Donald Macalister was sent
by his uncle, Lachlan Macalister, of Nuntin, to make arrangements for
shipping some cattle and sheep. The day before their arrival Donald
saw some blacks at a distance in the scrub, and without any
provocation fired at them with an old Tower musket, charged with
shot. The next day the drovers and shepherds arrived with the stock,
and drove them over Glengarry's bridge to a place between the Tarra
and Albert rivers, called the Coal Hole, afterwards occupied by
Parson Bean. there was no yard there, and the animals would require
watching at night; so Donald decided to send them back to Glengarry's
yards. Then he and the drovers and shepherds would have a pleasant
time; there would be songs and whisky, the piper would play, and the
men and maids would dance. The arrangement suited everybody. The
drovers started back with the cattle, Donald helped the shepherds to
gather the sheep, and put them on the way, and then he rode after the
cattle. The track led him past a grove of dense ti-tree, on the land
now known as the Brewery Paddock, and about a hundred yards ahead a
single blackfellow came out of the grove, and began capering about
and waving a waddy. Donald pulled up his horse and looked at the
black. He had a pair of pistols in the holsters of his saddle, but
he did not draw them: there was no danger from a blackfellow a
hundred yards off.
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