The End of the Overland Trek

Having just spent a couple of days in the grip of a vicious flu-like lurgy, I have a new sympathy for those who got sick 160 years ago. With a very rapid onset, I went from happily canoeing the Hunter River on Monday afternoon to shivering with flu aches by midnight. Today we can ameliorate the worst of such symptoms with easily available Cold & Flu tablets, plus I was warm and dry in my brothers house but I couldn't help contemplating what it must've been like for previous sufferers. In the case of the original Australians with no immunities to such illness, the end was often fatal but likewise for Europeans, camped in a cold, damp, smoky shepherds hut, it would have been miserable at the very least.

Edward spent several days at Merton, resting and reshoing his horses before setting off with Denny down river towards Maitland. At Jerry's Plains they were rejoined by Smith who had had a few days off visiting his family. From Merton to Jerry's Plains now there is a long belt of coal mines although the road is still lined with prettily maintained horse studs. It took 2 days to reach Maitland where Edward boarded the fine new steamboat Coleroy, taking with me as many of the horses I could procure berths for and leaving Smith to follow with the rest on the morrow. 

A picture of the Collaroy held in the State Library of NSW. Edward was often a little slack in his editing, perhaps because he was writing from memory a while after the event, and appears to misspell various names. The Collaroy was new when Edward sailed on it and went aground in 1881 in the area that now bears its name, just north of Sydney. 

The Collaroy set off at sunrise and despite having to wait for the tide at the mouth of the river, they were in Sydney by about 10pm that day. Edward was singularly unimpressed however, when the crew, in the spirit of reckless, unthinking insubordination which has prevailed amongst men of this class since the discovery of the gold mines, refused to work, on the plea that it was too late. I imagine Gina Rinehart would love to have Edward to dinner. They'd have so much to talk about. Eventually after much expostulation on the part of the captain they did agree to allow the landing of the horses so they could be stabled and fed.

The greater Newcastle area now extends pretty well up to Maitland, the whole area being an urban conurbation of well over a million people. Central Maitland has some spectacular late 19th century buildings as does Newcastle. Edward probably wouldn't recognise either city now but he'd be impressed. I canoed from Maitland to Morpeth, a delightful paddle. Morpeth is a pretty little town that Edward might recognise because development has passed it by. It is now one of those period towns that appears to make its living from eating establishments, second hand/antique/junk shops and the kind of shops that cater to ladies who lunch.

The river has been "stabilised" with massive loads of stone lining the banks and seems too shallow now for any large vessel. Even my canoe grounded a couple of times in inches of water and I had to look for deeper channels through. Down closer to the mouth, it is just a dirty looking channel through mangrove swamps.