Adventures in Australia

Adventures in Australia, by
W.H.G. Kingston

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Title: Adventures in Australia
Author: W.H.G. Kingston
Illustrator: E. Evans
Release Date: May 8, 2007 [EBook #21383]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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ADVENTURES IN AUSTRALIA ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Adventures in Australia, by W.H.G. Kingston.
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A couple of young men go to Australia to stay awhile with the uncle of
one of them. While on the way up to the uncle's station they meet with
various adventures.
During the book we are introduced to various of the animals of
Australia, the kookaburra, the wombat, the kangaroo, the wallaby, and
many others. We also meet with the aboriginal occupiers of the land.
Finding that they like the life in Australia, the two young men decide to
settle, and they buy, with the uncle's assistance, an area of land on
which to create a station.
This is not a long book, but it is amply illustrated. Some of the
drawings are very nice indeed.
You will enjoy this book, and it makes a good audiobook.
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ADVENTURES IN AUSTRALIA, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.
CHAPTER ONE.
Some years ago two travellers, mounted on wiry yet strong looking
steeds, were wending their way through a forest in Australia. They
were both young and dressed much alike in broad-brimmed pith hats,
loose red shirts, corduroy trousers and high boots with spurs.
Each of them had stuck in his belt an axe, a brace of pistols, and a long
knife; while at his back was slung a serviceable-looking rifle, showing
that they were prepared to defend themselves, should they encounter
any treacherous blacks, a very possible contingency at that period of
the country's history.
They were followed by an active native also mounted, who led a horse

carrying their baggage. The scenery was not especially attractive,
indeed so great was its sameness that alone they would have been
utterly unable to find their way. On either side rose tall stringy-bark
and other gum-trees, their curious and narrow leaves affording scarcely
any shelter from the rays of the almost vertical sun, the huge white
stems from which the bark hung down in ragged masses giving them a
weird and dreary aspect. Tracks there were, but they branched now in
one direction now in the other, and were more calculated to bewilder
the travellers than to guide them aright. Their map--for being new
arrivals in the country they carried one--told them that they should soon
reach a broad stream. They were now looking out eagerly for it,
wondering whether they should have to wade through it or should find
a ferry-boat ready to take them and their animals across.
I may as well say--having thus begun, after the fashion of a writer
whose pure and wholesome works I used heartily to enjoy in my
boyhood days--that one of the travellers was myself, Maurice Thurston,
and the other my brother Guy, a year only my senior. We had lately lost
our father, with whose sanction we had settled some time before to
come out to Australia and seek our fortunes. We, our mother, our two
sisters, and another brother, had been left with a very limited income;
and Guy and I, wishing to push our own fortunes and establish a home
for the rest of the family, agreed that no time should be lost in carrying
our plan into execution. As soon therefore as our mother's affairs had
been settled, we set sail from England, and, about two weeks before the
day I am describing, arrived in Australia. We had not come entirely on
a wild-goose chase. A cousin of our father's, Mr Oliver Strong, had
long been settled in the country, and had replied to an application made
to him some time before by our father, saying that he should be happy
to receive us and put us in the way of doing well for ourselves, if we
were sober, steady, strong, active, willing fellows with heads on our
shoulders and without any "fine gentleman" notions.
We were now making our way toward his station, some hundred miles
in the interior. Though we had not ridden far from our camping place,
the intense heat of the sun made us feel very thirsty, and sympathise
with our horses which must have been equally so; thus we were

anxious as soon as possible to reach the river, where we hoped to find
an abundance of water.