30/10/2024
A great photo taken in Dimboola! 🌳
I took this photo near Dimboola this week and chose to share it here, as an opportunity to reflect on the observations by early colonial journalist, William Withers. In Chapter One, he describes the days between initial settler "occupation", and the inundation of the Gold Rush.
"What is now the boroughs of Ballarat, Ballarat East, and Sebastopol, was then a pleasantly picturesque pastoral country. Mount and range, and table land, gullies and creeks and grassy slopes, here black and dense forest, there only sprinkled with trees, and yonder showing clear reaches of grass, made up the general landscape.
"... kangaroo leaped unharmed down the ranges, and fed upon the green slopes and flats where the Yarrowee rolled its clear water along its winding course down the valley. Bullock teams now and then plodded their dull, slow way across flat and range, and made unwittingly the sites and curves of future streets.
Settlers would lighten their solitude with occasional chases of the kangaroo, where now the homes of a busy population have made a city; it was a favorite resort of the kangaroo, and Mr. A. Fisken, of Lal Lal, and other settlers often hunted kangaroo where Main, Bridge, and other streets are now.
The emu, the wombat, the dingo, were also plentiful. The edge of the eastern escarpment of the plateau where Ballarat West now is, was then green and golden in the spring time with the indigenous grass and trees. Where Sturt street descends to the flat was a little gully, and its upper edges, where are now the London Chartered Bank, the Post-office, and generally the eastern side of Lydiard street, from Sturt street to the gaol site, were prettily ornamented with wattles.
The ground now occupied by Craig's hotel on one side of the gully that ran down by the "Corner", and by the Camp buildings on the other side, were favorite camping places in the pastoral days. Safe from floods, and near to water and grass, the spot invited herdsman and shepherd, bullock-driver and traveller, to halt and repose.
Ballarat, or, more properly, Ballaarat, is a native name, signifying a camping or resting place, balla meaning elbow, or reclining on the elbow; all native names beginning with balla have a similar significance. "
Chapter One of "The History of Ballarat, from the First Pastoral Settlement to the Present Time." Second Edition: 1887
https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1304971h.html -03
I hope you don't mind my personal reflection being posted into this public page.
