XXV 



SEPTEMBER, 1901 



x!ie moutlily evening meeting was held 

 on September the 9th, the President, His 

 Exceilen^-y the Administrator, presiding, 

 when the following paper, illustrated with 

 lantej'n slides, was read: — 



^OTES ON A TEIP TO THE BAEN 

 BLUFF COUNTRY. 



(By Mr. J. W. Beattie.) 



The greater part of the following notes 

 on the Barn Bluff country were written 

 under the most distressing conditions im- 

 aginable, both from the tourist and photo- 

 graphic aspects — the latter especially, as it 

 was in the interests of photography that I 

 made the journey. Sitting in a little hut, 

 in the midst of wildly beautiful country, 

 made still more wild, and also dismal, by 

 the awful strife of the elements outside, 

 which, day after day, raged with a fury 

 scarcely imaginable to a lowland'er, and, 

 to my way of thinking, certainly worthy of 

 a better cause 



If long-continued pleasure brings weari- 

 ness, it c^an be imagined into what mental 

 •state one is driven when the opposite cause 

 is in operation, and day succeeded day 

 in furious wind and rain (the roaring of 

 the wind in the big trees around keep- 

 ing me awake at night), to be succeed e<I by 

 heavy snowfalls, and thunder and light- 

 ning, ni'aking every living and dead thing 

 around in such condition that it was, to 

 say the least, misery to walk outside the 

 hut, the tension became so acute that I 

 could scarcely sleep at all. How T wished 

 the Barn Bluff country elsewhere, and 

 •called myself names for undertaking the 

 trip at this late time of the year, and the 

 ■only sympathy I usually got would be 

 from the extra hearty wind gust outside, 

 sending a cloud of fine snow through the 

 cracks in the weather-boards of the hut, 

 down my neck, a process cooling, if not 

 comforting. At last came the crisis — I 

 could bear it no longer. The packer had 

 been expected night after night, and he 

 never came, and each successive disap- 

 pointment became more acute. Tucker was 

 running low, and if more snow came, the 

 consequences might prove serious, so I de- 

 ■cided to clear out, and one Sunday morn- 

 ing saw me plodding through the Febru- 

 ary Plain, swag on back and camera in 

 Tiand, and the following day Monday) 

 found me at Mr. Howe's comfortable 

 hiouse at Mole Creek — 42 miles frojn Pel ion 

 — tired, but thankful at being out of the 

 ■storm region, and within rea^sonable dis- 

 tance of home, after an absenre of nearly 

 three weeks. 



I left HoOart on April t. by express, in 

 company with Messrs. E. Hawson and 

 Boxall. who, with myseif. foinied the 

 party bound for the Barn Bluff fountry. 

 The route lay via Mole Creek, then to 

 Liena, on the Mersey River, 12 miles fur- 

 ther on southerly; then via Innes's Track 

 to Pelion Huts, 28 miles ahead, through 

 Gad^s Hill and February Plains, still 

 heading southerly, then away to Barn 

 Bluff', 14 miles further on in a N.W, and 

 north-easterly direction. The 'veather in 

 Hobart. on leaving, was very wet — -outher- 

 ly — which continued nearly to Evandale, 

 wli'ere we left it, hugging the Great West- 

 ern Tiers right on to Mole Creek, although 

 there was an occasional shower lie tore the 

 terminus was reached. We a'lived at 

 Mole Creek about 5.20 p.m., and carriied 

 our baggage on to Mr. Howe's store, 

 where we also cast aside the garments of 

 city wear, and assumed those suited to the 

 rough, wild country which lay ahead of us. 

 iVe were joined here b.y Mr. W. .J. Lloyd, 

 head teacher of the Mole Creek State 

 School, who completed eur piarty. 



After refreshment, we started for Liena 

 >Merse\' River) at about 7.30, on riding 

 horses, the swags coming on in a chaise 

 cart, and we progressed admirably, the 

 road all the way being exceedingly go^od, 

 and with the moon at the full it was a 

 very pleasant journey. The Western Tiers 

 end somewhat abruptly their western 

 trend at Mole Creek, their grand, wall- 

 like formation running southerly from 

 there, and it is this bold terrai:;al head- 

 land that we can see from Pelion, 40 odd 

 miles south, standing out finely, and re- 

 taining almost the same form that it pre- 

 sents to the Mole Creekers on its northern 

 side. From Mole Creek we keep along the 

 main road westerly for a mile or so, turn- 

 ing sharply south after crossing the Sas- 

 safras Creek, and keeping on the Circular 

 Ponds and Liena-road. We fall in with 

 some good farms midway on the journey, 

 the Circular Ponds district representing a 

 patch of good agricultural flat land under 

 the Western Tiers, so-called from the pre- 

 valence of "^pot holes" or depressions, pe- 

 culiar to limestone country; but the 

 country generally right through to the 

 Mersey is barren, hungry-looking, and un- 

 suitable for agriculture. On the west side 

 the road is bounded all the way througii 

 by the Barren Tier, and when the fine 

 form of the Western Tier is lost, on the 

 east, steep, rough, timber-clad hills and 

 gullies prevail, in which a couple of saw- 

 mills do business. It was with some satis- 

 faction that at last we found ourselves 

 above the great valley of the Mersey River, 



