Page:History of West Australia.djvu/59

 Rh CHAPTER VI.

PERTH AND FREMANTLE FOUNDED, AND PROGRESS IN 1829.

HE first duty devolving on Governor Stirling and his officers was to mark out the site of two towns, one on the seaboard, the other inland on the Swan, which should prove a suitable administrative Centre to the country on its banks. A more unenviable situation could hardly be imagined than that which now encompassed the foundation builders. It was the depth of winter; the weather was cold and bleak, and without houses they had at once to enter the theatre of hardship and suffering. As one writer has put it, they were like so many shipwrecked people who, with well-provisioned boats, escaped the perils of the deep only to land in an uninhabited country. They were almost helpless. The season was too late for the planting of crops; all that lay before them was the building of places of refuge, living on the food they had brought with them, and clearing sections of the forest for the coming autumn. Even this could not be done until the departments were established and the Surveyor-General was able to make rough surveys. Therefore they had to wait and patiently bear their exposure to the climate. The country was barren for all the use the pioneers could make of it for some months.

A great lonely land rose before them, containing nothing to welcome them, nothing to encourage them but the stretches of soil which possibly would blossom to their toil. Their forlornness was complete, and, cast upon the shore of a country thousands of miles from any of their kind, with no conveniences, no houses wherein to rest their bodies, no immediate signs of wealth, some of them began to regret their embarkation. To the parents who had brought young children with them the position was rendered doubly uncomfortable. Captain Stirling in his first despatch to Sir George Murray wrote that in addition to their loneliness, their "ignorance of the Country, and of the navigation of the coast," and their anxiety as to whether they would succeed or fail, were pregnant sources of uneasiness.

But the pioneers had begun, and they were determined to finish. Captain Stirling and his chief officers were dominated by a laudable activity at this time. Originally Stirling seemed to consider Garden Island should be used as the Government centre, because he still feared the French would dispute their right to the mainland, but he and his officers soon decided against such a course. They therefore went before the main body of settlers to choose the sites whereon they could build their cottages. The question of a situation for the seaboard town was easily solved, and the land on the south point of the Swan River was at once picked upon. They arranged that the first houses should be erected near the hill or cliff which abutted on the sea, now known as Arthur Head. To this prospective town they gave the name of Fremantle, in compliment to Captain Fremantle, R.N., who first hoisted the British flag, a few hundred yards away, on this part of Western Australia.

A more central site was required for the main settlement whence the Civil establishment could administer the affairs of the colony. To select a convenient situation, Governor Stirling got his boats over the bar of the river, and, accompanied by his staff, slowly sailed up the Swan. Many sheltered spots were examined, but while some were suitable for the erection of buildings they did not seen to be central enough. With much interest they looked to right and left of the river, first at the low banks covered with dwarfed vegetation, then, as they went further up, at the larger trees, which certainly appeared beautiful and unique, being altogether different from any trees many of them had seen before. They came to cliffs, which bounded one side of a wide expanse of water, while on the other were quickly rising banks and wooded coves. Beyond this they went and came to another fine expanse—Fresh Water Bay,—high overhanging banks terracing little valleys and vistas amid the woodland. Here a variety of shrubs and strange trees was observed. Among them were the banksia and casuarina. The bright green of the new growth in the former lent an attractive tint to the whole neighbourhood, while the wind eerily moaned and whispered in the latter. Still further on they sailed, past curved banks, over which hung shrubs and bracken, and past little tablelands commanding lovely views of the river, the dark range of hills in the distance, and the umbrageous floor of the plains on either side of the Swan, where was the land they had come to acquire. Jagged rocks projected boldly from the steep banks in some places, and in others half hid themselves behind the shrubbery. They sailed on until they reached the point where the Canning River joins the Swan.

Here seemed to be a central position, and certainly a more charming site for a town could not have been found. The river opens out to a remarkable width—nearly three miles. On the right the Canning quickly winds out of sight, hiding itself in a plain richly dowered with trees. The land between this and the further course of the Swan is cut down to a narrow, shallow strip, which, gradually widening as the rivers separate, rises to higher ground towards those flats which caused Captain Gilbert such inconvenience. Half way between the point and the flats it becomes a hill, whence is obtained a wide view of the wooded slopes on the opposite shore, and the panorama of river and the Darling Ranges.

The wide expanse already mentioned is called the Melville Water. On its left is a high landmark, known as Mount Eliza, which, hanging over the river leaves a narrow ornate shore line at its foot. Past Mount Eliza the Swan describes a half-circle, and as Captain Stirling turned it he was pleased with the scene of gentle slopes which lay before him. These slopes rise in almost natural terraces from the Swan, and were clothed with verdure, and