year a Political League was initiated at Ballina, which has since extended over the district for the object of giving weight to the remonstrances of the inhabitants against the present parliamentary representation of the district as a portion of the Clarence electorate. The same body has been active in forwarding petitions praying for the improvement of the river’s entrance and an extension of the telegraph line to the heads from Casino. The league has also initiated, or entered into preliminaries for the formation of a local steam navigation company. On the Estimate of 1874 one concession appears – the sum of £5000 has been voted for the purpose of placing and maintaining a Government tug at the heads.
My passage from the river to Sydney was made in the Susannah Cuthbert; the fickle bar proved in rather a good mood for our delay at Ballina was only for one night. 8 o’clock a.m. found the bronzed pilot on board ready to take us across, and we were off towards the shallow bank which is named the Crossing, a kind of inner bar about half a mile inside the outer one. This crossing proves most inconvenient to trading vessels, particularly those of over 8 feet draught. The custom followed is to part load up the stream, then cross the crossing place, and complete the taking in of cargo while anchored between it and the bar.
As the Susannah crossed this shallow spot, although only drawing 8 feet, she touched several times in about the distance of 150 yards. When close to the outer bar the pilot took to his boat, and by a flag from it directed the course to to steered on board our steamer. Our course was S by E for about 500 yards, and the danger was passed during the crossing; the lead, or sounding pole, gave the shallowest part as 12 feet. The wind was favourable from the north, yet there were a few ugly rollers to surmount before the clear open ocean was reached. My experience of the Richmond bar was a pleasant one; but few travellers prove as lucky, for in few days’ detention, in some cases of weeks duration, falls to the lot of the passenger by sea from the Richmond to Sydney.