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The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860-1954) (about)
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Cite: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8937388
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I THE HUON DISTRICT: ITS CONDITION
AND WANTS. I
[in.]
[From our Special Correspondent.]
I After crossing tho Snug, tbo aspect of ths country
undergoes a considerable change. Fewer gardens dot the sides'of the road, cultivated patches become con spiouous by their absence, the hills grow more rugged and the ravines moro frequent and more apparently inaccessible, the trees are more numerous and attain a more gigantic size, and every appeoranoo indicates the approach to a vast region of almost virgin forest. The districts wo have hitherto traversed are noted for their production of butter, potatoes, and fruit ; we are now coming towards a large tract more sparsely populated, but containing more of the elements of wealth. It is, indeed, the commence- ment of the great timber region of the Huon, and here we begin to see tho effoot of imported capital in developing a rich industry, and settling a succession of thriving communities on an uninviting shore, which, but for its potency, would still have remained sacred to the cormorant and the albatross. Striking off th« main road, shortly after leaving the Snug, let us observe, for instance, what is being done at
OYSTER COVE.
Until within a very few months ago, Oyster Cove was only known as having been at one time an aboriginal settlement, where, twenty years since, the last remnants of the former possessors of the island were collected and housed, and fed at the expense of the state. It must have been a melancholy history, that of the settlement at Oyster Cove. At first there were about forty members of this wretched and dying race gathered here, and though surrounded by everything that kindness and indulgence could sug- gest, their numbers diminished, year by year, until the little graveyard under the hill held them all but one, when the settlement was closed and the buildings went to decay. The one survivor still lives in the person of an ancient lady, who, during fine weather, may often be seen in the streets of Hobart Town, where she resides under the care of Mrs Dandridge, the widow of the last superintendent ; and when Lallah Rookh dies the aboriginal race of Tasmanians will be finally and for ever extinct. The old grave- yard at Oyster Cove is enclosed, its surface is hidden by a luxuriant growth of ferns and brush- wood, and a more appropriate and picturesque resting place could not be desired. Some of the buildings of the settlement have been demolished, and those that remain, except one or two that are in- habited, are in a dilapidated condition. But within the last few months a saw-mill has been in course of erection here, and has infused life into the whole locality. The forest hereabouts is rich in valu- able timber, and Mr. George Watt pitched upon Oyster Cove as an eligible site for a saw-mill. The only piece of level ground in the vicinity-the three or four acres on which the settlement stands-not being for sale so long as the " last of the Tas- manians " lives, Mr. Watt has cleared the slope of a steep hill as near to the sea as was convenient, at the foot of which he is building his mill, which is surrounded by the dwellings of himself and his work- man. The structure has been christened the Wattle
Grove Saw Mill. It was commenced a year ago, and is now approaching completion, although the ma- chinery has been erected and a goal doal of outting done during the last six or seven months. The mill is sixty feet long by thirty four feot wtde, with a brick chimney sinty foot high. The machinery con- sista of on engine, with a stroke of eighteen inches, a tubular boiler nine feet by four, with the usual bre iking down and fliichine frames, and a circular saw bench, and is capable of turning out from fifteen to twenty thousand feet at timber per week. At present the mill in only working half time, owing toa temporary difficulty in getting the logs to the mill, whither, in its present incomplete state, they are brought by oart. The bed of timber at which Mr. Watt is now working is four or five square uiileH in extent, and is situated about a mile Hnd a half from the mill. Thither a tramway is being con- structed, half a mile of which has already been finished, and rapid progress is being made with the remaindor. This ¡n the cause of the difficulty of gotting in the logs to which I hove referred Whon the road io completed thin obstacle will of course bo removed, und the men engaged in foiling will bo able to keep up a continuous supply. Besides tho direct tramread, Mr. Watt intends to construct ono or two branch lines into different parts of the forest, the limber of which, by the woy, consisting chiefly of b'ue elim and stringy bark, he calculates will not be exhausted for twenty or thirty years. Owing to th« physical conformation of the beach, Mr. Wntt has heen unab'e to huild near dopp water, but he gels over this difficulty hy mnlting a tramway along tho northern si I» of tho bay, H quarter of a milo in length, and running out a jetty for thirty feet, by which mpans ho will (rot to a depth of twenty feet of water, which in more than ncifllciont for nil require ment». The whola of the Huon district is wonder- fully Uess^d with perennial streams/ and a rivulet of contid-inblo volume almost washes the foot of tho mill, and furnishes it with an inexhaustible supply of water , As wa« before remarked, the mill has boen at work for some time in its incompleto «tato, and at the date of my visit Mr. Watt was ongagsd in translating a pil« of (Ino logn nf bluo gum into railway sleepers for the Now Zealand Government. Quito a flourishing settlement has sprung up at Ovster Cove within the last few months, which, wiih'tjio development of Ihn industry now siarfod thors for tho first time, promise
to assume considerable dimon«ions. Thero in but little moro to sav nhnut the placo. Tho few nettleT unconnected with the mill are ohiofly engaged in timber sulitting, and a few of them grow fruit for sale, and a small quantity of hay for locsal con- sumption. I must not omit to mention that the branch road to Oynter Cove is in n doplorable condi- tion, and I speak from personal knowledge when I say that the planks in some of tho culverts are rotten and dangerous to th« unwary trsvoller. Cross- ing the hill which forms the southern nrm of the hay, wo descend upon a beautifully situated town- ship, which, though much larger thun its neighbour, is still called, for distinction's sake,
LITTLE OYSTER COVE.
Littlo Oyster Cove, indeed, is reckoned a place of snmo importance hv the dwnllorn on the banks of D'entrecasteaux Channel, It cnn boast of a post ofDce, a school, two places of worship (Anglican and "Roman Catholic respectively), a number of tidy gardons, and the only inn, excepting one at Pepper- mint Bay. throe miles further on, between Margate and Pott Cygnet ft has »IBO B considerable popula- tion, whQtn, at one lim», I wnB informed, it took the resident policeman all his work to koop in order Bnt times havo changed now, nnd Good Templarv, much ns it may be ridiculed for its exoesses, has effected an improvement 'hore, as elsewhere in thn diotrict, for which we cannot be too thankful. In truth, the first settlers in the south wera a swaggering, royslering, hard-drinking class, and their i nteoedonts were too often none of the best, whenco nrose in great measure the evil odour that han so long hung ovor the Huon d'sjrior, and that is onlv now begin- ning to bo dissinated. Here, as at Ovster Cove, the timber is the chief wealth of the district, and most of thn malo members of the labouring part of the popu- lation find employment either at Dr. Crowthers saw mill, or in splitting timber on tlinir own account. Dr. Crowtber's saw mill, which, after having been closed for several years, owing to the depression in the tim- ber trade, nnd which was onlv ro-oponed in .Tulv last year, is situated about three milos baok from the township, almost in the heart of the forost. Its dimensions nre somewhat larger then ordinary, the structure boinur sevonty-fivo feet long bv fifty feet wide, all spanned by one roof By having been so long olosed, the machinery had got considerably out of repair, and a gond deni of monoy had to ho spent on it by the proprietor before it could be again put into working order. The machinery consists of a high-pressure horizontal ongine capable of working up to 35-horse power, and a Bingle-fluo boiler with hot- water apparatus attached. On the ground-floor is a hrenking-down frame for logs of the largest size, a ditching frame of iron, with piano grnovosand slides, cnpahlo of admitting timbar four foot in diameter, an iron saw bench for ripping, and a cross-out bench, not to mention certain valuable extras, sunn ns finish- ing machines with dies, face plates for saws, &c, An. Indeed it seemed to mo that the doctor had spared no expense in fitting nut his mill There aro several novel feat ures about if whi<'h dosnrvo remark. The
working is so arranged that everything is made to fall to and from the mill, no lifting being required. At the roar of the mill, though not in connention with ¡t, is a short tramrond five hundred yards in length,
on whioh the log« aro placed whon brought out of tho i bush. This tramway terminate» at the hither end in
n shoot, down which the loirs aro bundled, whenfo J they are oonveyed to, the mill, n hundred ynrds nwny,
bv omi hnrBfl.^ A fino team of Iwolvn bullocks is I omployed in getting the logs to the tramway. The I forest whence the timber ia siippliodiis about three j square miles in extent, and has only just been openn'd,
It consists principally of blue gum and stringy bark, | and is oonBiderod bv many lo bo, for its sizo, ono of j (he finest beds of timber in 'thn peninsula. But on this point I dare not venture to pronounoo judgment,
neranie similar opinions appear to havo hoon ex- ' prespod upon most of the virgin forest throughout I the district. However, I oan vouch for somo of tho ! treen boing of immense sij-o^ nnd sound to tho ooro. Surrounding the mill nre tho rosidenoos of the workmen, nnd, at nt Ovster Cove, a thriving little settlement has sprung up na if by mngio in tho heart of tho not long explored furent. Owing to the prevailing eoarcity of labour the mill'ia at present working half-hnnd«d,nnd cuts from twenty flvo thousand to thirty thousand foot of timber per woek. Tho mill is oonneetod with tho beach hy a tramrond threo miles in length, which, «rnssing na it does n number of deep gullies, munt havn been an oxponnivo pioco of work. The tramway terminates near tho neat-looking rrsidonro of Mr. II, L Crowther, a son of the Doctor's, nnd who nets na agent and mnnagor for his father, besido« hnung, I think, a share in tho conoorn. At the «nd of the tramway n jotty is being run out into twenty-seven feet nf water, in which, the hay being almost land- locked, the largest «hips over Hkolv to visit Little OvstorCovemnylieinBafetyduringallweather«. This jetty is now in oourso of construction, and will bo finished about theboginningof next month. Apartfrom tho trado in timber no industry in carried or. hero. A few families derive a precarious livelihood from their cropt of «moll fruit and their tiny potato patchell
but agriculture properly BO called is Btill one of the unknown arta. Three miles or so from Little Oyster
Clove lies
PEPPERMINT BAY, ""*
en tho shores of which ia a small township numbering perhnps a hundred inhabitants, and which is known by the uaroo of the arm ot the sea on which ¡thai for some inscrutable reason or other been built. We bave now left for a time the thriving timber region, and bave entered upon a district rcBombling those of Margate and the Snug, districts which depend for their existence on the export of fruit and firewood, and from which nil the young men have emigrated years ago. Indeed, as a resident of the place feelingly remarked to me, " Peppermint Bay is one of thOM places whioh do not seem to go ahoad ; the people have no energy in them." I um quite prepared to believe my friend's statement. You have only to look at tho roads to see what n veritable Sleepy Hollow the locality is Excepting the track from Honeywood to Southport, that from Peppermint Bay to Three Hut Point is the wornt in the whole Huon district, and I should not ha afraid to add the worst in tho wholo island. And there is the lesa excusa for it in the latter case than in the former. For tho wise men of D'Entreoasleaux Channel refuie to levy a road cess of moro than sixpenco in the pound, whereas every other district fixes the rate at double that amount and receives an eqUnl sum from the Government. Here the rate realises about £30, to> which only £10 ia given as added money, Bcoordina» to the terms of the Act of Parliament. From this must he deducted the cost of collection, which amounts, to £5,so that the total sum available annually for keeping this long stretch of road in order is the magnificent sum of £35., No wonder the track loses itself in occasional morasses ; no wondor it is almost in' a> «tato of nature; no wonder the culverts are unsafe, and the path is strewn with boulders ; and no wonder that in winter the roads are so utterly impassable» that thn schools aro well-nigh deserted. I rode along this wonderful road in a storm of wind ' and rain, and I know some of its difficulties, und have sounded] a few of its depths. It is only fair, however, lo say that many of the loading residents are in favour of imposing the maximum rate, but it seems that thoa* who possess the ear of the people have appealed te their pookets, nnd have so terrified them with the bogie of excessive taxation that only those who advocate tho sixpenny rate have any chance of being elected to the Road Trust. If the shilling raia were imposed, the sum realised would be £120, while the cost of collection would remain unchanged ; and although even tho larger sum is altogether inadequate to the wants of the district, yet it needs no argument to show that with it ut their disposal the state of the road might bo vastly improved. The track ii not even defined at present, and in one or two place» it panses through private property. But to return to Peppermint Bay itself. Tho main sourco of ¡noon» to the inhabitants is to be found in their fruit gardens. A large quantity of apples are grown for export, the ohiof producers being Messrs. Miles, Flukes, Edwards, and Mackay, who oach possess orohards two or three acres in extent. A small quantity of raspberries and a few potatoes are also exported, but little agri- culture is carried on. The settlors at the back, like those in other places, have made comfortable little homesteads, which are attended to by their-families, whilst they themselves are occupied in cutting fire wood and marketable timber, both of whioh are sent to town in considerable quantities. Possessing neither saw-mills nor other large industry, Peppermint Bay must always remain a poor township, although the patohes of fertile land cn the range of hills behind it will of necessity, when proper roads are made, con-
tinue to attraot small settlers.