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Sat 20 Sep 1873 - The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939)
Page 10 - Country News, by Mail.

Country News, by Mail.

The latest items of Country News will Found in

our Telegraphic Classification.

THE NERANG RIVER AND THE

SOUTHERN BORDER.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.)

FOLLOWING the main southern road, ten miles

from Coomera, we come to the Nerang River,

the "feed" improving all the way, and un-

touched by frost. The buildings in the township

of Nerang consist of two public houses—

and nothing else. The post-office is five miles

lower down the river, at Mr. Muir's plantation,

where there is also an accommodation-house for

travellers. This arrangement is a curious one,

and certainly either the post office or the town-

ship ought to be shifted. The mail coach goes

no farther than Nerang, and thence to the

southern border of the colony, and across the

border to the Tweed River the track is of

the most primitive description ; in some places

it is dangerous, and in others, quite impassable

after wet weather. This part of the colony,

which from the superiority of its climate and

the fertility of the soil, will most certainly be

thickly populated at no great distance of time,

has hitherto contained very few electors, which

perhaps accounts for the neglect with which it

has been treated by the Government and Legis-

lature.

I could not find any one in the district able to

tell me where is the source of the Nerang River.

Its head waters must rise somewhere in the

Darlington and Macpherson Ranges ; but the

Government maps afford no information on the

subject, and it seems to be a mystery to all except

some of the old timber getters. The aborigines

can tell nothing about the matter, for they keep

clear of that part of the country, under the

belief that the ranges are the home of the

"bunyip," "devil-devil," or some other fright-

ful monster that gobbles up every unfortunate

blackfellow it comes across. Some seven or

eight miles above the township there is an

"Aboriginal Reserve," with ten miles frontage

to the river, and extending back to the Darling-

ton Range, but there does not appear to have

been any serious endeavor made to turn it to the

advantage of the blacks.

Adjoining the township is Berribi, the pro-

perty of Messrs Schneider and Philpott. It

has an area of 450 acres, of which 330 are

freehold and the remainder leasehold

selections. Nearly forty acres are

under cane, and about half an acre

contains mangel-wurzel. The latter looked very

healthy, and the roots are to be used for feeding

pigs in spring, at which time of the year other

food is scarce. Bourbon cane is grown on

forest ground, and ribbon on the river scrub

land. Some of the Bourbon was affected by

rust, the forest land here having rich alluvial

soil. The mill is made almost entirely of wood,

and is driven by horse-power. The cog wheels,

however, are of iron, and the four wooden

horizontal rollers are faced with half-inch iron

bars. The cane juice having been boiled is run

into coolers consisting of wooden troughs made

out of hollow logs, and there is also a

brick cooler faced with cement, which

is to be tried as an experiment. Mr

Schneider is of opinion that the contact

of the juice with iron for any length of time

injures the color of the sugar. The contents of

the coolers are removed into draining boxes

with holes at the bottom, and remain there for

nine or ten days ; the re-boiled molasses being

allowed to drain for three week. The lower

and moister portion of the sugar in these boxes

is afterwards put into canvas frames to dry in

the sun. No Bour pan, nor any other substi-

tute, is used, the boiling operations being upon

quite a primitive system. I saw some of the

molasses sugar, which was very good indeed,

considering that it was made in the open pan.

Below the Nerang township there are several

properties on which there is some cultivation,

maize being the principal crop, although it is

probable that sugar cane will soon take a lead-

ing position, the comparatively small experi-

ments made in growing it having proved suc-

cessful. Mr. H. Smith has about 600 acres on

both sides of the river, and Mr. Browne, who

has an area of half that size, has several acres

under cane. Next we come to Benowa (signi-

fying "good water" in the language of the

aborigines), which is a plantation belonging to

Mr. Muir, who has had experience as a sugar

grower in Louisiana, and the West Indies. It

contains 1100 acres, 100 of which are under

cane. Besides this property, he has 500 acres

on the shore of the Bay, opposite the Boat

Passage, and adjoining a town reserve which has

not yet been surveyed. There is a fine view

from Benowa of a series of the peaks

of Macpherson's Range, and of the spurs

amongst which the Nerang must have

its origin. Mr. Muir has a snug house and a

garden, which is surrounded by a young hedge

of Cape thorn. Close by, on the same property,

is the Nerang Post-office, the same building

being also used as an accommodation-house for

travellers. On the opposite side of the river is

the cleared land of the late property of the

Manchester Cotton Company. They had an

area of 1280 acres, but the enterprise having

failed, the estate fell into the hands of the Bank

of New South Wales, and has not been utilised

for the last few years. The value of landed

property where there is good soil is rapidly

increasing, and the Bank can afford to wait for

a customer.

Mr. Muir grows several varieties of cane, the

principal crop being common Ribbon. His

favorite cane, however, is the Meera, as he has

found it to stand frost on the low-lying portions

of the ground when other kinds had to

be cut down. Its juice is also of high density,

and it matures in one year — in fact it would not

pay to keep it longer. In moderately good soil

it will give six feet of cane within the year, and

in every respect is here the safest to plant. Next

to Meers, Mr. Muir has a good opinion of

Raphoe, as be has found it to be quick of growth

and large in size, and it suits every soil. He

considers Salangore to be a good variety, and

also the yellow cane, commonly called a "sport"

from the Ribbon. He crushes only for himself,

and expects to make about seventy tons of sugar

during the present season, and that the cane

will average a ton and a-half to the acre. None

of the cane was killed by frost during the

winter, but the tips of the leaves were

whitened. Very little injury would be done

by frost on the Nerang were the cane planted

or cut soon enough. With regard to trashing,

Mr. Muir considers it necessary, although Bour-

bon does not require it so badly as some kinds.

If left untrashed the ants carry up earth and

rubbish and the canes throw out air rootlets

at the joints, whereby the quantity and quality

of the juice are affected : Besides this, much

time is wasted in the boiling season, when the

men who cut the cane have also to trash it.

At the time of my visit, which was the boiling

season, ten white men and seven Islanders were

employed. Mr. Muir entertains an objection

against Polynesian labor, but cannot see how

these people are to be done without at present.

He believes that an increasing number

will remain here until at last they

form a numerically important social element,

and, as was the case in the Southern

States of America, the white population will

want to get rid of them when too late. When

they first arrive in the colony, also, he finds

that it takes as much time to inure them to the

work as it does the white new chums.

At the mill and boiling house there is a

portable steam engine, working up to eight

horse power. The mill, which was made by

Cameron, of Brisbane, has rollers two feet in

length by a foot and a half in diameter. The

boiling house is so arranged that the expressed

juice flows, by the force of gravitation, to the

plnces where it passes through each operation

before becoming sugar. Subsiders as well as

clarifiers are used, and one small centrifugal.

Most of the coolers are wooden troughs, one

pair consisting of the hollowed-out trunk of a

huge tree, with a division across the middle.

Mr. Muir is his own engine driver and

sugar -boiler, and leaves himself but little

time for rest during the twenty-four

hours. Until last year the mill was driven by

horse-power, and drainers were used instead of

a centrifugal. Very good sugar was made, but

the process took up, of course, much more time

than at present.

Lower down, and adjoining Benowa, is

Bundale, the property of Holland, Miskin, and Co.,

formerly selected by Mr. Price. It has an area

of 280 acres, about 75 of which are under cane,

and it is intended to increase the acreage to 100

next season. I saw a number of Islanders

clearing and burning off, and they seemed con-

tented enough, judging from the way they were

laughing and talking. In another, place white

men were ploughing the ground. The Bour-

bon cane is grown on forest land, and

the ribbon on scrub soil ; but several

other kinds are being tried in way of experi-

ment. Last season the crashing lasted until

January, and some of the cane then planted

was injured on account of its not being advanced

enough when the frost came. With this excep-

tion the whole crop looked remarkably fine and

healthy. The mill was not working when I

called, and it is not intended to crush any of

the cane on the plantation this year, but only

some small lots for farmers on the river. The

engine is of 12 horse-power, and the rollers

two feet and a-half in length. The battery

pans are round, and an iron steam finishing or

Wetzel pan is used, and a large centrifugal.

Some sugar from the third molasses, which I

saw, was a very excellent sample.

Messrs. Holland, Miskin, and Co.'s plantation

is about three miles from the mouth of the

river, in which interval there are a few farmers.

Mr. Hope is the only one who grows sugar cane.

Between Nerang township and the southern

boundary of the colony — a distance of some

fifteen miles as the crow flies, but considerably

more by the road — there are four creeks to be

crossed, on which there is more or less settle-

ment. The first of these is Woorongary, on

which there is a farm or two. Next there

is Mudgeeraba, where a greater area has been

taken up. Mr. Mclntyre has some land here on

which he grows artificial grass seed, regarding

which I should have liked to have had some in-

formation ; but, unfortunately, at the time of

my visit he was absent at Brisbane. Next there

is Tallebudgera Creek ; and, close to

Macpherson's Range, which separates Queens-

land from New South Wales, is Cur-

rumbin Creek. The latter has been taken

up in large areas, and the only one of the four

creeks on which there has been much settlement

is Tallebudgera. Here there are located nine

families, and ten farmers who are unmarried or

have not their families with them, making a

total of sixty-one persons. They hold amongst

them an area of 3354 acres, of which 250 are

cultivated. On the 1st of January, 1870, there

was not one solitary farm on the creek. Agri-

culture is yet in its primitive stage here ; there

is not a plough in the whole settlement, the

work of subduing the soil being done by the axe

and hoe only. Several of the aboriginal blacks

are employed to help in clearing the land ; they

receive a shilling a day and rations, but

although very useful for a time, can

not be depended upon for a continu-

ance. Travellers on their way South

can get accommodation at Mr. Tobin's house.

He has about 400 acres of land, 30 of which

were under corn last season ; but as he has been

clearing fresh ground, he expects to have a crop

of 80 acres next year. I was at his place on a

Sunday morning, when three of the blackfellows

employed by him came up to get their break-

fast, after which they asked for their Sabbath

clothes, which were kept at the house for safety.

They then had a bath in the creek, and subse-

quently took a walk through the settlement,

dressed out most sweltishly and the admired of

all beholders. When they first engaged with

Mr. Tobin, they insisted upon having their

wages every Saturday ; but finding that their

money could be depended upon, they left it in his

hands, requesting him to buy clothing for them

on his next visit to Brisbane, and saying that if

they kept the cash themselves it would burn a hole

in their pockets, and then they would be taking

a trip to the next public-house and spending it

in drink, and making fools of themselves, after

the fashion of many white bushmen. The nine

families on the creek are well endowed with

children, with "liberty to add to their num-

bers"— a privilege which apparently is freely

exercised. One of the farmers has seven olive

branches. But these children are growing up

without the benefit of a school, and even were

their fathers in every case able to teach them, a

man who has been wielding the axe or hoe all

day in the hot sun is more inclined at night for

his bed than to act as a pedagogue. With the

exception of one German, the whole of the

settlers are immigrants from across the border

of New South Wales, and a considerable

proportion of them are natives of Australia.

They form, certainly, a very useful class of

settlers, and their introduction has cost the

colony nothing — not even the issue of a land

order. They have, therefore, some sort of right

to expect that their legitimate requirements

should receive a degree of consideration from

the Government. Their case being a special

one, it would scarcely be unfair to the rest of the

colony to establish a public school here,

even although the number of children

attending might at first be rather lower than

what the regulations of the Board of Education

require. But, beyond all doubt, these sixty-one

persons have a thorough right to demand that

the road running through their settlement,

which is one of the main roads between

Brisbane and New South Wales, should be made

passable in ordinary weather. It was a perfect

slough when I saw it, and after a day or two's

rain, traffic by vehicles becomes impossible. In

one place the farmers have cut a new line by

their own labor, but that will soon become as

bad as that which it has superseded. At the

outside, only a couple of miles or to in the way

of forming and draining the Main Brisbane and

Tweed-road and the track to the coast, by which

produce is taken to market, will be required.

Frost is almost entirely unknown in this

climate, and the settlers would grow sugar cane,

with every chance of profit, were there a mill on

the creek.

From the cultivated part of Tallebudgera to

the mouth of the creek at Burleigh Head is a

distance of five miles. A small sum would put

the road in good order, and it affords

the only route by which produce can

be taken to market. A couple of swamps have

to be crossed, which could be made passable by

a small outlay. A new line of road over ridges

has been surveyed, but nothing bas been done

to make it, beyond surveying, which is probably

as well, because an unnecessary expenditure

would have to be incurred. Owing to

the badness of a part of the present

road, along the creek, although that

along the coast is naturally all that, could be

desired, a charge of fivepence per bushel is

made by teamsters for taking maize to the

heads of Nerang River, whence it is shipped

to Brisbane at a cost of twelve shillings per ton.

The Tullebudgera Creek is not included amongst

the navigable waters of the southern coast, for

although entitled for a portion, of its course

to be called a river, it has a bar at its

mouth where the water is shallow. Some

time back a raft of cedar logs was

successfully taken down the creek and

towed to Brisbane, but a second attempt

resulted in a failure, through some mismanage-

ment ; the raft broke up, and ever since then

the Tallebudgera has ceased to be considered

navigable. At the mouth of the creek the land

on the northern side forms a promontory called

Burleigh Head, a rocky eminence capped with

scrub. On the lower slope of the rise a

Government township has been surveyed, and a

good deal of it sold at the upset price. Some

expense has been incurred by the authorities in

making an approach to this place from Nerang,

over a steep ridge. It is said that Burleigh

Head will yet become the fashionable watering-

place of Southern Queensland, and I should not

at all be surprised if such should be the case.

Beyond the rocky promontory to the north there

are ten miles of a clear sandy beach, where the

long wash of the Pacific for ever breaks.

To the south of the mouth of the Tallebudgera

there are ten miles of sandy shore, up to Point

Danger, the boundary point of Queensland.

At the Head there are several of what are com-

monly, but incorrectly, called breadfruit trees

(Pandanus pediculalus), and the sands are

backed by the foliage of forest lands or saltwater

swamps. Although several of the town allot-

ments have been purchased, no house, however,

has yet been erected. In fine weather a view

of the extremity of Stradbroke Island is ob-

tamed, and the ships and steamboats making

their way from the South to Moreton Bay come

within sight of Burleigh Head. The neighbor-

ing sands afford an opportunity for a gallop,

after high tide, over ground that is hard enough

to ring to the sound of a horse's hoofs, but yet

so soft as not to injure its unshod feet. Just

before my visit one of the candidates for the

representation of the Logan district, Mr. Nind,

gave the electors of Tallebudgera a call, and

they got up for the occasion some horse meet

over what is certainly the longest and best

course in the colony, although it it almost a

straight one.

Article identifier: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27277719
Page identifier: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page2236234
APA citation: Country News, by Mail. (1873, September 20).The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), p. 10. Retrieved October 27, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27277719
MLA citation: "Country News, by Mail."The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939) 20 September 1873: 10. Web. 27 Oct 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27277719>.
Harvard/Australian citation: 1873 'Country News, by Mail.',The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), 20 September, p. 10. , viewed 27 Oct 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27277719
Wikipedia citation: {{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27277719 |title=Country News, by Mail. |newspaper=[[The Queenslander]] |volume=VIII, |issue=398 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=20 September 1873 |accessdate=27 October 2025 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}

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