a_tramp_to_the_blackalls [Murray-Prior History Wiki]

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====== A Tramp to the Blackalls ======
Ruth and Dorothea were always very close as sisters. In c.1910-1911, Ruth wrote a 14pp description of a walk they took in Queensland, from Caboolture Railway Station to the farm belonging to their youngest stepbrother Egerton and his wife Gracie at Nambour. They could have taken a train all the way, but decided instead to walk part the way. Ruth described how they wore old clothes (Ruth's inexpertly dyed by herself), took a billy for water for making tea, and a knapsack for a guidebook and other belongings. The first day they walked 18 miles (nearly 29 km) along a disused road (leading to Gympie and once used by horse-drawn coaches), then caught the train from Glass Mountains' station to a boarding house at Landsborough where they stayed overnight. They then walked 14 miles through beautiful country past Palmwoods to reach Egerton and Gracie's farm on the Blackall range. Like her sister Meta, Ruth was lyrical when describing lush scenery but also graphic about the scarier aspects of their walk: \\
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//"Scrub trees of beautiful foliage and unknown names, fed upon by staghorns and elkhorns and parasitic creeper that bound then, one to another, in a network of greenery; clumps of tall palms, posed in groups of twos and threes, sure of their grave and charm; little streams gurgling, their waters swish swishing through the drooping leaves of the palm-like ferns that covered the banks; all this was around us and nature had given us but one pair of eyes and those were glued upon the uneven, stone-strewn sleepers and dazzled by the glare of the noonday sun upon the iron rails; and our souls were not undimmed by that strange monster, fear, - fear of the dark, dank tunnels ... the horror that a train might overtake us in those dim, fearsome places; fear of the two narrow planks by which we crossed the bridges, holding our breath with anxiety lest we should miss footing and slip into the gullies beneath us."// (pp.7-8)\\
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Ruth enthusiastically described the beauty of Egerton's farm - see under entry for Egerton [[Matilda's other children - William, Rosa (Praed), Morres, Lizzie (Jardine), Hervey, Redmond, Weeta, Hugh, Lodge, Matilda, Egerton M-P]]. They stayed two nights with Egerton and Gracie then walked 'to skirt the top of the range through Dulong and Monteville, and drop on to Palmswood where we could catch an afternoon train [back] to Brisbane.'\\
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For the whole story, see the Rosa Caroline Praed Papers, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, MSS OM64-01, Box 2, item 112.