William was very proud of the new home. It was much more secure and weatherproof, though to what extent would be determined by the next storm and the one after that. After including some furniture, William’s five-room home was complete.
It was early in 1812 that William was given notice that the Governor had granted him a conditional pardon. The conditional pardon was dated 29 February 1812. It had been a long eleven-year wait. In order to receive the pardon, he had to visit the office of the Acting Commissary and confirm all the details of his sentence, including the ship he had been boarded on, as well as a full description of his features.
William and Maria wanted more children. In late 1812 William junior was sixteen months old and quite mobile. Maria had to keep her eyes on him, as he enjoyed wandering out onto the path in front of their house. The track way had become busier and there was now both foot and horse traffic. Houses of some sort now occupied all the available potential lots in Cambridge Street. There were lizards of various varieties still occupying holes in the sandstone, but fewer than when William built the original hut. The area was being tamed.
17.
Middle Harbour Farm
MIDDLE HARBOUR, 1812
Anne and Tommy packed up their belongings, and with the assistance of John Kelly, took them down to Sydney Cove and made their way by boat to Middle Harbour.
When Anne saw the hut she was not particularly impressed.
‘Tommy this will do in the meantime but we need a better situation than this.’
‘I know, Anne. It is only temporary.’
‘Yes, and I want you to clearly understand it will not stay temporary for long!’
‘Don’t worry, my darling. John and I will start work on it as soon as we sort out the water supply situation.’
The first thing Tommy and Kelly did was to investigate the creek to ensure they had enough fresh clean water for themselves, their crops and any livestock they might acquire. While the source of the creek was a spring, the flow was not strong enough to guarantee sufficient water.
The Eora who had lived there had erected rock walls to dam the creek water to reach a reasonable depth. Tommy and Kelly set about enlarging these dams so they could capture more of the available supply from both the spring and runoff. Also by increasing the depth of the water, not only did the potential supply increase but the quality was enhanced as the silt and other material could better precipitate out.
They then set about building a better house, positioning it about 300 yards from the creek and 120 yards from the high-tide line, on a slight rise, elevated enough, they hoped, to protect the home from any possible inundation.
While there was evidence around the creek of prior flooding, there was no indication near the house site, so they felt confident, and the sea’s kelp line was well away from the site. The beach began 30 yards from the house. O’Neil felt reasonable confidence in the spot.
He had asked Bungaree what he thought, but Bungaree and his people had not lived on Middle Head for long. Tommy was aware of an edge in his relations with Bungaree, a barrier that meant they could not be fellows the way he could be with, for instance, the men he’d been deported with. Tommy was in awe of Bungaree, his ease of movement, his sense of humour, his sharp intelligence and all that he’d done and achieved. Bungaree seemed to tolerate Tommy, was even warm with him, but he seldom visited. There was no sign of the original people of the area.
Tommy and Kelly were really pleased with their efforts. The house was divided into four rooms and looked comfortable but modest. It had a wooden floor, shutters for windows and a good fireplace had been assembled from the local rocks. The house was principally built from local timber sawn from trees in the area, augmented by timber they had bought from a miller.
They had also fashioned tables, chairs and beds. The intention was that initially all four of them would live in the house – Tommy, Anne, John Kelly and Anastasia.
Tommy and Anne had brought their bedding from their house in town as well as all the other things necessary to convert a bushman’s hut into a home. It was not going to be easy, but Anne and Tommy had known tougher environments. As soon as they settled into the house, Anne, Tommy and John Kelly set about clearing the land. The first morning they stood outside the house, taking it all in.
It was evident that the large eucalyptus trees would be extremely difficult to remove and each one would take weeks, but they needed to get their crop into the ground as soon as possible. The decision was made therefore to leave the large ones in place and deal with them at a future date. This significantly simplified the task of clearing. The removal of all the smaller trees, saplings and brush was a big enough job in itself. Tommy and Kelly had made inroads in the month they had spent there earlier but there was much more to do.
‘John, what are your thoughts on how we should go about clearing the area?’
‘I think we should work to a pattern so we can feel we are making some progress. If we just clear in a random way we will feel we are not getting anything done,’ replied Kelly.
‘How about we mark off fifteen yards by fifteen yards or two hundred and twenty-five square yards and aim to clear that specific area. Then the area is not too large to make the task impossible to achieve in a day and we can finish each day and be well satisfied. John, by my calculations, it will then take three weeks to clear an acre of land. So if our objective in the first year is to plant two acres, we have six weeks of work if we can maintain or two hundred and twenty-five square yards a day; but if we take eight weeks that’s all right too.’
‘But Tommy, you have made no allowance for bad weather. However, I agree with you it’s an achievable goal.’
They worked to the pattern with axes, adzes and shovels. The debris was stacked and piled up in the centre of a cleared area to dry out as otherwise it was too green to burn.
They waited for a wet day, lit a fire under the pile of material and waited for it to burn out. This strategy was to prevent the fire from getting out of control. They spread the resulting ash on the cleared area to enrich the soil. After a couple of months the meadows were ready for planting to begin.
Tommy was surprised to learn that the underlying soil was reasonably good. It had built up for thousands of years from leaf and bark litter accumulated under the trees, and the many wildfires that were common to the Australian bush had produced ash which further nourished the soil. This meant that the crops would not suffer from any significant soil depletion for a number of years.
‘Tommy, we need to get some cattle manure onto this land as soon as possible to build up the soil,’ advised Kelly.
Over a meal of flathead cooked on an open fire, Tommy, Anne and Kelly discussed the proposed plantings for their orchard.
Anne chipped in, reflecting her rural background, ‘How about some wheat and maize, as well as some oranges?’
‘Grand idea, love,’ said Tommy. ‘No difficulty with the vegetables and fruit trees but I know nothing about wheat and corn.’
‘Wheat is a winter crop,’ said John Kelly. ‘Plant wheat in winter and corn in summer. One follows the other. Quite easy, really.’
‘Suggestion. Instead of a cow why don’t we get a goat?’ said Anne. ‘Much smaller and it will keep the scrub down. And I’m tired of being the only milk-producer around here.’
‘Good idea, Anne. A goat is much easier to bring out in the boat. It also might put off some of the local pests such as the possums who will want a feed off our garden vegetables,’ replied Tommy.
In anticipation of a trip to town, they had stored a boat on their outward journey in the large bay in the main part of the harbour, figuring it would mean a much quicker and safer trip than going around Middle Head. They would first have to walk across the ridge separating Middle Head to the bay. They estimated it to be a walk, even carrying Anastasia, of no more than three hours. From the farm there was a long incline along sandstone ledges to a ridgeline and a decline of similar proportions down to the water�
�s edge. The ‘road’ that had been cut to build the Middle Head military defences was still in reasonable condition and passable but was becoming overgrown.
As a group, with baby Anastasia, they made their way to the government store. On approaching, they ran into friends and associates and exchanged greetings and news. One acquaintance told them that at last the Governor had granted Anne’s ticket of leave. The group delayed their visit to the store and made their way to the Supervisor of Convicts, who was now in charge of such matters.
‘Now, whom do we have here?’ the supervisor asked Anne.
‘Anne Kennedy, sir,’ replied Anne. ‘I believe that the Governor has reached a decision on my ticket.’
The supervisor asked Anne some more questions, updated her information to record her domicile ‘at a small farm two miles from Sydney,’ and gave her the ticket of leave, saying, ‘Safeguard this document and have it on you at all times should you be asked.’
Anne was overjoyed. She looked at the piece of paper, folded it and secured it in her tunic pocket. This was a step in the right direction. In two years’ time, in February 1814, the seven-year anniversary of her sentence would expire and she would be entitled to a certificate of freedom. She will have done her time. The shadow of being a convict will have been removed. With only a ticket she still stood the risk of arrest on some minor technicality.
They would normally have had a celebratory drink but there were more urgent matters to attend to. As well as providing food and clothes to the convicts, the government store also sold seeds.
Tommy asked the storeman for enough bags of seeds for their planting needs. The storeman brought Tommy bags of wheat and corn seed and various vegetable seeds, then suggested they plant blackberries in the unusable areas of the farm. He pointed out they required no maintenance and would provide a very tasty food source. O’Neil signed for the bags of seed.
Before they left, the storeman said, ‘Tommy, grow your blackberries in full sun and a well-drained location,’ and wished him good luck.
They went on to the markets and bought a female goat with its kid.
The group’s return home was delayed by several encounters with old friends. Tommy gathered from them a general pessimistic attitude. Times were still tough in the commercial sector of the town. There was a lack of currency to enable trade to take place. The British government saw the colony as a prison, not as a place of commercial endeavour, and had not provided enough currency to facilitate trade and commerce, so the colonists were forced to deal in any currency that was available to them – barter and promissory notes. The main source of hard currency came from visiting shipping. The ships that now visited came from various countries, and the captains of those ships had to pay in hard currency for the services provided.
Having come to town and found what they had come for, the group returned to Middle Harbour but not before buying a bottle or two of whiskey to celebrate Anne’s ticket.
The next morning they laid out the furrows for planting. Anastasia, being almost two, was in her element, helping to poke seeds into the ground. Following the storeman’s instructions they planted the wheat and the vegetable crops. The maize would wait until summertime. They stored the leftover seed for the following planting season. A number of the large trees needed to come down if they were to fulfill their plan of eight acres for the following year.
When the planting was done, they washed themselves at the shoreline, being careful not to go too deep into the water. No one could swim. Anne was particularly careful with Anastasia, who had no sense of the danger. The waves were just fun to run and jump in. As she was now very mobile, Anne knew she would have to keep a sharp eye on her and make sure she knew where she was at all times.
Bungaree’s children sometimes came down to the beach to play with Anastasia. All of Bungaree’s children were proficient in the water. Anne was hoping Anastasia would learn from them.
With the crop in the ground all they needed was rain. However in 1812 rain was scarce and most of the colony was in drought. With O’Neil’s farm being right on the coast the area caught enough sporadic rain as it moved up along the coast to get the crop out of the ground.
Each morning they looked at the sky, as they had never done before, searching for the heavy black rain clouds and hoping for an accompanying southerly change, which often was the foretaste of a drenching. But during 1812 the southerly change did not bring rain.
There was no lack of drinking water. The creek, with the deepened dams in place, had enough to meet their needs and the needs of Bungaree’s mob.
As the crop grew another problem emerged. The possums and other local animals started to enjoy the fresh leaves that sprang from the plants. Their attacks mainly came at nighttime. Anne and Tommy would get up in the morning only to see more chewed leaf stalks. The way it was going the plants would never reach their full height. Initially they moved the goat to the centre of the crop at nighttime but placed it out of reach of the plants. While this improved the situation, they were still losing plants.
Following a trip to the government store they were able to string some netting on poles to enclose the crop from all the hungry mouths.
While the crop was growing they decided it was a good time to remove a few of the larger trees in preparation for the following year. Fortunately John Kelly had removed trees in his days on a farm in Ireland. The approach they adopted was to cut into the tree about six feet above its base and then, by applying wedges, they could get the tree to fall in a preferred direction. The remaining stump would be used as a point of leverage to pull it out of the ground.
Before there could be any attempt to pull the root out of the ground it was necessary to dig out the earth around the base of the tree to expose the lateral roots. When fully exposed these could be sawn to weaken the tree’s hold on the ground. Then, using an ox or a horse, the animal could be tethered to the tree stump to weaken the taproot and eventually pull it over. The only problem was they did not have a horse or an ox.
O’Neil and Kelly focused on the two trees they had identified. Both were well away from the house and the crops. It was a mighty job with significant risk to life and limb. In order to get the tree to fall in the right direction, they took a big wedge of timber out of the trunk of the tree on the side facing that direction. That done, they moved to the other side to weaken the trunk’s remaining resistance. Eventually, and not with a lot of warning, gravity took over and the tree came down with an almighty whoosh as branches and leaves crashed to the ground.
When the second stump came out of the ground, they were well pleased with the result. They had more than doubled the potential acreage for the 1813 crop.
At the end of 1812 there was much excitement on the farm as they harvested their first crop of wheat. They were totally reliant on Kelly’s knowledge.
During one of their trips to the government store they had bought a couple of sickles and a sharpening stone. Kelly explained the process to Anne and Tommy.
‘So, John, how many bundles do you want in a sheaf?’ asked Anne.
‘Maximum of three but best is two.’ Then addressing Tommy, ‘When I stop for a break, you and Anastasia need to pick up the sheaves that Anne has made and stack them upright together into stooks. The cut wheat will be left that way for a while and to let it dry further. Is that clear?’
‘Yes, I think I have got it,’ Anne said. Tommy nodded.
‘Well, let’s get to it.’ John Kelly looked around.
Three days later the wheat field was full of stooks. Kelly, Tommy and Anne took a well-earned rest. During the growing season Tommy and Kelly had built a shed – basically three walls and a roof open to the front, all from local timber. The main requirement was that the shed was weatherproof. The crop would be ruined if it got wet. It was here that the cut wheat would be stored until it could be threshed.
Apart from the sun, they had no record of time passing at Hunters Meadows. So Anne had made a calendar of sorts on which she mark
ed off each day. At least this kept them in touch with the date. When they went into town she always asked what day and date it was in order to check her calendar.
With the wheat just in the shed, her calendar told her it was New Year’s Eve.
‘Time for some celebration and spirit. Distilled spirit, that is,’ she said.
Anne had sent the boys out in the morning to trap and kill a wallaby so she could cook some fresh meat. Their hunting expedition had been successful. John Kelly butchered the animal.
As 1812 turned to 1813 the work did not stop. It was now time to plant the maize. Before that could happen they had to dig out the wheat roots.
It was also time to get the wheat to market and convert it into other consumable foods and do a bit of trading. The harvested wheat had dried out in the shed and now it needed to be threshed to separate the wheat from the wheat heads. They did the threshing over pails and as each pail filled they moved onto the next one. This was a job Anastasia enjoyed but her focus was only short term. It was tiresome, backbreaking work.
The winnowing process was not as difficult, as they used the assistance of the strong afternoon northeasterly winds that blew into Hunters Meadows virtually every afternoon in summer to lift and separate the chaff from the wheat. Any large pieces of chaff were separated by hand.
Anne kept enough wheat for their own use – a hot damper made for an excellent meal. They also kept seed for planting the larger 1813 crop.
Because of the weight of the wheat they would have to take it by boat all the way to Sydney Cove. They waited for a calm day and carried the pails down the beach to the boat. After a lengthy row they arrived at Sydney Cove and organised for a dray to carry the pails to the market. As the colony had been stricken by drought, flour was in demand. Although their crop was small they received good prices.
The Tailor and the Shipwright Page 14