From Outback to City Life

Young Gregory followed the drovers east to the state of Queensland and finding a settlement amply supplied with ground water flowing out of the earth decided to settle down there. He’d learned his father’s bargaining techniques very well and watched as cattle station owners made their way to the settlement looking for supplies. Far to the east was a port city which was well supplied by sea from Sydney in the south with the kind of things these station owners needed. He was used to long journeys with his camels and comfortable with his half caste worker companions. He had money. Perhaps he could make a success of life with this occupation as his trade now.

During his time planning for a future with his companions he freely associated with the drovers who’d guided him to this place. Among them was a drover family who worked for a living herding cattle out to the channel country during wet seasons when the grass was in abundance and then driving them back to their home stations to be fattened on grain before making the long journey east to the cattle auction centers where they were sold for meat processing.

The drover family Andersons consisted of the father and mother and a boy and girl, and they were all accomplished cattle managers. The girl who was fifteen years old had settled her gaze on Gregory back in Alice Springs to the amusement of Scot at the time and Scot had wondered when Gregory absconded whether the girl had something to do with his decision.

The girl’s father had noted the interaction between the two and smiled. Someday she’d be leaving home to marry and the girls in the outback married young, so he’d keep an eye on this boy to see if he’d make a suitable partner for his daughter. On the journey east he’d watched Gregory closely and eventually judged him to be a person who’d not be a drifter the rest of his life and one who’d treat his daughter well.

So, he had no objection to this increasing chemistry between the two young people and even took an interest in introducing Gregory to the contacts he’d need to get supplies for his intended trading operations back home when they reached this coastal city. His kind approach was so different to Gregory’s strict upbringing and Gregory sought the drover’s advice in all his plans from then on. He was slowly accepted as part of the family. With the good advice of this seasoned adult Gregory blossomed into a competent and self-assured young adult and it was understood by all that at an appropriate time Cara Anderson would become his partner for life. It happened soon after he turned nineteen and she eighteen.

So, that was how he’d established in life, but this was now. Gregory was comfortably off and at age fifty-five now considering what he and Cara would do with their lives and the property acquired over the years. Cara had health issues that needed specialist advice and that could not be accessed in the outback where most health issues were either cured from home remedies or you died. He had well established connections on the coast and had accumulated more than enough to establish them both on the coast though he preferred the beauty of the outback. But what would he do for a trade if he did move east.

Gregory had been sharing with his friend Miro the letter received from his son Andrew who he’d last heard was working in construction in Brisbane the capital of this new state of Queensland far to the south. Andrew was not a regular letter writer, but he did keep in touch with his mother Cara and his brother Gregory Jnr in Rockhampton occasionally. This letter had taken a month and a half to reach Cara in this remote location with no effective road system yet. Supplies and communications still were facilitated through horse and bullock trains.

Apparently, Andrew had made a recent sea trip to Sydney far to the south of the island continent looking for more favorable employment opportunities. In the process he’d noticed a trading center at the docks called Caimbeul and Co. Naturally his curiosity was aroused. He knew his father was related to a trading company based in Adelaide South Australia before migrating to Queensland from Alice Springs so entered the premises and asked to see the owner. The manager of the warehouse told him to come back later in the day as the owner was doing business in the city center.

So, Andrew returned late that afternoon after looking at employment prospects and was ushered into the office of the grey-haired owner Iian Caimbeul. He introduced himself as the son of Gregory Caimbeul from Queensland and Iian wept at the news. He’d been close to his brother Gregory and was devastated when he learned Gregory had absconded with some of the assets and fled to Queensland. Old Scot had thought this funny and was proud of his son for striking out to seek his fortune independently. But it caused a permanent rift between Enid and Scot She knew that her husband’s harsh discipline had caused this separation from her son. While she never forgave Scot they remained together until his untimely death on one of the trips back from Alice Springs. On his death Enid sold all her businesses in Adelaide and Alice Springs to an eager buyer and transferred her wealth and family back to Sydney which she knew offered many more business opportunities.

Roads had been developed because of convict labor up to 1868 when the last convict ship arrived in Western Australia so there were land routes well established radiating out of Sydney including the pass discovered through the Blue Mountains to the west beyond which rich pastoral land was discovered. Enid used her entrepreneurial skills and invested wisely setting up supply lines to the expanding settlements on arrival. There were entirely new people in charge of the new settlement supervised from England, so no one was bothered to find out her convict convictions of the past. She soon became one of the leaders in society and trained her son Iian to take over as she was beginning to feel her age. Iian’s sister Adelaide and her husband had also migrated to Sydney from Adelaide and were engaged in aspects of the Caimbeul businesses.

Iian was overwhelmed at the arrival of his nephew Andrew and insisted on him lodging at his mansion overlooking the harbor crammed full of sailing ships. The warehouse was in Darling Harbour a half hour carriage ride away. That evening Iian insisted Andrew join the family business and asked him to contact his brother Gregory and his nephew in Rockhampton inviting them to relocate to Sydney to bring the family together again. Iian inquired about his nieces Ailsa and Branna and was informed Alisa had married into a family holding a vast inland cattle station. Branna was wanting to find something meaningful to do in life and someone to share that life with. Iian indicated he’d be happy for her to join them too.

 All this was reported in Andrew’s long letter to his mother Cara which she’d read to her husband. Gregory had teared up at the mention of the rediscovery of his family but saddened to know his mother Enid had recently passed away leaving the family business in the care of her second eldest Iian. He wanted to reconnect with his family, but the lure of the outback had been his life, and he loved the solitude and beauty it had shared with him all these years not to mention how he’d feel to leave all his indigenous friends behind. So, to Gregory this was an important consultation with his friend Miro. Miro considered his friends situation as he whittled away at a new boomerang to be tested for hunting on his skilled completion. He turned to his friend and spoke in the Baradha language.

“Country will welcome you wherever you go friend to our people. Family is most important. Go and meet with your brother but when you die send your ashes back to us to be buried in the country, we all love. I will perform the ceremony for you personally and if I’m not alive my son will perform the ceremony on behalf of our people. You may have the markings of the Arrernte tribe secreted behind your clothes, but I have seen that as we bathed together when the dry channels were in flood. But you belong to our tribe now and we will perform all the rights of the tribe on your behalf.”

Gregory was overcome at the words of his long-term friend. He knew he was right. It was time to reconnect with his family again and he determined that if it was all possible his ashes would be sent to this place for scattering on tribal lands.

He sent a message to his daughter Ailsa Smith. Would her husband’s family be interested in making an offer for his land and cattle on the understanding the local tribe would remain to be involved in the business as he’d conducted it to this point in time. The Smith’s had been swallowing property all over the center and north and had vast holdings already. A week later James Smith rode into the homestead to talk business with his wife Ailsa by his side. Yes, the Smith family would be interested and would honor the conditions of sale if the price was right, but he wanted to inspect the property first before a final committal. Ailsa stayed with her mother while Miro, Gregory and James spent the next couple of days exploring the territory up for sale. Finally, they returned from their inspection tour and James made his offer on behalf of the Smith family. It was a little lower than what Gregory had expected, and he said he’d think about it over night before looking at another offer. The next morning after urgings from his wife James agreed to the price required. The Smith family would settle with gold from their gold mines and weigh it out at the homestead before receiving the documents of property ownership with deed of sale.

The tribes met together to farewell the Caimbeul’s with appropriate ceremonies and Gregory, Cara and Branna made their sad way to the coast several days to the east to catch a boat to Brisbane and find another to take them to Sydney.

Two months later they arrived in Sydney and made their way to the Caimbeul warehouse where an emotional reunion with Iian took place. Iian offered to step aside as overall owner now the eldest in the family had returned but Gregory hugged his younger brother and told him he was very happy to retire to look after Cara’s interests now and all he needed from his brother was help in finding an appropriate home to spend their last days and a recommendation for the best medical practitioner he could find to deal with Cara’s health issues. The journey had taken a lot out of his beloved wife, and he was anxious to get her settled and under treatment quickly. But if Iian was interested in an investment to expand his business Gregory would be delighted to deposit gold with him to use as he saw fit to expand the business with a modest return on the money invested. He wondered if Iian had a place in his business for his son in Rockhampton and his daughter Branna. Iian informed him he’d already been in touch with his nephew Gregory Jnr and he and his family were expected next month, and a house had been procured for them.

The next few weeks there was phrenic activity searching for a house and one was found with a beautiful view of the harbor where Gregory and Cara could enjoy their retirement and adjustment to the noise and bustle of Sydney rather than the peace and silence of the outback with both missed. Branna would stay with them until they found a suitable marriage partner for her as she was anxious to start a family of her own and she too missed the outback lifestyle. But the exciting social activities of this new place soon had Branna change her mind and she began to make friends with the young set of the city soon after her arrival.

They were settled in well by the time Gregory Jnr and his wife June arrived from the long sea journey from Rockhampton. They stayed briefly with father and mother while buying furniture for their new home then moved but Iian had Gregory Jnr quickly absorbed into the business and put him in charge of the supply run up the Hawksbury River to settlements far beyond the road system in place.

Andrew with his construction experience was put in charge of the company’s plans to establish outpost distribution centers in remote areas from which retail shops could draw their supplies for sale to the growing public. One was in Liverpool which Andrew assessed as a major growth area for the future and Andrew supervised the building of a wholesale warehouse to serve the retail trade which would develop there in future. Sandstone was in plentiful supply and convicts who were now free to do business had established a sandstone block industry from the plentiful supply in the hills encircling Sydney. Iian went to inspect the first one constructed in Liverpool for the company and was delighted with the way Andrew had completed the project. He suggested a small house for the manager should be constructed next to it. He had one in mind he’d been training a young man called Adam who was honest and diligent working overtime without any demands for overtime pay at their warehouse at the docks. Eventually he’d marry so better to provide for a family home. Branna had been working as his helper in the department this young man was assigned to under the general manager.

To be continued.

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