Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 7 January 1911, page 16


SKETCHER.

AN EARLY PIONEER. MR. HIRAM BARNES. WORK IN THE EARLY DAYS. EXPERIENCES WITH BUSH RANGERS.

One of the most conspicuous links with be early days whom we have at present Queensland is Mr. Hiram Barnes, of Brisbane, bright and cheery, active, and

enjoying good health despite his years and tough experiences. Mr. Barnes arrived in Sydney with his parents in the year 1837, on the good ship Duchess of Northumber-landl. The voyage from England occupied six calendar months and a few days. His father was first engaged by William Rut ridge, Tooongabbie, four miles from Parra-matta, and remained there for a very short time. He removed back to Parramatta to the employment of Messrs. I. and I. Burns and there young Hiram was sent to Staff School. Then the family removed to Kiss-ing Point and remained there till 1847. In that year Mr. Barnes, sen, travelled overland to Port Philip, and the family followed him there in the same year by the A.S.N. steamer Shamrock, commanded by Captain Gilmour, the passage taking seven days. The family settled in St. Kilda for several years, and here young Hiram Barnes married. When the Ballarat gold-fields opened up Hiram, in company with four others, went there and worked on the Black Hill surfacing, with little suc-cess. Afterwards he returned to St. Kilda and formed a fresh party, which went to Forest Creek when the "rush" was on to that place. After remaining a short time there Friars' Creek gold mine broke out, and there he very successful in gold mining operations. Eventually he re-turned to St. Kilda, where, with his father, they commenced carrying to Castlemaine and Bendigo with three horse teams. To give an idea of the rough nature of the roads in those days—roads which were well near impassable owing to the wet wea-ther the nine horses were frequently hitched to one dray with one ton of flour, and after working hard all day when night fell the teams would be well within sight of the starting point of the morning. The whole journey from Melbourne to Bendigo sometimes occupied six weeks, whilst many others took two months. After a short time Mr. Barnes went into the butchering business in Melbourne in company with Mr. Samuels. In 1858 Mr. Barnes left Melbourne by the brig Golden Spring, commanded by Captain Rosie, for the Canoona rush, near Rockhampton, in charge of the cargo on board. The journey from Keppel Bay up the Fitzroy River to Rockhampton occu-pied fourteen days, the brig seemingly get-ting on to all the sand banks in the river The diggings proving a failure, he did not go all the way, but returned with the same brig to Sydney. Arriving at Sydney, Mr. Barnes was minded to go home to Melbourne by a steamer, but, being persuaded by Captain Rosie, he con tinnued his journey on the Golden Spring. The voyage from Sydney to Melbourne was somewhat eventful, as, encountering heavy winds and a gale, the brig was six weeks in accomplishing the journey between the two ports. Eventually, when the weather moderated, the brig reacged Port Phillip Heads, but in con-sequence of the wind suddenly changing it could not venture to enter, and this block continued for six successive days. Mr. Barnes then commenced his coach-ing experiences, and with his family went to reside in Castlemaine. He was engaged by Hobby and Hewstead as driver, this firm running in opposition to Cobb and Co.. between Castlemaine and Ballarat. Finally Hobby and Hewstead was bought over by Cobb and Co., and with this well known firm Mr. Barnes was engaged as driver, and as such he became exceedingly popular. He remained there until Cobb and Co. despatched their plant to New South Wales from Bendigo to Che Lach-lan diggings in 1862—with 10 coaches, two American waggons, and 105 horses. After encountering considerable difficulties in crossing rivers, creeks, etc., the journey

of over 400 miles was safely accomplished in three weeks' time, and 103 horses out of the 105 arrived in good condition. Arriving at Forbes, Mr. Barnes was appointed manager between Forbes and Orange. When the Lachlan diggings be-gan to fail and passenger traffic got less, Mr. Barnes acted both as manager and driver, and drove 80 miles per day and seven days a week, in.consequecce of the mail leaving Forbes, and not Sydney, on the Sunday. It was at the time that the Ben Hall bushranging gang was operating between Forbes and Orange and surround-ing district. Fortunately Mr. Barnes es-caped being "held up" by them at any time, and this no doubt was largely owing to the fact that he maintained a discreet silence as to their movements. A consid-erable amount of the "holding up" in those days was done by "bush telegraphs" and dishonest miners, the credit of which was often attributed, to the Hall gang. At Murgo the hotel was owned by a Mr. Marr and another locally known as "German Jack." At the end of the veranda a small room was being erected as a post office. At 6 o'clock on a summer morning "German Jack' and others were on the veranda when some one saw horse men coming. Thinking it might be Hall's gang, "Jack," who had money in notes in his possession, put his hand into his pocket and threw the notes amongst the shavings. This, however, did not escape the quick eye of the rangers, although at a distance from the ihotel. When the rangers arrived one was delegated to keep watch on the veranda in case the police should surprise them, whilst the others went to the bar and invited all about the place, including "German Jack," to be treated. After-wards one of the gang went to see how the post office was progressing, and in a very casual way exclaimed: "Hallo, what's this amongst the shavings ?" and picked up the notes that"German "Jack" had thrown down, but which were not sufficiently buried. John Gilbert, also one of the gang, was having a stroll round the place, and made his way into a bedroom, the door of which was not locked. Mr. Marr himself was from home, and this room proved to be the bedroom of Mrs. Marr, which was occupied by her and her sister. As no mosquito nets were then in use at the

hotel, these ladies had a sheet over their faces. Gilbert very quietly turned down the sheeting to see who the sleepers were. This action awoke the ladies, who instantly gave vent to screams. Noticing they were ladies, Gilbert at once bowed him self out of the room, apologising in the most gentlemanly fashion for having dis turbed them, assuring them he wouldn't hurt a hair of their heads. A very few days after this the gang attempted to break into Mr. Campbell's house, about a mile and a half from the hotel. This Mr. Campbell had aided the police in at-tempting their arrest. Not succeeding in getting into the house, they set fire to the stable, when two very valuable hordes were burned. Mr and Mrs. Campbell were defending their home as best they could, and in the glare of the burning stable the head of one of the gang was seen above an outer fence. Mr. Campbell at once aimed and ahot the intruder through the neck. When Mr. Bornes was driving from Forbes early next morn-ing he was mett by a messenger requesting him to go on to Mr. Campbell's house, hoping to identify the shot man. It was supposed at first that the dead man was Gilbert, but Mr. Barnes in stantly identified him as O'Malley. It was about this time that the Keightley ransom occurred near Bathurst. Mr. Keightley was suspected by the same gang of giving assistance or information to the police as to their movements. Conse-quently they made a raid upon his house, when he succeeded in shooting Burke, one of the rangers. He was eventually cap-tured, and a ransom of £500 was de manded for his release or he would be a dead man. Mr. Keightley despatched a messenger to the bank in Bathurst. Mean-while the gang with their prisoner took up a position from which they had an extensive view of the country, and con-sequently could at once detect if any force would come to the release of Keightley. The messenger, however, returned alone with the above sum of £500, and Keight ley was released. In 1865 Mr. Barnes came to Queens-land to inspect the coach route between Brisbane and Ipswich, and other places. In the beginning of 1866 be was success-ful in securing the carrying of the mails between Brisbane and Ipswich, and bought out John Nolan, who was then run-ning the mails. Later on, for Cobb and Co., he bought out the firm of Cook and Fraser, running the coach between Bigg's Camp (now Grandchester) and Toowoomba, and still later on he also bought out Mrs. Hartley, of Jondaryan, who was running the mails between Toowoomba and Dalby. For the same firm of Cobb and Co. he commenced a coach between Too-woomba and Warwick. Then he extended the route from Dalby to Roma. Shortly after the Gympie gold rush broke out strong representations were made by the principal merchants in Gympie to Cobb and Co., in Sydney, to have a coach service 'between Brisbane and Gympie. The route was surveyed by one of their employees, who condemned it, on the ground that the wear and tear would be too costly, besides the great danger to life. Consequently the project was in abeyance for some short time, until the Gympie people again agitated in the matter. Mr. Hall, of Sydney, then in-

structed the Brisbane manager to have the route again inspected. Mr. Barnes was appointed to resurvey the route, and re ported that the route was possible, but that several bridges would require to be erected. The Government cleared a track through the bush, and in order to avoid various dangerous sidelings ihe track was run over most of the steepest ridges. Mr. Barnes went through with the first coach to Gympie, leaving Brisbane at 4 a.m., arriving at Maroochy at 9.30 p.m. the same day. Leaving next morning at day light, Gympie was reached at 6 in the evening, the hour mentioned by Mr. Barnes at starting. The advent of the coach was welcomed by the utmost en-thusiasm and cheering on the part of the Gympie inhabitants, who had assembled to make the occasion one to be remembered. No State Governor ever received a greater welcome than did Mr. Barnes on the ar-rival of that first coach. Eventually he became driver of that route from the Bris bane end. Some considerable time after the route had been opened Mr. Barnes on one occasion had only one passenger on board, and when nearing Melum Creek n large tree had fallen across the road. Just here the road was very narrow, and lay between two gullys. It was impos-sible to turn the coach back, and progress must be made. Mr. Barnes got the pas-senger to attend to the horses, whilst he himself explored the gullies' in the hope of getting past the fallen tree. After some hard working with tho axe he cleared a track, but the sideling being so steep and on the driving side, there was grave danger of the coach capsizing. A rope was then tied to the top of the coach, whilst the passenger hung on to it for all he was worth to save the coach from rolling over. This was successfully accom-plished, and the coach eventually reached the road on the otlher side of the fallen tree. This passenger was none other than Sir Horace Tozer, then a solicitor in Gympie. In after years Mr. Barnes was appointed road manager between Bul-burrah and Clermont and Copperfield. Mr. Barnes is now residing in his ad-vanced years at his residence, Kelvin Villa, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, enjoying the highest esteem of a very large circle of friends. He has given hostages to for-tune, two of whom have achieved high posi-tions in the State—Mr. G. P. Barnes, member for Warwick in the Legislative Assembly, and the Hon. W. H. Barnes, M.L.A., Minister for Works and Educa-tion.