208 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



by a master.* The air is rent with the thunderous 

 diapason of the bull-punchers* hoarse blasphemy, with 

 the deep-toned, sullen thuds of the whips, or with 

 cursing, encouraging, entreating. You see a chaos of 

 hurtling horns and staring eye-balls, of slavering mouths 

 and low-bent brawny necks. The dray is sometimes 

 embedded in the plastic clay of the terrible hillside. 

 This time it is going to emerge. There is a vision of 

 blood, and the sound of demoniac oaths. A crash of 

 commingled whips, bullocks, yokes, chains ensues ; a 

 long, deep, ominous, rolling explosion bursts forth ; 

 there is one deadly roar of culminating and murderous 

 profanity ; and, at last, the crest of the hill is gained. 

 The bushman's Waterloo was only " Jerry's Pindi." 



Very picturesque looked the encampment (usually 

 pitched near a lagoon or a water-hole) when the day's 

 journey had come to an end, and the bullocks were un- 

 spanned, when sonorous bells were fastened on their 

 necks and the sonorous oxen driven to the pasture. 

 Then followed the evening meal, prepared on a huge 

 log-fire ; it consisted of a smoking dish of beef and 

 potatoes, while tea was boiled in a galvanized-tin billy. 



The part of the bullock-driver as a " maker of 

 Austraha " is notable. He was formed of the very 

 stuff required for the building-up of a pastoral com- 

 munity. He greatly aided in exploring the eastern 

 and south-eastern colonies — Victoria, Queensland, and 

 New South Wales ; and he accompanied Sir T. Mitchell 

 and many another bold discoverer. Over high ranges 

 or across endless plains, through thick scrub or treacher- 

 ous morass, in drought or flood, on unfenced roads with 

 awful ruts, he held the uneven tenor of his way. The 

 offsider was a caricature of the driver, and faithfully 

 reproduced in an exaggerated form all his ways. The 

 famous greenhide bullock-whip remains unaltered and 

 formidable, but the dray is at length superseded by 

 the waggon, when larger teams (of 30 to 40 bullocks, 

 travelling ten miles in seven days) and still more skilful 

 ♦ Babtley, Opals and Agates, pp. 272-4 



