Sawdust and Prickly Pear: The Jack Riordan Stories, #2

By Patrick Ford

Jack Riordan grows up in the mountain country of New England in New South Wales. He is a skilled horseman and bushman.

He craves adventure and sails off for the war in South Africa. Jack is promoted and decorated before a wound sees him go home, where he sets up a carrying business with a bullock team and wagon.

Ettie, a nurse he met at the war comes home and the two marry. Ever looking for an opportunity to acquire land in Queensland, he moves his family there establishing a family business, logging and milling timber.

Finally, he realises his ambition of owning land. His hard work and enterprise lay the foundation of the Riordan family farming dynasty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patrick Ford
• Release date: Apr 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386763338

Patrick Ford

Patrick has had an interesting life – student, soldier, farmer, accountant, teacher. He is widely travelled and loves history. His wide experiences have given him deep well of knowledge from which to draw inspiration for his stories. He writes from his home in rural Queensland and produces what Aussies call “a bloody good yarn”.

Book preview

Sawdust and Prickly Pear

By Patrick Ford

Don't cry because it's over,

Smile because it happened.

-Dr Seuss

Although parts of this book are based on actual events, all characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 Patrick Michael Ford. All rights reserved.

THE RIORDANS OF BALLINROBE

JACK RIORDAN (1807-1867) & Harriett James

William John George Anne Daniel Richard Mary HARRY Peter

HARRY RIORDAN (1855-1925) & Hannah O'Brien

EDWARD ('JACK') George William Fred

EDWARD (JACK) RIORDAN (1880-1938) & Ethel (‘Ettie') Wright

James PATRICK Harry Lillian John ('YOUNG JACK') Roy

JOHN (JACK) RIORDAN (1922-1944) & Dominique Lemaitre

Vivienne

PATRICK RIORDAN (1907-1964) & Helen Cook

JACK Denni

JACK RIORDAN (1946-) & Susan Baker

Jacquie PATRICK Genevieve MICHAEL ('JACK')

PATRICK RIORDAN (1969-) & Mektilde Meltzer

Helen

MICHAEL ('JACK') RIORDAN (1978-) & Elsbeth Naumann

Table of Contents

1 - A Thirst for Adventure

2 - Soldiers of the Queen

3 - The High Veldt

4 - The Beginning of the End

5 - Capetown

6 - Foundations

7 - Building

8 - New Horizons

9 - A Business of Their Own

10 - Once More for the King

11 - Away With the Horses

12 - La Belle France

13 - Sawdust and Babies

14 - The Hard Years

15 - The Dynasty Begins

16 - Blood, Sweat and Tears

17 - The World Keeps Turning

1: A Thirst for Adventure

Drake, New South Wales , Australia, 1880

Drake lies just to the east of the town of Tenterfield in the northern tablelands of New South Wales, and a short distance south of the border with Queensland. It began as a stopover point for the bullock wagons carrying goods and produce up and down the range from the coast to Tenterfield and back. An inn dominated what passed for a main street. There was some common ground for the bullock drivers to water and spell their teams, and it became a meeting place for the cattlemen and drovers of the high country. In time, it became a small village.

Then, in 1858, prospectors found gold at Newman's Pinch near Drake, and the nearby Timbarra area. By 1880, the tiny village had grown into a bustling town, with twelve hotels, a blacksmith, post office and stores. It was crowded with miners and timber cutters and so important that a coach service now plied between Tenterfield and the coastal area near Casino.

Harry Riordan established himself in the small town long before the gold strike. His father had been a policeman in Tenterfield, but Harry preferred the bush life among the animals he loved. He established himself as a 'bullocky' and had a team of fourteen animals to pull his large wagon on the coastal run, but he also worked the large cattle stations as a contract musterer. The cattlemen who owned the large land grants did not work their cattle often. On many of these places, the cattle were only handled once or twice a year, and they were as near to wild as could be. The owners needed superb horsemen to muster the animals, and Harry was one of those, born to the saddle. He could ride with the best of them, and he found ready employment. He had a small run where he could keep his string of horses and bullocks.

1880 was a pivotal year for Harry. In the spring of 1879, he had married, and Hannah, his wife, was now expecting their first child. He was born in August 1880, a sturdy boy, not exceptional to look at, but with startling green eyes. Nobody could say where the green eyes came from, but theories abounded. The most likely version lay with his grandmother. Edward's grandfather was an Irishman who joined the British army. After service around the globe, including a long time in India, he married and subsequently immigrated to Australia. His wife, Harriet, some thought of Persian origins, had the same eyes. His mother insisted on the name Edward, after her father, and Harry was happy to accommodate her. After all, he reasoned, there would be others to name, and he was correct, four more!

The town of Drake was in the middle of the gold rush, but Harry and Hannah were shrewd enough to realise the gold would run out, sooner rather than later, so they took advantage of the demand for transport by selling their bullock team and wagon. Harry saw that even though the gold mining would diminish in time, the cattle would not. He concentrated his efforts on building up his mustering business. He was a good legendary horse handler, and his second son, George, yet to be born, would become famous for his skill with the horses he grew to love so much.

He found a ready market for his bullock team, and soon sold it to a younger man, just making his mark in life. Harry was a generous fellow and he could have gotten at least £20 more than he did. As well, he spent time with the young man, teaching him all the peculiarities of the bullocks, and dispensing some valuable advice. He was pleased enough with the £180 he banked. Hannah was pregnant again, and he needed to enlarge his small cottage.

A year later, Harry and Hannah purchased the licence for the 'Royal George'. It was a good move for them. Now they had plenty of room for their family when it came along, and a steady, if not spectacular, income.

Drake, New South Wales, Australia, 1899

Events proved Harry and Hannah correct. As the gold petered out, and the miners left for fresher fields, the bustling town grew quiet. One by one, the hotels closed, until only the 'Royal George' remained. Hannah and Harry had four children now, all boys, and their eldest, Edward, was a strapping youth of eighteen. The boys had been in the saddle before they could walk, and soon they worked with their father, grooming the horses, maintaining the saddles and harness, even learning to shoe the horses. Good hoof health was paramount in this hard mountain country.

Hannah provided them with the rudimentary skills, reading and writing and basic arithmetic. She also instilled in them good manners and courtesy. For a while, they attended the school, but after it closed, the younger two just went off to work with Harry. George seemed to have a special skill with horses. He could tame the worst of them, and he was never cruel. He made the horse his friend, forging an unbreakable bond between man and beast. It would serve him well in the great conflict to come.

Edward, too, was an excellent horseman, but sometimes he felt a little jealous of his brother's skill. After all, he was the eldest, and possessed of a spirit of adventure, not afraid to tackle the hardest task or the wildest horse. Sometimes it verged on recklessness. It was just a symptom of his youthful energy and the urge to make his way in the world, a world nearing a new century and full of exciting prospects.

In 1866, the discovery of diamonds in the Kimberley region of South Africa focussed the world's attention there, and later, in 1886, an Australian prospector found gold in the Witwatersrand area of the Transvaal. The Afrikaner government had neither the personnel nor the capital to take advantage of this treasure trove. It accepted foreigners, mainly British, to work the gold fields. Soon, the new arrivals almost outnumbered the Afrikaners, and they began agitating for a different form of government.

The British, long wanting to incorporate the Transvaal and the Orange Free State into a union with the Cape Colony, ruled, of course, by the Crown, made demands on the Afrikaners to grant voting rights and citizenship to all the new immigrants. Diplomatic moves did not reach any satisfactory conclusion, and in 1899, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State declared war on Britain.

The six Australian colonies were quick to offer the British help with troops and horses and soon the first detachment of the NSW Lancers disembarked in Capetown. Harry and his older sons discussed this remarkable event. In two years, the colonies would unite and the nation of Australia would become a reality. It was a time of great patriotic fervour and loyalty to the Empire. Like many others, Edward was keen to go to the war.

Harry said to them, Don't be silly. You're more likely to have your head shot off than anything else, and besides, we are going to be a new, independent country soon. We don't have to rush off wherever the British go. Let them fix their own problems.

But, Pa, said Edward, We might miss out on something important. It would be a splendid adventure, for a start, and I won't have another such opportunity to see a bit of the world.

His brother, George, was inclined to agree with his father and his mother, who was of Irish stock. She had plenty of reasons not to like the British. Edward, however, was determined to go. Six weeks later, he saddled up and rode north to the town of Stanthorpe, where he enlisted in the Queensland Mounted Infantry as Jack Riordan.

When he was a small boy, one of Edward's uncles gave him a Jack-in-the-box toy. It fascinated him as no other toy he ever had, and he spent hours playing with it. His family dubbed him 'Jack'. The name stuck, although his mother always called him Edward - she was a little miffed at the substitution for her father's name, chosen with such care.

2: Soldiers of the Queen

Brisbane, Queensland , Australia, January 1900

Lance Corporal Jack Riordan thought this to be the best day of his life so far. Here he was, a smartly turned-out militiaman, complete with his brown slouch hat and its emu feathers. Beside him stood the other sixty officers and men of the second detachment of the Queensland Mounted Infantry, full of confidence and intent. They would see those bloody Boers learned not to tangle with them!

The Queensland Mounted Infantry welcomed Jack and another twenty with him when they enlisted. A cursory medical, a demonstration of their horsemanship, a spot of target shooting, and an officer took little time to swear them in. There followed six weeks of training, marching, drill, and learning what the army wanted from them. They soon knew the rank structure, although most of them, being independent and self-reliant young bushmen, tended to be relaxed about discipline, and regarded saluting as an unnecessary habit. The gnarled old sergeant major soon changed their perceptions.

They all could ride and handle horses well, and a few were farriers and saddlers. These found themselves classified as 'craftsmen' and enjoyed a slight increase in their pay. Jack could do most of this work, but his squadron officer, Lieutenant Watson, impressed by his quick intelligence and outstanding horsemanship, promoted him to lance corporal. Now he waited for the ship to sail. No one was there to see him off, for it was too far from home for his family to travel.

It was a slow and dreary voyage. SS Devon butted her bows into a steady westerly all the way across the Indian Ocean. In the troops' accommodation, Jack and his fellows slept in navy style hammocks. He thought they were comfortable enough, but the horses had it worse. Down in the temporary stable deck it was airless and hot. Jack spent a long time down there, fussing with his horse, making sure he got more than his share of hay and oats, and plenty of water. He hated to see any horse suffer.

Towards the end of February, they docked in Capetown. For the Australians, it was an exciting and raw cultural shock. In the bustling port, hundreds of native tribesmen worked at loading and unloading the many ships the war had brought here. As well, for all of them, it was their first experience with British soldiers, whom they liked, as they were friendly and talkative; the officers, however, did not gain the same respect. They found them to be superior and dismissive of the colonials. Later, up-country, Jack and his fellows met men of a different type, forged in the cauldron of combat, stripped of their veneer of superciliousness, especially when they realised they could learn plenty from their colonial cousins.

Capetown, Cape Colony, South Africa, March 1900

Just outside the city, they settled into a daily routine of drills and parades, horse grooming and feeding. The horses needed time to acclimatise. Much of the time was a waste, for the animals were to encounter many new and strange diseases and parasites on their journey north to the various battlefronts. Later, the death rate of the horses became too high, and the men had to be remounted on the wiry local horses.

Here, also, the training included musketry. They received an issue of the newest rifle in the British armoury, the Lee-Enfield .303 short magazine rifle. Later variants of this weapon became the standard rifle in British and Commonwealth units for over fifty years. It was accurate and capable of a high rate of fire in skilled hands. It came equipped with a long bayonet, and theirs came with a British sergeant to train them in its use. A gigantic man, the sergeant, arrived like a character from 'Boy's Own', with a brick-red face and magnificent handlebar moustache. He raced around the square, sticking his bayonet into straw filled sacks suspended from railings. At each jab, he emitted the most amazing roars and shrieks, designed to strike terror into the hearts of the enemy. He looked so ridiculous the Australians began to smile, then snigger, and then broke into guffaws of laughter. The sergeant was not amused. Bleedin' colonials! he said.

The regiment set out north, towards the battlefields and the major Boer cities. The war now entered its second stage. At first, the Boers had some easy victories over the unprepared British troops, despite not possessing a regular army. Theirs was a little like a citizens' army, composed of separate bands of men raised locally and their officers elected by the men. Their discipline was non-existent - some even left their units, called commandos, to go home for the harvest, or family celebrations. Despite this, they were skilled marksmen and familiar with the terrain, and it