Mr Rounsevell's "gin-case on wheels"

 

In a reputation-shredding sentence, the writer of a letter to the Editor of the South Australian Register (dated 18 February 1867), remembered "reading a graphic account given by your special correspondent last May of the miseries of the South-Eastern overland journey as it then was". The original report, published 28 July 1866 and headed 'THE SOUTH-EAST DISTRICT. From our Special Correspondent. THE OVERLAND JOURNEY.', did indeed begin gloomily:

"On a dull drizzling morning ― Monday, May 28 ― a little before 5 o'clock, I ascended at the door of Roger's Inn , Narracoorte, the somewhat nondescript conveyance provided by Mr Rounsevell for the conveyance of H.M. mails from the South-East to Adelaide. The appearance of the turn-out in the grey morning was anything but promising. The vehicle ― a square box on wheels ― looked very clumsy and suggestive of aching bones, and the couple of horses provided by the contractor were poor, rawboned, hungry-looking brutes, who seemed to have very little go in them. The living occupants of the vehicle were the driver...the mail guard...and myself.

The mails being all aboard, we started on a journey such as I have no ambition to travel again..."

The Register's correspondent had set out to tour the remote southern district of the Colony of South Australia and his time as passenger on the South-East 'mail' was the final part of this. He had started his round-trip with a ship passage from Adelaide to MacDonnell Bay in the far south; "two days at sea, which I still remember with a curious sensation at the pit of my stomach!". He had continued north inland to Mount Gambier, Penola, and Naracoorte, and visited a number of sheep stations along his route, including Yallum and Woolshed (Riddoch), Killanoola (Seymour), Mosquito Plains (Robertson), Broadmeadows (Smith), and Kybybolite (Affleck).

He reported that "so far it had been very pleasant travelling, (always excepting the two days at sea) ... having had the good luck to obtain a seat in Dr Tallis's buggy" from the Mount to Penola, and then "Mr Riddoch kindly placing a horse and buggy at my service" for the next stage to Narracoorte. Even so, the mixed state of the roads demanded comment. Travelling with Dr. Tallis, "We had a pleasant drive of 32 miles over a road which for the greater part was in a wretched condition. For about 26 miles from the Mount hardly anything had been done to it". In some mitigation, "A small attempt has been made to throw up a sort of causeway over a few of the worst places in the Dismal Swamp", and "For about six miles out of Penola a good macadamized road has been constructed..."

In the same context, the writer is unstinting in praise of his hosts for their hospitality ― "The inns in the town of Mount Gambier are of a superior character" ― naming the meals at Mitchell's and the accommodation at Long's.  And he is particularly effusive about the squatters: "Mr Riddoch...from whom I received a cordial welcome...had arranged that I was to be his guest at Yallum"; "Mr Seymour gave me a hearty welcome...We stopped at Killanoola for dinner and resisted a pressing invitation to remain all night"; "Mr Robertson...received me most kindly...several other visitors had arrived before us...and yet accommodation was cheerfully found for all". There is a sense that writer is pleasantly surprised that all these landowners are so agreeable "to persons travelling in the bush who know how to behave themselves". 

But, he notes, "I am afraid from all I hear of the journey ― I am like the young bears ― all my troubles are yet to come".

1.  Sunday, 27 May, 1986.

"On Sunday I returned to Narracoorte, as I had taken my place by the mail for Adelaide, which leaves at 4 o'clock on Monday. I was in considerable doubt as to whether I could be taken on, because owing to the bad state of the roads the contractor is very shy of carrying passengers. I took the precaution, however, of telegraphing to MacDonnell Bay, the point of starting on the route, and securing my place. Happily, when the mail reached Narracoorte on Sunday evening, I found that I would be favoured with a passage by it ...

The history of those four days, during which I sat cold, often wet, and always weary, on what is called 'a gin-case on wheels' deserve a place by itself. My limbs ache even now at the remembrance of the journey."

2.  Monday, 28 May, 1866.

"A little before 4 o'clock on Monday morning I was awoke, and hastily dressed. A cup of coffee was ready for the guard, the mail-driver, and myself, which we quickly swallowed, and then prepared for our journey ... [and] by dint of flogging, coaxing, vociferating, and strong adjectiving, a stage of about 17 miles was got out of the poor over-worked and ill-fed animals.  The next stage we had three horses, which in hungry looks, prominent bones, and general unwillingness to work were pretty well matched. The mailman and guard beguiled the way and endeavoured to keep me in spirits by the promise of the greatly improved team which would be picked up at the next stables for the third and concluding stage that day, one of 28 miles ...

When I saw them, however, my hopes were not very much raised, and yet they managed to get us along by the forcible motives already referred to, and at 7 o'clock in the evening, a great portion of the journey having been done in the teeth of a heavy rain storm, we pulled up at the Inn at Lacapede Bay, where a good fire and a comfortable tea led me to forget the hardships and the annoyances of the journey. The road from Narracoorte to Kingston was in some places in frightful condition ... Instead of completing each mile of road as far as the money held out, the late Engineer endeavoured to cover a large space, and has left almost the whole only half accomplished."

3.  Tuesday, 29 May, 1866.

 

"At Kingston we changed vehicles and drivers. On Tuesday morning before 5 o'clock we left Kingston for the longest stage this side of Narracoorte. We had about 90 miles to do before reaching Magrath's Flat, our resting place for the night, and 'George' the new driver...was anxious to get off as soon as possible. I may say, in passing, that Mr Rounsevell generally manages to select capital 'whips' for his conveyances. However ill-horsed they may be, they are as a rule well-manned. George had a pair of good horses out of Kingston, and we did the first stage ― 17 miles ― in two hours, which was not bad travelling.

Our second team had a rather wild and rough look, and their performance did not belie their looks ... More than once we owed our escape from an awkward collision to the skill of the driver, who at length began to look gloomy at the prospect. He was bound to make his eight miles an hour over a road which he knew too well, and he had made a very unpromising start.

... We kept by the side of the Coorong, sometimes crossing and recrossing it, over hills of sand and long flats of moist pipeclay, as adhesive as glue; through large sheets of water, which were always taken at a smart gallop to the infinite discomfort of the poor passenger who was bespattered from head to foot with mud ... about 7 o'clock we approached Magrath's Flat, cold, weary, and aching. At Magrath's Flat I found a comfortable hotel for such a dreary-looking country, where I soon managed before a cozy fire to forget, to some extent at least, the discomfort of the day's journey."

"The road was very trying, and the wonder to me was how the poor-looking horses managed to get over stages of upwards of 20 miles in the time they did. A better class of horses would have done it quicker; but the contractor seems to put all his screws on that road. I heard that recently the manager of the route selected all the best horses and sent them all to Adelaide, leaving the worst behind. This is very different from the way in which Cobb & Co. manage the mail service on the other side [of the border in Victoria]. There the best cattle [sic} are selected, well fed and well groomed; and though I was assured the roads were quite as bad as ours, a speed of ten miles per hour is maintained."

4.  Wednesday, 30 May, 1866.

"On Wednesday morning, at the usual hour, a little before 5, we started on the last uncomfortable stage in the journey. As far as the roads were concerned, this was the worst day's journey we had. Through the wretched desert of sand, through the muddy swamp at Lake Albert, the weary horses urged their way. More stamping, shouting, whipping, with 'cursory' remarks not a few; more trials of patience, more shaking and bumping, till; at length we reached Wellington, where we began to breathe more freely. We felt the worst of our journey was over; the overland route was nearly accomplished.

I can say but little about Wellington, East or West ... The only thing worth mentioning is the fine [sic] approach to the ferry which has recently been made. Had it crossed the swamp almost at right angles to its present position...it would have saved several miles of wretched travelling ... We had to wait nearly two hours at the two Wellingtons before the arrangements of the Post Office allowed us to start. When we did get off we went along at a spanking pace ... At the next stage we found the horses were shod, and punctual to our time we entered Strathalbyn, where I found, as I had done before, a comfortable temporary home at the Victoria Hotel.

Here my troubles ceased. Next morning by 10 o'clock I was in Adelaide, I hope both wiser and better for my journey to the South-East."

During his passage on the South-East mail our correspondent maintains his criticism of the roads. At one point he blames the failure to finish a section out of Kingston on the competing interest for limited funds from "the people about Mount Gambier and Penola", but then his earlier experience of  the Dismal Swamp should have advised him that the shortage of money was common to all parts of the District. One of the reasons settlers in the South East were so hospitable towards him was because publicity of the right sort in an Adelaide newspaper might open up the public purse in the region's favour. 

The natural disadvantages to transport-infrastructure development had long been recognised in the capital. In 1858 the South Australian Parliament had debated whether "it would be a better course to make a road to enable the settlers to get on the best way they could until a railway was made". The contrary view was that "the nature of the country over which that survey must pass...was not calculated for a macadamised road, for it was flooded in the winter season". 

A Cobb & Co. Post-script

The negative report in the South Australian Register did not go unnoticed. At the start of the next year the South Australian Advertiser reported a significant change in business ownership for the South East mail contract.

"Messrs. Cobb & Co., who have taken Mr. Wm. Rounsevell's business,. commenced running their coaches on Tuesday, January 1. Among other alterations we may notice the departure of the South-Eastern mails, which under the new arrangement, left the General Post-Office at half-past 10 o'clock last night. The mails would be taken direct to Milang, thence across the Lake to Meningie, and thence to Lacepede Bay, arriving at Mount Gambier in 48 hours from leaving Adelaide. According to the same arrangement the South-Eastern Mails will be due at the General Post-Office at midnight this evening".

The letter to the editor of the Register quoted at the beginning of this piece was written in response to this change. According to this writer, "Your readers have shown themselves reasonably anxious to know whether Messrs. Cobb & Co.'s promises of improvements in the mode of travelling have been fulfilled. In the hope of satisfying them", (and despite having heard the journey remained fatiguing with "heat and dust and sand and flies by day, and sleepless travelling through the night"), "I now send you an account of the journey I recently made in their conveyances from Adelaide to Mount Gambier". The writer had three main points to make, on coaches (much improved), roads (the same), and speed (better), but ended with a criticism of the price being charged for the new service (£5 10s).

1.  Upgraded Conveyances.

"The coach by which the the latter journey is made is one of the new vehicles Cobb & Co. have put on the road, and is the perfection of comfort. There is a dashing look about it which reminds one of the old stage-coach, whose traditional bright red and black it retains for its colours: but in structure it closely resembles a double buggy. There are two seats, which I should say would comfortably accommodate five persons besides the driver, and anyone occupying the back seat has not only a comfortable rest for his back, but is perfectly secure from the weather, being shielded alike from sun and rain ... This is the kind of coach which Cobb & Co. intend to use throughout the entire journey ... The rest of the journey during this day was performed in an open American wagon, the proper coach having met with some damage ... At Macbean's we found a coveted coach awaiting, of the kind used on the Victorian roads, into whose welcome shelter we crept with no little alacrity".

An undated photograph from the Australia Post historical collection described as 'photo-man- delivering-mail-by-coach'. It appears to show the 'double buggy' style of vehicle intended for use by Cobb & Co. on the South East mail route, highly sprung, and pulled by a two horse team. It also may be that a similar canvas hood for shelter against sun and rain is folded down behind the driver's seat. 

2.  Variable Roads, made and unmade.

"I was told that a person might even settle himself to sleep in this conveyance, and perhaps as far as the conveyance is concerned he might, but not on such roads as those of the South-Eastern route ... The drive along the Coorong was delightful, the summer track being that chosen, a considerable portion of which is a most exhilarating gallop along level sands ... The 10 miles eastward of Kingston is through a scrub, dreary enough to strike despair into the least imaginative soul, and over what I think must be the most objectionable variety of bad road to be met with on a route where bad road is the rule and smooth travelling the rare exception. I can stand stumps and roots of trees crossing the track, and ruts and sandhills, but to travel over an apparently sandy track, in which rocks cropping up unseen jar every nerve and fibre of the frame, is just a little more than mortal endurance can stand."

3.  Punctual Efficiency, horses and staff.

"We stopped at Naracoorte to dine, and reach Penola as the sun  was getting low. Leaving this between 6 and 7, we arrived at Mount Gambier a few minutes after half-past 10. A distance of 312 miles had thus been accomplished in 48 hours and of this six hours were devoted to rest at Kingston ... ('throughout the entire journey a speed of between seven and eight miles an hour, including stoppages, is maintained') ... The horses were in splendid condition and the driving  perfectly wonderful. Four drivers divided the journey between them, and the speed with which they made their way over roads, the vileness of which in many places no language can describe, was a great triumph of art. The time was accurately kept, and the fatigue involved in the journey greatly less than I had been led to expect. The drivers and guard were most obliging and the inns at which we stayed for refreshment in every case well kept. All that is wanted to make this a most enjoyable journey is some improvement in the roads."

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REFERENCES:  Trove Newspapers, National Library

South Australian Register, Saturday 2 March 1867, page 1, 'TO MOUNT GAMBIER BY MAIL COACH. To The Editor.'  <httrp://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article159508756>

South Australian Register, Saturday 28 July 1866, page 4, 'THE SOUTH-EAST DISTRICT. From our Special Correspondent. THE OVERLAND JOURNEY.'  <http://nla.gov.au./nla.news-article41023463>

South Australian Advertiser, Saturday 9 October 1858, page 7, 'SOUTH AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT. TRAMWAY BETWEEN GUICHEN BAY AND MOUNT GAMBIER.'

South Australian Advertiser, Wednesday 2 January 1867, page 2, 'TOPICS OF THE DAY.'