Up the Country: A Saga of Pioneering Days

Thus life up the country unravelled, with few momentous incidents. Bert had his adolescent dreams, some of them patterned on the tales read aloud by his stepmother. The elders talked of the new land laws, the recently instituted councils of self-government, the best way to construct a wool-washing plant and the latest evidence of progress up the country, whether it was a bridge or a coach line. Political upheavals in Europe were not as interesting as another outbreak of the fearsome Cumberland disease, and even Sydney was a remote country.

The elders were beginning to find the fireside and, later, a feather bed, seductive after unrelenting activity from daybreak till the starry night came down. One or two of them had an occasional touch of lumbago or rheumatism and a few grey hairs were to be seen.