BY JAMES BACKHOUSE WALKER. 



175 



Arm, is a cleared flat of indifferent land, 300 to 400 yards 

 wide. This is the site of Paterson's settlement. On 

 the banks of the northern creek are some fair grass 

 paddocks ; and immediately beyond rises an abrupt, 

 almost precipitous, wooded ridge, to which Paterson 

 gave the name of Mount Albany. From the side of this 

 hill the flat on which York Town stood lies spread out 

 below us. Two little wooden cottages or huts, sur- 

 rounded by neglected orchards, are the only habitations. 

 To the left stretch the shallow waters of Western Arm, 

 fringed with extensive mud-flats which are bare at low 

 water. The owner of one of the huts on the desolate 

 clearing is an old man, the son of a man who came with 

 Paterson's first establishment. He is ready to tell the 

 visitor of blacks and bushrangers, and of the days when 

 there was a Government House, and York Town was 

 busy with soldiers and prisoners. 



Ruins of the original Settlement there are none. The 

 old inhabitant points to a hole, from which the founda- 

 tions have been long ago removed, as the site of Govern- 

 ment House, and to a clump of wattles as the spot where 

 ■once stood Captain Kemp's house, the birthplace of the 

 late Mr. George A. Kemp. This is all ;— except that 

 back in the bush, where the little valley widens, are a 

 few mounds under the gum-trees, half hidden by the low 

 scrub, and indicating neglected and forgotten graves. 



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