NEW SOUTH WALES: R. Davidson, Printer, Port Macquarie....

Port Macquarie, as is generally known, was one of the first Settlements made in New South Wales. It is intended herein to give a full and authentic synopsis of the Life of the Oldest Living Ex-Convict on the Hastings River, near Port Macquarie, extending from the thirties onwards. The information comes purely from memory, hence exact dates on which certain events occurred cannot be given; nevertheless the greatest care has been taken to give dates as near as possible. The Life of an Ex-Convict..

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not, and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues." —Shakespeare. I was born at Shoreditch, near London, on the 28th of May, 1819, and was nearing the age of sixteen when one day I was accused of committing a paltry theft. Of this I was innocent, and naturally denied it, but the constable who accosted me insisted, no matter what I said, that I had to g

"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows." —Shakespeare. Notwithstanding the fact that the Settlement at Sydney was now nearly 50 years old, my impression on arriving there in the summer of 1834 was anything but a bright one, and by no means came up to my faintest expectations. It was a scattered-looking place—a house here and a terrace there, but miserable enough to my mind. After we had been in Sydney harbour a few days, a number of officials came aboard the ship, and, as if 'to the man

My first assignment was to Mr. Sam Terry, on his station at Mount Pleasant. Here I had little or nothing to do, and this man was a good master—he would never have his men flogged. But I had the misfortune to be stricken with the sandy blight at this place, and I was sent to the Windsor Hospital, where I remained for 10 months. From here I was sent to Windsor Gaol, but instead of a bed, I had to lie on a flag-stone, which was not conducive to building up my health. From Windsor I was transferred

—Longfellow. It was not long before my health had sufficiently repaired to allow of my being sent to Port Macquarie, and as this journey had to be accomplished by water, the steamer "Little Billy," (William the Fourth) came into requisition. I left Sydney in this vessel on Monday, and she reached her destination on the following Sunday, after we had been on deck the whole time tossing about. There were a good number of us on board, and sometimes we got tea, and more often we didn't. We were insp

"To what base uses we may return." —Shakespeare. Doctors, in the practice of their profession, not infrequently inform their patients that there is an insufficiency of iron in their blood, but no such assertion was ever known to be made to a man who at any time occupied a position in the Port Macquarie Iron Gang, for if there was no iron in their blood there should have been, if the "barking of shins" went for anything. I was sent into this gang, and amongst the men in it were a number termed "s

"Double, double toil and trouble," —Shakespeare. Shortly after Port Macquarie was made a Penal Settlement, several men of considerable wealth visited and settled in the district, and were granted large areas of land in and around the Settlement. Amongst these was Major Innes, who became the possessor of a large area of land about six miles from the town, which was and is known as Lake Innes. On this property the "Major" built a beautiful residence, with all the conveniences that money could comm

—Shakespeare. The day after the doctor told me that I could go with the "blind mob," I joined them. These blind people used to carry on a little gardening and other occupations, such as the blind were suited for. And goodness knows what they were not suited for—they could play cards, dice, toss, and all sorts and conditions of things. I had not been in the camp ten minutes before a notorious character, named "Teddy," came up and said to me: "Come on, come on, we will go and 'shake' some melons!"

"More sinned against than sinning." —Shakespeare. When a man had finished his sentence in the chain gang, he was sentenced to a road party, and it was Heaven to the chain gang. There was not so much slavery, and it was possible to get a sort of bed to lie down on at night, if it were only a sheet of ti-tree bark. The men got a little more food, too, and they were allowed to cook it themselves; but it was often a straggling piece of meat with about as much fat on it as would grease the eye of a p

"Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time." —Shakespeare. It was not often that any of the "Specials" were sent out to work as farm labourers, because they were suited for anything but hard work; so they were generally made constables. Conspicuous amongst these was a man named Fred ——, who, it was said, forged the largest cheque which had been forged on the Bank of England up to that time. This was a well-educated man. He could read and write French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and had once b

"Once a constable, no more a man." —Anon. "Return good for evil" may be a very good maxim to follow, but it was out of the question when a man came into contact with some of the constables who were located in the Settlement in olden days. One of these, J—— ——, had been a captain in the Native Cavalry in India, and he was a fine horseman. But he was very severe on the men, and if a man did the least thing, swearing anything did not trouble him. He occupied the position of barrack-master till the

"Life as tedious as a twice-told tale." —Shakespeare. Rollands Plains is situated some twenty miles from Port Macquarie in a westerly direction, and derived its name from Surveyor Rollands, who laid it out. This place was made a farming centre some time after a settlement was formed at Port Macquarie, as it was considered good country both for agricultural and pastoral pursuits. Early in the forties a road party was picked out of the men who were in the main Settlement, and they were despatched

It was not an unusual thing in the old days to see one or more of the female convicts sitting in stocks about the streets of the Settlement, suffering a recovery from drink. Most of these women were quite equal to their liquor, like the men, when they could get it. The principal drink was rum, and nice stuff it was, too; there was plenty of tobacco juice in it, so that when anyone got two or three drinks aboard, they were in a fairly muddled state. When a man went into an hotel, the cry was gene

—Anon. A crowd of men were assembled in the main street of the Settlement one night, and as everything was very quiet, and the place seemed to be practically dead, they decided to try and make some fun. A crotchety old couple lived in a house not far away, so it was suggested and agreed that a commencement be made on them. Two tom-cats were caught and knotted together with wire, and swung across the knob of the front door. There was a continuous strain of cats' music for a few seconds, and then

"Gimme 'bacca, you pleas, massa." —Australian Aboriginal. Aboriginals were plentiful in the forties, and they had the "run of their knife" then a little more than they do now. A murder amongst them was a common occurrence, and not infrequently was a head severed from a body in a quarrel over a bottle of rum. Occasionally they went further than this, for several members of a white family were murdered by blacks at Rollands Plains. The father of this family was a sawyer, and they killed him first

—Shakespeare. In 1843 I became a free man, and, after the knocking about I had had for some years, sought the most comfortable quarters I could. I went to the "Speed the Plough" hotel, which was kept by Mr. C——, and there I found a good home, besides plenty to eat and drink, and a good bed to sleep on. After a few months, however, I decided to leave Port Macquarie and go to Sydney, from whence I walked to Windsor, Parramatta, and other places in search of work. Not being successful in this direc

—Burns. After the convicts left Port Macquarie, the gaol was made a kind of relieving place for other gaols in the colony which became overcrowded, and at times there were a good many prisoners within its walls. About the year 1866, six prisoners who were evidently full of being shut up in the large brick structure overlooking the Pacific ocean, were successful in making their escape. This they accomplished by digging a hole in the wall with a piece of an old knife, the work extending over a per

—Burns. Such was the life in Old Port Macquarie. But what does it all matter now? Did any of the tyrants ever derive any benefit by hounding down and torturing their fellow men? Nay! most of those whose career I have followed did no good, while some died like dogs. They say that there is punishment for doers of harsh deeds this side of the grave, and if ever this fact were realised, it was by many of those heartless wretches who gloried in driving their subordinates to desperation day by day. Th