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Updated: June 15, 2025
The prevailing timber appeared to be a species of eucalypti, with rough bark, of small size, and evidently languishing from the want of moisture. The soil over which we travelled was far from bad, but there was a total absence of water upon it. At 6 p.m.
For sometimes I catch glimpses of him between the tree-trunks we have myriads of cabbage-tree palms, tree-ferns, and bangalow palms, among the eucalypti hereabouts and always, if we are less than a quarter of a mile or so from home, it is his rounded haunches that I see, and he is walking slowly away from me, listening to my call, and doubtless grinning as he chews his cud a great ruminator is my Punch.
The soil of this last plain was very fine, trees grew upon it in beautiful groups the Acacia pendula again appearing. The grass, of a delicate green colour, resembled a field of young wheat. The scrub beyond was close and consisted of a variety of dark-leaved shrubs, among which the eucalypti were almost the only trees to which I was not a stranger.
We found that dense brushes of casuarina lined the creek on both sides, beyond which, to our left, there was open rising ground, on which eucalypti, cypresses, and the acacia longifolia, prevailed; whilst to the east, plains seemed to predominate. None of them were seen during the day; a proof that they were entirely local.
They look very picturesque in their floating drapery and hanging headgear; but the cape must be always impeding the free use of arms and legs, and the cap now that its original use as a begging purse has ceased might well be exchanged for a 'sombrero. Herr Duerzen accompanied us to the Botanic Gardens, where his friend and countryman, Goetze, showed us a splendid magnolia, Australian pines, and a great variety of eucalypti.... We then drove to the entrance of the footway leading to the Penedo da Saudade, a walk much affected by the Coimbrese.
The redwood shanty; a dozen orange-trees, rapidly diminishing in size and number by reason of neglect and gophers; a clump of slender, smoky eucalypti; a patch of perennial tomato-vines; and a few acres of what Barney Wilson called "veteran barley," it having been sown once, and having "volunteered" ever since, constituted those additions to the value of the land, if not to the landscape, upon which Parker based his homestead rights.
The new houses had fine gardens, the old ones were gloomy with eucalypti, or ragged with palms, but everywhere were flowers, even at this season, giving an immediate relief to the eye from the long dull perspective.
It was at present planted alternately with eucalypti and ilexes the gum-trees for the present generation, and the green-oaks for those to come; but even the gum-trees had not as yet done much to give a furnished appearance to the place.
A curious and indescribable wailing cry is heard in the air, singularly depressing in its effect, and a string of some dozen black cockatoos flit from tree to tree, the brilliant scarlet band on the tail of the male flashing as he alternately expands and contracts it, to keep his balance whilst extracting the sweets from the flowers of the 'Eucalypti'. Few things present so great a contrast as the cries of these two birds of the same family, and so alike in everything but colour and yet both are disagreeable: that of the white variety from its piercing harshness, and that of the black from an indefinable sensation of the approach of coming evil it carries with it at least, such is the effect it always has upon me.
The green sward of the avenue is set, here and there, with fine yew trees, while tall, slim eucalypti flank the entrance to the Court.
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