Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 - 1953), Tuesday 23 January 1877, page 2


CORRESPONDENCE: Whilst admitting the greatest literary freedom to Correspondents, our comlums will be open only to such communications as shall be clearly written, temperataly expessed, and of local or general interest; In no way holding ourselves responsible for any options taht may be conveyed therein. Mount Abrupt Freestone (To the Editor of the Portland Guardian. Sir,-I , a recent number of the Hamil-ton Spectator I have seen as letter signed by Thos. Fairburn, claiming to be the first discoverer of the Mount Abrupt Free-stone Quarry in the year 1858. Allow me through your columns to let Mr. Fairburn and the public know who was the first discoverer of the stone, and to give honor to whom honor is due. I was employed at my trade of stonecutter at the Portland jail; I cut the pillara now in front of the Court House, and there became acquainted with Mr David Lennox the then Clerk of Works to the Sydney Government, long before Separation. On his second visit to Portland officially I had such a conversation with him, telling him my search in the neighbourhood of Portland, Cape Nelson, and Bridgewater for a freestone quarry, and my inability to find a good sample. He told me to go to Mt. Sturgeon and he was quite sure I would not be disappointed. In the November of 1848 I started with my son Robert, then a lad, and the black boy whom my wife and family brought up and afterwards well known in the district as McCrae's Neddy, and my team of eight bullocks. We arrived at Dr. Martin's station at Mount Sturgeon all right. I asked permission from the overseer to unyoke my bullocks and leave my dray convenient to the station while I 'would be prospecting for the stone; I cannot now think of the name, but I can never forget his generosity; he was a Scotchman; he eyed me from head to foot, and as he after-wards told me, he thought me insane; he told me he was all over the Mount but there was no stone of the kind. The second day out I came on what I pro-nuunced to be the best freestone I ever put chisel on in layers of 20ft. square. I had a great experience of various kinds of stone in the Old Country; I was three years at the Liverpool docks working the Scotch granite, and in different parts of the kingdom I worked both blue and free-stone, but I never met with such a sample of freestone as what I then procured. I rounded with my mason's pick on the side of the cliff a good many stones as grind- stones, a great number in the rolling down got broken. others rolled into the river, and the hearth-stones I slid down in the best manner I could : I brought them to the other side of the river in three loads, and then loaded for Portland after nine days' labour. There was no Hamilton then and no houses save Mr. Beath's store and Phastock's public-house. I had a great deal of trouble crossing at the Grange-burn and at Violet Creek. but I did not have to unload. On arrival at Portland I cut the stone in Tvers street and sold the stones to my neighbours. Messrs. John-ston and Webster had a grindstone, Mr. Butters had one, Mr. Douglass, now rate-collector for the Portland shire. had one; Mr. Donald Cameron, of Oakbank, had two hearthstones; Mr. Buckley had one, to be seen at present in his cottage, Bentinck street ; Mr. Jonas Smith has the grindstone still I sold Mr. Butters, its present, circumference being 4ft. 10in. after 29 years wear and tear in a wheelright's shop. In the year 1858 when the Government offered a reward for a free-stone quarry I was in Richmond in the United States of America prosecuting my claim as heir-at-law to my uncle's property, and never heard on my return anything about the enquiries for a freestone quarry. I never made but the one trip to Mount Sturgeon, as Mr. Henty; Messrs. Flowers and Must, Messrs. Cruikshank, Crouch, and Trangmar were all importing freestone from both the Home country and Sydney. Though after the colonial grind-stones were awhile in use their superiority became apparent, but land carriage could' not compete with water carriage. Although death is taking many of the old colonists away there are plenty of men still alive in Portland to testify to the truth of how early I discovered and brought that load of stone to Portland. One word with Mr. Fairbairn and I conclude. Your must have been very limited or you wish to disguise the truth, as I left from 15 to 20 stones rounded at the base of the hill intending to go back for them. You could not miss seeing that some explorer was there before you. To Mr. David Lennox is due the suggestion to me, and I am the first man who ever quarried a stone on Mt. Abrupt, and I hope like same other points in cloInial history this letter will finally settle the matter of the first dis-coverer of Mt. Abrupt freestone. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obodient servant, COOK ABRAHAM JENNINGS. Tarragal, Bridgewater.