Two horse waggons and a dray for far "inside," and three
bullock waggons for the nearer distances, comprised the "waggons" that
year. The teamsters were Englishmen; but the bullock-punchers were three
"Macs"--an Irishman, a Highlander, and the Sanguine Scot.
Six waggons, and about six months' hard travelling, in and out, to
provide a year's stores for three cattle stations and two telegraph
stations. It is not surprising that the freight per ton was what it
was--twenty-two pounds per ton for the Elsey, and upwards of forty pounds
for "inside." It is this freight that makes the grocery bill such a big
item on stations out-bush, where several tons of stores are considered
by no means a large order.
Close on the heels of the Fizzer came other travellers, with the news
that the horse teams had got going and the Macs had "pulled out" to the
Four Mile. "Your trunks'll be along in no time now, missus," one of them
said. "They've got 'em all aboard."
The Dandy did some rapid calculations: "Ten miles a day on good roads,"
he said: "one hundred and seventy miles.
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