When my husband Paul and I moved back to the North Coast of NSW to live in 2008, one of the things we resolved to do was research more fully those ancestors - his and mine - who had lived here in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
A trip to the library in Ballina unearthed a treasure - the daily diary of one Richard Glascott, a timber getter who lived on the Teven Creek outside Ballina during the years when cedar cutting was one of the main industries of the area.
This is not the diary of a learned man. There are no profound ruminations on life. For family historians it is much more pertinent than abstract thoughts because it is simply a day by day account of Richard Glascott's life, and the lives of those who passed by his camp. He records the daily traffic on the river - all the names of the early timber cutters are there. He reveals that the local native population is working with them and there appears to be no antagonism, but he hardly ever names them. He describes the weather. Almost every day he kills a snake or a possum.
"28 Sept 1865 "went to work in company with James Ryan, John Williams, Pat Gallagher, Tom McCann, John Johnson. Tom Brennan and blackfellow. Last three and the black parted company with us at beach road. Rest came with me to my hut at Skinners Creek."
And this:
"At home getting firewood. After dark working in barn till 10 p.m. Fine"
For us, the best bit was this, on 14 May 1874.
"...saw Constable Bassman and another Constable and two other men going through camp today going up the river they were all in company together. Some dog got into my barn last night and took a leg of pork away can't say whether it was my dog or not."
and then the next day,
" Met George Lewis today coming out this morning. He told me it was Constable Bassman and Hogan and the two prisoners Johnson and McCann that I saw passing through the camp yesterday ..."
The footnotes tell the story.
" Charles McCann was convicted on 9 May 1874 at the Court of Petty Sessions, Ballina before magistrates John Sharp and Edmund Ross of unlawfully receiving a pair of cedar paddles from Joseph Johnson, who was convicted of unlawfully stealing them. Both were sentenced to be imprisoned for one calendar month in Grafton Gaol where they were admitted on 18 May"
Charles McCann was Paul's 2 x great grandfather and Joseph Johnson was his wife's brother. The person whose oars they stole was Charles Jarrett, whose descendant, Robert Jarrett Scarff, was to become a dear friend of ours many years later and a long way from Ballina.
Image of cedar cutters from The Northern Star
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