Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria | Page 5

out, and, excepting the
very centre, there were still wide intervals between the houses on either
side even of Collins-street. After floundering helplessly about in the
foundation-cutting of a new house, which was already full of water, but
happily only a few inches deep, we at length emerged upon the open of
the present Fitzroy Gardens, where for a little time we could keep to the
bush track only by trying the ground with our feet or our fingers. But in
spite of all care we soon lost the road, and wandered about in the
pouring rain for the rest of the night. We were young and strong, and as
the rain did not chill us, we were in but little discomfort. A beauteous
sunny morning broke upon us, with a delicious fragrance from the
refreshed ground. We found ourselves near the Yarra, between the

present busy Hawthorn and Studley Park. Solitude and quiet reigned
around us, excepting the enchanting "ting ting" of the bell bird. We
stripped ourselves, wrung our drenched clothes, and spread them to dry
in the sun, and then plunged into the dark, deep still Yarra for our
morning bath, afterwards duly reaching my friend's country seat.
INDIGENOUS FEATURES AROUND MELBOURNE.
"There are more things in heaven and earth Than are dreamt of in our
philosophy." --Hamlet
These features form an interesting retrospect of early Melbourne. They
have nearly all disappeared since with the growth of town and
population. Some who preceded me saw the kangaroo sporting over the
site of Melbourne--a pleasure I never enjoyed, as the timid creatures
fled almost at once with the first colonizing inroad. I have spoken of
the little bell bird, which, piping its pretty monotone, flitted in those
earlier years amongst the acacias on the banks of the Yarra close to
Melbourne, but which has taken its departure to far distances many a
year ago. The gorgeous black cockatoo was another of our early
company, now also long since departed. For a very few years after my
arrival they still hovered about Melbourne, and I recollect gazing in
admiration at a cluster of six of them perched upon a large gum-tree
near the town, upon the Flemington-road. The platypus, also, was quite
plentiful, especially in the Merri Creek. Visiting, about 1843, my friend
Dr. Drummond, who had a house and garden at the nearest angle of the
creek, about two miles from town, we adjourned to a "waterhole" at the
foot of the garden, on the chance of seeing a platypus, and sure enough,
after a very few minutes, one rose before us in the middle of the pool.
THE ABORIGINAL NATIVES IN AND ABOUT TOWN.
"Oh I see the monstrousness of man When he looks out in an ungrateful
shape." --Timon of Athens.
The natives still strolled into Melbourne at the time of my arrival, and
for a couple of years or so after; but they were prohibited about the
time of the institution of the corporation, as their non-conformity in
attire--to speak in a decent way--their temptations from offers of drink
by thoughtless colonists, and their inveterate begging, began soon to
make them a public nuisance. But aboriginal ways did not die at once.
The virtues or integrity of native life, as Strzelecki would phrase it,
struggled and survived for some few further years the strong upsetting

tide of colonial life.
Returning one night, about 1843, from dining with Mr. William Locke,
an old colonial merchant, at his pretty cottage and gardens on the Merri
Creek, between four and five miles out by the Sydney-road, I diverged
westwards from the purely bush track which as yet constituted that
main highway of the future Victoria. My object was to escape the
swampy vicinities of Brunswick, a village about three miles out of
town, consisting for a number of years of three small brick cottages,
adventurously rather than profitably built by an early speculator. With
firm footing and under a bright moon, I had a pleasant walk through
what is now the beautiful Royal Park, when, judging that I must be
nearing Melbourne, I perceived quite a number of lights ahead. There
were as yet no public lights to scattered little Melbourne in those early
days, although the new corporation, elected the year before, had got to
work by this time. So, what could it all be? I was not long in suspense.
It could only be a native encampment, and I was soon in its midst. The
natives at a distance, especially in the far western direction, were still at
times hostile, but all those who lived near town were already quite
peaceful, so that I had no hesitation in now entering their encampment.
I was most cordially received and shown over the different wigwams,
each of which had its