Up the Country: A Saga of Pioneering Days

It was nearly three years since Charlotte had left Three Rivers. A year had passed since the ball at Gowandale, a troublesome year for all the Southern District. The diggings at Coolooluk, and others rising like pustules all about the ranges, had changed the old order. These days the hills were full of fossickers and cattle duffers. Land was being taken up by a new breed of squatter, some of whom were of questionable stamp and without doubt cover for the gang which operated from Eagle Hawk Gullies.

Nearly every settler had been stuck up, some more than once. Timson of Wombat Hill, his son Charlie, who at Christmas had married Ada Poole, Healey, Brennan, Stanton Senior, Saunders Senior, and Richard Mazere at Nanda--all had been relieved of valuables or provisions or firearms. Only four houses remained unmolested--Gowandale, Eueurunda, Three Rivers and Curradoobidgee. The immunity of Gowandale was attributed to the compact with Mrs McEachern that Barney Logan had entered into on the night of the ball, that of Eueurunda to the fact that there were many hands about and generally a number of male guests invited for the good shooting that the neighbourhood afforded. And people said the bushrangers were afraid to tackle Curradoobidgee because there were now four dead shots in the family. Three Rivers was supposed to be safe because it was not a compact dwelling and, like Eueurunda, always sheltered a good number of male hands and guests.