The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-29 00:00:00

BUSH LIFE IN QUEENSLAND.

The following is an extract from a letter written
by a young gentleman who left Dublin in January,
1862, for Queensland, and, as it affords a good illus-
tration of bush life, it may be read with interest by
those who intend emigrating to that colony:—

"Dawson River, Queensland, Sept. 21, 1863.
ig will tell you my history from the time I
wrote you last. _

" I left Brisbane on the Ist of January, with my horse's
head towards the north. I stopped that night at William
B.'s, as I had seen him in Brisbane and told him I should
do so. He is situated on the Pine River, about 16 miles
from Brisbane.

" I spent a very pleasant evening, and in the morning
went to look for my horse, and in looking for him lost my-
self. At first I ran here and there in great confusion, but I
came to myself soon, sat down, filled my pipe, and thought,
but I could not make up my mind in which way the house
lay. At last I found a creek (a creek is what you would
call a stream at home, only that in this country it is but a
continuation of water holes in dry weather). Well,l knew
that the creek must flow into the river, and if I once was on
the river I could make the house, so 1 resolved to follow it,
but I did not come to that determination till I walked a
mile or so all round in every direction but one, which one I
was sure was not the right one. I set out to look for the
home before sunrise, it was now about noon when I started
to run the creek down. I walked on until the water holes
became a stream, and, as I had been thirsty for some
time, but in too great a hurry to give myself time to
drink, I could not withstand the temptation of the stream,
it looked so cocl and sweet, so I took a deep draught before
I found, to my disgust, that it was salt. I followed the
creek for seven or eight miles more, till my thirst, which
had increased, forced me to come back to the water holes
from whence I started. I again struck out in every direc-
tion but the right one, which I had also avoided in the
morning, and it was not until the sun had set, and after I
had made a fire to sleep by, that I could bring myself to try
it, when to my great joy I got home, hungry, and tired of
course, which was fully repaid by the lesson taught—viz.,
never to leave any place without looking at the direction of
the sun. I found that R--n and others had been looking
for mo, and had at last gone round to all the neighbours to
get them to help them the next day in the search. I and
my mate then rode about 400 miles before we could get a
job. In the winter months work is anything but plenty, as
more than half the population live by sheep, so that when
shearing and lambing are over there is no work but for a
few shepherds. At last I got a job with a party of travel-
ling shepherds belonging to Messrs. G., W., and Co,, of
Sydney, which were going to form a new station. Ic waa
a badly fitted out party, having only one small horse dray,
and no tents but one for the overseer, so that we always
slept round the fire. Every man has his own bed, which he
carries about with him wherever he goes, and which is com-
posed of a pair of blankets ; however, it is no hardship
sleeping out in this country during the most part of the
year so long as it does not rain. Unfortunately, it rained
with us more or less for the first month, and all my paper
which I had wrapped up in my clothes got destroyed. I
have been out all day with the sheep wet to the skin,
and in the evening found my blankets wet through, the
ground covered with water, and the rain coming down
as if it had not rained a drop for a year. We would
then make a good fire, and cut a lot of boughs to lie on
to keep us out of the water. I for ono have got some
of the most renovating sleep in that way that ever
I got in my life. I believe if a man is tired and wet one of
the best things for him is a pair of wet blankets.
We got
our breakfast at sunrise, then the flock of 5,000 was divided
into four, with one man to each division. We then fed them
along the road for a distance of 5 to 10 miles per day, accord-
ing to where we might find water. (I asked the overseer se-
veral times when we passed a station to buy me some paper,
but he always forgot it). At night the sheep were boxed,
and each man had to watch two hours every night. After a
while we left the road, and we then went through some of
the wildest and roughest country I ever saw. We followed
up the bed of a dry creek through the ranges for three or
four days. We then left the creek, crossed a mountain, and
got on s aim beautiful country. The dray was unable to
comp with us, and had to wait till Mr. 11--, the superin-
tendent, found a road for it where it could travel. Mr. D--
then went down to Rockhampton, distant about 200 miles
east from here, to send up stores. He promised me to get a
man to take my place, as I did not like the shepherding, but
when he came back in two months ho had neither bullock-
drays nor the man. The drays were at the other side of the
Dawson river for the last month, and would have to remain
there for some time longer, as that river was flooded, and
they could not get across, lie himself had to swim it. This
time I got from him the back of a letter which I wed to