USC295_0006

[left column]
I can remember one area of Blackbutt scrub which was burnt
when a young fire got through there, and the young blackbutt
regenerated as thick as anywhere on the island.

I don't know how the fire was started. It certainly wasn't lit by
anyone, because the Forestry was very, very strict about
lighting fires.

With our bullock teams we used to let them turn out to graze
from Louisa Camp and they'd run down towards the beach.
There were no paddocks. Before daylight we would be up
with our horses to go to muster our bullocks. We'd strike a
match to see which track the bullocks had walked out on
towards the beach. It wasn't daylight. Then we would yoke up
our teams and actually haul in two loads a day. Sometimes we
only got one if it took us too long to muster the bullocks. We
would let them go towards five o'clock in the afternoon. They
were long days.

I became very familiar with the land between Louisa Camp and
the beach, and later when we finished carrying timber from
Louisa Camp, we established a camp at Gowries for a while. We
were usually able to get in two loads, because they were fairly
short hauls. We were living in amongst the timber we were
cutting.

There were some areas of special significance to the
aboriginals, which Nugget used to tell me about. Nugget told
me a lot about Wabby Lake, where there used to be a big hill and
a lot of wong shells.

He told me that one day, a pretty girl died there and he said that
he had given this girl water and wongs, but she still died. She
had louse.

The aboriginals reckoned that there was a devil-devil there.
They didn't like it at all. They said that the lakes were supposed
to be very deep and they never went near Wabby Lake much.

There was a big camping area near the beach, just south of the
Wabby Lakes area, and then at Eurong there was a pretty big
place there, and that's where the aboriginals used to ride old
Aldridge's horses.

They used to break the horses in. There must still be some old
posts there yet. The aboriginals used to say they had plenty of
busters there.

It was at Eurong that old Nugget had a hut. He used to camp
there. Sometimes he would stay at the camp at Eurong and
sometimes he would come back to camp at Louisa's with us.

There is a big midden near Poyungan Rocks. It was an area
where the aboriginals used to go fishing. The two blackfellas
who used to work with us, Teddy Brown and Nugget used to go
out naked at times on the rocks and they would fish there with a
line, a cord line. They would fill their mouths with wongs and go
out and just stand on the rocks and when a big wave came, the
would fish there and then come up again. When they caught
hold of an oyster fish, they called them the "bowey," they used

[right column]
MOONBI 40, Page 13
to run up the with it, get it off the rocks, pulling it all the
way. They used to keep the wongs for bait, in their mouths, as
they stood on the rocks.

Once when we were mustering our bullocks, Nugget pointed
out to me a large clearing on the ground. He said it was a
"christening ring," and the site is just north of Grouyeah Creek.
It was flat country and it's in a little bit. That's where Nugget said
the christening ring was. I suppose it's about a hundred yards in
diameter. They christened the kiddies there, and they got their
names. If there was a girl, and two boys were after her, those two
boys would have fight and the one that won, he got the girl and
those two, the girl and the boy cleared off. They might have
gone somewhere up North, or come into the "inside"
somewhere. They were married. That's how Nugget said that it
was done. The only other really sacred area that Nugget told me
about, where he wouldn't take us to, was Wabby Lakes. I don't
recall Nugget saying anything about burial grounds. I never
thought to ask him about that.

Just south of the christening ring at Grouyeah Creek, was
where the swamps used to start. Then there was a very deep
creek that used to come down from up near Lake Boemingen
and it joined onto the swamp. There was a crossing there, and
that's where the freshwater fish were. They were about a foot
long and you could see them in the clear water and white sand.
The rest of it was all weed and grass and you couldn't see
anything. We never bothered to catch the fish - we never had
much time for fishing.

I can remember a number of incidents, including the rescue of
barge "THE WAVE" by old Charlie Mathieson. He salvaged the
engine from it twice, and sold it twice. I can also recall, very
vividly, the rescue of the survivors of the "DORRIGO" by the
"MOURYA." I can recall too, some of the early history
regarding the demise of the McKenzies sawmill on Fraser
Island. Of course there was a yarn that these mills [print missing]
Maryborough didn't help the operation survive, but I would [??]
know about that yarn. The trouble arose with the [wh???]
labourers who had to go down to load the timber, and I think
that's what broke it, because they'd all require houses and other
facilities and amenities.

It was a hard life working with the bullocks. We had to take [t??]
loads a day. We tried to get a couple of logs each day. We would
stay over on the Island for about a month and your worked [??]
days a week. We worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as a
rule, if we could and it wasn't wet, then on Thursday we'd [g??]
the bullocks for a spell, then we'd yoke up another lot on Friday
Saturday and Sunday. We would always try and get them in[??]
gully near night, ready for the next day, to keep them together
and to make sure they didn't clear off. It was a hard life for a
married man, but you never had much time to think about
women. By the time you go and get bullocks, yoke up 20 [???]
bullocks, go into the scrub and get a load of timber, bring them
in and unload them, and unyoke them and get your tea, [the??]
be not much time for anything but thinking about the next

[Photograph of road through wooded area]
ROAD WIDENING by
courtesy of the Forestry
Department at Lake McKenzie similar ex-
cessive clearing near
Lake Birrabeen had
foresters apologising.

DON'T FORGET TO
RENEW YOUR
MOONBI
SUBSCRIPTIONS
ENCOURAGE OTHERS
TO SUBSCRIBE TO
THIS MINE OF
INFORMATION