Coutts Crossing

The following story first appeared in the “Town and Country Journal” dated the 28 Nov, and the 5th Dec., 1874, and later in the Grafton “Daily Examiner” in its condensed form which is reproduced below. The story gives an excellent insight of the early days on the Clarence River.

THE CLARENCE RIVER DISTRICT

In writing of the Clarence River district, and its chief town, although I have received much interesting information from several of the most intelligent and influential residents, not forgetting the oldest inhabitants, I scarcely know how to picture to the distant reader, without fear of incurring the charge of exaggeration, a district where the strides of settlement have been so rapid, and where Nature’s gifts are so abundant.

Imaginative readers may picture to themselves four panoramic views, showing; first, a fine river, on its borders dense brush or scrub, with here and there a few aboriginals encamped. Then there would be an interval of a few years, before scene the second. There would then be on the river a small schooner, with white people on board, and near it sawyers at work, in the opening of the cedar brush. Then another interval of a few years, and scene the third would be displayed. This would show the incipient gems of a township - a public house, a store, a smith’s shop, and a small craft building on the river, a few cattle and sheep grazing about, and a boiling-down establishment in full operation. Scene the fourth : a fine town of 3,000 inhabitants, with splendid banks, government buildings, hotels, stores, and in the distance, where formerly was a distant swamp, luxuriant crops of sugar cane, with the smoke stack of a sugar-mill rising above the tops of the trees; in the streets of the city, teams laden with wool or bags of tin, for shipment, in the river several fine steamships and numberless small craft.

This is the Grafton of to-day, and one might reasonably like to hear its history. Thirty seven years ago there escaped from the penal settlement of Moreton Bay a man of considerable intelligence, and great physical endurance and courage, named Richard Craig. After being out for a considerable time made his way through various tribes of blacks to the Clarence, which he discovered to be a magnificent river. Under the Clarence Peak he was astonished to come upon four working bullocks, which he supposed must have strayed from the penal settlement at Port Macquarie, about two hundred miles distant, Being very desirous of again enjoying civilized life, he made his way to Port Macquarie, succeeded in reaching it, and, for the discovery of the working bullocks, received his pardon. Craig then proceeded to Sydney where he made known his discovery of the Clarence country - then called the Big River - to Dr. Dobie, and Mr. Francis Girard, and other gentlemen - who being anxious to extend or to take up squattages, accepted Craig’s proffered services as pioneer. He satisfactorily accomplished what he undertook, and, in doing so, marked out the line of route.

Dr. Dobie and Mr. Girard accompanied their flocks and herds, and took up the stations respectively called Waterview and Ramornie. They were quickly followed by others in the enterprise, viz., Lieutenant Crozier, who took up land at Gordon Brook; Mr. J. H. Grose, who took up Smith’s Flat; the Hon. E. D. Ogilvie, who took up Yulgilbar; Mr. C. J. Walker, who took up Newbold Grange; Ginger - former poultryman in Sydney - took up Moleville; Mr. James Mylne, took up Etonswill; Mr. Thomas Small, Senior, took up Swan Creek; Mr. James Aitken, took up Bushy Park; and Messrs W. and A. Paul, took up Glenugie. Of all these early pioneers, it is not a very momentous question as to who won the race, and got into the Clarence District first. There was only the space of a few months between them. With regret; I may add that most of them have long since been gathered to their fathers.

The cedar cutters were soon on the river, for in consequence of the information conveyed by Mr. Craig, Mr. F Girard, who at that time had large establishments on the Macleay and Manning Rivers, but was a resident in Sydney, quickly dispatched a vessel for cedar which was the first craft that crossed the Clarence Bar. The schooner was called the 'Eliza'; and she was followed by the schooner 'Susan', which belonged to the late Thomas Small, then of Kissing Point, Parramatta River. The King William was the first steamer which came up the Clarence, and she was followed by the Sophia Jane, the James Watt, and others. The first vessel built on the Clarence was the 200 ton brig 'Clarence', by Mr. William Phillips of the South Side, who settled here in 1838. The brig was used for whaling purposes, and subsequently wrecked on the Brampton Shoals, north of Moreton Bay.

During these early days of cedar cutters, the aboriginals were numerous, though not of the dangerous character that some people were fond of representing. They were easily conciliated by proper treatment, and most of the outrages committed by them originated in retaliation for misconduct by the whites. It is said that the Clarence River blacks in their primitive state were remarkably moral, and most rigid in the observance of their marriage and other laws.

The cedar cutters did a large trade for a few years, when, having cleared off the best of the timber, they began to move on to the Richmond and Tweed. The excellent shipping facilities of the Big River were then brought into note. Wool began to come down from the Tableland of New England and in 1841 the Ulswater brig, took in wool for London, on the river. Mr. William Bawden, whose wife was the first white woman to come to the district, took up the greater portion of the present site of North Grafton, under the old squatting licensing system in 1841, but was drowned shortly after in the Clarence River, nearly opposite the township, by the capsizing of a boat. Mrs. Bawden sold the interest in the run to Dr. Traill, recently of Collaroy, who had settled in the Clarence District. He held it only for a short time, and sold it to Mr. Joseph Sharpe.

AITKEN	James Aitken begins to operate a punt over the Latrobe River at Sale.	http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~surreal/ AVG/Resources/timeline.html	LISTED ALSO AS VICTORIAN SQUATTER
		GORDONBROOK	RESIDENTS
PRATTS	FROM 1840s-1850s	http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op= AHN&db=anomist&id=I35
	Basil and Melinda (nee McAllen) Kendall were married in Sydney in 1835. Basil tried, and failed, farming on the South Coast of New South Wales. It was here that their twin boys, Henry and Basil Edward, were born on 18 April 1839. In 1844 the family returned to Sydney and Basil Snr. again took up his former occupation as a clerk. In 1845 they came to the Clarence River and Basil was employed as a shepherd on ‘Gordon Brook’, near Copmanhurst, which was then owned by Dr. Dobie. He stayed there for a year before moving to Grafton, where he kept a school. The school was not a success and Basil went to work at ‘Bushy Park’, some eight miles out of Grafton on the Orara River. While in the Grafton district the Kendall boys had no regular schooling but were taught by their parents, who were both well educated. Henry is said to have learnt his letters by writing in the sand with a stick. He was left handed and as an adult he wrote in print rather than a cursive hand. Basil died on 13 October 1852 and was buried in South Grafton. His wife and children returned to Sydney with Henry spending three years in the Illawarra district and two years at sea on his uncle’s whaling vessel. Back in Sydney he united the family under one roof and supported them by writing poetry and prose and working for a Pitt Street draper. His early years on the Clarence had a great effect on his writing and reminiscences of boyhood on the Orara appear in poems such as “The Curlew Song” and “Orara”. He wrote an account of the family’s journey by steamer in 1845 along the Clarence to Grafton: Henry Kendall – His Sojourn in Grafton -- Don Peck …then an insignificant settlement formed by two or three weatherboard inns and some half dozen straggling slab huts…the river narrowed…we floated along very pleasantly. The loveliness of the scenery between this and the township cannot adequately be described. While living in Sydney, Kendall met the solicitor and poet James Michael (1824- 1868); Henry was eighteen or nineteen at the time and Michael was fifteen years older. Michael was a Latin scholar, spoke French and Italian and understood German and Spanish. He had a large library and introduced Kendall to the works of Shelley, Browning and Wordsworth. Michael moved to Grafton in 1861 and set up as a solicitor in Bacon Street. Soon after, in 1862, Kendall also returned when Michael offered him a job as his law clerk. Kendall’s legal work in Grafton was mostly concerned with land transfers and many documents in his distinctive script still survive. No doubt he found the drafting of these very boring
GRAFTON BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS	GRAFTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
A GRAFTON FAMILY TREE		http://grafton.nsw.free.fr/mother/pdfs/chapter1.pdf http://grafton.nsw.free.fr/mother/pdfs/preface.pdf	INTERESTING LAYOUT FOR GENEALOGY AND SOME SLIGHT SIMILARITIES WITH IRISH NSW CONVICT PATTERNS